Archive for the Series Category


The Rose of Versailles – Behind the Scenes

July 18th, 2019

Today I am writing about something near and dear to my heart – the upcoming publication of shoujo manga classic The Rose of Versailles, by Riyoko Ikeda! There is a single, specific reason I want to write about this, but it’s going to take a while to get to, so buckle in for a story. ^_^

For one thing, I was absolutely thrilled to be able to assist with this production, and I want to be really honest about this, because I didn’t do fuck all to get this job. That this job landed in my lap is an example of the single most important piece of advice I have ever received from my mother – It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. This is one of the ugliest truths in the world, but it is a TruthTM. I happen to be friends with key people on this project; people who know me, know my skills and strengths and who trusted me to do something for them.

Which brings me to the next thing I want to point out – this series was translated by two different translators, both of whom I adore and consider good friends, Mari Morimoto and Jocylene Allen. Mari has been responsible for some of the best known and best-selling manga on the market, including Naruto. You’ve read Jocylene’s work in a ton of Yuri manga. Both of these women are incredibly talented and I have immense respect for their work – no ‘but’s. They are geniuses. Put a pin in this, because we will swing back here towards the end. In this case, one of the translators, Mari Morimoto asked me to edit/adapt their script as a hire by her, personally. She needed someone to bounce some concepts/choices off of. Again, let me be clear – I did not make any translation choices. I made suggestions of ways to make things sound better. In the end, the translation is the translator’s work, but where there are three ways to say the same thing, as an adapter, I’m looking at the voice of the character, the tone of the story, and suggesting a way to say it that reads more consistently.

I was in discussion with the publisher one day who was bemoaning some extraordinarily tedious work he had to do as part of getting things organized and simply offered to do some of the grunty bullshit that was needed. ^_^ Editorial assist crap. Like, here’s a 5 page Excel spreadsheet, fill-it-in-for-me stuff. When people say they want to work in publishing I’m not sure what they think they’ll be doing, but let me assure you – this is what you are doing. ^_^ My editorial assistant is taking pieces I write, and incredibly tediously adding in footnotes. I do not envy her this work – which is why I hired her! I hate footnoting things. It’s boring shit that has to be done.

Sometime later, when the series was close to completed, I was once again talking to the publisher and he commented that he needed someone to go back and just read the whole thing and make sure all the names were consistent. This seems obvious, but there were two translator shifts, from one person to another, then back. Sure it seems like it might be easy, Marquis de Lafayette isn’t going to be spelled differently because he’s a real person, barring an honest typo. How about Girodelle who was wholly made up and whose name is not Girodelle nor Girodel, but ジェローデル? So I had the honor and pleasure of reading the whole thing in the most tedious and painstaking manner I could, not paying attention to the story, per se, but all the individual words. I ended up fixing some stuff and caught a few typos, which brings me to an important point:

There will always be typos.

Are you, like me, one of those people who cannot not edit as they read? I get it, I really do. As a reviewer if I catch a minor typo and I can tell the publisher, I do. But generally I, like you, am reading the retail copy (on purpose. I don’t often remember to ask for review copies, because I also want to support the work with my money. I do note when I get a review copy, but it’s not all that common.)

Yes, some typos are worse than others. Inconsistency in names can be annoying, misspellings of important words likewise. But I know from translators that sometimes something is explained in Volume 21 that they had to do their best for Volume 1-20 on. And the explanation might make their choice seem stupid but how were they to know the future? Or what if the publisher or creator wants that spelling? Yes, Zolo is meant to be Zorro. BUT, copyright is a thing, so Zolo it is. Jeanne d’Arc’s name misspelled in a popular series franchise pissed me off no end, BUT what if were intentional and not just the translator making a mistake as we, in our ignorance might assume? You get my point? And still, typos just happen. My famous story is that in the first printing of Rica ‘tte Kanji!? I had 2 editors, 2 proofreaders and I personally read it over like 5 times…and there was still a typo.

I have friends in book publishing who do editing and proofreading. They have been responsible recently for several reprinted classic works that have been re-read for hardcover, paperback, trade and deluxe editions…and they still find typos. AND, more importantly, they know they’ve missed some typos, AS WELL. If you are reading RoV and you come across a typo, you can certainly let the publisher know. But don’t get snotty about how dare there be a typo. We worked really hard and long and really hope there are no typos.

There will always be typos.

At last, I get to my specific point. I will be speaking about translation in October at Michigan State University and one of the things I’ll be talking about is The Rose of Versailles. Because the translators made really terrific choices. At least one of which will annoy the proverbial “some people.” It will annoy them because they are used to one version of the story (the anime) which makes a different choice, and they will ignore that the why for the choice is literally stated in the manga. It won’t matter, because as I have commented recently the old adage, “every asshole has an opinion” has become commutative and nowadays every opinion has an asshole. ^_^ Some of you will tell me that you don’t like the choice, and that is fine, you are allowed to not like it. But I am going to tell you right now that this is the right choice – the manga itself tells you that. Trust the artist to know her own intent. Every word, every image and every page of this book was approved by Riyoko Ikeda. Other choices may also be something you personally might not have made. That is also fine. I stand by the translator choices.

And, with that, I present the covers to Udon Entertainment’s upcoming release of The Rose of Versailles.

 





Light Novel: R.O.D, Volume 12

July 7th, 2019

We left the gang back in 2014. Yomiko, Ou-En and the Five Sisters had teamed up with China, leader of Dokusensha, in an attempt to keep the Gutenberk Paper from Gentleman and Joker. Wendy and Nenene were attempting to sneak out of China through tunnels carved under the Himalayas in a vehicle driven by a guy named Shark.  Nancy had caught up with Drake and his team in their submarine and were on their way to find Yomiko.

Got it?

Good, because not much of it is relevant to R.O.D., Volume 12.

Nenene and Wendy do make it out of the mountains and, after turning down several heartfelt proposals from Shark, Nenene has a proposal of her own. Weary and car sick, she suggests to Wendy that they go home. And so they do, never to be mentioned again.

The bulk of the book is a series of extended battle scenes. China and Gentleman duke it out for dozens of pages, some of which include Yomiko saying “…!” or just “!”.  After China goes down for the last time, Ou-En takes on Gentleman and here, at last the book gets weird. Joker is watching from his airplane, the Victorious, and makes some vague threats to Drake’s group and Yomiko. Morris reappears from a previous volume to serve Joker tea. China isn’t dead again, so Gentleman calls on the animals in the wilderness around them to attack.

Yomiko is injured. She creates a ball of paper around herself so we all expect a massive evolution but, predictably, when her evolution is complete, she looks exactly the same.

Gentleman has all but killed Ou-En when Faust finally appears and absorbs Gentleman’s life force. Both Gentleman and China are now really dead. Turns out the Gutterberk Paper was powering Ou-En, and when Faust draws it out of the young man, he threatens Yomiko with a choice to “Read…or Die.” Yomiko chooses protect Ou-En, even going so far as to sacrifice the book Donny gave her to bring Ou-En back to life. In return he gives her the black book with black pages that they’ve all been looking for.

“Well?” Nancy asks as the story winds down. “What will you do now?”

Narrator voice: We never learn what Yomiko does next.

Instead we see Morris serve Joker tea and when they finally get a clear image of the battlefield all that is there is Gentleman’s body and a bunch of dead animals.  Unsurprisingly, Joker has no clue what happened.

At last Drake goes home to his daughter Maggie, who asks where he’s been. And, so, he begins to tell her…

…and that’s it folks, thanks for coming by today! Hope you grabbed a drink and had a snack before you go and see the rest of the….

…

…

What. The. Actual. Fuck. Kurata-sensei.

I sat through school girls uniform, and comprehension contests and you whining about working while at Anime Expo a decade ago and this is what I get? DUDE. Not okay. Hire a ghost writer if you have no ideas.

If the series had wrapped up in Volume 10, as it should have done, even if it were a mash of incoherent whatever, it would have been acceptable. But waiting this long for incoherent whatever is just vexxing.

Here’s what *should* have happened:

China and Gentleman should have killed one another.
Ou-En and Faust should have fought one another, then Yomiko should have taken down Faust, brought Ou-En back from the dead with the book.
Eeverything with Joker the same. Sure let Morris serve him tea 3 times for no reason.
Nancy should have taken wounded Yomiko back to Japan, where Nenene was waiting.
Wendy should have gone back to the British Library one last time to tell Joker to stuff it.
Then Drake should have gone home to Maggie.

It really would have been very simple to end this series well.

Ratings:

Art – 5 Okay, but always of the wrong things
Characters – 9
Story – 0
Yuri – 0
Service – Meh.

Overall – It is a thing that has been read. It has lost the shelf space it has been taking up for years. Bye, R.O.D., you died an ignominious death.

I’m sorry about it too, but from now on, I’m sticking with the anime.





Yuri Light Novel: Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について)

June 23rd, 2019

At the beginning of 2019, the first volume of the Yagate Kimi Ni Naru side novel focusing on the character of Saeki Sayaka, Touko’s close friend and Student Council Vice President, surprised the heck out of me, with its grasp of the character’s voice and insight into this young lesbian’s development as a person.

Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について) was even better.

The story begins with Sayaka already in high school, already the VP of the Student Council and very, very aware of Touko’s sudden interest in this first-year student. Sayaka is hyper-vigilant of Touko’s glances, the way she introduces and stands near this girl, Sayaka knows…and understands…that she’s lost her chance with Touko.

The story then backs up to how she meets and becomes friendly, then friends, with Nanami Touko, a woman who surpasses her academically and in every other way. A woman she is content to follow, a woman she knows she cannot have, but is unwilling to give up on the idea of. Until Yuu comes along.

My favorite scene comes early as Sayaka, having seen the casual relationship between her classmates Aika and Midori, asks Touko is she can speak with her in private. Touko jokes in asking if Sayaka is going to confess to her? Sayaka cannot even begin to imagine how to do that at this point, although yes, she wants to. But no, Sayaka simply wanted to know if she and Touko could call each other by their given names. Touko jumps straight to calling her “Sayaka” with no honorific, which settles the matter. It was a sweet, earnest and heartfelt scene which provides excellent insight into Sayaka’s still-quite serious personality. She’s learning to fake casual sincerity, but when she’s actually sincere, she is very serious indeed.

The story walks us through specific interactions as Sayaka finds herself happily dragged in Touko’s wake. She joins the council because of Touko, learns about Touko’s sister, and her motivation for the play. As their third year in high school dawns, Touko and Sayaka are, for the first time in differing classes, but that is not what concerns Sayaka. As they turn away from one another at the bulletin board, Sayaka sees Touko walk towards that first-year who, through no fault of her own, has stolen Sayaka’s chance at high school love.

And then the final 9 pages begin and my eyes could not have gotten bigger. But first….

Sayaka does not identify herself as gay in this novel, but she does admit to Touko, during a conversation about being confessed to, that she has been confessed to…by another girl. And that they had dated. The next page begins with Sayaka thinking,”There. I said it.” This is the closest she comes to saying anything about her interest in women generally or Touko specifically…although we know that she will at least once before the end of high school, admit the truth to the subject of her feelings (presuming we are caught up on the manga up to Volume 7.)

But back to those last pages. The entire novel had, up to that point, been written in 3rd person. The final pages switch to 1st, as “I” am sitting in a far corner of the college campus, when a woman comes around the corner. “I” can see that she is crying. The girl apologizes and I offer some civility as comfort.

(At this point I – the reader – thought we might have been getting another glimpse at Miyako’s meeting with Riko, which followed this exact pattern. About which I have a little rant, if you will indulge me: “Random Woman A meeting Random Woman B in a random corner of the campus” is cute, but it also effectively strips any possible queer identity from the characters. It’s not like they met at a LGBTQ mixer, book club, class on gender studies, at a bar, live music show, volunteer opportunity or any one of the dozens of ways two women might actually meet. Nope. Two couples in this series just happened to meet when one person came running around a far corner of the campus to have a good cry and the other just happened to be there. I bet the odds on that are good. /rant /eyeroll/sarcasm

The two women end up sitting next to one another in a class. The formerly crying girl asks if “I” am a first-year. No, “I” am a second-year. “Oh, so you’re my sempai.” “I” am amused by this, and at this point has made it clear that the first-year reminds us of Yuu… and of our failed high school romance. “I” am absolutely aware of three previous school romances and how each of them was a failure of a sort. “Sempai, huh?” The first-year asks the narrator their name and “I” reply, “Saeki Sayaka.” As the pages come to a close, Sayaka is contemplating her future…and this woman.

And then the book ends, and I flipped the page and re-read the advert for a 3rd Saeki Sayaka novel for like the 49th time.

We are going to get a novel about Sayaka after the manga. Ahhhh!

I do not expect any more queer identity in this upcoming book than we had in the previous two, but it would be nice if, you know, Sayaka got to ask someone out who liked her the same way. I’m not asking for much, I don’t think.

Ratings:

Art – 10 Once again, art by the series creator, so….
Story – 8 A much stronger sense of Sayaka’s feelings for and about Touko, that we could not get from the manga
Character – 10
Service – 1 Not really this time
Yuri – 7 This book is chock-full of Sayaka’s thoughts about being attracted to Touko for all the reasons.

Overall – 9

Once again, I am pleasantly surprised to have fully enjoyed a novel by Iruma Hitoma, in which the tone and feel of the character as we know her is captured well. And I look forward to the sequel as it takes us into new territory.





Yuri Manga: MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 10 (English)

June 18th, 2019

MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 10 almost seems relaxing when it’s compared with the mayhem of previous volumes. When a giant shark yacks up a human arm, it sets Kuroko into the middle of a religious boondoggle, but that’s only what gets the gang to the location they need to be in.

More than anything else, this volume is almost wholly about Hinako and her multiple obsessive pursuits. What is the deal with Hinako? So far, we’ve only had portents and implications, but here in Volume 10 we can say with absolute confidence…that we have no idea. ^_^; She is obsessed with food, beetles, is a competent, if bizarre, ninja and she drives like she’s in Crazy Taxi and otherwise who or what they fuck is going on with her is unknown.

Almost shockingly, we get a genuine moment of sincere affection between Chiyo-chan and Kuroko. That’s almost immediately supplanted by arm-yakking giant shark and Kuroko perving on a girl with a large chest, so all remains normal in this volume.

But seriously, if we are reading Volume 10 of this “violence Yuri” series, we don’t need to be convinced to show up. Giant sharks are nice, but we’re here for the dead bodies and predatory lesbians.

Ratings:

Art – Well, it’s not getting worse
Story – 8
Characters – 8, although Hinako has been given an extra helping of weird along with her maguro
Service – 4 Shockingly low for this series
Yuri – 7 Chiyo and Kuroko’s moment was so sweet…until the shark yacked up the hand and died.

Overall – 8

As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese, “[n]ot *quite* as awesome as Giant Snakes, but Giant Sharks are cool too. ^_^”





The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire, Part One

June 7th, 2019

Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire, Part One is the beginning of the new three-part comic series following Avatar Korra and her friends, allies and enemies. Many thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsorship of today’s review!

This time, the story begins just before the Earth Kingdom holds a democratic election, as a new general seeks to re-establish martial law and with it, the Empire. General Guan has the martial might and probably the force of personality needed to make him a real threat, but he’s also secretly brainwashing people, which will clearly give him an unfair advantage in the election.

Korra decides to vist former Earth Empire general Kuvira and gain her insight on this situation. The team is uncomfortable with this  decision, but when Korra allows Kuvira to leave her prison to help fight Guan, tensions run pretty high. Asami is not quiet about her lack of trust and unwillingness to be anywhere near the woman who killed her father.

Vivian Ng’s and Michelle Wong’s illustrations are solid, and the writing is now much like stepping into comfortable shoes. We know the people, we don’t need any of the “oh, hey, let’s deal with this thing over here” that we had to in Turf Wars. Korra and Aasmi’s relationship is stable, even if their perspectives are in opposition. That said, there is care taken to remind the reader that they are a couple. Just in case you didn’t get the memo. So while I would not say that this is a “LGBTQ” comic, it is a solid adventure comic (as well as a equally solid “Politics 101: Why People Suck” for tweens ^_^) comic that includes a stable lesbian couple.

Like the previous series, things move pretty fast in this short graphic novel. Whether, ultimately, Kuvira can be trusted is still up in the air. I’m hoping that she will be written as nuanced and complex as she was in the cartoon. For my money, one of the things LoK did best was the portrayal of the adult women as fully developed humans. I’m hoping we’ll see Kuvira in that light, once again. Some of her history is briefly surfaced, so that’s good.

If you’re looking for a YA graphic novel for a kid who likes to think, one that checks multiple boxes on diversity (although there is still room to expand in this regard), has male and female characters who are given the space they need to be seen as whole, and is an good entree into understanding politics and human society as we experience it in real-time, this is a great bet.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 10 In this case, because Asami and Korra just are, together, not because of any grand coming out.

Overall – A very solid 9

The book itself has no ratings or age limits of any kind, which puts it by default into All-Ages. And it’s currently #1 in Amazon’s LGBT Graphic Novels category, to which I say, “Happy Pride Month, Korra and Asami, welcome to the family.”