Results tagged “365 days of manga”

SCRIPT DOWNERS （SCRIPT ダウナーズ) • Ryu-tmr • CPM (2007) • Wani Books (Comic Gum, 2002-2003) • 1 volume, suspended (2 volumes in Japan) • Otaku Science Fiction Comedy • 13+ (mild violence, mild sexual situations)
Sometime in the future, the Internet has evolved into a massive virtual reality network, where Hina Matsuki—a short-skirted, teenage Network Security agent— downloads bootleg ROMs, finds missing virtual girlfriends, and fights cute animal icons run amok. A combination of Ghost in the Shell/The Matrix-type science fiction with otaku in-jokes (Akihabara etc.), Script Downers is a pleasant but forgettable story-gag manga. The art is nicely clean-looking and angular, although the weird-eyed faces are awkward.

Central Park Media… a name from the past. When I got into the anime and manga business in 1996, they were one of the big shots. They had published super-fan-favorites like Project A-Ko and the Genocyber series, and a few lesser-known anime which were truly stunning, notably the beautiful and philosophical art film (with a cast of anthropomorphic cats!) Night on the Galactic Railroad. Around 1997 they started publishing manga, starting with some fairly blah fanservice titles like the… er, topheavy… work of Satoshi Urushihara, and numerous Slayers adaptations, but then taking some interesting risks, such as in 2003 when they became a pioneer in publishing Boy’s Love/yaoi manga. I remember that in 2004 John O’ Donnell, the CEO of Central Park Media, visited the VIZ offices in San Francisco. We had lunch with him and we joked about how VIZ’s family-friendly image would never permit us to publish yaoi manga. “You take the kid’s stuff, and we’ll take the porn,” he laughed. At the same time, they were also acquiring the rights to some very interesting non-porn manga, like Kiriko Nananan’s “Sweet Cream and Strawberries,” and several other fascinating books.

Unfortunately, many of these books never came out. Even “Script Downers” is so hard to find that I could only find a decent-sized image of the Japanese cover. CPM was hit by the same financial problems which affected every company in the anime and manga publishing industry, but they also had a serious P.R. problem. In 2007 Biblos, the primary licensee of CPM’s yaoi manga up to that point, went out of business and was bought out by Libre, another Japanese publisher. CPM had already signed and paid contracts with Biblos to publish certain yaoi in English, so they — perhaps foolishly — forged ahead with their publishing plans, despite Biblos’ dissolution. Libre became angered that CPM hadn’t gotten in contact with them (and perhaps renegotiated the rights, possibly paid them more money, etc.), so Libre put up an open letter on their Japanese website, calling on yaoi fans to boycott CPM. A large number of fans did, and CPM’s image was seriously damaged.

Things started to fall apart. At the end of one anime convention in New York (rumor has it), the CPM folks didn’t want to pay for the shipping it would have cost to send their unsold graphic novels and anime back to their warehouse. John O’Donnell promised that he was going to make an important announcement at a panel at the very end of the last day of the convention. At the panel he gave every audience member a bag, and then said “Now take that bag, go back to the CPM table, and take all the anime and manga you want. It’s all free.” The table was cleaned out in minutes. Such grandiose gestures were very much in the CPM style. When CPM finally, irrevocably went out of business in 2009, after two years of languishing on life support, they bought a full-page ad in the Anime Expo program book saying to all their fans: goodbye and thanks for the support.

And so vanished one of the giants of anime and manga. So long, CPM. I’ll miss them, even if they did publish one of the worst manga ever, “Legend of Lemnear.”

Thanks for bearing with me on this trip down Manga Memory Lane. Today’s winner is Francisco C. of California! I’ll be sending you some manga (probably not CPM manga) ASAP! :)

SEITO SHOKUN (Seito Shokun, “Fellow Students!”) （生徒諸君！) • Yoko Shoji • Kodansha International (1983-1984) • Kodansha (Shojo Friend, 1977-1984) • 4 volumes, suspended (24 volumes in Japan) • Unrated/13+ (mild language, mild sexual situations, principals hit on the head by softballs)

Only the second shojo manga ever published in English (after The Rose of Versailles) Seito Shokun was almost identical in format to the Shogakukan volumes described under Sasuga no Sarutobi—with the notable difference that Kodansha decided to “flop” the reading order, perhaps to make it seem a more authentic English-language experience. From the golden age of shojo manga, when eyes were all mascara and highlights, Yoko Shoji’s Seito Shokun is a reminder that shojo is as much about heroines as shonen is about heroes—the heroine here being 14 year-old Naoko “Nakki” Kitashiro, a smart, self-assured spitfire transfer student, who, ten pages into the manga, has already tried to pass for her own homeroom teacher, and gotten into a fistfight with a boy. Five pages later, that boy’s starting to fall for her—which isn’t difficult. Slapped by a girl for her cheek in the next chapter (whom she then kisses to make up), Nakki explains, “I like to fight. I don’t care who’s right or wrong. I just like to have it out, you know?”—another way of saying how her free spirit will seek to free her fellow students, too. Seito Shokun, which won the Kodansha Manga Award in 1978, has a current sequel (made into a live-action TV drama in 2007) running in the josei magazine Be Love. (Review by Carl Gustav Horn)

Today’s guest review is by Carl Gustav Horn, one of the smartest people in manga. Carl currently works as an editor for Dark Horse Comics, but I met him when we were both working at Viz, and he was kind enough to review some very, very obscure English-language manga which, as far as I’m aware, no one else in the entire universe has copies of. One such manga is Seito Shokun, published in the early ’80s in a bilingual edition for Japanese students of English. This book is so hard to find I wasn’t even able to find the cover on google imagesearch (gasp!), so the attached image is actually from the modern sequel series running in “Be Love.” This may be the single rarest translated manga in existence — or if not, it’s up there with the Go Nagai American edition of “Devilman” and other rarities like “Sasuga na Sarutobi.” Thank you, Carl!

Today’s winner is Michael M. of Connecticut. Congratulations, Michael! And today’s repeat winner is Lysa:

Congratulations, Lysa! I’m glad you like the stuff that I sent you. I’ll send you five more surprise manga today!

RED COLORED ELEGY (Akairo Elegy “Red Colored Elegy”) (赤色エレジー) • Seiichi Hayashi • Drawn and Quarterly (2008) • Seirinkogeisha (Garo, 1970-1971) • 1 volume • Underground Romantic Drama • Unrated/16+ (adult themes, nudity, sexual situations)

Challenging on both a visual and emotional level, this classic underground manga about a relationship between two young adults was immortalized in Japan as a popular love song by musician Morio Agata. 20-year-old Ichiro, a boy with long girlish hair, works as an animator but wants to draw comics; he falls in love with a fellow animator, Sachiko, and they move in together, in a ratty room with a single futon and a swaying lamp. They drink and argue and laugh and dance, but gradually life comes between them, though they cling together for comfort in the dark. As a tale of young love and despair, Red Colored Elegy compares favorably to works such as Craig Thompson’s Blankets but looks like it could have been published in Raw magazine; with its often free-associative imagery and disjointed narrative, it’s not an easy read. But Hayashi’s almost shapeless human figures convey emotion and vulnerability in every line, and at moments such as the one when Ichiro buries himself in his work thinking “Just draw…just draw…just draw!” the heartbreaking power rewards the determined reader.

This is one of the most powerful manga stories I’ve ever read, but it was hard to get into it — at first, I wasn’t even sure whether it was supposed to read right-to-left or left-to-right. But once you get into the flow, it’s unforgettable. It’s definitely a “mature” title, though, not in terms of sexual content but in terms of the emotional situations.

Today’s winner is Sarah G. of New York. Congratulations, Sarah! We’ve also got a photo from another winner, Ricardo!

Ricardo, thanks for the awesome blog post talking about the glories of “Slam Dunk.” I agree with you 100%! I’ll do my best to send you five more manga which are equally delicious! Thanks for entering the contest, and I hope you win any other contests you enter, so that you can live entirely off your contest winnings like the Japanese TV show victim — I mean contestant — Nasubi!

KAMIYADORI (Kamiyadori) (カミヤドリ) • Kei Sanbe • Tokyopop (2006-2008) • Kadokawa Shoten (Monthly Shônen Ace, 2004-2006) • 5 volumes • Science Fiction Horror Action • 16+/18+ (language, brief crude humor, extreme graphic violence, nudity)

In a near-future country vaguely modeled on Nepal, humanity is threatened by the Kamiyadori, a worldwide plague which turns the infected into shapeless, insect-like monsters. While the authorities of the “Cathedral” use ruthless measures to enforce quarantine, burning entire city blocks and cracking down on an illegal Kamiyadori-suppression drug, an elite special forces team—the “Right Hands”—has the hands-on business of killing the infected. As in his previous work Testarotho, whose heroes were gun-wielding religious inquisitors, Kei Sanbe focuses less on the monsters than on human-human violence and dark moral issues. (On the other hand, there’s only so many times you can do the “please shoot me before I turn into a monster” routine.) The hero’s sidekick Vivi, a pubescent street urchin who spends most of the manga bare-assed, gets most of the action scenes, but there’s a whole cast of shady, above-the-law characters, distinctively depicted with Sanbe’s excellent figure artwork. (Sanbe’s style is heavily influenced by Hirohiko Araki, who he served as chief assistant on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.) The third-world setting is also drawn in detail—possibly too much detail, as despite all the angst and badassitude, Sanbe’s plots lack forward movement and never quite manage to wring the emotion out of the characters that might make the story more powerful. Volume 1 is rated 16+; volumes 2-5 are rated 18+, although there is no significant difference in the content.

Today’s winner is Helen P. of Texas! Congratulations, Helen! We also have another photo from a previous day’s winner…. (dramatic announcer voice)… NAAATHAAAN GAAARDNERRR!

Congratulations, Nathan! I hope you like the additional, all-new (well, used, but you know what I mean) manga I’m about to send you!

WORDS OF DEVOTION (Ai no Kotodama, “Words of Love”) (愛の言霊) • Keiko Konno • DMP (2007) • Frontier Works (2000-2004) • 2 volumes • Yaoi • 18+ (language, nudity, graphic sex)
Otani and Tachibana are long-term friends and college roommates. They met and began their love affair in high school, but fear and insecurity have kept them guessing about their own hearts. The first volume deals mainly with their current lives, while the second volume flashes back to their high school days and contains a short story about their friend Sho and his American lover. Otani and Shinya’s relationship is achingly realistic, and it’s a pleasure to get wrapped up in their evolving love. The art is simple, but does a good job conveying they expressions. (Review by Hannah Santiago)

Today’s review is by Hannah Santiago, one of my foremost yaoi reviewers for “365 Days of Manga.” Hannah, thank you for taking some of the Boy’s Love burden off my back in my dark days of total manga engorgement. I like Boy’s Love, but with so many titles coming out every month, it’s nearly impossible for one person to keep up. (But I know you try, some of my readers. I know you try. You know who you are.)

We also have a winner — and that winner is Summer V. of Oregon! Congratulations, Summer! I’ll be sending you a bunch of manga on Monday!

YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE (Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru, “You Will Fall in Love”) （きみが恋に堕ちる) • Hinako Takanaga • BLU (2008) • Kadokawa Shoten (2006) • 1 volume • Yaoi • 18+
Haru, an archery instructor and former star athlete, hides a secret: he dropped out of the archery world not because of an elbow injury, but out of guilt over his crush on his teammate Reiichiro. Now he finds himself teaching Reiichiro’s younger brother Tsukasa, who has no guilt whatsoever about putting the moves on Haru. Haru’s closeted torment is exquisite: “My heart was clouded by my own wickedness. I can’t sully the path of archery.” But Tsukasa’s unapologetic devotion inspires him to open up and make another attempt at love… which is when Reiichiro shows up. Though there are angst-ridden misunderstandings galore, You Will Fall in Love is ultimately a sweet, honest story about healing old emotional wounds, with passion expressed through both love and archery. Takanaga’s art is, as usual, excellent, with beautiful, seductive men decked out in archery hakama or rumpled neckties. A sequel, You Will Drown in Love, focuses on one character from this volume. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

It’s another exciting episode of “Yaoi Weekend” with a review by the great Shaenon Garrity. I’ve also just uploaded another page of my weekly webcomic, my comic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Strange HIgh House in the Mist. Please check it out if you’re at all into fantasy and horror! Alas, there is no yaoi in this installment.

Today’s winner is Gopakumar S. of Virginia! Congratulations, I’ll send you some manga on Monday!

HIBIKI’S MAGIC (Hibiki no Mahô, “Hibiki’s Magic”) (ヒビキのマホウ) • Jun Maeda (story), Rei Idumi (art) • Tokyopop (2007-ongoing) • Kadokawa Shoten (Monthly Shônen Ace/Comp Ace, 2004-ongoing) • 2+ volumes (ongoing) • Fantasy Drama • 13+ (infrequent violence, brief partial nudity)

Although her only skill is making tea, apprentice magician Hibiki ends up working as a professor at a magic school. With the help of her former master’s spirit (now incarnated in a squirrel-like creature) she does her best to help people, become a better wizard, and convince her gun-wielding, angry student Akito that magic is good. Like a cross between “Someday’s Dreamers” and “Atelier Marie and Elie,” the prepubescent heroine tries to magically solve people’s problems but often ends up failing and crying big gelatinous-looking tears. (Less optimistic than “Someday’s Dreamers,” a streak of sadness runs through this manga.) This dull moe title would be decent for younger readers were it not for the crude, generic art—the interiors look worse than the covers. The manga is on hold in Japan, with the third volume only partially completed as of February 2008.

Today’s winner is Chi C. of New York. Congratulations, Chi! This review of “Hibiki’s Magic” couldn’t have been written without help from Mark Simmons, who did a lot of research for me, looking up factoids on Japanese books. Thanks Mark!

Speaking of “moe” manga — that term most often used to describe cute-big-eyed-girl manga like “Hibiki’s Magic” — I just wrote a new article on moe manga for io9.com. It’s Militant Cute and Sexy Politics in Japanese Moe Manga, and unlike the domestic scene in “Hibiki’s Magic,” this article goes into moe manga about the U.S. Marines. And the Afghanistan war. And WWII Germany. Please check it out for your daily dose of both big eyes and geopolitical commentary!

SUPPLI (Suppli) (サプリ) • Mari Okazaki • Tokyopop (2007-ongoing) • Shodensha (Feel Young, 2004-ongong) • 7+ volumes (ongoing) • Jôsei Office Drama • 18+ (language, infrequent nudity, infrequent sex)

Fuji is a 27-year-old office worker at an advertising firm, who works overtime and sleeps in the office, or comes home to a dirty apartment and an incommunicative boyfriend. When their seven-year relationship suddenly ends, she throws herself even more into her work, seeing the office world around her with new eyes. In the very limited pool of translated jôsei manga about Japanese working women, Suppli draws comparison to both Happy Mania and Tramps Like Us, but it’s by far the most sober and serious of the three. As Fuji negotiates “the balancing act of being a woman and having a career,” she finds herself attracted to male coworkers, and envies and admires other women who seem to navigate the tightrope better than she does. It’s no simple feminist parable, but neither is it a fairytale romance like Tramps Like Us; as suits her personality, Fuji faces the glass ceiling with alternating hope, insecurity and resignation (“It’s the professional’s job to keep motivated. It’s a woman’s job to be cute”). Although the story isn’t about the specifics of the advertising industry, the work element is taken very seriously; the characters drink, flirt, have sex and regret it, but in the morning, they’ve still got to pull that all-nighter and finish that big team project the next day. Okazaki’s artwork and characters are coolly attractive, a world where everything shines and gleams, from the glass and metal of office compartments, to the impressionistic imagery of plants, water and fish that swim between the panels. It’s a fitting art style for this detached story set in a “floating world” of cool beauty.

A brief word on josei (adult women’s) stories; they’re one of the least translated genres of manga, which is why I can only offer them together with shojo manga. Tokyopop’s “Happy Mania” and “Tramps Like Us” are classics, the work of Erica Sakurazawa is interesting, and VIZ has recently gotten into the game with titles like Fumi Yoshinaga’s “All My Darling Daughters”. The stories of Kan Takahama, from Fanfare/Ponent Mon, are also worth checking out. Not all josei manga are serious stories (or satires) of women in the Japanese workplace; manga adaptations of Harlequin Romance novels, or their Japanese equivalent, are also common. In the case of Suppli, it’s both an excellent story, and I love the aquatic colors on the covers.

Today’s winner is Angela P. of Florida! Congratulations, Angela! We also have a new winner’s photo, from Lisa A., aka DuneDigger on deviantart:


Congratulations, Lisa! I’ll keep sending out manga, like a person working in the boiler room of a locomotive, shoveling coal to keep the manga engines of this country running. (Yes, this is a special patriotic episode of “365 Days of Manga.”) See you all tomorrow!

ST. LUNATIC HIGH SCHOOL (Yoru ni mo Makezu!, “Don’t Give In Even to the Night!”) (夜ニモマケズ！) • Majiko! • Tokyopop (2003) • Kadokawa Shoten (Asuka, 2004-2005) • 2 volumes • Shôjo Fantasy Comedy • 13+ (mild language, mild violence, mild sexual situations)

Niko Kanzaki, a girl, and Atchan, her big brother, are forced by poverty to work and study at the mysterious St. Lunatic High School. To her shock, Niko is assigned to the secret “night classes,” where she is the only human among a class of monsters, skeletons, pumpkin-heads and other ridiculous ghoulies—and Ren-kun, a hot, pointy-eared demon boy. Majiko’s super-cute visual style and gag sense carries this formulaic but well-drawn school comedy manga. The characters have huge chibi heads on skinny pipe-cleaner bodies, the backgrounds are full of Gothic bats, shadows and crescent moons, and the characters are memorably absurd. If anything, the fun is over too soon, although the second volume is slightly less inventive than the first.

Here’s a series which doesn’t break new ground in terms of story, but whose art is stylish enough that I give it high marks. Today’s winner is Jennifer F. of Massachusetts! Congratulations, Jennifer!

We also have a new photo of a previous winner, not just a manga fan but an artist herself… Ash!

I’m glad you liked “Alive,” Jennifer! I’ll send you out some more copies of the series ASAP! As for the rest of you folks, keep signing up, I’ve still got 2,000+ more manga to give out!

SOUL RESCUE (Soul Rescue) (ソウルスレスキュー) • Aya Kanno • Tokyopop (2006-2007) • Hakusensha (Hana to Yume, 2001-2002) • 2 volumes • Shôjo Fantasy Action • 13+ (mild language, violence)

Renji, a rogue angel suspended for fighting too much, is banished to Earth (along with his bland, good-looking supervisor/friend Kaito) until he can help 10,000 humans with his “soul rescue” power, which heals the body and soul. Soul Rescue really wants to be a serious drama. Although the episodic stories have a consistent antiviolence message, there’s lots of action—the heroes must save a reformed ex-terrorist from her former companions, prevent a mob from killing someone, fight against hot guy devils, etc. Unfortunately, any spirit which is present in these moments is wasted in the cluttered, busy art and, in particular, the complete lack of payoff; the manga just ends abruptly. God is depicted as a guy wearing a sort of low-budget sci-fi outfit with a helmet and visor.

Today’s winner is Paul S. from California! Paul, I hope it’s not a giveaway to say I won’t be sending you “Soul Rescue.”

One of the difficulties of reviewing entire manga series is that often the series are still ongoing. I love “One Piece,” but without knowing how long the series will run, who can say that it won’t suddenly jump the shark? That’s why it’s nice to review a short series like “Soul Rescue” where I can say with absolute confidence that it’s pretty awful. A dissatisfying ending, or a series which is simply incomplete, is one of the most frustrating and disappointing things in manga.

Moving on, we’ve received another photo from a winner, Sarah K.:

Congratulations, Sarah! I hope everything is going well for you, and I hope you like the new manga I’ll be sending. Nice cat! :)

SPACE PINCHY (スペース・ピンチー) • Tony Takezaki • Dark Horse (2007) • Kodansha (Afternoon, 2001-2002) • 1 volume • Science Fiction Comedy • 18+ (language, extreme graphic violence, nudity, constant sexual situations)

Pinchy Pink, a sexy space thief who is descended from the legendary alien race of Pinchians, and her perverted, drooling sidekick Audrey Q (a visual reference to Audrey Two from Little Shop of Horrors), travel the universe in search of the “P-Parts,” relics of an ancient civilization. Although the tepid anime adaptation A.D. Police is his only other translated work, Tony Takezaki is known in Japan for his anarchistic science fiction comedies, and Space Pinchy—a parody of Golden Age sci-fi—shows some of his manic inventiveness. However, the blast-‘em-up short stories quickly get repetitive, as does the constant T&A and Audrey Q.’s filthy comments (“Hey, Pinchy! I can see your whole poontang!”). With its mixture of robots, flashy computer coloring and art-by-speculum, it feels like a Hajime Sorayama story in Heavy Metal magazine.

This is a borderline one-star manga. It’s a shame that Takezaki’s better manga, such as “Dr. Kishiwada’s Scientific Affection,” haven’t been translated. (Actually, I think it’s also a shame that he never finished the “Genocyber” manga adaptation, but I think I have to give that one up…)

Today’s winner is Cheyenne M. of Michigan! Congratulations, Cheyenne! :) Your manga is on the way!

THE DAWN OF LOVE (Ai to Seigi de Yoru ga Akeru, “The Dawn of Love”) （愛とセイギで夜が明ける) • Kazuho Hirokawa • DMP (2008) • Tokuma Shoten (2006) • 1 volume • Yaoi • 18+

“Can lust become love?” is the central question of The Dawn of Love, and the great thing about starting with the lust is that you get to fit in a whole lot of sex scenes. Scruffy law student Matsunaga beds his hot classmate Takane, only to find that Takane only sees him as one of countless “sex friends.” It’s not as angsty as it might be, since Matsunaga is sleeping with another guy too, but Matsunaga decides that he’s serious about Takane and sets out to win his heart. Much of the narrative consists of Takane breaking things off with various exes who still want him, and generally have him one last time, although Matsunaga insists, “Another guy could never beat my weiner!” The tone is light and humorous, sobered by heartfelt meditations on the nature of love. Unlike most yaoi heroes, the characters act like plausible young gay men, sleeping around and working through various levels of commitment (although monogamy wins out in the end). The characters have distinctive, expressive faces, and the art is generally sexy. The only disappointment: nobody considers a threesome. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

It’s Yaoi Sunday here at 365 Days of Manga, and that means a guest yaoi review by the amazing Shaenon Garrity. For the original “Manga: The Complete Guide,” I did most of the yaoi reviews myself, but Shaenon (along with Hannah Santiago and others) helped me out and waded into the pools of Boy’s Love for this online sequel. I really appreciate it, Shaenon! Light hair/dark hair bishonen couples everywhere thank you!

Today’s winner is Lisa D. of Texas! Congratulations, Lisa! Tomorrow, I’ll disassemble part of the house of manga I live in (kind of like the gingerbread house in “Hansel and Gretel”) and send it to you!

DRAGON EYE (Ryûgan Dragon Eye, “Dragon Eye”) (龍眼ードラゴンアイー) • Kairi Fujiyama • Del Rey (2007-2009) • Kodansha (Shônen Sirius, 2005-2008) • 9 volumes (on hiatus in Japan) • Shônen Fantasy Action • 13+ (violence)

In a world ravaged by the “D-Virus” which turns humans into monstrous Dracules, anti-Dracule warriors train in humanity’s stronghold, Mikuni City. Issa, a spiky-haired boy who has secret power thanks to the “Dragon Eye” implanted in his body, is the seemingly happy-go-lucky chief of a squad of Dracule-fighting teenagers. Dragon Eye shows a clear Naruto influence, particularly at the beginning, with its team of teens learning the ropes of monster-hunting through structured missions and exams, as if they were in summer camp rather than defending humanity. The pseudo-Asian setting and the central character dynamic are also derivative of Naruto. However, the art is decent and the video-gamey monsters are pretty cool-looking, and when Fujiyama just lets us watch the heroes fighting hordes of them (as in volume 3), the series steps out of its predecessor’s footsteps and becomes a passable children’s fantasy. Despite lots of swords slashing around, the series is low on violence, as the Dracules turn to smoke when killed. Since early 2008, the series has been on hiatus in Japan, apparently due to the creator’s illness.

Today’s winner is Sarah P. of Texas! Congratulations, Sarah! And now, today’s repeat winner, Kelly:

Thanks for sending in your photo, Kelly! I’ll do my best to send you five more manga which can sit proudly on your bookshelf (or wherever). As for everyone else, keep coming back, and I’ll see you tomorrow for… YAOI SUNDAY.

MW （ムウ) • Osamu Tezuka • Vertical (2007) • Shogakukan (Big Comic, 1976-1978) • Seinen Action Suspense • 16+ (graphic violence, nudity, sex)

Stoic Catholic priest Iwao Garai has a dark secret: he is the lover and confessor of Michio Yuki, a beautiful, bisexual, Kabuki-trained sadist who commits crimes of shocking depravity—rape, kidnapping, murder—between trysts with Father Garai. The two men are the sole survivors of an accident, covered up by the Japanese government, in which a deadly nerve gas developed by a foreign country (unnamed but obviously the United States) wiped out an entire island village. What happened in the village changed Garai from a juvenile delinquent to a guilt-ridden priest, and Yuki from an innocent boy to a soulless killer, and now Yuki torments Garai like a demon from his past. But there is a method to Yuki’s madness, as he tracks down the people responsible for the accident and the chemical weapon itself, MW. One of Tezuka’s bleakest works, MW consists mainly of a long litany of Yuki’s crimes and evil schemes, which Father Garai watches with maddening passivity. The plot is as convoluted and improbable as any of Tezuka’s attempts at intrigue; even the characters admit that the final denouement is like something out of a cartoon. But it’s arrestingly told and endlessly audacious, and the effeminate, sexually magnetic, unabashedly wicked Yuki is one of Tezuka’s most memorable characters—and an interesting counterpart to the more sympathetically portrayed gay and bisexual bishonen just gaining popularity in shojo manga at around the time MW was serialized. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

Today’s review is another Tezuka review by my good friend and amazing writer/artist/mangaphile, Shaenon Garrity. As I mentioned yesterday, I gave Shaenon the job of doing all the Tezuka reviews for Manga: The Complete Guide (both the original book and this update), because Tezuka is too classy for me and I would rather spend my time grubbing around in the dirt reading manga like “Enmusu” and “Violence Jack.” -_- *ahem* Anyway!

The good folks at suvudu.com recently tallied up the statistics for the first 50 days of “365 Days of Manga” and answered the question “Just what sort of person fills out forms for free manga online?” Personally, I kind of imagined a mixture of people like Tank Girl in the ’80s and Bruce Campbell in those Old Spice commercials. More realistically, I’ve gathered some data from the forms, and I’ll share it with you now.

First, your ages:

Over 18 - 77%
Under 18 - 23%

I had noticed that most of the winners are over 18, despite the attempts by companies like VIZ and Udon to publish “all ages” and preteen manga. Is the age of manga readers rising? Teenagers and preteens, send us your manga requests! But what about your manga preferences?

Shojo/Josei - 30%
Seinen - 22%
Shonen - 15%
Yaoi - 11%
No Preference - 24%

Shojo/josei is the highest requested category, although so far the winners have been mostly seinen lovers — is this just bad luck for the shojophiles? The preference for seinen over shonen might be linked to the ages of the readers. We have a steady undercurrent of yaoi requests, and a lot of “no preferences,” which I take to mean “prepare to receive the weirdest manga I have.”

So those are my wild guesses about the demographic of web-savvy manga maniacs. There’s something else I’ve been wondering which can’t be answered by the suvudu form results — do “365 Days of Manga” readers read just manga, or do they also sup of a variety of other types of graphic novels and comics? Do they know the joy of “Yokaiden”, “Scott Pilgrim”, “Finder”, “Won Ton Soup,” the work of Dylan Meconis and Jason Shiga and Derek Kim and Jen Wang? Recently I’ve been working on some of my own comics, specifically on a comic adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story The Strange High House in the Mist. I’m a horror and fantasy fan from way back and it’s a huge pleasure to draw my own stuff when I’m not reading manga. I’m currently on page 11 of a projected 16 pages, so please check it out!

And now, today’s winners! Today’s new manga winner is Mona K. of California (congratulations!), and the repeat winner is Adele S.!

Congrats, Adele! I’ll do my best to send you some really awesome books that you don’t already have for your next 5 manga. Till tomorrow, it’s “365 Days of Manga,” over and out.

APOLLO’S SONG (Apollo no Uta, “Apollo’s Song”) （アポロの歌) • Osamu Tezuka • Vertical (2007) • Shônen Gahosha (Weekly Shônen King, 1970) • Shonen Science Fiction Fantasy Romance • 16+ (graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations)

Apollo’s Song opens with one of the most outlandish and unforgettable sequences in all manga: hundreds of naked men race down a tunnel toward a naked woman with a crown and scepter, at which point it becomes clear that the men are sperm and the woman an ovum. One man embraces the woman and merges with her, forming new life. From there, Tezuka launches into a weird, choppy exploration of his ideas about romantic love. As punishment from the goddess Aphrodite, juvenile delinquent Chikaishi Shogo is condemned to love and lose the same woman in one reincarnation after another, from the past to the distant future. Or is he just experiencing hallucinations brought on by shock therapy? It may sound like the material of a sappy love story, but in Tezuka’s hands it’s anything but: Apollo’s Song is certainly melodramatic, but it’s far from romantic, as Tezuka fills his pages with violent men, icy women, pop psychology that was dated even in 1970, and action-packed plotlines that have nothing to do with the nominal central theme of love. The structure is similar to Phoenix, but on a smaller scale, with Shogo zipping back and forth through time but always running up against the same fate. It’s not one of Tezuka’s better adult-oriented works, mainly because he seems to have so little interest in his chosen theme, but even lesser Tezuka is rife with eye-popping moments. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

Today’s review is by Shaenon Garrity, creator of numerous comics, manga editor, comics critic, and one of my best friends. For “Manga: The Complete Guide” and 365 Days of Manga, I asked Shaenon to review all the manga by Osamu Tezuka. I love Tezuka, but to be honest, so much has been written about him that I have never had a strong desire to write about him myself. There are other, lesser known manga creators who need the attention. Writing about Tezuka reminds me of that scene in the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story” when the kid is fantasizing about his teacher giving him his grades “A plus… plus… plus… plus… plus!” Actually, not all Tezuka manga deserves an A+ (Apollo’s Song for one), but still, although I can’t put down a Tezuka manga once I pick it up, I gave the Tezuka honors to Shaenon so I could spend more time reviewing yaoi manga, shojo manga and stories about spiky-haired young boys who want to be the best at something.

Today’s winner is Nathan G. of Indiana! Congratulations, Nathan! Soon you’ll be getting five free manga, just like this other dude, Brandon W.:

Thanks for sending us your photo, Brandon! You’ve allowed us to continue the “circle of manga” by sending you five more graphic novels. See you all tomorrow!

BAKU (Baku) (ばく) • Hakase Mizuki • Tokyopop (2007) • Shinshokan (2003) • 16+

This anthology contains two short stories by Mizuki (The Demon Ororon). In the title story, Takeshi, a slender young model who lives with relatives since his mother was institutionalized, discovers that he is the reincarnation of a Baku, a supernatural creature. (In Japanese folklore, the Baku is a monster which eats dreams, but this defining element doesn’t even come up.) In the more comedic second story, “Mephisto,” a half-demon kid exorcist lives with his twin sisters, a pet hamster, and a pixie he keeps in a suitcase. Both stories have bits of clever plotting (the title story is nicely dark and wistful) and demonstrate Mizuki’s distinctive minimalist, elongated artwork, but they feel like incomplete fragments of longer, unfinished tales.

50 days… 50 manga reviews… 250+ manga sent like mushroom spores out of my house to germinate in the homes of others. (Is that metaphor appropriate?)

It’s been an exciting first 1/7th of the giveaway. One of the most interesting things, for me, is seeing the photos that people send in. It’s like a high school yearbook of the kind of people who read manga (or at least, who read manga and enter online contests) in America. I could have almost called this contest “365 Faces of Manga,” although (1) that sounds a little inappropriate and (2) not everyone who wins manga in the first round submits their photo for the second round. I hope you’re all enjoying the manga, first-round manga winners! It’s fascinating seeing this Studs Terkel-esque survey of manga readers.

Speaking of winners, today’s winner is Francene L. of Michigan. Congratulations, Francene! I hope you like the manga (or “mangers”, as my friend Dr. Urian Brown would pronounce it)!

AWABI (Awabi, “Abalone”) （泡日） • Kan Takahama • Fanfare/Ponent Mon (2007) • Junkudo (2004) • Underground Comedy Drama • 1 volume • Unrated/16+ (sex)

Kan Takahama (Monokuro Kinderbook) is an underground artist whose work, as much like jôsei as it is like any conventional manga demographic, deals with age, depression and relationships (generally younger woman-older man, and often unhealthy). Her un-idealized characters and gray, tonal artwork, which appears to be scanned directly from the pencils and computer-painted, have a warmth and depth not often found in manga, even when the action consists mostly of people talking. In the title story, “Awabi,” a troubled young woman collapses drunk in a pool outside an old folks’ home, prompting a moment of lucidity from a senile old man inside, and forming a bond between the woman and the old man’s former mistress. This wry story is followed by several short vignettes—in “My Life with K,” a middle-aged man gets involved in the life of a suicidal young woman, in “Something’s Not Quite Right Story” a young Korean man talks about his depressed manga artist girlfriend, and in “Local Wide Show” Takahama makes up an imaginary tabloid scandal about her own life. There’s also a two-page collaboration with French artist Frédéric Boilet (Yukiko’s Spinach). While none of the other pieces are as substantial as the title story, and some are fairly cryptic, it’s an insightful, if downbeat, collection.

Fanfare/Ponent Mon is one of the highest-quality publishers of art-manga (and European comics) today. Who else would publish work as underground, as personal, as Kan Takahama’s? Their books don’t have the best distribution, so keep an eye out for them.

Today’s winner is Carolyn U. of Utah! Congratulations, Carolyn! We’ve also received a new photo from a previous winner, Noel of Florida:

Thanks for sending your photo! I hope you enjoy the manga, particularly “Category: Freaks” and the out-of-print horror manga of Junji Ito, creator of “Uzumaki.” I’ll be sending you five more possibly less horrific manga in the immediate future as soon as I run to the post office. See you tomorrow, and as they’d say in “One Piece,” “do it with a DON!”

STAR (Kimi no Na wa Star, “Your Name is Star”) （君の名わスター) • Keiko Konno • DMP (2007) • Frontier Works (2004) • 1 volume • Yaoi • 18+

Hirokawa, a straight-laced salaryman, finds himself drawn to Sodou, a hip, boyish coworker who moonlights as a singer in a sidewalk jazz band. Although the manga includes some racy sex scenes, it’s much more preoccupied with the minutiae of relationships—not just the romance between Hirokawa and Sodou, but the surrounding swirl of office politics, friendships between bandmates, and disgruntled ex-girlfriends. The core of the story, Sodou’s refusal to open up and accept love, is never really explained, nor does it build to a satisfying climax. The numerous subplots mostly go nowhere, with Sodou’s jazz band particularly underused; with a group of colorful struggling musicians in the cast, why are we forced to spend so much time sitting through office gossip? Konno’s art is strong, and the two leads have some cute romantic moments, but the plot is meandering and frustrating. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

It’s the weekend, and that means yaoi at 365 Days of Manga! This review was written by the amazing Shaenon Garrity, one of my friends who contributed to Manga: The Complete Guide.

Speaking of yaoi, we also have a new photo of a winner — Juliana B.! Here she stands bearing her hard-won Boy’s Love gems!

Lastly, we have a new winner, of course: Robert M. of North Carolina! Congratulations, Robert! As the manga trucks continue loading and unloading, day and night, the 365 Days of Manga continue…

STRAWBERRY 100% (Ichigo 100%, “Strawberry 100%”) （いちご100%） • Mizuki Kawashita • VIZ (2007-ongoing) • Shueisha (Weekly Shônen Jump, 2002-2005) • 19 volumes • Shônen Romantic Comedy • 16+ (partial nudity, sexual situations)

One day in high school, aspiring teenage movie director Junpei accidentally startles a beautiful girl, who falls on top of him exposing her strawberry panties. Although he’s instantly smitten, he doesn’t get a good look at her face before she runs off…so which of the school’s several hot girls could it be? Despite the setup, Strawberry 100% is not a cheesecake-fest quite so much as a leisurely school romantic comedy, in which Junpei ends up dating his popular classmate Tsukasa, not realizing that aspiring novelist Aya, the stereotypical “girl who’s totally hot when she takes off her glasses,” is actually the nerdy girl of his dreams. It’s a nice character dynamic, though as the story follows the protagonists from 9th-grade onward, it dwells less on character development than on high school dating how-tos: how soon is too soon to call someone after a date? Should you sit next to the girl, or across from her? Kawashita draws good figures in a sparse style, although the story hinges on the fact that most of the characters have the same face; as a female artist drawing a shonen romantic comedy, her work is full of leggy, pneumatic women but lacks the fetishistic close-ups of, say, Masakazu Katsura and Yasuhiro Kano.

Today I was thinking how much I love really, really long manga series. 42 volumes of Dragon Ball. 37 volumes of Boys Over Flowers. 80 (gasp, choke) volumes of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, not counting “Stone Ocean.” Although at times they can get repetitive, these long manga have some of the most satisfying storytelling and really reward you for getting into them. (Or maybe I’m just obsessive.)

And yet there are disadvantages as well — (1) they cost a lot of money (2) it’s hard to find all the volumes and (3) for publishers, it’s a HUGE risk to publish such long manga series. (They’re long because they were popular in Japan, but that popularity doesn’t necessarily translate to American sales, not to name names *cough* Firefighter *cough* Harlem Beat *cough* .) I’ve written up my thoughts on really long manga in my latest “Manga Salad” at comixology.com. Please check it out!

Today’s winner is Julie H. from California! Congratulations, Julie! We also have a new photo from a winner — Andrew Ho! Andrew won “Sarai”, the sci-fi postapocalyptic maid manga by Masahiro Shibata. Thanks for sending us your photo and showing us again that real people are actually winning this manga. I’ll be sending you some more (and possibly less maid-tastic) manga right away!

HIDEYUKI KIKUCHI’S VAMPIRE HUNTER D (Vampire Hunter D) （バンパイアハンターD) • Saiko Takaki (art), Hideyuki Kikuchi (original story) • DMP (2007-ongoing) • 4+ volumes (ongoing) • 18+ (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations)

Commissioned by DMP from Japanese artist Takaki long after Kikuchi’s original Vampire Hunter D novels were released in Japan, Vampire Hunter D is an awkward, sometimes stylish mess. In the far future, after a nuclear apocalypse, vampires and werewolves are the nobility who lord it over hapless humans in a kind of pseudo-Western sci-fi setting (complete with robot horses). “D,” a tall, dark stranger with deep-set, heavy-lashed eyes, wanders the land using his vampire powers to fight on the side of good. Each volume follows the plot of one of Kikuchi’s books, more or less successfully condensing it into a single graphic novel. However, Takaki’s art is crowded and chaotic. Each page is full of clashing black and white values, excess lines, confusing camera transitions, and overapplied computer effects; the panels are too dense taken one at a time, and added together as a comic/manga, it’s barely readable. Given Takaki’s non-manga background (she worked in graphic design) it’s an unintentional argument for the often generic styles of mainstream manga. The best thing that can be said about it is that, at times, it conveys the equally histrionic nature of Kikuchi’s writing. (Also, the art improves slightly in later volumes, as Takaki’s drawings get simpler.)

Today’s winner is Anthony B. of Minnesota! Congratulations, Anthony!

In other news, I was recently interviewed by Gia and John at the Anime Vice Squadcast. I talk about 365 Days of Manga, my upcoming series King of RPGs, what manga I’m reading now, censorship, and about my recent foray into a second career. Please check it out if you’re interested in manga or anything involving Hit Points!