It’s Spring Cleaning here at Okazu Central and that means Lucky Boxes full of utterly random things. I really mean it’s random. I pack these for fit, not for continuity or sense – if a random volume of a thing fits, it goes in. ^_^ And because we still have a good 2 dozen boxes of Bruce’s books in the basement, I’ll be doing more of these all summer long until the garage is cleaned out.

This time we have 5 Lucky Boxes: 1 Large box, 1 Premium Medium box and 3 regular Medium boxes. All the boxes contain a random assortment of manga, books, candy, toys, random pieces of paper things I put in there, and a lot of stuff from our friend Bruce’s collection.

In addition, we have 2 boxes full of BL and adult doujinshi culled from my wife’s collection. These are classic series, like Yu-Gi-Oh and KareKano.

When you email me, please refer to the box you want by the title and #1. First come, first served and these always go fast! These are listed out so I can cross them off as they go.

Large Box 1 – Claimed
Medium Premium Box – Claimed
Medium Box 1 – Claimed
Large Box 1Medium Box 2 – Claimed
Large Box 1Medium Box 3 – Claimed

For the BL doujinshi, we have 2 medium boxes, doujinshi only – these are priced to pay shipping, Paypal fees and handling (i.e., the price you pay for me to carry piles of books up and down stairs, pack them up and such.)
We have two 16lb boxes at $20 each.

BL Doujinshi Box 1 -Claimed
BL Doujinshi Box 2 – Claimed

I can 100% guarantee these boxes are filled with absolute pure stuff, with no guarantees of any other kind. No returns, because look – either you like the fact that you’re spending money on someone else’s stuff, or you don’t.

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To be eligible to buy a Lucky Box, follow these instructions carefully. Please. Thank you. Failure to follow all of these instructions will disqualify you. It’s not personal, they go fast and I don’t have time to track you down for a piece of information.

1- You must live in the Continental USA (contiguous 48) only, no APO/FPOs – sorry about that, really. It’s vexing, I know.

2 – You must be over 18, I am not policing which books you get and since these boxes have doujinshi and other items, I really don’t know what you’re getting.

3 -Email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject “Lucky Box”. Use an email you check regularly. Because I will reply asap.

4. *****Please include your name, age, mailing address. ***** Tell me which box you want. Even if you’ve given me your address previously, please include it, I am very lazy.

5- I will contact you at that point and give you details about payment by Paypal. Please be prepared to check your email and get payment out so this post doesn’t linger. Thanks in advance.

This whole process will be handled with utmost capriciousness, as usual. ^_^ 

Ready? Get your Lucky Boxes!

Okazu is not a globally influential news site, so we’re not in the habit of reporting deaths. We’ve lost a few friends over the years, however. Today we’re joining thousands of others as we say goodbye to ANN Editor-in-Chief, Zac Bertschy.

I knew Zac from back in the day, but over the last decade or so, we’d grown a little closer. He was kind enough to have me on ANNCast from time to time. I always had so much fun talking with him about whatever.  I’ll regret the rest of my life that I never actually got to meet Zac in person. It always seemed like we’d have time. He wasn’t able to make it NYCC last year and we just soft-promised to catch up this year.

What I will remember about him, is the way his voice cracked just a little as he and I talked about Revolutionary Girl Utena and how much it meant to us on ANNCast. He was opening himself to me and to all of our listeners and it was a lovely, vulnerable moment. Thanks, Zac, for letting me come on the show and talking about the things we love together.

Here are links to the shows I did with Zac. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Revolutionary Girl Erica – ANNCast

El Gee Bee Tee – ANNCast

Pop Vulture – ANNCast

ANN La CAST

Zac was a massive influence on thousands of folks every day in the anime community. He has left us a legacy and I hope all of us can continue his work, spreading love of visual media and pop culture.I know. I’ll  continue to do my best. 

RIP, Zac.

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!