Animania

Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:55:48 GMT

Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime is the first volume in the eight volume "Book Girl" light novel series by Mizuki Nomura. Originally published in Japan from 2006-2008, it is currently being translated and released by Yen Press. Four volumes are available currently with new ones coming out on a six month schedule. The series is told from the point of view of Konoha Inoue, a 16-year-old second-year high school student. Two years ago his first novel became a best seller, but the world thought it was written by a girl, so he's never really gotten credit. The embarrassment of the situation followed by a personal tragedy made him swear of writing ever again. Until a year ago he met Tohko Amano who is one year his senior, president of the then one member literature club, and a goblin who lives by eating the written word. According to Tohko, handwritten words are the tasty, so after Konoha stumbled on her secret she bullied him into becoming a member of her club where he spends each afternoon writing her "snacks", sweet love stories when they are getting along, bitter-tasting tales with bad writing that breaks all the grammar rules when he's annoyed with her.

The novel starts the year after they met, with their back story filled in through Konoha's internal ruminations. In the present, a fellow student, Chia Takeda, has come to their club begging for help. It seems Tohko set up a "mailbox" offering help with love, so Konoha is roped into writing her love letters to woo an archery student, Shuji Kataoka. Konoha enjoys writing the letters and finds himself cheering for Chia's love, until things take a strange turn. No one seems to have ever heard of Shuji, despite Chia's claims that he is a popular archery student and always has girls flocking around him. So just who is Chia giving Konoha's letters too? And just where is Shuji Kataoka?

Konoha could be a pitiable character, but instead he is a likeable fellow I can't help but sympathize with. He has had some painful incidents in his life that he's still not fully recovered from, and it tells in his reactions to the world around him. It quickly became clear to me that the comfortable relationship he shares with Tohko is unusual, and seems to have had a healing affect on him some. Tohko is also an interesting character, the way she gets so into both talking about and eating books. With the story told totally from Konoha's point-of-view, we're left wondering why she choose him and what she is thinking during the times he glimpses a sorrowful expression on her face.

As a bonus, the novel features quite a bit of discussion on various novels and authors, both American and Japanese. One in particular, No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (which is available in English ), is a core aspect of this novel that plays into the story as a whole and in some ways controls the others actions. These discussions provide both an interesting take of the various novels mentioned and a look into Japanese literature as a whole. I wonder if future volumes will similarly have a core novel that intertwines and speaks to the central plot of the story.

All in all, if it isn't clear by now, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I usually don't like first-person POV novels. I rarely read them and have more than once rejected a book because of it. But I bought this one blind based just on the blurb on Yen Press' site. It was such an interesting set up - a book eating demon and a former novelist. I'm glad I gave it a chance, because it is really quite good! The set up might make it seem like it would be a comedy, but it is really more of a drama with some darker elements, including the hints of Konoha's past. Interspersed throughout the novel are bits of letters, dark lonely letters than indicate the writer is in agony. The author of the letters is unclear at first, but as you read along it seems to become clearer, but does it really? Nomura spins a wonderfully engrossing tale that had me forcing myself to put the book down long enough to sleep (work and all). I finished it in two days though and am already eagerly anticipating the next volume, Book Girl and the Famished Spirit. Yen Press' translation seemed clean to me and I can't recall any real grammatical or structural errors.

Rating: A+

Persona 4: The Animation

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:00:00 GMT

One of the anime series I've been watching via Hulu recently is Persona 4. It is an adaptation of the hit PS2 game, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, released by Atlus back in 2008. I love that game, only slightly less than Persona 3. The anime closely follows the game's story, opening with high schooler Yu Narukami moving to Inaba to live with his uncle and young cousin after his parents go to work overseas. His first day at his new school, a dead body is found near campus, left displayed in a gruesome and unusual fashion. The victim appeared on a phantom TV channel, the Midnight Channel, the night before. Together with classmates Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko, Narukami discovers a secret world inside TVs that they are able to enter. There they meet Teddie, who explains that someone is throwing people into the TV to be killed. While battling the Shadows that infest the TV world, the gang must confront their own inner demons to save themselves and future victims, while searching for the serial killer throwing people into Teddie's world.

The opening of the series is fairly straight forward from the game, with the introduction of Narukami, his new family, and his new school. I thought the way they handled the personas was well done, and I really liked that they kept Narukami's unique aspect of being able to use multiple personas as well as combo them into attacks. While many of the scenes are basically animations of the games, for me the story is so good that I'm glad the show didn't muck around with it too much and risk ruining a good thing.

The anime, of course, lacks some of the more annoying elements of the game (like the 5 million battles, 100+ hours of game play, and side quests with the school and relationships, etc). However, it does manage to honor some of those elements in nice ways, such as the school trip and the mysterious bowl of unfinishable noodles they characters share in one scene. The addition of the ramen that can be delivered anywhere is hilarious and helps add a light hearted side to a series that could easily get drowned in the darkness of its general story.

The animation is great, a perfect blend to the game imagery with some nice touch up. Not surprising as the art director from the game also did this series. The same voice actors from the game also stepped back into their roles, which explains why it all sounds good. :-) On the whole I'm quite enjoying this series and look forward to watching more. The series is still running in Japan, with Sentai Filmworks doing the Hulu simulcast for those of us in North America. As of this writing, 13 episodes are available, with new ones being released every week or so. The first DVD releases are expected sometime this year, but no definitive date has been set yet.

If you're a fan of the game and the story, then the anime is a great way to revisit the story without the 100+ hours of game play required to get through the game. If you've never played the game, there are some parts of the series that may seem confusing, as it really is a fairly straight adaption, just without as many battles with shadows. The Velvet Room scenes, for example, and the whole thing with the Arcana make more sense if you're familiar with the game. However, the story as a whole is still compelling, so its worth giving it a shot.

Rating: B+

P.S. If you watch it, make sure to watch the bits after the end credits or sometimes the start of the next episode will make no sense!!

Happy New Year!

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:37:56 GMT

It's 2012! The world is supposedly ending this year, so let's go out with a bang! Okay, yeah, I don't believe that BS either, but I do want to do better with this blog. I've been sporadic in posting in the last year, not because of lack of desire or lack of reading/watching anything, just laziness and well, 2011 was a really busy year for me, including some major projects at work sucking my energy out. So this year, I'm making it my goal to post to this blog at least once a month! Not a lot, but certainly doable. I'm hoping it will be more, of course ;-)

As part of that goal, I'm planning to do more posts reacting to anime/manga news I read (where it interests me), some more editorial pieces on the anime/manga market in general, and the like. I may also try more short form reviews, where I give quick paragraphs on some anime I'm currently watching online and the like. Oh, yeah, and fixing that archive thing since it seems to be broken. :-P So I hope you all stick around with me for the ride!

(P.S. seeing folks rating and commenting on posts helps energize me to write cause I know people are actually out there reading ;) )

Sand Chronicles (Series)

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:03:46 GMT

Written by Hinako Ashihara, Sand Chronicles is one of the series that appeared in Viz's short lived monthly magazine, Shojo Beat. It ran in Japan from 2003 till 2005, and Viz picked it up and began releasing chapters in Shojo Beat in 2007. The central character in this series is Ann Uekusa, who is 12 when she moves to Shimane with her mother after her parents divorce. They live with Ann's grandparents, and at first Ann has trouble adjusting to live in the small, close-knit, gossip filled town after coming from Tokyo which is depicted as being like New York (i.e. no one sees anything). Ann's mother has problems, however, and that is clear very early own. Not long after moving there, Ann's mother kills herself. Ann gets through it, in large part due her friendship with Daigo, and later siblings Fuji and Shika. As the years pass, friendship turns to love, but then Ann moves back to Tokyo. The distance, rivals for affections, and Ann's on-going psychological issues begins to strain both love and friendship.

Sand Chronicles spans Ann's live for well over a decade, from when Ann is 12 through when she is 26. For me, the most powerful thing about this series is the story itself. Ashihara pulls us along on Ann's journey, as she makes friends, loses friends, falls in love, loses love, and copes with the various changes happening in her life while also trying to deal with growing up. Along the way, we get a very realistic look, in my humble opinion, of teenage relationships, with confusion, uncertain, overstated optimism, casually given promises, betrayal, and heartbreak, along with the tender, awkward sweetness of a mutual first love. Throughout the story we also glimpse Ann's unresolved trauma behind her mother's suicide is masterfully interwoven, managing to be both subtle yet clear, not only from Ann herself, but from those around her. The stories with the side-characters is also interesting, particularly the family issues that Fuji and Shika have to deal with, and how that affects their relationships and actions regarding Ann and Daigo.

The art is good, with consistently well-drawn, distinctive characters, despite the sometimes large cast. The backgrounds are mostly kept simple, if there at all, yet with the detail needed to convey the place and feel of the scene. Viz's translation is, of course, well done, with translation notes included in each volume. Sand Chronicles is technically a ten-volume series, however the actual story concludes at the end of the eighth volume. The remaining two volumes are a collection of "side stories", including a look at the four friend's parents as kids, stories with some of the side characters, and a look at the characters in their 30s. So you can choose to just stop at volume 8, but if you want to see more about the past and future, snag the last two as well. In particular, the story 30 years before the main story, about Daigo and Ann's mothers, that starts volume 9 adds some extra depth to the main story and Ann's mother as a character. Also in Volume 10, you can get a bit of Daigo's past and his thoughts of events that happened during the story's climax.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the series, and I hope we see more from Ashihara, as she seems very skilled at telling highly dramatic stories without overloading on sap or melodrama.

Rating: A

Phantom Dream (series)

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:31:22 GMT

Phantom Dream is the second manga series by Natsuki Takaya, of Fruits Basket fame, to be published in English, but it is actually the first serial work she wrote. Published four years before its more famous predecessor, this five-volume series followed Tamaki Otoya a monsu (head monk) who is also the shugoshi who is charged with excising the negative emotions that take over people and turn them to monsters. His lover, Asahi, supports him as best she can, though she appears to have no powers and has been told by the Otoya family that she will never be allowed to marry Tamaki because she has no power. Opposing Tamaki and working hard to create even more demons are the Gekka. Led by Eiji, they claim they want to save the world by recreating and seek to reawaken their king, Hira, to fulfill this goal. As the battle intensifies, Tamaki must come to terms with having to kill to save the victims of the Gekka, but even his rapidly increasing powers may not be enough to save the ones he loves the most.

Often when I read a series written by someone who I've already read works for, I find that the characters are similar, and their stories frequently have similar themes. This, thankfully, is not the case with Phantom Dream. Despite the misleading front cover of the first volume that is stylized to resemble Kyo, the characters of Phantom Dream stand on their own and bear little resemblance to the later Fruits Basket. They are, for the most part uniquely designed and distinct, and well drawn. Asahi, in particular, is beautifully rendered, as is Hira. If there was one recurring theme from both series, it would be the inclusion of a few cats, though I must admit, I found the ones in Phantom Dream were actually better drawn than those later seen in Fruits Basket.

Storywise...well I can only say that Takaya is a masterful spinner of tales and if this is what her first work was like, I will be giddily waiting for her to write a new series! Phantom Dream may be short, but it spins a powerful story, as the past is brought to light. Both the characters and the events are mired in shades of gray, with few being clearly right or clearly wrong. As the motivations of the Gekka come to light, one can't help but feel sympathy and even understanding, even as you know they must be stopped. Tamaki himself reflects this internal struggles wonderfully, with those around him acting as the foils for various viewpoints one could take. The romance between Asahi and Tamaki is no less beautiful for having already been established before the start of the series.

The only major criticism I would give this series is that it felt too short and a bit rushed. I think it could easily have been stretched out another volume or two to flush out some elements only hinted at or quickly glossed over. In particular, one revelation near the end could have used some serious foreshadowing to make it less "whoa, WTF BBQ." As it is, it came out of left field and while Takaya managed to gloss over why there were no hints of it in the rest of the story, I still would have liked at least a clue or two. A longer series would also have helped flesh out some of the side characters, as this series has a pretty full cast for its size and as such, some were left on the sidelines more as background versus having a real roll to play.

All in all, I would certainly recommend this series both to Takaya fans and those who have yet to enjoy Fruits Basket. Just have a little tissue ready for the final volume or two. :-)

Rating: A-

Immoral Darkness

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 04:00:01 GMT

Released by DMP in 2008 Immoral Darkness by Miyu Matsuda is a single-title yaoi light novel with a fairly typical set up with this genre, namely the romantic relationship between a male teacher and a male student. The student is handsome Shiina Jun who keeps people at a distance, wears fake glasses to look cool, has a family who completely ignores him when he's home, and who is sleeping with a rich older woman for money. His math teacher Sasagawa Tetsuya is always wearing a dirty white lab coat at school and looks rather demonic, even on the cover. Shiina often wonders if they have something in common, as Sasagawa seems to have a similar lonely air about him. One night, after leaving his lover, Shiina finds himself surrounded by a bunch of punks after money. Sasagawa sees his plight and rescues him, but in exchange shoves Shiina into a bathroom and rapes him. And so their troubled relationship begins, against a backdrop of things between Shiina and his family hitting rock bottom. Sasagawa claims he wants to save Shiina, but does he really?

The novel is told exclusively from Shiina's POV, so its hard to discern Sasagawa's motives or thoughts throughout. It would have been nice to know what he was thinking, but the bulk of the novel focuses more on Shiina's personal issues particularly with his family. After his parents and brother go on a trip and leave him locked out of the house, he reaches out to his kindly homeroom teacher, and gets a taste of what a family should be. This melts his icy nature, and he begins opening up to his classmates more. Only then is he ready to deal with Sasagawa, but it requires Shiina to actually try to trust someone again, which isn't easy for him, especially when he uncovers another dark secret about Sasagawa.

If you haven't read much yaoi you might be scratching your head at the idea of a relationship forming from a rape, but it is fairly common in the genre. As with most such set ups, Shiina's protests are half-hearted and he both loves and loathes the experience. Still, if it isn't your thing, you may want to skip this one. As a fan of such series as Passion, it doesn't bother me. A bit more aggravating is the lack of real focus in the supposed romance. Sasagawa himself isn't a particularly likeable person. Beyond the rape, he is very overbearing and seems to have little regard for Shiina's feelings, life, etc though he is redeemed in this regard at least slightly later. He engages in stalker like behavior several times, is very crude, the unwashed lab coat is just gross, and he often acts like an obnoxious child at times. In particular, there is a scene when he cruelly and coarsely outs Shiina without any regard for how it will affect him, just because he was jealous. While Passion's Hikaru does have some jealousy issues, he is at least cute and likeable. Sasagawa has no such saving grace.

Still on the whole, this isn't a "bad" novel, if you like this area of the genre, and I read it through in one day. Being from a few years ago, the translation is a bit rough, but not so bad as to make it unreadable. It's printed in a smaller format with the old style spines like Tokyo pop used for early manga, making the spine overly tight and ripe for loose pages with too many rereads. It uses the original Japanese cover, with English text of course, and the single color page is well done. With English-translated yaoi novels being in short supply, this one is a acceptable addition to one's library.

Rating: C

Kieli, Volume 1: The Dead Sleep in the Wilderness

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:55:11 GMT

While browsing the Yen Press site, I stumbled on the light novel series Kieli, by Yukako Kabei. Per their page there, it spans at least nine volumes and as far as I can find in Amazon Japan, that's the full length of the series. The story premise sounded interesting. Being so pleased with Yen Press' release of Spice & Wolf and wanting to try some more light novels, I decided to do a rare blind buy and get the first two volumes of the series. Kieli is a reclusive, isolated girl, having been left orphaned and a ward of the town after her grandmother died. She has no friends at her school, no other family, and seems easily forgotten by those around her. And no one knows she can see and communicate with ghosts friends other than "Becca", the spirit of a former student who is Kieli's only "friend" and her roommate.

Kieli isn't a particularly happy person, and one gets the impression that she feels very much invisible and unloved. Then while playing a regular "game" with Becca going home, they meet a man named Harvey, who can see Becca as well and is rather rude to her. Becca recognizes him as an Undying, one of the last of a group of immortal soldiers used by the Church to take over then marked of execution once their usefulness was done, and suggests she and Kieli play a cruel trick on him. Kieli is appalled which leads to a fight and Becca doing the trick alone, with unexpected consequences. This eventually leads Kieli deciding to join Harvey as he journey's to take the Corporal, a spirit that haunts a radio, to the place of his death. He is, after all, the only living person she's met who actually seems to understand her.

Overall I found the story to be quite good. Kieli is initially very withdrawn and with good reason, but you soon find that she has a good heart, a strong will, and a friendly personality when she's not being constantly downed by those around her. Harvey is similar in some ways. He rarely talks and shows little emotion, but as you come to know him his reactions to various situations make it easier to tell what he is thinking and feeling. The Corporal is a gruff character, and oh when his temper blows better watch out, but the dynamic between himself and Harvey is interesting. Having been long dead, he of course offers a different perspective on the situations they encounter as they travel.

The novel is mostly told from Kieli's perspective, but we do occasionally get to peek at Harvey in a more limited POV. The first novel primarily serves to set up the main characters and getting them together, establishing the relationship between Harvey and Kieli, and the journey to lay the Corporal to rest. It also gives us some good background on the Church and its place in society, and the threat that hangs over both their heads from the group.

The writing style is well done, and as I've come to expect from Yen Press, the translation is well executed. As with some of their other light novels, its published in a more standard paperback size and it includes the full color images in the front. It was certainly good enough to lead me to want to read more, and I quickly tore through volume 2. I now have 3 & 4 in my "to read" piles. If I had to voice a complaint, I'd have liked to see more on Kieli's powers and the origins of them, however having now read volume 2, I can say it is coming. :-)

Rating: A-

I Am Here!: Omnibus, Volume 1

Mon, 09 May 2011 03:48:59 GMT

I Am Here! is a five-volume manga series written and illustrated by Ema Toyama. For the English release, Del Rey is publishing it as a two-volume omnibus. It focuses on Hikage Sumino, a "plain" girl in the eight grade who is invisible to her classmates, almost literally. No one remembers her name. No one notices when she is in the room. And no one seems to notice how much she wants to be part of the group and the fun. Even outside of class, she is so used to not being seen it is as if she is invisible. She has to wait hours to be served at a restaurant. She even started school late because a driver ran over her after she ran into the street to save a cat, and he only saw the cat!

Suffice to say, such invisibility leaves her with a very low self-esteem and low self image. But despite that, she isn't entirely alone. She loves taking pictures, and has a photo blog that has exactly two regular followers: Black Rabbit and Mega Pig. They are the only friends she has, and they regularly encourage her not to give up. Then one day, she is accidentally locked in a room because her classmates forgot she was there. Hinata, one of her class' most popular boys, finds her and confesses he's been watching her for a long time. Her online friends tell her it means he likes her, but before Sumino can fully absorb such a shock, she finds herself suddenly getting noticed at school. But it isn't in a good way as Hinata's fans don't like his giving her attention and begin bullying her. Will Sumino be strong enough to stand up to the girls and begin finding her place in the world, or will she withdraw back to invisibility?

This omnibus volume packs in the first three volumes, so it covers a lot of ground. The translation is, of course, well done. Wouldn't expect less from Del Rey. Alas, no color pages and it doesn't give the volume breaks, but it does include translation notes. Overall, I quite enjoyed it and am looking forward to picking up volume two when it is released near the end of July. Sumino, who I think is adorable, is a sweet girl, who still has some inner strength despite having been left lost for so long. The online exchanges she has with Black Rabbit and Mega Pig are well done, giving both "unseen" characters personality purely through their responses to her. Hinata, and his friend Teru, are an interesting pair, and while it is Hinata that Sumino is drawn towards, Teru is more well fleshed out to me with his abrasive personality hiding a good guy underneath. Seeing as this is a shojo, you know she'll end up with one or the other, but it will be interesting to see which one it ends up being. And of course, we have to know if they will reveal who Black Rabbit and Mega Pig are? So far the series has given no obvious "ah ha's" though as the end of the omnibus volume draws near, I began to have my suspicions. :-)

Rating: B+

Farewell AnimeOnDVD

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:34:20 GMT

Seems to be the season for farewells. Yesterday Chris Beveridge, beloved creator of AnimeOnDVD, announced his. Chris founded AnimeOnDVD thirteen years ago, working as its editor-in-chief with a dedicated staff of reviewers and reporters. There was some grumbling when he decided to sell the site to Mania in 2008 was sold to Mania, however as he stayed on board as the head of the area, the only major change was that the news/reviews were incorporated into the hideousness that is the Mania.com site design. Most of the regulars stuck around, particularly in the forums which were nearly as popular as the awesome reviews. As of this post, AoD's forums sport 145,238 members, of which 11,384 are considered "active". I'll admit, I myself haven't been an active member in the forums for the last two years or so due to time constraints, but I still loved the site and recommended it to other fans.

According to Anime News Network, he isn't leaving the anime/manga writing game entirely, as he recently launched The Fandom, and intends to continue acting as its editor-in-chief there. Per a goodbye thread in AoD, several well known AoD staffers are working with him on it. Taking a quick look around, the front page site is confusing as heck, but the forums are familiar. I suspect it is using the same software, and many of the "classic" threads found at AoD are there, as well as new ones to cover comics, TV, etc. Here's hoping he achieves the same success there that he did with AoD. If the forums at The Fandom are any indication, he will. Only open a little more than a month, and it already has 857 posts and 289 members, with 147 "active".

No word yet on what will happen with AoD at Mania. If the staffers who have joined Chris in the Fandom are also planning to leave, I can see the site slowly going away, and the forums being shut down, but for now, I guess time will tell.

Farewell Tokyopop

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:24:43 GMT

You've probably heard the news about Tokyopop shutting down its US manga divison. As a whole, I personally don't see it is a huge blow to the manga industry, not anymore. Had it happened five, ten years ago, when Tokyopop was one of the top companies, yeah, but really the writing has been on the wall for awhile with all the layoffs of late, the repeated bad business decisions, the lost a lot of licenses (almost all their Kodansha ones, for example), and the seemingly few new licenses. For the general manga industry, though, seeing the historical giant go down is a sad loss of a known name, but otherwise it won't be a real ripple. Viz, Yen Press, Kodansha USA, Del Rey, etc will more than fill the needs.

Even the loss of their BLU line, which have included some great yaoi and shonen-ai series, will have less effect now thanks to DMP becoming the seeming king of yaoi/shonen-ai series. And, of course, I do feel for the fans of the series they did have going as their fate is yet unknown. The series they were publishing that I was personally collecting either long ago finished, or had already been dropped due to losing the license and are being republished by someone else (Rave Master and Sailor Moon).

Some see this as some pending doom because of the economy, but really Tokyopop's downfall seems more due to its still being run like a sole proprietership instead of a legitimate company, with Stu Levy as the primarily decision maker and controller. It was a labor of love, and one he has decided he's spent enough time as he refocuses his life to spend a year in Japan to make a documentary on the earthquake/tsunami recovery efforts. Had Tokyopop been organized as a proper company long ago, Levy's leaving would have little real effect on the company, and the company likely would have made different business decisions. Would it have saved the company? Who knows...playing arm-chair quarterback in hindsight isn't for me.

Please don't think I'm hating on Levy - he did revolutized the US manga market, and thanks in part to his efforts we have a vast library of legal, English-translated manga across a broad range of genres, stories, age markets, etc in unflipped formats. They brought us Sailor Moon, the first successful shojo title for US release, the gorgeous release of Cardcaptor Sakura (the ones with the cards, box sets, etc), and of course Fruits Basket, whose volumes ran neck and neck with Naruto for sales for some volumes. I think all manga fans should heartily thank him for his works, and Tokyopop in general for the mark they made. It is the unfortunate way of the business world sometimes, those who were the leaders eventually fall behind and are close up shop. I do hope Levy the best in his future ventures. I hope those few staff members left in the manga division are given opportunities to work in the remaining US film and TV areas. And if this affects the manga-inspired comics Tokyopop published as "global manga", then I hope those authors of manga-inspired comics published by Tokyopop are able to regain their rights and are given another chance by another graphic novel/comic publisher.

Meanwhile, any licensed series you'll be missing the ending off that you are hoping will be picked up by someone else? I've already one of mine, Rave Master, which is slated to have its last three volumes published by Kodansha USA as an omnibus in the next year or so. The other, D.N.Angel, of course went on a three year hiatus in Japan before starting back up in 2008, and it is still on-going at 15 volumes and counting. Not sure how likely it is anyone will pick up the license to finish the series, even once it does finally finish in Japan, which really sucks. :-(

May 25th Update: Per Anime News Network and a Facebook note from Tokyopop, all of their manga licenses will revert to their original owners, rather than being held until expiration by the parts staying alive. This means that all titles will immediately be available for relicensing by other companies, if the original owners choose to license them again. They also noted that, Digital Manga stated, via Twitter, that their licensing team is looking into possible acquiring some of those titles.

Awesome News: Sailor Moon is Back!

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:49:36 GMT

Alas, I spent most of February battling bronchitis and other medical issues, but now I'm back. And with so much sad and tragic news coming out about Japan lately due to the horrifying earthquake and tsunami, I had to share some good news for a change.

Per Anime News Network, Kodansha USA is going to be re-releasing the Sailor Moon manga series!! Even more awesome, they are also going to do the prequel series, Codename: Sailor V, which was never included in the original Tokyopop releases! Sailor Moon is one of my all time favorite manga series, and I'm really happy to hear it will be available in new volumes as my old ones are falling apart at the seams. According to the announcement, they will feature new covers, "extensive bonus material" and both the art and dialogue have be retouched by the series manga-ka Naoka Takeuchi. These volumes will be based on the newer 2003 re-release of the series in Japan, which spanned 12 volumes instead of the original 18 and added some more side/short stories. The first volume is slated to be released in September.

I normally don't "double dip" but with the age of my volumes, the inclusion of Codename: Sailor V, and the chance to finally get Sailor Moon Stars, I will definitely be acquiring all of these new volumes! Some Anime News Networkers are speculating that this will lead to a re-release of the anime, which would be awesome for everyone who couldn't get it the first time, and for all of us if such a re-release finally included the never translated Stars.

And I haven't forget my reviews, I have a few new manga series I'm working on reviews for now, including I Am Here!, a release from Del Rey manga that seems to be part of a growing trend to release lesser known series straight to omnibus form, and an older but still popular series, Wish.

Spice & Wolf, Volume 1

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:04:42 GMT

As I mentioned in my review of the Spice & Wolf anime series, the basis for the story is a series of light novels written by Isuna Hasekura, with illustrations by Jyuu Ayakura. Since I wrote that review, Yen Press has released the third light novel volume, so I picked up all three over the holiday season. First, I must note that if you are interested in the light novel series, be advised that Yen Press first released the series with a photo-realistic cover, rather than the original covers. After the backlash from fans, they began releasing the volumes with a slip cover that had the photo-realistic thing, and then the original as the main book's cover. Alas, some places still have the first form of the first volume, so if you order online you might get stuck with that cover. I was happy I was able to get the 2 & 3 volume with the slipcovers as I tossed them immediately. Of course, if you like the photo-realistic thing, then you're good to go either way. I've put both covers for the first volume to the right for comparison.

So on to the light novels. Thus far I've read just the first volume, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Twenty-five year old Kraft Lawrence is a traveling merchant who dreams of owning his own shop in a town on day, but is content with eking out his lonely existence until then, making deals and building his reputation and wealth. After a seemingly normal stop in the town of Pasloe, he finds himself with an unexpected hitchhiker, a beautiful, naked girl who calls herself Holo and claims to be the wolf God who was once responsible for managing the harvests in the area. The people have grown tired of what they consider her capriciousness, though, and now rely more and more on technology, so she wants to return to her home on Yoitz, to the north. After some initial reluctance and disbelief, Lawrence agrees to take her along with him and see her to her home. In exchange she promises to help increase his profits along the way.

As they travel together, however, they find themselves drawn to one another, but it isn't until Holo risks herself to save Lawrence when he falls into a dangerous situation do they start to admit, at least to themselves, how much they care for one another. There are hints at a larger story forming, particularly around Holo's desire to return to Yoitz as Lawrence heard the town was destroyed long ago, but has yet to reveal this to her, and of course there is always the question lurking in the back of one's mind of whether a wolf-god being can have any sort of future with a human.

I found the volume to be well written, with perhaps a higher language level than I usually see in light novels. The translation is quite well done so the text flows smoothly, a blessing considering some of the hideous translations we've seen in the past (yes, I'm looking at you Digital Manga and the hideousness that was Ai no Kusabi. Yen Press' release is also nice, going with a good blend of a more standard American novel size (presumably lowering costs) while retaining the initial color pages found at the front of the novel. And as they corrected what I see as an error with the covers, I can really find no complaint about the release. Even the cover price of $10.99 is pretty reasonable, considering most manga volumes are now the same price and have far less content. While I liked the anime, I found the light novel more satisifying with its richer, deeper amounts of detail, particularly when it comes to what the characters are thinking and feeling at various crucial points. The events in this volume are depicted in the first six episodes of the anime, which is where the initial relationship between Lawrence and Holo is formed. I was surprised to discover how many changes the anime made to these chapters, though, with one of the most major being the changing of Pasloe village's Yarei from male to female. In the anime, she was a a potential love interest for Lawrence, while in the novels he was nothing more than someone Lawrence thought of as a compatriot.

So whether you have seen and enjoyed the anime, or just find the story premise interesting, I recommend picking up this novel series. Get all the volumes available you can because you will want to keep reading after you finish the first. As of the time of this post, the first three are in stores, with volume 4 due in June. So far, Yen Press has solicitied the first six volumes of the sixteen that form the series, so hoping they will not pull a Tokyopop and drop the series before it is done. So far, though, they seem to still be keeping up their usual release schedules and I haven't seen any signs of delays or the like. As it is owned by Hachette Group, though, I think it may be more poised to finish it out than the traditional manga publishers seem to be, so its worth taking the chance on.

Rating: A+

The Japanese Have a Word for It

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 22:00:00 GMT

The Japanese Have a Word for It: The Complete Guide to Japanese Thought and Culture, written by Boye Lafayette De Mente, provides an interesting, if slightly dated, view of Japanese culture. The author is clearly well versed in the nuances of Japanese social constructs and the insane nuances of Japanese language. It is mostly aimed at those interested in possibly doing business in Japan or with native Japanese rather than the lay person, but De Mente writes in an easy to read and follow manner. Many of his insights are quite interesting and, for anime/manga fans like myself, can add a new level of understanding to events in your favorite series. Be warned, though, that the book was written in 1997, and some of the things noted is no longer true or are likely less common than it was when the book was written.

The biggest drawback I found with the book was its format. It is arranged as 230 "phrase-focused" chapters of 1-2 pages each, with each prodiving a bit of info on what De Mente considers to be "key words and expressions". With such an arrangement, the last 1/3 of the book or so became increasingly difficult to read because it became more and more repetitive. There are a small number of major points that seem to repeated in almost every chapter, and the latter chapters are more like mild variations of the previous ones. I think this book would have worked far better if it he done a different arrangement that focused on those different major aspects of Japanese culture. With the book supposedly targeted towards those who are new to doing business in Japan, I think such a method would have been far better than having it focused on these phrases that the reader would presumably not be familiar enough with to just to straight to one to study.

On the whole, I'd recommend this one for anyone interested in reading more on Japanese culture, but I'd suggest reading only the first half of it, then putting the rest aside for awhile before tackling part second half to avoid the tedium.

Rating: C+

Spice and Wolf & Tears to Tiara: Quick Views

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Took a break from NaNoing to take a peek at some of the anime offers available through Hulu and to check out some new to me series earlier this week. In both cases I watched the subtitled versions only.

Spice and Wolf - Released in the US by Funimation, this series is set in a time frame similar to Europe in the Middle Ages when the Church was starting to frown on "pagan" religions. A peddler named Craft Lawrence travels from town to town in his horse drawn carriage, and seems like a generally friendly fellow. While visiting one town, Pasroe, he encounters Holo, the wolf "God" who long ago made a deal with the village to give them good harvests of wheat. The humans, however, no longer respect nor rely on her, feeling she is to "capricious" because she sometimes lets them have bad crops to keep the land fertile. As they no longer want her, she sneaks into Lawrence's wagon where he first meets her. She has a human-like form, with tails and ears, but shows him her true form to convince him that she is really THE Holo. She asks him to take her back to her homeland and he reluctantly agrees, so long as she helps earn her keep.

I ended up watching all of the available episodes (all of the first season, first four of season two as of the time of this post). The build up in the relationship between Holo and Lawrence is nicely paced. As time passes a growing sense that their journey north will not be nearly as easy as it might first appear. Both seasons underscore the light-hearted comedy and frequent back-and-forth barbs between our duo, with the more serious overall storyline including their having to deal with betrayals that nearly cost Lawrence everything, and is own clumsy actions that leave Holo heartsick. Definitely recommend this one. Funimation's original Season 1 DVD set is available now, or you can grab the lower cost Viridian Collection on December 7th. The anime is based on a sixteen volume light novel series, which in turn has a short manga adaptation. Both are being concurrently published by Yen Press, with the first two of six solicitied light novel volumes and all three manga volumes available now. I plan to get both so will let you know how well Yen Press did with each.

Rating: A

Tears to Tiara - a psycho "priest" named Drwc kidnaps a girl named Riannon of the Gael who is said to be the ancestor of an Elf and can see the future. This guy is like demented! To make her obey, the threatens to rip the fingers off two children one by one. His goal is to awaken Arawn, the Demon King who is supposed to bring destruction to the world, with Riannon as the living sacrifice. Things don't quite go as planned though, as Arawn frees Riannon from Drwc's spell and kills Drwc instead. Great opening sequence, and a very interesting story that moves at a good pace and seems to have the makings for a dark, exciting drama as the entire Gael clan revolts against the Empire to protect Riannon and Arawn, an Empire that has its own internal issues to deal with. It also seems like it will have plenty of humor here as Arawn has a fun attitude and Riannon's brother does not like the early romantic connection between Riannon and Awarn. Watched the first two eps and will be watching more. The subtitles are good, though the whole things appears a bit too dark and impossible to see in some parts on the stream (I suspect it may just be the system I watching on though). Will still keep watching though :-)

The series itself is based on a Japanese tactical RPG game that I've personally never played. In the first few eps I've watched so far, though, I didn't get that "OMG this is a video game" feel like you do with some other adaptations. The English release was done by Section 23, which has released the entire series as a 4-disc DVD set and a 2-disc Blu-Ray set.

Rating: B

Coming Dry Spell

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 04:48:49 GMT

Its getting towards November, so of course I'm gearing up for National Novel Writing Month. With my writing energies focused on my novel, I won't be doing many posts until its done. I do have three partials in the queue, though, that I plan to try to get done before November starts so something will get posted :-D Otherwise, see y'all in December!