Over the past few weeks, I sat down to watch all of the visual media half of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, in part, to get myself ready for the new Netflix release of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. Would we be getting a reboot of something familiar, or a bolder approach into a new story? I hoped for the latter, as Kamiyama Kenji was one of the directing forces. So far from the opening episode, I have not been disappointed.

This story begins in 2045, two years into the “sustainable war” begun by the American Empire. Section 9 has been disbanded, but Kusanagi, Batou, Saito and Ishikawa are still working together when the story begins.  And they appear to have both Tachikoma and Logikoma with them.

The animation is wholly CGI, but as used as we are to CGI games now, this is no longer the affront to the sensibilities it was in 2008. In fact, my first thought on seeing the animation during the opening action scene was “good gaming mechanics.”

Obviously, with a set-up that is set in both our future and a future within the story, this isn’t attempting to be part of a continuity in any meaningful way. The Prime Minister from SAC: 2nd Gig makes a cameo in a photo. But the story feels very much like a manga story, as opposed to an anime and, again, my  first thought was that with the current setup and the opening scene, this series felt very much like it “belongs to” the Global Neural Network manga anthology published by Kodansha in 2018…an anthology I really liked and which, having been done under Shirow’s watch is considered by him to be canon. In that sense, we can think of 2045 as an additional entry in that anthology. ^_^

I expected the opening to be the “building a cyborg body” segment – I was not disappointed. But I quite enjoyed that the body is now 3-D printed. The rest of the segment is, as it always has been, low-key prurience. The music was a pretty clear indication that we were getting something a little less “Japan of the future,” and indeed, we open the story in an American Pacific which looks like it has been overtaken by the desert it more properly belongs to, if the golf courses were left to die.  As another bridge to an American audience, Section 9 has a new recruit, Stan, subtly nicknamed Clown so you know exactly the level of respect America has in this series right from the get-go. ^_^

Since her sexuality is something we’ve talked about in the past, I want to nod to the scene where the hookers are checking Kusangi out.  I’m okay with this.

Ratings will be held until after I’ve watched the whole thing, but…

Overall so far – 8

What I now look forward to is this iteration’s balance of dive into the meaning of personhood/self and action series…and I hope it gives us the multiple-identitied Major that I’d really like to see explored.

Today we’re doing something completely different! We’re going to be looking at an upcoming how-to-draw-manga book that is really worth your time, whether you want to be be able to draw manga or just really want to understand the visual language manga uses. We’re looking at Manga Drawing Deluxe: Empower Your Drawing and Storytelling Skills by Nao Yazawa, creator of Wedding Peach and Moon and Blood. Yazawa-sensei has been teaching folks to draw at her Manga School Nakano for a number of years and these lessons and her own knowledge are boiled down in an understandable and fun book which will be hitting shelves in June 2020.

In the beginning of Manga Drawing Deluxe, Ann decides to draw her own manga, but her brother Dan tells her it’s crappy. Two manga fairies appear to guide the siblings through the steps of ideation and creation of a manga story – with tips and thoughts from Yazawa herself, through the course of the story – in order to help them, in the words of the fairies, make manga that isn’t crappy! ^_^

You’ve probably run in to the same kinds of how-to-draw manga guides I have, common in craft and book stores. Many of these are not drawn by manga artists, but by manga-influenced artists…many of whom are talented in their own right. (Camilla d’Errico’s Pop Manga series comes to mind.)  But it’s pretty rare to find an English-language book by a Japanese manga artist who has been specifically teaching how to draw manga to English-speakers for years. Which makes this book an extraordinary tool for a person trying to understand what makes manga different and what makes it work.

In this book, Yazawa dissects manga composition, story boarding, character design and give useful advice on timing, emotional impact, visual and sound effects, all from the perspective of, specifically, creating manga…although practically all of the book can be used for understanding many different kinds of visual media. I mean, vanishing point is universal and my wife and I ended up discussing de Chirico’s work when I was relating Yazawa’s discussion of how diagonal panels create an “unstable” emotional mood.

If you’re watching Keep Your Hands off Eizouken and enjoying how the series breaks down anime art and techniques, so you understand it more and become a better viewer (and you should be…it’s a magnificent anime series,) you will absolutely appreciate Manga Drawing Deluxe for doing the same with manga. I’ve been reading, and editing and publishing manga for decades, but I learned quite a bit from this book.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 8 Starting with “crappy manga” was perfect. ^_^
Characters – 8 Actually quite fun
Informative – 10

Overall – 10

If you are or know a budding manga artist, or just want to be able to understand what you’re seeing as you read manga, this is an exceptionally good place to begin.  Raise your MQ (Manga Quotient) and become a better artist – and a better manga reader – with this relatable, entertaining and informative how-to-guide.

My very sincere thanks to Yazawa-sensei for an ARC of this book, I will look forward to getting it in print and giving it out as gifts!

In Haru to Midori, Volume 2 (春とみどり) having committed to being a foster parent for her late childhood friend’s daughter, Midori struggles daily to separate her feelings for Tsugumi from the child who looks so much like her. Haru is trying to create a life with this woman who clearly loved her mother, but who seems to have little life of her own.

Tsugumi’s belongings arrive at Midori’s place, and her child’s first thought is to throw it all away, starting fresh. Midori, though, goes through it, knowing the value of items that have no value but are irreplaceable. Haru watches Midori interact with her own mother, able to see the bonds between them, and reflecting on her own bonds, now permanently severed.

In turn Haru and Midori become ill. Haru finds herself comforted by this woman who is not her mother, but finds it in herself to care for her. When it is Haru’s turn, shes not surprised, but still befuddled to be mistaken for her mother, by a feverish Midori.

The gyre turns and turns, spinning Haru and Midori in a circle around their memories of Tsugumi, but every spin, brings some small change in them. Haru’s new life begins to take form and almost amazingly, so does Midori’s. Midori who now wears new clothes to work, and is teased by Haru and her mother and has, at last, started to realize how little she has moved forward since Tsugumi left.

This series is neither melancholic nor nostalgic, although we spend a lot of time looking backward. If it were literary, I’d read it as if it was a memoir told by an adult Haru about this moment in her life. “That time my mother’s friend (who was in love with her) took me in after her death.” It’s a sad series, because death is sad, but there’s bits of humor and comfort that keep it from becoming maudlin.

This is only Yuri in retrospective, as they individually unpack Midori’s feelings for Tsugumi. I hope that they can be allowed to come to care for one another without it becoming romantic, as that would reek of lazy writing.

I have no idea what will become of Haru and Midori, but wherever they end up, I think this has been good for both of them. I can easily imagine that they will come to rely on their relationship through Tsugumi less and on each other more.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9 A lot of time is spent in interior monologue
Yuri – 3 Only in retrospective, as they individually unpack Midori’s feelings for Tsugumi and
Service – 0

Overall – 8

Still awkward, yet sincerely and appealingly so, much like Midori herself. Still ongoing online at Comic Meteor, I’m looking forward to a third volume.