Welcome to the first 2008 edition of Manga Minis! This month, Ken looks at the final volumes of two old-school classics, Shirow Masamune’s Appleseed (Dark Horse) and Junji Ito’s Uzumaki (Viz), while I look at the second volume of Keiko Takemiya’s Andromeda Stories (Vertical, Inc.), the sixth volume of La Corda d’Oro (Viz), and the first volume of Short Sunzen! (Tokyopop). Andromeda Stories, Appleseed I/D, La Corda d’Oro and Short Sunzen! are available now; volume three of Uzumaki will be available on February 12th… just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Andromeda Stories, Vol. 2

Story by Ryu Mitsuse, Art by Keiko Takemiya
Vertical, Inc., 208 pp.
Rating: 13+

Ah, Keiko Takemiya, how I love your sci-fi extravaganzas! The psychic twins. The giant spiderbots. The evil, omniscient computers. The sand dragons. The fantastic hairdos. Just think how much more entertaining The Matrix might have been if you’d been at the helm instead of the dour, self-indulgent Wachowski Brothers! But wait… you did create your very own version of The Matrix: Andromeda Stories. I wasn’t sold on the comparison between the two franchises after reading the first volume, but now that I’ve seen what’s befallen the good citizens of Cosmoralia, I’m a believer. (See the final pages of volume two for the shocking details.) Takemiya’s story may not be as slickly presented as the Wachowski Brothers’, but she and collaborator Ryu Mitsuse engage the mind and heart with their tragic tale of doomed love, lost siblings, and machines so insidious that they’ll remake anything in their image—including the fish. Whatever reservations I might have had about this series have been dispelled by the second installment, which moves briskly through a decade’s worth of events while taking the time to address the deeper philosophical questions the story raises about identity and free will. And c’mon… what’s not to like about a manga that looks like a 1979 cover of Heavy Metal magazine?!

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Appleseed I/D

By Shirow Masamune
Dark Horse, 144 pp.
Rating: 16+

Only about half of Appleseed I/D is an actual story; the other half is supplemental material exploring the Appleseed universe. The story, “Game,” is a short one involving a terrorist attempt to bomb the Elder Council and Deunan and Briarios’ short investigation into the incident. It felt like set-up to a much longer arc that probably would have filled volume five, had Masamune ever written it. The supplemental material is actually quite cool, consisting of rough page layouts, a full color pin up gallery, organizational flow charts, character guides, a in-depth time line for the series from the twentieth to the twenty-second centuries, and other random musings from Shirow about the Appleseed world. If you’re an Appleseed or Shirow fan, then I/D is a must own. Newcomers should wait on picking it up until they’ve read the previous four Appleseed books; otherwise, large chunks of the story will be ruined.

–Reviewed by Ken Haley

La Corda d’Oro, Vol. 6

By Yuki Kure
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen

If you ever needed proof that a dating simulation game might not be the best source material for a manga, look no further than volume six of La Corda d’Oro. The series is quickly running out of gas with its repetitive story lines, lack of overarching plot, and easy listening repertory. (Take it from a classically trained musician: Van Cliburn didn’t win the Tchaikovsky Competition by playing Schubert’s Ave Maria or Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.) In the opening chapters, evil bishie Azuma browbeats Kahoko into posing as his fiancée. His motives are honorable—uncertain that he’s ready to get engaged, Azuma doesn’t want to hurt the fiancée his parents have chosen for him. His character’s sudden about-face, however, makes no dramatic sense considering Azuma spent the previous four volumes tormenting Kahoko whenever they were alone. (Kahoko’s willingness to participate in this lame-brained scheme also defies common sense.) Such abrupt and illogical plot twists point to the biggest problem with the later volumes of La Corda d’Oro: they seem to have been written by someone with a very short attention span. Yuki Kure never lingers on any plot development for more than a chapter, unceremoniously dropping characters who can’t be shoehorned into latest storyline—remember the female clarinetist from volume one?—and skimping on the musical shop-talk. (In previous volumes, the characters at least feigned interest in making music.) The most I can say for volume six is that La Corda d’Oro is still one of the best-looking titles in the Shojo Beat line, with a cast of beautifully drawn characters occasionally playing beautifully drawn instruments.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Short Sunzen!, Vol. 1

By Susagi Sakurai
Tokyopop, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Reading Short Sunzen! left me with a powerful sense of déjà vu: didn’t I just review another manga about a tomboy who discovers her inner girly-girl through the magic of love? The answer turned out to be no, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Short Sunzen! was a kind of Frankenmanga assembled from the pieces of other shojo comedies, with its obligatory cultural festival chapter and its karate-chopping heroine, who delivers a powerful blow at the slightest provocation. I don’t mean to denigrate formula—after all, there are plenty of excellent shojo series that faithfully observe the genre’s conventions while offering surprising plot twists and character developments: Bring It On!, Love*Com, Ouran High School Host Club,, and Your and My Secret all come to mind. Common to these manga are memorable characters who, despite their sometimes outlandish behavior, seem like real individuals. And it’s here that Short Sunzen! falls, well, short. Satsuki and Sendo, the lead couple, seem like pale imitations of the tough cookies and sensitive boys found in Ai Morinaga’s work, minus the inner lives of Morinaga’s characters. Susagi Sakurai’s busy layouts and highly stylized faces only reinforce the sense of familiarity; one could easily confuse Short Sunzen! with, say, I Hate You More Than Anyone. It’s too bad that this manga struck me as ho-hum fare, as its underlying message—boys like you best when you’re being yourself—is one that more girls ought to hear.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Uzumaki, Vol. 3

By Junji Ito
Viz, 264 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

The climax to Junji Ito’s horror masterpiece is at hand! Kurozu-Cho is literally being swallowed up by the curse of the Spiral, as constant battering by huge hurricanes devastates the small village. The outside world remains cut off by bizarre whirlpools, tornados, and other odd phenomena. The beleaguered citizens struggle to survive as the situations spirals (pun intended) out of control. Ito’s art remains strong and detailed, giving an immensely creepy look to things such as giant snails and twisting mounds of human bodies. Ito never quite reaches the squick-inducing moments of the second volume; instead, he heavily focuses on developing our sense of dread. He still occasionally makes use of an idea that leans more towards goofy than frightening. Still, despite his strange decision to include gangs of tornado riders, the final volume still manages to be a wonderfully creepy, edge-of-your-seat read. Many of the questions that readers have will be answered with the fantastic conclusion, but Ito doesn’t over-explain anything here. He gives you just enough to leave you satisfied, but not so much that it becomes boring and mundane. It’s a tactic that one of his favorite authors, H.P. Lovecraft, had down pat and this volume of Uzumaki certainly has some very Lovecraftian moments to it. This entire series has been fantastic and I highly recommended to any and all horror fans. Top notch work!

–Reviewed by Ken Haley

Appleseed, Vol. 1: The Promethean Challenge

By Shirow Masamune
Dark Horse, 182 pp.
Rating: 14 +

Now available for the first time in an unflipped format is the first volume of Shirow Masamune’s cyberpunk epic, and first major series, Appleseed: The Promethean Challenge. For years, the various nations of the world have been at war. Most of the old imperial powers are in ruins, and those that remain are suffering from the after effects of the war. A new power emerges on the international scene: Aegis, an organization based on the artificial island of Olympus. Aegis’s goal is to unite the world and lead it out of the long night which has held it for years. Meanwhile, in the remains of an isolated city, Briareos and Deunan, two soldiers unaware of the war’s end, are about to find themselves forcibly relocated to the utopia of Olympus. Things are never as simple as they seem, however.

Despite being twenty years old the artwork in Appleseed still looks amazing. The mecha designs, the weaponry, the look and feel of the city Olympus, all are fantastic and heavily detailed. Shirow’s fetish for technology really shines through with his mecha and vehicle designs. Unlike some sci-fi artists, Shirow manages to make the mecha and cyborgs look both cool and functional. The designs are also supported by his brief tangents into the nitty-gritty of how certain things operate. These brief bits of exposition focusing on engine torque and building material make tangible things that are normally left to one’s imagination. While his action sequences lack the fluidity of his later work, they still manage to be exciting and intense, if a tad hard to follow at times.

Like the artwork, Appleseed’s plot is a bit on the dense side. It’s tangled and full of various political intrigues with lapses into philosophical ponderings about man’s relationship with the environment and technology, what it means to be human, and so forth. Likewise, the dialogue can be vague and cluttered with techno babble, but it never overwhelms, and adds flavor to the setting and characters.

The central plot poses an interesting question: is there such thing as a utopia? Olympus, constructed during the war by far-thinking scientists, was designed to lead and unite the planet in its reconstruction efforts. To accomplish this, Olympus and Aegis are both run by specially designed clones constructed to mediate, guide, and lead the world away from the edge of destruction. Unfortunately, there seems to be some internal friction between Athena, the director of administration, and the Council of Elders, a group of advisors who help set the course of Aegis and Olympus. While the exact reason for the friction remains a mystery, it involves a list of select individuals who The Council have been bringing to live in Olympus, a list which includes Deunan and Briareos. The two newcomers quickly find themselves entangled in a complex web of politics and manipulations which ultimately result in a terrorist attack led by humans unwilling to hand over their fate to the hands of the clones. While the story isn’t quite as confusing as something like MPD Psycho, it certainly has enough subplots to loose oneself in. While some of the storylines are resolved in this volume, others continue in subsequent volumes, with some of the larger questions–such as how Deunan and Briareos are important in the overall scheme of things–left to open for future volumes to explore and explain.

If there’s any drawback to this book it’s the dense plot. You should be able to follow the general idea the first time though, but it’s certainly a book that benefits from multiple readings. Otherwise it’s really a must have for Shirow fans, seinen fans, and sci-fi/cyberpunk fans.

Volume one of Appleseed: The Promethean Challenge is available now.

Paprika opened in New York City May 25th, and is scheduled to open in Los Angeles on June 1st. I have seen it twice, once at the New York Film Festival last fall and once in Queens on May 17th at a pre-screening sponsored by the ever-mysterious Sloan Foundation. Those in-the-know across the country have seen Paprika in a series of preview screenings as the film toured the country, hitting the usual route of arthouse theaters and college campuses, generating blog buzz and press like a katamari ball.

As a responsible anime fan, you should already know about Paprika. In fact, as person calling yourself a fan, you should be familiar with all of Kon’s works. Your standard anime fan at a convention should be able to rattle off Satoshi Kon’s films in order of their personal favorites. Here’s my list:

Erin’s Satoshi Kon Favorites
1. Paprika (2006)
2. Paranoia Agent (2004, TV Series)
3. “Magnetic Rose” short film from Memories (1996)
4. Millennium Actress (2001)
5. Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
6. Perfect Blue (1997)

I encourage readers to leave their list of Satoshi Kon favorites in the comments!

A lot of people will take contention to my high placement of Millennium Actress, but I really liked the film. The scene that took place in the wake of the U.S. air raid brings tears to my eyes in every time I see it. I liked the soundtrack enough that I tracked it down and bought it.

Perfect Blue has a really uncomfortable attempted-rape scene, so I’ve only seen it once. In the pre-2002 days of anime fandom, people would recommend Perfect Blue as an example of “good anime”, failing to mention that it is a very mature psychological thriller. It was an unsettling surprise to watch Perfect Blue uninformed. I can’t imagine watching it more than once.

Memories is good enough to own and “Magnetic Rose” is the strongest of the three short films on the DVD. Tokyo Godfathers is Kon’s most light-hearted work, with a PG-13 rating. I thought Tokyo Godfathers might be good film to watch with my parents around Christmas (it’s Christmas in the movie), but it didn’t hold their attention.

Paranoia Agent aired on Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim block. It’s one of my favorite anime series of all time, on a level of quality similar to Ghost in the Shell; Stand Alone Complex. Paranoia Agent is only 13 episodes. I bought a Maromi plushie. The only excuse for not watching Paranoia Agent is one’s age, in which case you should buy it anyway and watch it when you turn 18.

Paprika is similar to Paranoia Agent, but it is a more light-hearted and shorter. Paprika has the well-handled transitions of Millennium Actress, the suspense of Perfect Blue, and the humor of Tokyo Godfathers, all rolled into one solid film. Paprika’s character designs are typical of Kon’s work, and many of his other films get a visual nod.

Paprika takes place in the near future, where dream research scientist have recently developed a device called the DC Mini, which allows psychologist to record the dreams of their patients. Just before the device is made public, the prototype unit is stolen. The scientists on the development team must recover the device before it is used for ill intent.

Protagonist Atsuko Chiba is a stern and straight-laced psychologist by day, but by night she dives into patients’ dreams using the DC Mini as her alter-ego, a red-headed, free-spirited action hero named Paprika. One of Chiba’s patients is Detective Konakawa, who helps investigate the case of the stolen DC Mini. Konakawa is having stress dreams about his unsolved homicide case.

The film opens on one of Konakawa’s dreams, then transitions quickly as his dream changes settings from a circus to a Tarzan movie to a suspense film on a train. Paprila hurdles forwards through a world of dreams and reality, the subconscious, and even a strange internet site, moving smoothly from one setting to the next in unmistakable Kon-like-transitions.

Fans of Genshiken and Akiba-kei, will appreciate Tokita Kosaku, one of the scientist characters and the inventor of the DC Mini. Tokita is a severely obese otaku, who, despite being a genius, has the mind of a child. Tokita’s obesity is handled with gentle humor, and for an otaku he is a sympathetic character. Tokita’s assistant, and fellow otaku Himuro is a suspect in the theft. Himuro is obsessed with dolls, and a search of his apartment early in the film reveals a room filled with otaku artifacts.

Although Paprika starts off as a suspense movie and a psychological thriller with sci-fi elements, it is filled with humor and a nostalgic love of cinema. In one scene, Konakawa is dressed as Satoshi Kon himself, and gives a visual example of the “180 degree rule”.

At the center of the film is a bustling parade, filled with dolls, frogs, walking refrigerators, living pay phones, and Buddhist and Christian iconography, all dancing and moving in a cacophonous and superbly-animated march between dreams. The parade is filled with the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life, true to real-life dreams. Kon has mentioned in interviews that the parade is symbolically related to the Shintoist belief in animism - that everything has a spirit including objects like toasters and vending machines.

The only similar scenario I have read in comics is the Sandman book The Doll’s House:

“Rose Walker is a vortex.”

Here is the official Paprika site and trailer. As a responsible anime fan, you need to see this movie.

Who knew the phrase “where shojo meets Star Trek” could generate so much controversy? This catchy tagline inspired a minor brouhaha over the proper way to classify Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra: is it shonen or shojo? I’ve read numerous posts on the subject, and was disappointed that almost no one mentioned the undisputed queen of shojo sci-fi, Moto Hagio. That’s a pity, because Hagio’s works might actually sell if marketed as “shojo Star Trek.”

I recently finished one of Hagio’s best-known stories, “They Were 11,” and I’m convinced that the scriptwriters for Star Trek: The Next Generation owned dog-eared copies. The set-up is pure Star Trek. Ten cadets at an interstellar space academy are dispatched to an unmanned ship. Their task: remain on board for 53 days without pressing the panic button. If they persevere, all ten will pass their final exam at the academy. Once aboard the ghost ship, however, the cadets realize something is amiss. You guessed it—the crew comprises eleven members. The cadets must then decide what to do: identify the impostor? Press the panic button? Or cope with a series of mechanical failures and explosions that threaten to send the ship directly into the surface of a neighboring star?

Like most Star Trek episodes, Hagio emphasizes character development and social commentary over gunplay, robots, or totally icky alien life forms. (You know the kind—they embed themselves in your chest cavity, hunt you down like a rabbit, or just spray toxic venom in your face.) And, like the good astronauts of the starship Enterprise, the characters are all humanoids of various shapes and sizes. A few seem empathic; one has remarkable healing powers; another is tall and scaly; yet another looks like a distant relative of The Thing; and one pretty character (with 70s rock star tresses, no less—was Robert Plant exceptionally popular in Japan?) has yet to decide whether it will develop into a man or woman. The dilemmas the cadets face—technical, social, and medical—also place us firmly in Star Trek territory, inspiring the characters to ruminate on issues as varied as gender roles and the ethics of sacrificing an individual for the good of the collective.

Much as I would like to recommend “They Were 11,” the story is out of print in English. In the mid-1990s, Viz issued it in two forms: as a four-issue comic, and in an anthology called Four Shojo Stories. (Used book dealers have gotten wise to the scarcity of this title; copies of Four Shojo Stories generally retail for $60 and up.) Though I didn’t have too much difficulty scaring up the old Viz Flower floppies on eBay (and I rather enjoyed the American-style presentation), it would be great to see this chestnut re-issued for a generation of readers who think that Beauty Is the Beast and Honey Mustard are the first and last word in girls’ comics.

Until Viz realizes that there are many folks who would be interested in “shojo Star Trek,” however, I encourage the eBay-phobic to make do with Hagio’s thought-provoking A, A’ (also published by Viz, and readily available in paperback); Si-Young Lee’s sci-fi anthology Real Lies (one of the best manwha titles you’re not reading); and Takemiya’s To Terra (release date 2/20/07) and Andromeda Stories (release date 9/11/07), both of which will be published by Vertical. For a generous preview of To Terra, visit Comics212.net, where Christopher Butcher has posted 16 gorgeous pages.

POSTSCRIPT: If you’re wondering how to classify To Terra, commenter JennyN. offered these words of wisdom in a recent discussion thread at MangaBlog:

Re the whole TO TERRA controversy: IIRC (since I don’t have the book itself to hand), the whole thing could have been settled in a few minutes by referring to Frederick Schodt’s pioneering MANGA! MANGA! At the end of the chapter he devotes to shoujo manga, he mentions that quite a few shoujo mangaka are “now” - i.e. the early 1980s, when the book was first published - crossing over to publication in shonen magazines, and he specifically cites TO TERRA as an example. Go Fred!

Can’t argue with the man, though the artwork may strike some folks as old school shojo. Any way you look at it, however, To Terra is a title worth adding your collection, both for its historical importance and for its compelling story. Don’t take my word for it, though: check out David Welsh’s glowing review at Flipped.

E’S, Vol. 1

By Satol Yuiga
Broccoli Books, 224 pp.
Rating: 16+

If I were planning to whip up a fresh batch of E’S at home, the recipe might look something like this:

2 cups X/1999
1 cup Tokyo Babylon
1½ cups X-Men
¼ cup ES: Eternal Sabbath
3 tbsp. Telepathic Wanderers
Pinch of CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators
Pinch of Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders

Mix all ingredients on high speed until thoroughly blended. Pour into a multi-volume CLAMP mold and bake at 375 degrees for one hour. Sprinkle liberally with cheese and serve.

This recipe might not yield a novel confection, but the resulting manga is still pretty darn tasty, with sharp artwork, brisk pacing, a classic sci-fi hook, and a cast of complex characters, not to mention top-notch production values and a smorgasbord of extras.

E’S takes place—where else?—in a dystopian future. Giant corporations have supplanted nation-states as the primary governing bodies, exacerbating the gap between rich and poor. The tattered social fabric is further threatened by the appearance of genetically aberrant humans (or E’S). These mutants—who possess psychic powers ranging from telepathy to telekinesis—are feared and reviled by their fellow humans; their only refuge is in the criminal underworld or in the service of a mysterious paramilitary organization called Ashurum. And while most E’S reciprocate the hatred espoused by their human counterparts, one Ashurum member—Kai Kudou—questions the received wisdom about human-mutant relations, refusing to use a weapon in the field.

Kai is an appealing—if familiar—character type: the sensitive young man who has yet to come to terms with a powerful, potentially lethal, ability that isolates him from his peers. He’s equal parts Subaru Sumeragi and Kamui Shiro, right down to his wind-whipped trench coat, soulful eyes, and slender frame. Though he has misgivings about Ashurum, he finds camaraderie among his fellow psychics—especially the cute, bubbly Shin-Lu (whose penchant for baking and chattering rivals only Hokuto Sumeragi’s) and the suave, older Eiji (who bears more than a passing resemblance to Seishiro Sakurazakamora, right down to his sunglasses, hairdo, and suspiciously solicitous demeanor). Not surprisingly, Kai’s pacifism and loyalty to Ashurum are put to the test mid-way through volume one. Kai, Shin-Lu, Shin-Lu’s twin brother (and group hothead) Shen-Long, and several expendable characters, are dispatched to Gald, a bombed-out city harboring a guerilla group of E’S. Owing in part to Kai’s naivete, the mission goes awry, pitting Kai against an Ashurum teammate instead of a Gald guerilla. Angstful dialogue and explosions ensue, forcing Kai to examine his loyalty to Ashurum.

A seasoned mangaphile may experience a bit of déjà vu in the early pages of E’S, as the characters, extravagant costumes, and dynamic, fill-every-inch-of-the-page action scenes bear a strong resemblance to those found in X/1999 and Tokyo Babylon. Yuiga mines a slightly different vein of apocalyptic angst than CLAMP, however. Instead of posing questions about man’s custodianship of the Earth, Yuiga asks a question near and dear to Magneto’s heart: is mankind’s existence threatened by humans with supernatural abilities? (Did I mention that Ashurum has provided their psychic strike force with a sleek airplane? Or that some characters have the power to dematerialize and walk through walls? Or that some E’S exploit their abilities for not-so-noble purposes? No?) What distinguishes E’S from other X/1999 and X-Men retreads is the skill with which Yuiga pilfers plot twists, character types, and visual elements from other sources and synthesizes them into something compelling. Though I wasn’t bowled over by the premise, I nonetheless found the characters and story engaging and sufficiently complex to sustain my interest beyond volume one. The tantalizing volume two preview—which featured a standoff between Kai and a kissing cousin of the Terminator 2 assassin—only whetted my appetite for another serving of E’S.

William Shatner knows how hard it is to become a bona-fide science fiction star. That’s why he’s making it a little bit easier for the next generation of would-be Captain Kirks. William Shatner announced today that he is holding an on-line contest to find the most talented sci-fi personality in the United States. To enter, contestants just have to create a short video clip that shows why they are the heir apparent to William Shatner, and upload it at http://shatner.blip.tv/ by September 30th.