Archive for the English Manga Category


Sailor Moon Manga Eternal Edition, Volume 6 (English)

December 19th, 2019

With Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Volume 6, the Death Busters arc wraps up and so does my interest in getting any further volumes of the “Eternal Edition” release.

In Volume 6,  the Inner Senshi and the Outer Senshi are forced to work together to protect Earth from Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90, but they still fundamentally cannot see eye to eye about what to do to – or with – Hotaru. Worse, when from within Mistress 9 Sailor Saturn awakens, the Outers’ reactions are basically to continue to see her as an enemy.

This is why teenagers as magical girls is never really a good idea. ^_^;

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, as Sailor Saturn is so monstrously powerful they wouldn’t have been able to stop her anyway. She and Sailor Moon defeat the Death Busters and Sailor Moon saves everyone, as per the usual playbook. Hotaru is reborn once again, this time to a loving family of three mothers. This continues to be one of the best (and least trainwrecky) of the arc endings that don’t just end with Sailor Moon magicking everyone back to where they started.

This is followed by two extra stories. One of the is the touching story where Luna the cat falls in love with a human, that is the basis of the Sailor Moon S movie. It is in “Chibi-Usa’s Picture Diary, Beware of Tanabata” that my desire to have what ought to have been a definitive edition of this series was killed dead.

On Tuesday, I reviewed the fun mish-mash of Yuri tropes that is Yuri is My Job!, Volume 5 by Miman. In my review I praised translator Diana Taylor’s work, because when you’re neck deep in 100-year old tropes and are trying to make it make sense in the context of a modern maid-cafe oeuvre, it’s not that easy to remember that the readers still need an authentic reading experience.  In that volume, Kodansha uses what is usually considered to be standard spelling “onee-sama” for the honorific.

In Sailor Moon, Volume 6, Kodansha did something that made me physically recoil.  When Chibi-Usa, happening upon Haruka and Michiru, both in girl’s summer school uniforms, (something I wanted to write about on its own!) calls out to them as “Michiru-onêchan, Haruka-onêchan!” I was, honestly, appalled.

WHO. DOES. THAT?!?

And to highlight the absurdity of this choice, “oniisan” appears in the same volume. This is insanity. There are standard ways to transliterate names and honorifics. Pedantic use of diacritic marks does not make for a smooth reading experience. I’m thrown out of the moment every time.

At almost $30/volume I can’t subject myself to this any longer. The choices being made are enraging and don’t make sense given considering that they aren’t even consistent with other manga being put out by Kodansha right now, much less standard formats for Japanese names and honorifics.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Some of the best art the series has
Story – 8 Same
Characters – 8 Same.
LGBTQ – 5 Alternative family ftw
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 8 with 2 points off for the typography which is like a stab through the heart every time.

This Eternal Edition may be physically beautiful, large and shiny, by the typography has quite literally robbed me of sleep as I lay there, tortured by the choices being made. It’s like visual misophonia. I have the Japanese volumes, I am therefore going to donate all of these English volumes to my library. These won’t be getting shelf space in my collection. Which is a damn shame.





Yuri Manga: Yuri is My Job, Volume 5 (English)

December 17th, 2019

In Volume 4, our focus has been pulled inexorably from Hime, whose desire to have a perfect image in public so she can marry rich and check out of the rat race , towards the most conflicted character at Liebe Gakuen Cafe, Ayanokouji, the perfect one-sama, played by Yano Mitsuki, the wholly imperfect person.

Now, in Volume 5 of Yuri is My Job!, as Hime is gallivanting about with Kanako, we’re being reminded that Yano has never had the ability to understand the hidden meaning behind people’s words. An honest and forthright person herself, she has always said what she thinks and that has frequently put her at odds with those around her. I feel her pain. ^_^

Now, as she’s confronted with proximity to the one person who ever made her feel at ease, and whose betrayal hurt her more than she’s willing to admit even to herself, she’s…overreacting. And she knows it. As I said in my review of Volume 5 in Japanese, “She doesn’t want to make the same mistakes, even as she can see that she is [doing so]…but what those mistakes are, are still beyond her grasp.”

In the meantime, we can see that Hime is doing the right things. Maybe for the wrong reason…but is that really a problem? Does it, at the end of the day, really matter why she is kind and thoughtful to Kanako, and trying harder for her onee-sama?

And just who the heck is Tachibana-san?!? She’s there again in this volume. Did you see her? I did. She’s a regular, we’re told. I’m kind of wondering now, if she wasn’t more than that.

Ratings (same as the Japanese volume):

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 3 Nothing salacious, but the premise is service
Yuri – ????? I can’t even. There’s a lot and very little at the same time.

I still really love the author’s notes, by Miman-sensei which contain really interesting insight towards the process of creating this series.

My kudos to translator Diana Taylor, who is doing a bang-up job making sense out of a surprisingly complicated narrative, embedded in Yuri tropes and tea and cake. And nods in the direction of letterer Jennifer Skarupa and editor Haruko Hashimoto, as well, for creating a seamless manga reading experience!

Volume 6 is headed our way in Japanese in late January and English in May 2020. And it’s going to be a doozy. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Yuri Bear Storm, Volume 2 (English)

December 9th, 2019

We met Kureha, a human surrounded by bears, and Gingko, the bear princess with whom she falls in love in Volume 1.

In Volume 2 of Yuri Bear Storm, what is already a confusing story, takes on extra layers of obfuscation as Lulu, another bear in love with Gingko, shows up. The three of them end up living together, and we begin to learn that Gingko and Kureha are linked by a long list of connections, not the least of which is that their mothers, and Yurika, the school principal, were apparently lovers in the past.

While every piece of the plot is presented as a “Once upon a time” fairytale, none of those pieces seem to fit together, quite, although they clearly belong to the same puzzle. By the end of volume 2, we can see that Gingko and Kureha are bound by fate, but how, exactly and what that fate is, are seen from two sides of a one-way mirror. Each girl knows the other is there, but they can’t quite see….

And added to the equation is the appearance of Bear Witch Sumika, (Kureha’s lover from the anime.) She appears to know something about Kureha that the girl doesn’t know about herself. What that is, we might learn, but equally, we might not, in this Ikuhara Kunihiko story, stamped all over with the seal of a lily, but frequently without plot threads that connect.

I really love this manga for Morishima Akiko’s art, and the cognitive dissonance between her cherubic characters and the significant psychological (and, occasionally, physical) violence of the story. These are the cutest bears disemboweling humans you’ll ever see.

Translator Katie McLendon does heroic work making this story make as sense as it possibly can, while the entire Tokyopop team does a fine job of giving this book the feel and finish it deserves.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8 We get more Yurika!
Yuri – 8
Service – 5

Overall – 8

For an adorable fairytale about multiple three-person relationships, death, destruction loss and love, Yuri Bear Storm is a pretty amazing (if not “good”) story.





The Rose of Versailles Manga, Volume 1 (English)

December 8th, 2019

The Rose of Versailles, Volume 1 is a definitive edition of Riyoko Ikeda’s magnum opus. I say this with absolute conviction in and knowledge of the amount of work – and love – that went into it’s making. 

Oscar François de Jarjeyes is a young noblewoman raised as a son by her father. As commander of Marie Antoinette’s palace guard, Oscar is brought face-to-face with the luxury of King Louis XVI’s court at Versailles. Joined by her servant André, Oscar is privy to the intrigue and deceit of France’s last great royal regime.

I am quoting the editorial slug for this book because I wrote it in the first place and I think it stands as a perfectly fine synopsis. ^_^

Volume 1 begins at the beginning, with the births of three of the main players in our drama, Hans Axel Von Fersen in Sweden,  Oscar François De Jarjayes in France and Royal Highness Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne de Lorraine D’Autriche, in Austria, known to her family as Maria Antonia and to history as Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

The story takes us through Oscar and Maria’s childhoods, through the moment their lives converge upon Maria’s arrival in France to marry Louis-Auguste Bourbon, the Dauphin of France all the way to Fersen’s confession to Oscar of his love for Marie and Oscar’s patronage of Rosalie Lamorliére, an orphaned Parisian girl. It’s 498 pages of high drama. And, for the first time ever, color pages have been restored to their original chapters, as they were seen in the original magazine run. (For those of you wondering why there was a such a long delay between the license and the printing, finding good quality versions of these images was among the many things the publisher needed to do. The original magazine files were no longer available through the Japanese publisher. And all of the placement had to be approved by the creator. )

The book itself is gorgeous. Hardcover, with raised red and gold lettering, and a truly brilliant cover design by Andy Tsang. The only touch it is missing is gilt-edging, but I guessed (and the publisher has confirmed) that that would have pushed the cost per book up significantly. Still… it would have looked sweet.

The biggest surprise to me, having never read the entirety of the story before editing it, was how much less decent a person General De Jarjayes is in the manga than the anime.

As I edited the book, I kept capturing Oscar’s face from various panels. The end result is a fantastic short version of her evolution as a character. ^_^ Here she is at the beginning and the end of Volume 1.

The art is very of its time, the story more compelling for the characters we meet and begin to care about. Translation was done with painstaking research, and I sure as heck did my best with the editing!

If ever you have thought that you want to buy the kind of book that will be with us 40 years later and still be as timely and meaningful…this is that book.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Uhhhh, Oscar in a uniform is service, so 6
Yuri – 1 for the court scenes, 2 for Rosalie

Overall – 9

The Rose of Versailles is a remarkably accurate telling of a true story from the perspective of a wholly fictitious character. It is also disturbingly timely as we move inexorably towards a similar climax here in the USA and, based on other protests we’re seeing globally, we can be pretty sure which way the cannons will point.





Yuri Manga: A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 1 (English)

December 6th, 2019

Konatsu’s father has been transfered overseas, so she is now living with a relative in a small seaside town in Ehime. Although she is from Tokyo, Konatsu is a little reserved, afraid to assume and careful about making friends. Even when the girl who sits next to her in class is outgoing and friendly, she’s worried about seeming too forward. But compared to the school star Koyuki, Konatsu is downright outgoing. A chance encounter bring the two girls together and almost immediately they feel something much more than mere friendship. In order to be near Koyuki, Konatsu joins the aquarium club. They help each other out in club, but also out of their social shells. When they both find themselves able to express anything, it seems to be more than they expected.

When I reviewed Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 1 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる ) I called this “a charming little love story about two girls and a cute salamander.”  A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 1 is still charming and the salamander is still cute.  Both Koyuki and Konatasu live very much in their own heads, are a little fearful of expressing intimacy. Unusually, this puts them in the position of falling for one another before actually being friends (or frenemies, even,) something we don’t see all that much right now in Yuri romance.

This Viz edition looks lovely. The cover is made to look very much like an aquarium, but more importantly, the binding is lovely. I have no idea why I am enamored of the binding, but I picked this book up and the first words out of my mouth were, “wow, what beautiful binding.” ^_^ All in all, it just looks great. Other than marine life jargon, the dialogue here is not complicated, nonetheless translator John Werry, Eve Grandt’s lettering and touch-up (a fantastically difficult job that does not get enough attention!), Yukiko Whitely’s design work and Pancha Diaz’ editorial touch made this a relaxing read. I was able to just settle in to the narrative and let both Konatsu and Koyuki do the worrying for me.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 1 on principle only, there really isn’t any
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

I know what’s coming and I’ll just warn you all to be patient. There will be no rushing this story, I assure you.

Volume 2 will be released in February.

Thanks very much to Viz Media for the review copy!