The Ice Wanderer

By Jiro Taniguchi
Fanfare/Ponent Mon, 240 pp.
Rating: 16+

Do you ever find yourself thinking, “I wish I could read something like Jiro Taniguchi’s The Walking Man but with more wolf fighting and bear hunting?”

The Ice Wanderer was my introduction to Taniguchi’s work, very little of which has reached our shores. An anthology of short stories thematically centered around man and nature, the first short features Jack London as a character, and the second is based on London’s notes for an early draft of White Fang.

The best shorts in The Ice Wanderer are not Jack London tributes; the highlight of the anthology is “Return to the Sea,” the tale of a marine biologist who follows a whale to a legendary whale cemetery. I was also very impressed by “Shokaro,” a short about an aspiring manga artist recounting his time living in an eclectic boarding house.

“The Ice Wanderer” and “White Wilderness” boast the kind of impressive, breathtaking natural backgrounds required for Jack London adaptations. However, between the Yukon mountains and attacks by hungry wolves, the Fanfare/Ponent dialog is a rough read. The dialects spoken don’t flow smoothly. I also found the character designs off-putting in the first and last shorts, since the natives have identical face structures to the white settlers. (Maybe I’m just racist…? I’m not sure what race the marine biologist is, other than non-Inuit.)

“Shokaro” uses setting as character as much as the other stories, but this time the setting is indoors (in Japan). A young manga-ka living in a communal dorm-style apartment observes the lives of his neighbors while he completes a comic for a contest. The story is set years ago, pre-internet, as the artist draws alone in his small, undecorated room. The tenants of the building are slightly haunted by the structure’s past as a prewar brothel. The setting and characters ring true to life.

“Return to the Sea” is so sincere it was hard for me to take seriously (I had to use “The New Sincerity” to get through it). In a very predictable plotline, a scientist follows a whale who once saved his life as the creature swims off to die. The natives tell him not to go, but he’s driven to find out if the whale graveyard is real. The lyrical splash page as the unnamed protagonist loses consciousness deep below the northern sea is well-worth the book’s Eisner nomination.

I’d like to think Fanfare/Ponent Mon is to manga what the Criterion Collection is to DVDs - but then, where does Vertical fit in to my metaphor? And what about Drawn & Quarterly?

The Ice Wanderer is available now.

Disappearance Diary

By Hideo Azuma
Fanfare/Ponent Mon, 200 pp.
Rating: NR (Older Readers)

Reading Hideo Azuma’s Disappearance Diary is the comic equivalent of watching a foreign film at a film festival alone; afterwards you desperately want to discuss the film/book with someone else, only to find none of your friends have seen/read it yet.

Disappearance Diary is an autobiographical work by manga artist Hideo Azuma. The book covers three periods in Azuma’s life when he stopped creating manga: in his first disappearance a failed suicide attempt ends in Azuma living homeless in the woods for months; in his second disappearance, Azuma becomes a gas pipe fitter under an assumed name; in the final third of the book Azuma’s lifelong history of alcoholism ends in a long-term hospitalization.

The book won Grand Prize in the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival and was the Grand Prize winner at the 2006 Osama Tezuka Cultural Awards - although, I would have purchased it even without all the accolades. All you had to do was say “homeless” and “autobiography”.

The first panel reads:

“This manga has a positive outlook on life, and so it has been made with as much realism removed as possible.”

As advertised, Azuma’s suicide attempt is drawn as a gag panel. His struggles living in the woods read like a food blog. His misogynist co-worker at the gas company is a character played up for laughs. The artwork is exceedingly cute, even when the alcoholic Azuma is puking in his his sleep. (Azuma helpfully notes, “Warning: This will kill you.”)

Azuma’s negative experiences with his editors and the struggles that caused him to run away are glossed over in about 20 pages. I was left wondering if Azuma enjoyed laying pipes more than making manga. His opinion flies by in a single panel:

“When I was homeless I wanted to start working. When I did physical work I wanted to become an artist.”

Perhaps more alarming than Azuma’s personal story is the untold story of his wife, who also works as his assistant. How did Azuma’s wife feel about his disappearances? She rarely appears in the book she helped create. What did she do for money when her husband/employer failed to return home for months? At one point, she finished comics herself when Azuma was overtaken by delirium tremens.

Disappearance Diary is truly fierce as an autobiographical comic; boring details are made humorous, depressing subjects are amusing to read about, pipe laying technicalities are accompanied by cute chipmunk drawings, and the story so thought provoking it has hounded me for days.

I just wish more supplementary material was provided by the publisher, since little is known about Azuma in the English speaking world. A bibliography of Azuma’s other works would have been useful, or an essay explaining his significance in the world of manga could have rounded out the volume very nicely. This may be a faithful reprint of the Japanese edition, but it left me wanting more. For example, it is mentioned in the text that Azuma is the father of lolicon manga - but why? For what title? Azuma barely mentions it, recalling a 1976 attempt to drive yaoi out of Comiket. I want to hear more about that!

Azuma still attends Comiket on a regular basis, as Ed Chavez explained to me in conversation. Azuma is also renowned for his science fiction works, and he is a pioneer of autobiography comics. According to Chavez, Azuma is very successful in a few small sub-genres of manga, but his success is not financial. It is common for authors like Azuma who are successful in obscure genres to become alcoholics or disappear completely, with a life expectancy of 40. The Disappearance Diary itself was published by a very small label and would have gone unnoticed if it hadn’t won awards.

I hope more of Azuma’s works will be collected and translated for an international audience before he dies of liver failure. I would also like to see a comic by Mrs. Azuma!

The Disappearance Diary is available now.

Apologies for the belated posting! After several days of turkey-induced torpor, I finally mustered the energy and brain cells necessary for this week’s column.

Whether you crave steamy man-on-man manga or prefer wacky comedies, you’ll find plenty of reasons to part with your hard-earned pennies this week. DMP and Seven Seas offer a robust selection of yaoi and yuri titles, from the zero-g angst of Ai No Kusabi: The Space Between (DMP) to the pistol packin’ nuns of Tetragrammaton Labyrinth (Seven Seas). Fans of I, Otaku: Struggle in Akihabara can tide themselves over with yet another comedy about a closeted otaku, Kyouhaku Dogs (Infinity Studios). Harry Potter junkies will find solace in the beautifully illustrated Aventura (Del Rey), a new fantasy-adventure series that takes place at an academy for young wizards. And older souls will thrill to the superb draftsmanship and lyrical storytelling of Jiro Taniguchi, whose long-awaited anthology The Ice Wanderer (Fanfare/Ponent Mon) finally arrives on American shores this week.

By the way, both Midtown Comics and Right Stuf are running major promotions this week. Midtown is offering a 40% discount on all manga and graphic novels until midnight tonight (11/27; website only), while RightStuf is offering a 30% discount on almost all merchandise until December 2nd. Hop to it or you’ll miss some sweet deals!

REVIEWED LAST WEEK: ArtRage (Ambient Designs Ltd.), The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori Clan, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)

REVIEWED THIS WEEK: The Key to the Kingdom, Vol. 2 (CMX), Nightmares for Sale, Vol. 1 (Aurora Publishing), Pumpkin Scissors, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:
After I Win (DMP)
Ai No Kusabi: The Space Between, Vol. 1 (DMP)
Air Gear, Vol. 6 (Del Rey)
Amazing Agent Luna, Vol. 4 (Seven Seas)
Aventura, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)
Berserk, Vol. 20 (Dark Horse)
Chun Rhang Yhur Jun, Vol. 4 (Infinity Studios)
Coyote Ragtime Show, Vol. 2 (Broccoli Books)
Cute Beast (DMP)
Dash (DMP)
Destiny’s Hand, Vol. 2 (Seven Seas)
ES: Eternal Sabbath, Vol. 7 (Del Rey)
From Up Above (DMP)
Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution, Vol. 5 (Del Rey)
Genshinken, Vol. 9 (Del Rey)
Glass Sky (DMP)
Gunslinger Girl, Vol. 6 (ADV Manga)
Harvey and Etsukos’ Manga Guide to Japan (Japanime)
The Ice Wanderer (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Invisible Love (DMP)
Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno (Chronicle Books; click here for a review)
Ka Shin Fu (DMP)
The Key to the Kingdom, Vol. 2 (CMX; reviewed below)
Kyouhaku Dogs, Vol. 1 (Infinity Studios)
The Last Uniform, Vol. 2 (Seven Seas)
Laugh Under the Sun (DMP)
Let’s Make Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo: Cute Dolls (Vertical; click here for a review)
Let’s Make Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo: Fun Dolls (Vertical; click here for a review)
Little Darling Novel (DMP)
Love Bus Stop (DMP)
Mamotte Lollipop, Vol. 4 (Del Rey)
MPD-Psycho, Vol. 3 (Dark Horse; click here for a review)
My Heavenly Hockey Club, Vol. 3 (Del Rey; click here for a review of volume 1)
Newtype USA, December 2007
Nightmares for Sale, Vol. 1 (Aurora Publishing; reviewed below)
Orfina, Vol. 1 (CMX)
Pumpkin Scissors, Vol. 1 (Del Rey; reviewed below)
Shaman Warrior, Vol. 5 (Dark Horse; click here for a review of volume 1)
Sugar Sugar Rune, Vol. 7 (Del Rey)
Suzuka, Vol. 6 (Del Rey)
Tenjho Tenge, Vol. 16 (CMX)
Tetreagrammaton Labyrinth, Vol. 2 (Seven Seas)
Unbalance Unbalance, Vol. 2 (Infinity Studios)
Vanilla, Vol. 1 (DMP)
Venus Versus Virus, Vol. 2 (Seven Seas)
Witchblade Takeru Manga, No. 10 (Image/Top Cow)

The Key to the Kingdom, Vol. 2

By Kyoto Shitou
CMX, 168 pp.
Rating: Teen Plus (violence, language)

After the king and elder prince of Landor die in combat, the country teeters on the brink of collapse. The next in line for the throne, Prince Astarion, is a young teenager, unable and unwilling to assume the responsibility of leading his people. Determined to prevent Landor from falling to its enemies, the late king’s advisors announce a competition: whoever finds an ancient relic known as the Key to the Kingdom will become Landor’s next ruler. A motley assortment of nobles declare their intent to locate the Key, fanning out across the country in search of clues. At the urging of his older brother’s closest friend, Astarion reluctantly joins the quest, trading his pampered existence for a life of camping, trekking, and dragon-taming.

Let me be candid: The Key to the Kingdom has its share of truly silly characters and moments. A womanizing protagonist answers to the name Baddorious, or “Badd” for short. (And yes, he wants to sex you up.) All of the characters have perfect, just-stepped-out-of-a-salon hair, even after clashing with firewyrms (a.k.a. dragons) and knaves. And the dialogue tacks between Arthurian formality and 1950s hokum. (Sample: “So even in the face of death, you wouldn’t change your libidinous ways?” “To be honest with you, I really don’t have time to chew the fat with a dragon!” Right on, Daddy-O!) But if you can overlook—or, better yet, embrace—these cheesy touches, you may just realize that The Key to the Kingdom is a tightly plotted fantasy tale with an appealing cast and rich, detailed artwork that evokes such early CLAMP titles as RG Veda and Magic Knight Rayearth.

Volume two of The Key to the Kingdom will be available on November 28th.

Nightmares for Sale, Vol. 1

By Kaoru Ohashi
Aurora Publishing, 224 pp.
Rating: OT (16+)

Nightmares for Sale is yet another example of what John Jakala calls “comeuppance theater.” In exchange for having their dearest wishes granted—in this case, by the proprietors of Shadow’s Pawn Shop—foolish, vain, or mean people receive their just desserts. For this old-as-the-hills premise to succeed, three basic conditions need to be met. First, the audience needs to understand the subject is unrepentantly cruel (or stupid, greedy, conceited, etc.) and not merely flawed or misguided. Second, the audience needs to see the chain of decisions that lead to the subject’s downfall (i.e. making a pact with a demon, accepting a gift from a stranger). And third, the punishment needs to fit the crime.

Alas, manga-ka Kaoru Ohashi doesn’t satisfy these basic criteria in Nightmares for Sale. A few characters get what they deserve: an overly ambitious model grows uglier and uglier, a bully is reincarnated as her victim. But many of the stories are sloppily executed; we don’t learn how or why the subject is being punished until Shadow appears at the end of the story to tell us. By far the worst chapter is “Children of Darkness,” in which a woman is tormented by the spirit of her unborn child. No matter what your personal convictions on abortion, the story is both macabre and misogynist, and shows an astonishing lack of compassion for the subject’s situation. Not even the artwork can redeem this anthology. The awkwardly drawn characters are so nondescript as to be interchangeable, and the panels are a riot of clashing screentones and Photoshop patterns.

The verdict: boycott this pawnshop and seek thrills elsewhere.

Volume one of Nightmares for Sale will be available on November 28th..

Pumpkin Scissors, Vol. 1

By Ryotaro Iwanaga
Del Rey, 212 pp.
Rating: OT (16+)

Given the current situation in the Middle East, Pumpkin Scissors couldn’t be more timely. The story focuses on a military squadron tasked with restoring order to a war-torn country. Lead by the headstrong Lt. Alice Malvin, Section III of the Imperial State Army goes head-to-head with rogue soldiers and noblemen-cum-warlords while trying to win the hearts and minds of civilians whose villages were decimated in the conflict—in short, performing the same kind of work as US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Timely as it may be, I have two reservations about this series: the goofy naming conventions and the lackluster artwork. The Imperial State Army refers to Section III as “Pumpkin Scissors” for reasons never satisfactorily explained, leaving the reader to wonder if the name honors Ryotaro Iwahara’s favorite vegetable or simply sounds cool to Japanese speakers. Other names are giggle inducing as well, including a cease-fire agreement known as The Treaty of Thin Ice (between the Empire and Republic of Frost—get it?), and two top-secret military units known as Krankheit Jäger and Gespenster Jäger, so called because German sounds… cool? martial? sinister? (Or perhaps Iwanaga just fancies umlauts?) I also found the artwork wanting. For an action-oriented series, the backgrounds are surprisingly plain, conveying little of the Empire’s landscape or people; too often, speed lines and screentones serve as backdrops for the action. The character designs are fine, but their appearance varies considerably from panel to panel, especially when Iwanaga employs more cinematic perspectives (i.e. low-angle and high-angle shots).

That said, the three stories that comprise volume one are well-crafted and suspenseful, touching on such topical issues as chemical warfare and civilian casualties while offering action junkies what they crave most: combat and cool-looking military gadgets.

Volume one of Pumpkin Scissors will be available on November 28th.

Visit the comic book store this week, and you’re bound to meet some characters, from a chainsaw-wielding zombie slayer to a guitarist with a Frankendog for a pet. Among the many new arrivals are the second volume of Princess Resurrection (Del Rey), the ninth volume of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Tokyopop), the second volume of Gin Tama (Viz), the second volume of My Heavenly Hockey Club (Del Rey), the fourth volume of Shaman Warrior (Dark Horse), and the final volumes of Immortal Rain (Tokyopop), I”S (Viz), Narration of Love at 17 (NETCOMICS), and Kat & Mouse (Tokyopop), an OEL title with a truly subversive premise: girls like science. (Take that, Lawrence Summers!) Three new series make their bookstore debut: Kurohime (Viz), a Western with supernatural elements; Shiki Tsukai (Del Rey; reviewed below), a story about a boy with extreme Seasonal Affective Disorder; and Walkin’ Butterfly (Aurora), a josei title about pizza delivery girl-cum-model. And mangadom’s most beloved ninja begins his frontal assault on the USA Today Bestseller list, as Viz releases volumes sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen of its wildly popular cash cow series.

For those of us who prefer our heroes and heroines to be of voting age, if not old enough to run for president, Fanfare/Ponent Mon offers the perfect bit of counter-programming. A joint collaboration between Frederic Boilet and Benoit Peeters (with additional contributions from Jiro “Times of Botchan” Taniguchi), Tokyo Is My Garden follows the misadventures of a cognac salesman who spends more time sampling Tokyo’s nightlife than hawking his alcoholic wares—that is, until his boss announces a field visit. I hate it when that happens.

REVIEWED THIS WEEK:

• Love*Com, Vol. 2 (Viz)
• Shiki Tsukai, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)
• Yume Kira Dream Shoppe (Viz)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:

• 100% Perfect Girl, Vol. 3 (NETCOMICS)
• ANIMA+, Vol. 5 (Tokyopop)
• Battle Club, Vol. 5 (Tokyopop)
• Beauty Pop, Vol. 5 (Viz)
• Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, Vol. 9 (Tokyopop)
• Black Cat, Vol. 10 (Viz)
• Blazin’ Barrels, Vol. 9 (Tokyopop)
• Boy Princess, Vol. 8 (NETCOMICS)
• Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword, Vol. 1 (DR Master)
• Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword, Vol. 2 (DR Master)
• Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, Vol. 19 (Tokyopop)
• Click, Vol. 3 (NETCOMICS)
• Dazzle, Vol. 6 (Tokyopop)
• Dr. Slump, Vol. 13 (Viz)
• Empty Empire, Vol. 5 (CMX)
• ES: Eternal Sabbath, Vol. 6 (Del Rey)
• Faeries Landing, Vol. 17 (Tokyopop)
• Gentleman’s Alliance, Vol. 3 (Viz)
• Get Backers, Vol. 20 (Tokyopop)
• Gin Tama, Vol. 2 (Viz)
• Girls Bravo, Vol. 9 (Tokyopop)
• Good Luck, Vol. 3 (Tokyopop)
• Good Witch of the West, Vol. 4 (Tokyopop)
• Gothic Sports, Vol. 2 (Tokyopop)
• Hunter X Hunter, Vol. 16 (Viz)
• I Luv Halloween, Vol. 2 (Tokyopop)
• I”S, Vol. 15 (Viz)
• Immortal Rain, Vol. 8 (Tokyopop)
• Innocent W, Vol. 3 (Tokyopop)
• June, Vol. 2 (NETCOMICS)
• Kat & Mouse, Vol. 3 (Tokyopop)
• Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo, Vol. 4 (DrMaster)
• Kurohime, Vol. 1 (Viz)
• Let Dai, Vol. 8 (NETCOMICS)
• Life, Vol. 6 (Tokyopop)
• Love*Com, Vol. 2 (Viz; reviewed below)
• Mamotte Lollipop, Vol. 3 (Del Rey)
• MAR, Vol. 15 (Viz)
• My Heavenly Hockey Club, Vol. 2 (Del Rey)
• Narration of Love at 17, Vol. 4 (NETCOMICS)
• Naruto, Vol. 16 (Viz)
• Naruto, Vol. 17 (Viz)
• Naruto, Vol. 18 (Viz)
• Negima, Vol. 15 (Del Rey)
• Neck and Neck, Vol. 6 (Tokyopop)
• Newtype, September 2007
• Ninja High School Hawaii Pocket Manga, Vol. 4 (Antarctic Press)
• PhD: Phantasy Degree, Vol. 10 (Tokyopop)
• Prince of Tennis, Vol. 21 (Viz)
• Princess Resurrection, Vol. 2 (Del Rey)
• Rave Master, Vol. 25 (Tokyopop)
• RG Veda, Vol. 10 (Tokyopop)
• Shaman King, Vol. 13 (Viz)
• Shaman Warrior, Vol. 4 (Dark Horse)
• Shiki Tsukai, Vol. 1 (Del Rey)
• Shugo Chara, Vol. 2 (Del Rey)
• Shutterbox, Vol. 4 (Tokyopop)
• Skip Beat!, Vol. 8 (Viz)
• Sorcerer Hunters, Vol. 8 (Tokyopop)
• Soul to Seoul, Vol. 5 (Tokyopop)
• Spell (DMP)
• Stolen Heart (DMP)
• Sunflower (DMP)
• Suzuka, Vol. 5 (Del Rey)
• Tokyo Is My Garden (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
• Tsukoyumi Moon Phase, Vol. 8 (Tokyopop)
• Walkin’ Butterfly, Vol. 1 (Aurora)
• Whistle!, Vol. 17 (Viz)
• Witchblade Takeru Manga, No. 7 (Top Cow)
• Your Lover, Vol. 3 (NETCOMICS)
• Yume Kira Dream Shoppe (Viz; reviewed below)
• Yurara, Vol. 2 (Viz; click here to read a review of volume one)

Love*Com, Vol. 2

By Aya Nakahara
Viz, 182 pp.
Rating: Teen

Napoleon and Josephine. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Kermit and Miss Piggy. Some of the world’s most memorable couples have comprised a short man and a tall woman. High schoolers Otani (5’1”) and Risa (5’7”), the central characters of Love*Com, might fall into this category, if they could stop insulting each other long enough to recognize their shared interests and similar personal histories. By the end of volume one, Otani and Risa had taken steps in that direction. This being a manga, however, their budding romance doesn’t make it out of the starting gate in volume two. A series of obstacles—mostly in the form of romantic rivals—complicate the picture, culminating in a funny Valentine’s Day scene that perfectly captures Risa’s ambivalence about Otani. My only complaint about the series remains the same: Nakahara never allows the artwork to speak for itself, adding unnecessary voice-overs and bits of dialogue that underscore the obvious. But when the story boasts such well-rounded characters and finely observed moments (both funny and excruciating), it’s easy to forgive a few heavy-handed touches.

One final note: if you’ve enjoyed the manga, you’ll be happy to hear that Viz Pictures plans to release the Lovely Complex movie in the spring of 2008.

Volume two of Love*Com will be available on August 29th. Click here to read a review of volume one.

Shiki Tsukai, Vol. 1

Story by To-Ru Zekuu, Art by Yuman Takanagi
Del Rey, 208 pp.
Rating: T (13+)

The jacket copy for Shiki Tsukai promises a straightforward, action-oriented series with a dash of romance:

On the day he turns fourteen, Akira discovers his destiny: he’s a shiki tsukai, a warrior with the magical power to control the seasons. He also meets the beautiful Koyomi, another warrior, who is sworn to protect him. For there are evil forces intent on destroying Akira—and the entire universe!

Even with the generous assortment of charts, appendices, and sidebars clarifying the nuances of its underlying “power to control the seasons” premise, however, I found this book fiendishly hard to follow, thanks to the characters’ jargon-heavy dialogue. (The choppy, hectic layout doesn’t clarify matters, either.) As best I can tell, each shiki tsukai employs a variety of spells and weapons—some involving cards—to recreate the weather associated with a particular season. The community is split between those who use their power to protect mankind, and those who use it to protect Earth from mankind’s global-warming ways. Koyomi, a shiki tsukai from the first camp, is dispatched by a mysterious organization to help Akira master his newly-manifested powers. Such is Koyomi’s dedication that she moves into Akira’s house and enrolls at his school, the better to supervise him. (No one finds this arrangement odd or inappropriate, even though the comely Koyomi is a mere fifteen years old.) Under the tutelage of Koyomi and the slightly older Rei—who poses, rather unconvincingly, as one of Akira’s teachers—Akira discovers that he isn’t just a winter warrior; he has dominion over all four seasons, making him a pivotal player in the coming struggle to save the Earth.

If you’re feeling a pang of déjà vu right now, you’re not alone. Shiki Tsukai’s environmental themes borrow heavily from series like X/1999, while the stale comic bits—of the “Whoops! I didn’t mean to walk in on you while you were changing” variety—echo similarly unfunny scenes in dozens of shonen manga. (I could also do without the images of Akira activating Koyomi’s powers by pressing her chest like a giant “on” switch.) Given the series’ ecological overtones, I’d like to attribute the manga-kas’ recycling efforts to a heightened sense of environmental responsibility, though I think that’s putting a wishful, postmodern spin on this uninspired series. Strictly for fan service junkies and Weather Channel aficionados.

Volume one of Shiki Tsukai will be available on August 29th. Click here to view the trailer.

Yume Kira Dream Shoppe

By Aqua Mizuto
Viz, 184 pp.
Rating: Teen

In this short, four-story anthology, a young alchemist named Rin runs an unusual emporium: she sells dreams. Like the wish peddlers of Time Guardian and xxxHolic, Rin charges a steep commission, demanding something precious from each client in exchange for her services. Those clients run the gamut from an amnesiac girl in search of her memories to a tree that wishes to become human and a stuffed animal that wants to speak. The stories explore rather dark themes—loss, loneliness, self-sacrifice—though Aqua Mizuto is too tender-hearted—some might say sentimental—to resolve her stories on a blue note or to demand Pyrrhic prices from the shop’s clientele. Add to the mix a talking bunny and a pirate ship helmed by two cute boys, and you have a pleasant if sugary-sweet confection that’s likely to appeal to younger teens. Older readers are advised to inject themselves with insulin first to inoculate against the more saccharine moments in this nicely illustrated book.

The Yume Kira Dreame Shoppe arrives in stores on August 29th.

If you’re headed to San Diego Comic-Con, you owe it to yourself to stop by the Fanfare/Ponent Mon table (booth #719; look for the Davis Marketing banner) and chat with Stephen Robson, the one-man band behind such beautiful books as The Walking Man, Times of Botchan, Blue and Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators.

Talking to him at this year’s New York Comic-Con was one of the highlights of my weekend, as Robson’s enthusiasm for manga is contagious—I dare you to walk away from the table empty-handed! I certainly didn’t, and for that I’m glad: Robson has turned me into a die-hard Jiro Taniguchi fan. (All part of a clever plan to make me into a loyal Fanfare customer, as Fanfare will be releasing Taniguchi’s The Ice Wanderer and The Quest for the Missing Girl later this year.) And if the prospect of meeting this charming, energetic Englishman isn’t enticing enough, Fanfare will be selling copies of Frederick Boilet’s nouvelle-est title Tokyo Is My Garden, a “lesson in how not to sell cognac to the Japanese.” Be on your best behavior, and Robson may even let you peak at two of his best winter releases: Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators and volume two of The Building Opposite.

In case you didn’t snag their catalog at NYCC, here is the revised version:

The Times of Botchan, Vols. 1-3

By Jiro Taniguchi and Natsuo Sekikawa
Fanfare/Ponent Mon
No Rating

Reading The Times of Botchan reminded me of watching Alexander Sakurov’s cryptic 2002 film Russian Ark. Both employ a similar gambit: a literary figure from the country’s past wanders through a landscape populated by real people who played pivotal roles in its modernization. In Russian Ark, the author/protagonist role is filled by the Marquis de Custine, a French aristocrat who published Empire of the Czar: Journey Through Eternal Russia in 1839, while in Botchan the role is fulfilled by Soseki Natsume (1867-1916), a novelist active during the Meiji Restoration. Neither Ark nor Botchan employs a clear, linear narrative; both works are episodic—even, at times, picaresque—in nature as their principle characters rub shoulders with poets, composers, czars, and politicians.

When we first meet Natsume, he is working on a novel called The Times of Botchan. He hopes that Botchan will help him—and others like him—achieve catharsis from a vague but nagging sense of anxiety brought on by the period’s considerable social, political, and economic upheavals, from the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement to the first murmurs of suffragism.* Though we occasionally see Natsume in his study drafting chapters (or admiring the inky paw prints left behind by his cat), much of the manga is devoted to Natsume’s daily routine, which brings him into contact with historical figures from An Jung-Geun, an activist who assassinated the Korean governor in 1909, to Hiruko Haratsuka, a feminist active in the Seito suffrage movement of the 1910s. Some of these encounters are the jumping off point for vignettes about Westerners living in Japan, or the state of Japanese literature, while others are mere coincidence and treated in just one or two panels. The resulting manga feels like a tableau (or, perhaps, the Japanese equivalent of a guided tour through Colonial Williamsburg), as our unseen narrator identifies the sprawling cast of characters and mentions key events in Meiji-era history.

Despite its literary and historical ambitions, The Times of Botchan is best read for its superb illustrations. Jiro Taniguchi creates intimate scenes that require little or no dialogue to convey their nuance. Small details—such as the characters’ mix-and-match costumes of Western hats and Japanese robes—capture the transitional nature of the period, and speak volumes about the characters’ ambivalent relationship with the West.

Sekikawa’s script, however, is a different matter altogether. Sekikawa’s omniscient narrator often supplies the reader with information that can be readily inferred from the pictures. In one scene, for example, the writer Rintaro “Ogai” Mori** returns to his family after a prolonged stay in Germany. He intends to tell his parents that he loves—and plans to marry—a European, but cannot bring himself to do so now that he is back on Japanese soil. Taniguchi’s illustrations instill in us a powerful sense of estrangement, but Sekikawa’s voice intrudes on the scene. “I have returned. It has been a long absence,” Ogai says. Then the narrator informs us: “At that moment, Ogai felt, for the first time, that he was back in Japan. In this country, individualism was not regarded as a personal virtue, the ‘family’ had to be considered. Ogai was unable to speak the words he had prepared and became mute as a fish.” (Mute as a fish? Surely there was a more idiomatic way to translate this phrase.) Such heavy-handed interjections insult the reader’s intelligence, as if the author didn’t trust his audience to decode moments of mystery, poetry, or ambiguity on its own. At least the Marquis de Custine never bothered to explain why Nicholas II and victims of the Kursk disaster haunted the same wing of the Hermitage.

Given the didactic tone and frequent allusions to unfamiliar historical figures, I’m hesitant to give Botchan an unequivocal endorsement. Some readers will find the book long-winded, confusing, and perhaps even boring. But for those already enamored of Taniguchi’s superb draftsmanship or well-versed in Japanese culture, The Times of Botchan offers readers a lovely reward: a window into one of the most fascinating periods in Japanese history.

* The Freedom and People’s Rights Movement in Japan began in the 1870s. Building on the reforms established in the Charter Oath of 1868 (which abolished Japan’s rigid class structure, among other provisions), urban intellectuals lobbied for the drafting of a constitution and the creation of a parliament.

** Ogai Mori is best known to Western audiences for his novels The Wild Geese and Sansho the Bailiff, the latter being the basis of Kenji Mizoguchi’s devastating 1954 film.

This review was revised on 6/7/07.

Taking a page from the KRAFT™ playbook, I’m offering a new “product” for Manga Recon readers: manga minis! Sure, they’re lower in fat, carbs, and calories, but they have the same great taste that you’ve come to expect from regular size reviews. I’ll be posting a fresh batch of minis on the last day of every month. Each batch will contain a mixture of new titles, reissues, and later volumes of previously reviewed series, as well as the occasional old-school title that’s worth the extra effort to find.

In the Starlight, Vol. 1

By Kyungok Kang
NETCOMICS, 224 pp.
Rating: All Ages

If you’re a fan of Keiko Takemiya or Moto Hagio, I encourage you to seek out Kyungok Kang’s In the Starlight. This Korean series is a bit more recent than To Terra or A, A’, but its aesthetic and shojo-esque approach to science fiction will remind readers of the Magnificent 49ers’ best space operas.

Kang’s story focuses on Shinhae, a high school student with a keen interest in science. Sensing that Shinhae is a curious, open-minded soul, her classmate Donghoon asks her if she’d be willing to house Sarah, a Korean-American exchange student. The catch: Sarah has ESP. But not just run-of-the-mill, hear-what-your-friend-is-thinking ESP—Sarah can actually harm other people with her thoughts. Undeterred, Shinhae welcomes Sarah and Radion, Sarah’s telepathic bodyguard, into her home. As if the introduction of Sarah and Radion wasn’t enough to hold our interest, Kang adds another wrinkle to her story when a UFO crashes in Shinhae’s neighborhood. Do Sarah and her sixth sense have something to do with the visitors’ arrival? You probably don’t need a Magic 8 Ball to arrive at the answer.

While its plotline feels like an amalgam of Medium, Never Been Kissed, and The Thing from Another World, In the Starlight offers many pleasant surprises for the reader. Shinhae is an appealing character, not least because she demonstrates genuine intellectual curiosity—a rare trait in shojo heroines. I also found her rocky relationship with Sarah compelling and plausible. Their petty squabbles, unspoken romantic rivalry, and intense bonding through confessional conversation reminded me of my own adolescent friendships. I admit, however, that my favorite part of Starlight was its retro look. Given the decade in which it was first published, it’s no surprise that the male aliens look like refugees from an intergalactic hair metal band. (The otherworldly visitors sport fabulous hair, ridiculously tight pants, and artfully tied headbands.) But don’t let the big hair and androgynously beautiful men fool you: In the Starlight offers readers classic sci-fi thrills as well as earnest—but honest—teen drama.

Volume two will arrive in stores in May. Volumes one and two are also available online through NET Comics’ pay-per-view system.

Kurogane, Vol. 3

By Kei Tome
Del Rey, 272 pp.
Rating: 13+

Volume 3 of this criminally underappreciated series follows the same basic template as the first two: Jintetsu, our favorite Frankensamurai, wanders the countryside, coming to the aid of (or into conflict with) an assortment of characters. In volume two, Jintetsu’s adventures had a slight whiff of been-there, seen-that-on-Samurai Champloo, as he encountered a beautiful blind performer and Makoto, a fierce, cross-dressing girl doing her best to pass as a boy. The first chapter of volume three is of a piece with volume two, as Jintetsu crosses paths with a creepy dollmaker in a remote mountainous region. But before Kurogane devolves into just another supernatural thriller, Toume takes the narrative in a new direction. In a complex, four-chapter story arc, we learn that Jintetsu and Makoto’s previous encounter wasn’t simple coincidence—the two have a tangled history that pits them against each other in a bitter yakuza dispute. Yet their rivalry is tempered by honor and grudging mutual respect—this is, after all, a period piece, despite the mecha elements—that compels them to protect and assist one another. Yes, we’ve seen the “I’m gonna save you so I can kill you later!” schtick before. But like so many other recycled elements in Kurogane, the gambit feels fresh and plausible in Kei Toume’s capable hands. I can’t wait to read volume 4.

Volume 4 arrived in stores on March 27th. Click here to read the PCS review of volume 2.

Trinity Blood, Vol. 2

Story by Sunao Yoshida; Art by Kiyo Kyujyo
Tokyopop, 168 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Volume two of Trinity Blood offers more gloriously silly supernatural smackdowns—including confrontations between Our Vatican Gang and blood-thirtsy trees, mersharks, and vampires—as well as slapstick galore. The layout is, at times, fiendishly difficult to follow, a problem compounded by Kiyo Kyujyo’s decision to cram every panel with an extra helping of dialogue and detail. (I’m beginning to think he studied with my fourth grade art teacher, Ms. Schill, who insisted that real art covers every square inch of the canvas.) The pacing, too, is hectic. Characters chibi-fy with clockwork precision—once every three pages, or so it seems—and 50% of the dialogue seems to be spoken AT 70 DECIBELS OR LOUDER. Still, I’m hooked, so I’ll be shelling out the clams for volume 3 in the hopes that we’ll see more of the robotic Father Tres and coolly calculating Cardinal Caterina and less of the shrill, ditzy Esther.

Volume 3 arrives in stores on July 10th. Click here to read the PCS review of volume one.

Yukiko’s Spinach

By Frederic Boilet
Fanfare/Ponet Mon, 144 pages
Rating: Mature (18+)

One of my perennial gripes about comics—and by comics, I also include manga and manwha—is the way in which women are drawn, from the watermelon-shaped breasts to the barely-there outfits found on characters as different as Supergirl and Orihime Inoue. So it was refreshing to see a beautiful but normal female body, imperfections and all, gracing the pages of Yukiko’s Spinach. If only the book was more than just a highbrow validation of the male gaze!

The story itself is paper-thin: a French manga-ka meets a young Japanese woman, becomes infatuated with her, and makes her the subject of his comic-in-progress. He ruminates about Yukiko’s shoulders and tummy and face, draws intimate pictures of their time together, and waxes poetic about her subtle physical imperfections (i.e. a birthmark on her forehead). All of these ruminations might be tolerable—even poetic—if the artist’s obsession with Yukiko wasn’t utterly superficial. Yet we never learn why the artist has fixated on her. Is she intelligent? Interesting? Funny? Employed? And if she’s such a singular presence, why does the artist cheerfully accept a look-alike to be her replacement muse? None of these questions are addressed; instead, Boilet offers us lovely but empty experiments in visual storytelling (hello, time-bending narrative devices!) that only underscore the shallowness of his conceit.

The bottom line: if you loved The Double Life of Veronique, Yukiko’s Spinach might be your kind of manga. If that movie struck you as a stylish but silly excuse to film Irene Jacob in various states of undress, skip Yukiko and buy one of Fanfare’s first-rate titles—The Times of Botchan, The Building Opposite, The Walking Man, Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators—instead.

Yukiko’s Spinach was originally published in 2003; this review examines the second edition, which was released on March 7th.

The focus this month is highly intellectual books that will not only make you feel smarter, they’ll make you look smarter when other people go through your comics collection. Each of the titles below (except The Push Man) are must-buy stand-alone volumes that you can loan safely to non-manga fans and impress them. This is what the Comics Journal staff dreams about at night. That said, these titles are not really for younger readers. A lot of issues in them are complex and probably too challenging for high school readers. By challenging I might me “controversial and explicit”. I definitely wouldn’t recommend these books for junior high kids or younger. All of these books are larger than normal manga - around 10″ X 7″, or a little smaller.

How to “Read” Manga: Gloom Party

By Yoshio Kawashima
Digital Manga Publishing

Who would like this book: People who like having jokes explained to them.
Who would hate this book: Hate is such a strong word, isn’t it?

Gloom Party was originally published as a 4-panel or “4-koma” comic strips and published in a collection by Shonen Champion comics. I wish this volume had contained some kind of introduction about where the Gloom Party strips originally appeared - and some preface with an explanation of the format of this book - but none is given beyond the description on the back.

The How to “Read” Manga part of the title is a bit misleading. Notice that “read” is in quotes on the cover. The “How to” refers to the bilingual presentation of the Gloom Party strips. Each strip is presented in the original Japanese with a translation written off to one side. Underneath each strip are footnotes full of cultural explanation.

I enjoy having bizarre or esoteric jokes explained to me. I also enjoy long cultural translation notes in anime and manga. But Gloom Party is full of translation notes and cultural facts that I have never seen before. It has an exhaustive explanation of every joke, in every strip, page after page for 182 pages. It is enough to try anyone’s patience.

One thing that drew me to anime and manga in the first place was an element of inscrutability. I could not understand what was going on in Sailor Moon when I first watched it because it followed a visual language that I was unfamiliar with. The foreign elements of the show of the show made it more appealing. The foreign-ness of Gloom Party, however, is completely isolating. No matter how deeply the translator explains each gag, most of the strips are completely incomprehensible. Even after reading the footnotes, I still have a lot of questions about each joke.

Imagine if you read a version of Gary Larson’s The Far Side written by Martians, and you’ve got Gloom Party.

The only other 4-koma comics I’ve read are Azumanga Daioh, Tori Koro, and some works collected in Secret Comics Japan. Gloom Party is not drawn in the “anime” style like Azumanga Daioh or Tori Koro. Instead, it more closely resembles an underground comic style closer to Secret Comics Japan or the brilliant Short Cuts by Usamaru Furuya.

I recommend Short Cuts and Secret Comics Japan over Gloom Party.

Gloom Party is unquestionably for readers age 18 and up. There are lots of sexually explicit jokes, naked breasts, panty shots, etc. Gloom Party proves that “explicit” is not the same as “sexy”. The only place you will find panty shots that are less sexy than Gloom Party’s is in the Air Master anime series.

Nevertheless, I would still recommend buying Gloom Party - perhaps on sale. It’s an excellent volume to pull off your shelf and confuse your friends with in the middle of a conversation about crazy crap coming out of Japan.

A Patch of Dreams

By Hideji Oda
Fanfare/Ponent Mon

Who would like this book: Intellectual fans of indy comics.
Who would hate this book: Younger readers looking for casual violence and sexy drawings. Anti-intellectuals.

A Patch of Dreams is a little hard to find, but well worth the effort if you like the intellectual stuff. It is a spin-off of Coo’s World (sometimes spelled Ku’s or Koo’s), a title that is not available in English. After the immediate opening it doesn’t matter that A Patch of Dreams is a spin-off.

Renei is a fine arts major about to graduate from college. Her senior art show is coming up, and she’s under pressure because of it. She doesn’t appear to have many friends at college, her parents are nonexistent, and the only person she’s really close to is the professor she’s having an affair with. Renei is slipping into a deep depression, and is worried she might be going insane.

Renei is having recurring dreams of Ku’s World, a continuation of a dream she had years ago, where every night when she went to sleep she would continue the adventure of the night before. She hasn’t revisited Ku’s World in a long time, but now the dreams are starting again. In Ku’s World Renei is accompanied by her estranged brother and her best friend who committed suicide years ago. There are other bizarre creatures and cute monsters, and a little thing that calls itself God. Creatures from Ku’s World have started turning up in Renei’s real-world life.

In Joseph Campbell’s theory of storytelling, the hero ultimately faces the void alone. This happens in volume 4 of the Nausicaa manga, but it happens in the first chapter of A Patch of Dreams. The creatures in Renei’s dream adventure encourage her to leap into the void after having a conversation about the nature of God.

A Patch of Dreams is heavily intellectual - at times overbearingly so. Readers who appreciate stories about characters facing the void and having conversations about the nature of the universe will enjoy the book, but it will leave many comic readers in the dark. The only comparable graphic novel I’ve read is the Sandman volume A Game of You.

A Patch of Dreams is flipped to read left-to-right, but I didn’t find this distracting. The art is a strange and sketchy style that reminds me more of a traditional artist’s sketchbook than manga. The characters are all very realistic looking (except the monsters).

A Patch of Dreams might appeal more to indy comic fans than traditional manga fans, as many black and white indy comics (Optic Nerve, Jimmy Corrigan) are incredibly depressing. As an indy comics fan I quickly became frustrated at the sad tales the American authors had to tell. A Patch of Dreams takes the reader through the darkest of depressing tales (there may be an abortion or two involved) but eventually it pulls together for a surprisingly happy ending.

The Push Man & Other Stories

By Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Drawn and Quarterly

Who would like this book: Mostly Adrian Tomine.
Who would hate this book: I didn’t like it, but I did learn something from it.

This intellectual round-up would be incomplete without a mention of The Push Man. The Push Man is a collection of very short 3 to 4 page stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi collected into one volume. Each story centers on a different character, more like a literary collection of short stories than any manga I’ve ever read. The title story focuses on a young man who’s job is to push people into already-crowded trains so that the doors will close.

Tatsumi’s art is amazing - in simple ink drawings he captures a Tokyo in the 1960’s the likes of which you’ve never seen and may not see anywhere else. There is very little dialog but the stories are very clear and often profound. You might want to flip through The Push Man just for the art.

There is a long afterward by Adrian Tomine, the author of Optic Nerve. Tomine describes reading some bootlegged comics by Tatsumi in his youth - and having read The Push Man and some early works by Tomine you can see the huge influence Tatsumi has had on Tomine’s work.

From the above, you might think that The Push Man is an awesome book that you should buy immediately. But consider this: The Push Man has more dead babies per page (on average) than any other book I have ever read. The number of abandoned baby corpses per page is staggering. The majority of the dead babies are in one story about men working to keep the sewers unclogged. Tiny bundles float by and one worker collects silver crosses from them. He explains to his coworker that women put these crosses on their babies to help them along in the afterlife. A wide shot in the next panel shows a dozen bundles floating by. Afterwards I read A Patch of Dreams, wherein abortion is legal in Japan, and I couldn’t help but consider how much cleaner their sewers must be.

There is only one word to describe The Push Man, and that word is maudlin. Every story is so stark and depressing that it goes through depressing and back into humorous again. I found I had to laugh at the end of each chapter, and I felt bad for laughing, kind of like my experience watching Todd Solond’z film Happiness, except it was harder to tell where The Push Man was supposed to be funny.

Although The Push Man is an excellent book, it is not a book I can recommend to anyone. I’m still haunted and disturbed by some of the short stories. A sequel, called Abandon the Old in Tokyo recently came out. I don’t know if I can bring myself to read it.

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

By Guy Delisle
Drawn and Quarterly

Who would like this book: Everyone.
Who would hate this book: Communists and fascists.

Alright, so this isn’t manga. It’s not even “Global Manga” or OEL. But Pyongyang is the most important book I’ve read this year. It’s a book everyone should read. Besides, I’m reviewing one or two other Drawn & Quarterly titles here, so I might as well throw this in.

Pyongyang is an autobiographical story of an animator who is sent to North Korea to be the overseas supervisor on a low-budget French cartoon. This is a topic I can identify with, as I work in animation, and I recently visited South Korea and met the overseas supervisor of the cartoon show that I work on. Most American cartoons (Spongebob, the Simpsons, everything on Cartoon Network) are animated in Seoul, South Korea. But in recent years South Korea has become more expensive to outsource to, leaving companies reaching out to even cheaper labor forces in India and China. It’s worth noting that most Japanese anime is primarily animated in China. I can only imagine the show’s budget that gets shipped off to North Korea for completion! The French needed to find a place cheaper than Inia or China?

Guy Delisle smuggles a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 and a radio into North Korea - both illegal in a country where all forms of media are heavily censored by the government. I highly suggest reading 1984 before or in conjunction with Pyongyang, because if you haven’t read 1984 you will miss the terrific parallels between Orwell’s predictions and the stark reality of North Korea.

I can’t emphasize enough how Pyongyang is funny, and not at all preachy, and although there are politics, it doesn’t hit you over the head with a political message. Although the situation in North Korea is very depressing, Delisle’s portrait of it is not depressing to read. If the book were preachy or depressing, I wouldn’t have been able to finish it.

In one scene, Delisle is listening to music while he does his work in the animation studio. One of his coworkers closes the door to his office several times. Finally he explains angrily to Delisle, “Your music could influence people!”

The only music played on the three radio stations in Pyongyang are propaganda nationalistic anthems about Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. Delisle asks his coworkers if they have ever heard of reggae or disco or rap or rock - they have not. A “rave” is something that North Koreans cannot imagine. It’s a simple scene and it is handled humorously, but it had a profound effect on me. For weeks afterwards I considered the simple freedom of being able to listen to the music of my choice.

As soon as I finished reading Pyongyang I began loaning it to my coworkers in the animation studio where I work. Everyone loved it. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Sexy Voice and Robo

By Iou Koroda
Viz

Who would like this book: Almost anyone.
Who would hate this book: Readers who missed the underlying theme because they were looking for a little less talk and a lot more action.

Nico (codename “Sexy Voice”) is a phone sex operator, although most of the people who call her tele-club are just lonely men looking to talk to someone. Although Nico seems much older, the back cover claims that she is 14. Nico’s part time job has given her several skills, including the ability to recognize a voice in a crowd and a talent for manipulating lonely men.

Nico meets a nerdy 20-something whom she nicknames Robo after his robot toy collection. Not exactly friends, and definitely not lovers, Nico and Robo’s relationship is in a state of flux throughout the story. Is Robo Nico’s employee? Her henchman? Her bodyguard? He’s not really sure and he’s too embarrassed to ask.

Nico is resourceful, energetic, talented, and intelligent. She’s as spunky and fiercely independent as any female protagonist you could hope for. Robo is there for contrast - he is drifting aimlessly through life while Nico sails ahead. When asked what she wants to do with her life, Nico responds that she’d like to be a secret agent, a spy, or a fortuneteller.

She sets herself onto this career path during the course of the book when she starts getting work from a mob boss. Nico becomes an unlikely junior detective, completing missions with Robo’s help. At the climax of the book Nico meets an old woman who was once a spy. They exchange the following dialog:

Nico: Why did you become a spy?
Old Woman: I was good with languages and I wasn’t very pretty.
Nico: No, I mean, did you want to be a spy?
Old Woman: I heard from a classmate that they needed translators… I did it because I could.
Nico: But was it something you wanted? Are you glad you did it?
Old Woman: Well… Sometimes it’s your skills… and not your will, that sets you on your path.

This last line is as good career advice as any I have ever heard, and it has certainly proved true in my own career so far. The line is devoted an entire splash page of Nico’s face, in a book where splash pages are rare.

The art of Sexy Voice and Robo is very different from normal manga. The line strength is very dark and sketchy. It almost looks as if the book was drawn with a brush-pen in thick strokes.

In Japan Sexy Voice and Robo was released as two volumes, but Viz has collected both tankoban into one oversized volume. The cover price is $20, but it is well worth the cost. The print quality is good but the paper stock is not the highest quality. Sexy Voice and Robo won the Grand Prize from Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Media Arts Festival in 2002, and the MangaCast nominated it for the first ever annual Yomi award in 2005 for Best Short.