Wall of Shojo Beat

September 16, 2012 by 6 Comments

For Day 1 of the Manga Moveable Feast, I decided to determine how many volumes of Shojo Beat manga I have by pulling everything off the shelves and stacking them up!

wall of shojo beat

I figured this would have an added benefit of helping me consolidate series when I put everything back, as I am not terribly organized when it comes to my personal library. One of the things that struck me when I was pulling volumes was how many series I had that predated the imprint, and are thus not included in this photo. Hana Kimi is currently being reprinted under the Shojo Beat line, so I could have pulled that. Other great pre-Shojo Beat series also include Boys Over Flowers and Kare First Love. I’ve sold off some series I thought I wouldn’t read again, and I have some volumes of manga in storage, so the total for the Shojo Beat manga I have readily available in my house is in the 200+ volumes range which is actually much less than I thought!

How many Shojo Beat volumes do you have?

Vagabond Vizbig Volumes 9 and 10

June 30, 2012 by 1 Comment

I enjoyed being able to explore Inoue’s sports-related manga as part of this Manga Moveable Feast, but I feel like I’ve saved the best for last simply because reading Vagabond 25+ volumes in is such a rewarding experience. I touched a little bit on Volume 9 in the Let’s Get Visual post over at Soliloquy in Blue, but as always with Vagabond I have much more to say.

Vagabond Volume 9

Sometimes I’m hesitant to start collecting long manga series, but the three volumes collected in this particular VizBig edition reminded me how big the emotional payoff can be when you’ve invested so much time in reading the stories of these characters and a dramatic confrontation occurs. You can see just how far Musashi has come in his second confrontation with the Yoshioka sword school. He faces Denshichiro again after a year, and this time he calmly contemplates his opponent, thinking “…It’s a swrod that purports to be proper swordsmanship. It doesn’t call out to me.” Musashi’s the victor, but this battle has just begun as the Yoshioka school begins to plot their revenge. Musashi finally comes face-to-face with his friend Matahatchi after a long separation. Seeing how his childhood friend has become dissolute and unhinged, he reflects “That version of me inside your head…the story you created…it affects the way you act.” Musashi has the self-awareness to realize that while Matahatchi’s actions might have been directed by his internal narrative, he is guilty of thinking the same way about Otsu. Musashi has another reunion with the monk Takuan who observes that Musashi must have gotten stronger because he’s become more kind.

Musashi doesn’t have much time for reflection, as he sees that the remaining 70 men of the Yoshioka sword school are planning on ambushing him. While he has the opportunity to escape, he walks into battle anyway, thinking that since the Yoshioka had the opportunity to cut him down a year ago he is actually repaying a debt of honor. It shows how far the sword school has sunk, that they think 70 against one and plans to attack Musashi from behind are what they need to do to maintain their school. What follows is one of the most grueling and prolonged battle sequences in Vagabond, but as Musashi perseveres through his injuries the reader actually begins to feel sorry for his opponents. Instead of cutting down 70 faceless men, many of them get a few moments to prepare themselves mentally, thinking back over past battles and family obligations. So this isn’t a simple massacre on the part of Musashi. As the corpses pile up, Musashi begins to think that he might be able to leave Kyoto, and “escape this spiral of killing.” Musashi survives and his final thought is of his ultimate opponent, Sasaki Kojiro

Vagabond Volume 10

Volume 9 was notable both for the psychological confrontations as Musashi revisits people from his past as well as the sheer scale of the battle between Musashi and the Yoshioka school. This volume very much deals with the aftermath, both physical and psychological. Matahatchi retrieves Musashi from the battlefield and takes him to Takuan. Otsu arrives to help, and she is so focused on Musashi that she doesn’t recognize her former fiance, rushing past him in order to check on Musashi. With Musashi firmly stuck in one place, she has in a sense finally gotten her wish of being together with him, but she realizes that a With such a high profile battle behind him, Musashi becomes a natural target but he can’t even walk normally due to the scale of his injuries. Takuan urges him to decide to take on a normal life with Otsu, serving as a sword instructor for a lord. Otsu might finally be able to be together with Musashi, but if he’s prevented from following his chosen path, he won’t be living the type of life he wants to. Musashi is imprisoned for his own protection and he starts training yet again, limping around his cell and swinging a stick that his captors give him. The burden of killing becomes a spiritual form that hovers around him, and he realizes that the people he killed have been released from suffering, but he still remains with the burden of an endless fight. Vagabond often incorporates images from nature into the story, but this volume takes a more direct and sometimes surreal turn as the ghosts of the Yoshioka come to Otsu, making her acquainted with all the people Musashi has recently killed. While there might not be any fights in this volume, the Musashi’s internal struggle is the main focus. By the end of this volume, I felt like Vagabond was going to launch a new story arc with a radically changed Musashi as he continues to recover from his experiences.

How I learned to stop worrying and love Slam Dunk (Volumes 1-6)

June 28, 2012 by 2 Comments

I have been intending to read Slam Dunk for a long time. So long, the edition of volume 1 that I have was published by Raijin comics instead of Viz. I didn’t buy it immediately when it came out, but my lone volume of Slam Dunk has been sitting on my shelves for years. I dipped into it briefly when I was searching for manga scenes where people reference the song Dona Dona, but I didn’t go on to read the whole volume. I had a variety of ill-conceived concerns that relegated Slam Dunk to a semi-permanent place on my to-read stack.

One of the reasons why I was a reluctant Slam Dunk reader is that after being introduced to Takehiko Inoue’s art in Vagabond first, the art in Slam Dunk just didn’t seem to be as good to me after a cursory glance. Inoue’s style in Slam Dunk is much more simple and less realistic, and the characters seemed to be given to exaggerated facial expressions. It was honestly a bit shocking to me to see how much his art style has evolved. The other factor that made me not all that interested in Slam Dunk is that I thought the general plot outline just seemed very typical of a shonen sports manga. An idiot high school student decides to take up basketball in order to impress a girl. That seems reminiscent of most shonen plots, and it just didn’t grab me at first glance.

I was so wrong, and now I am extremely annoyed that I didn’t give this series a try earlier.

The first volume opens with Sakuragi getting rejected by a girl once again, because she has a crush on someone on the basketball team. He cast down in the depths of despair and all of his friends are making fun of him when he hears the question “Do you like basketball?” He turns around enraged only to find that he’s been approached by a cute girl who is carefully inspecting his height and legs. Haruko ends up getting Sakuragi to attend basketball practice with her, and he happily tags along, forgoing his usual after school fight. Sakuragi and Haruko start practicing in an empty gym and he goes up for a slam dunk only to knock himself silly on the backboard. Despite Sakuragi’s flaws and utter ignorance of the fundamentals of basketball, Haruko observes that Sakuragi has hops and concludes that she’s managed to scout the basketball team’s savior. Sakuragi is so dizzied by the prospect of a girl who actually seems to be willing to talk to him for more than 10 seconds that he joins the Shohoku High basketball team only to find that his troubles have just begun.

Sakuragi soon discovers that he has a nemesis in the form of Rukawa, a fellow first year student who is the actual object of Haruko’s affections. Rukawa is oblivious to Haruko. He spends most of his time sleeping in class and perfecting his poker face, but despite his stoic exterior he is an incredibly gifted athlete. The basketball team’s captain is a hulking gorilla of a high school senior who adds to his height with a vertical hairstyle reminiscent of Kid ‘n Play. Captain Akagi is as strict as a military drill sergeant, and he just happens to be Haruko’s beloved older brother. The first few volumes end up being a crash course in basketball for Sakuragi, as he is forced to learn the fundamentals like dribbling and layups even though all he wants to do is slam dunk again.

There is no denying that Sakuragi is an idiot, but Inoue manages to make him an extremely loveable idiot due to his secondary personality traits. He exhibits strong streak of dogged determination. When he’s first rejected for the team he shows up to clean the gym all by himself to prove his commitment to the team. Sakuragi also has a level of confidence in himself that borders on the absurd. He views himself as the savior of his team, and while he is occasionally able to show flashes of brilliance due to his innate athleticism he doesn’t yet really have a handle on the game. Still, there is something almost admirable about someone who manages to be so absolutely obtuse.

The supporting cast for Slam Dunk is well developed. Haruko is Sakuragi’s biggest cheerleader, saying that he isn’t scary when her classmates are intimidated by him and insisting that he has the potential to become a great basketball player. She is able to maintain her platonic friendship with Sakuragi by being blissfully unaware of his crush for her, assuming that he’s motivated because the game of basketball is so great. Rukawa is a great foil for the overemotional Sakuragi, as he is self-contained and a tiny bit cynical. The coach of the team who makes very brief appearances is a benign silent presence whose smiling expression is so hard to read he completely psychs out the coaches of opposing teams.

As the first part of the series progresses, Sakuragi begins to learn the basic moves of basketball, but he still has a long way to go in learning how to play a team sport. He uncharacteristically accepts not starting in the first basketball game of the season when the coach informs him that he is their “secret weapon.” One of the fun things for me in reading Slam Dunk is seeing themes that are explored later in Vagabond. The idea of someone who is so elite that he only comes alive when truly challenged is shown when Shohoku High takes on leading team Ryonan High, with an ace player named Sendoh who spends most of the game playing with a slightly indifferent attitude because he doesn’t have to give 100% in order for his team to win. Sendoh has a bemused expression as he is watching Sakuragi’s antics. Sakuragi ends up accidentally foiling the opposing coach’s defensive strategy through his own poor sportsmanship when he refuses to pass to Rukawa, feeding the ball to all the lesser players on his team. When Sakuragi and Rukawa double team Sendoh, Sendoh actually starts playing like he’s having fun for the first time because he’s actually being challenged.

One of the things that’s nice about Slam Dunk as opposed to Inoue’s more serious works like Real and Vagabond, is that he’s actually able to indulge his sense of humor in this series. I often laughed out loud at Sakuragi’s antics, and seeing how the other players manage to endure their new teammate was always entertaining. While Inoue’s art is much simpler in Slam Dunk, the art is much better than a typical shonen series. The basketball players all have distinct character designs and body types. Even the larger guys like Sakuragi and Akagi have different frames. Inoue really captures the tension in a basketball game, the speed and athleticism on the court, and the occasional frozen moments of time when a player gets incredible air and executes a perfect shot.

I think that Cross Game is probably my favorite sports manga, but after reading six volumes of Slam Dunk in short succession, I was really impressed. One of the reasons why I liked it so much is that there’s a general feeling of warmth that you get when reading this manga. Sakuragi is often made fun of, but he’s portrayed with affection. He even inspires a bit of grudging respect from his teammates as his basketball skills keep getting better. As a bonus, the reader also gets treated to a variety of 90s fashions and hairstyles. Inoue’s enthusiasm and love for the game informs the manga, making it seem more personal and interesting than a shonen manga that is developed by committee with the aid of magazine polls. After reading Slam Dunk, I can understand why it was one of the top selling manga in Japan. If you haven’t tried reading Slam Dunk yet, don’t be an idiot like me and wait for several years, just pick up a few volumes as soon as possible.

Real Volumes 1-5 by Takehiko Inoue

June 25, 2012 by 2 Comments

I suspect that while co-hosting the Manga Moveable Feast this month will be fun, I’m going to find this week more rewarding as a reader than as a host, simply because I’ve been waiting to explore Inoue’s sports manga series. Real is one of those titles that I’d heard about and was intrigued by, but hadn’t read before. I thought that I was only going to post a review of the first volume this week, but after reading it I promptly decided to order the next few volumes in the series and indulged myself in a mini-marathon of this seinen manga focused on wheelchair basketball. I would have read more volumes of this series if I’d had them on hand but I decided to pursue moderation in my manga choices for this week since I also had a mini-stack of Slam Dunk and a couple Vagabond omnibus volumes to get to. One of the things I just love about manga is the variety of topics. The fact that an 11+ volume ongoing series about wheelchair basketball even exits is pretty great, and when it is produced by someone with the artistry of Takehito Inoue it makes it even more special.

Real centers on three main protagonists. Tomomi Nomiya is a wanna-be tough guy who is a bit of an outcast at school even though he is on the basketball team. He was involved in a motorcycle accident that paralyzed his passenger, a girl named Natsumi who he had just picked up randomly. Hisanobu Takahashi is the arrogant new basketball captain who is about to experience something that will change his life forever. Kiyoharu Togawa is an elite athlete who had most of one leg taken off due to a childhood brush with cancer. His driven personality isn’t a good match with the hobbyists on his wheelchair basketball team.

Real Volume 1

The opening chapter of the series introduces Nomiya, and it lead me to think that Inoue excels at portraying loveable lunkheads. Nomiya shows up at school in street clothes to drop out. He kicks people around, confesses his love to an indifferent girl, obliviously gives his ex-teammates advice, and to conclude his visit he gets naked and defecates near the school gates. All of his previous behavior is then immediately placed in a different context when he is shown carefully smoothing his hair down and rearranging his clothes before he goes to visit Natsumi, who is still recovering from their accident. She refuses to talk to him, but he is stupidly persistent. He takes her on a walk and they hear someone practicing basketball. Nomiya promptly assumes that the young man in the wheelchair can’t play due to his disability, but Togawa promptly challenges him to a game of one on one after announcing that he’s not impressed with Nomiya. When Togawa shows Nomiya his moves, Nomiya demands a handicap for the match, asking to borrow Togawa’s sports wheelchair while Togawa rides in Natsumi’s hospital issue chair. Nomiya and Togawa’s lives begin to be more entangled when Nomiya recruits Togawa for a grudge match against his old team when he finds out that a former teammate is being bullied. Togawa reveals that he’s capable of using his disability to run a hustle on anyone, showing up at the match and making a most uncharacteristic speech about how he’s “Earnest and sincere…always with good cheer…I work hard and try my best..Even if I’ll never match up to you able-bodied folks.” Togawa deliberatly plays the role of a simple disabled person who is optimistic in order to endure that his opponents will underestimate him.

Real Volume 2

As this volume opens Nomiya and Togawa’s scheme of basketball street hustling has been derailed by the presence of an elite wheelchair basketball athlete named Mitsuru who has recently returned from Australia. Hisanobu has just suffered a spinal cord injury and isn’t capable of focusing on rehabilitation, because he can’t accept what’s happened to him yet. Togawa decides to rejoin his wheelchair basketball team, deliberately humbling himself because he wants to train again in order to match up with Mitsuru. Togawa’s childhood friend Azumi serves as manager for the Tigers, and she promises the other players that he his trying to change. But Togawa is still the only person on the team playing with the intensity of an athlete who really wants to win, so the basic cause of tension in the wheelchair basketball team is unresolved. Nomiya drifts from dead-end job to dead-end job. Nomiya and Hisanobu both face their old team playing the final game of the season. Hisanobu is alone in the hospital, hoping that they lose without him. Nomiya attends the game as a spectator in disguise, remembering all of the training he put in on his own to lead up to the last match. While Nomiya and Hisanobu face a low point, Togawa flashes back to his days as a track and field athlete with the potential to become something special. While his sprint times might be dropping, he has a nagging pain in his leg, that might be over training or something more serious.

The scenes of Hisanobu in the hospital are particularly well executed. The panels change perspective to show that Hisanobu can only look up at the people who bend over his bed to talk to him. Mundane details like a bowl of uneaten food or the curtain that separates his area from his roommate’s space contrast with the dynamic action Togawa is still able to experience on the basketball court, as he pushes himself and his team to win their next game despite his teammates’ hostility.


Real Volume 3

The real source of tension between Togawa and his team is the fact that they have innately different attitudes and approaches to the sport. Togawa is determined to push himself to win just for the sake of winning. His teammates say that winning is for the able-bodied. Wheelchair basketball doesn’t make it to the paper – it is only a human interest story, “Nobody expects anything from us. It’s about overcoming our disabilities. Put on a happy face and be optimistic. That’s all anyone wants to see.” After that speech, one of the Tigers reacts with violence, and for a change it isn’t Togawa. Yonezawa throws a cup of water in the face of the speech-maker and says “I want to win.” For the first time the Tigers play with intensity, even though they are about to lose to the Dreams who have two all-star players from the All-Japan team on their roster.

Nomiya sees that Togawa is making progress with his dream, while he’s still a high-school dropout whose post traumatic stress syndrome is preventing him from getting a driver’s license. He goes to Nagano to visit Natsumi but when he sees how much of a struggle physical therapy is for her, he’s unable to talk to her. He vows to become a better person and come back. Hisanobu’s stay in the hospital becomes a parade of horror, as he’s increasingly confronted with the fact that he won’t walk again. He’s uncomfortable being given a bath by the nurses, and shocked when he’s raised upright and immediately becomes dizzy. He dreams of running, but awake he begins to realize that he really doesn’t have any feeling in the lower half of his body. Hisanobu’s immobility contrasts with Togawa’s relentless pursuit of sport. When his old team comes to visit him, he kicks them out. When he asks for his long-lost father to visit, he experiences a psychological break and tries to kill himself. What follows is one of my favorite scenes in the series, as Nomiya turns up in the hospital for a vist, unaware of the exact details of Hisanobu’s condition. The two share a moment where they replay the final game of their former team in their imaginations as if they were still there – Hisanobu with a bandage over the side of his face making a game-winning shot. Hisanobu is so hostile that when Nomiya finds out about his condition, he can’t bear the thought of someone he thought of as a loser pitying him. Hisanobu’s nurse points out that he’ll e able to move around for himself when he starts rehabilitation, but Nomiya contrasts Natsumi’s quiet determination with Hisanobu’s petulance and concludes that Hisanobu is just like the way he was at basketball practice, looking for ways to slack off, making fun of people who were working hard and yells “You don’t have what it takes! Don’t kid yourself! You aren’t a loser because you can’t walk…you were already one to begin with!” Nomiya might not be the most intelligent person around, but his nearly pathological bluntness does allow him to see the truth of a situation.



Real Volume 4

Togawa’s experiences often serve as a spark for other characters to assess their own place in life. As Togawa becomes more energized when he sees some of his teammates finally show up to practice with a competative attitude, Azumi and Nomiya sit and watch him. She thinks that Togawa is finally back to the way he used to be and remembers him in his prime sprinting in track and field. Nomiya is aware that he’s being left further behind as Togawa seems to be on the verge of fulfilling his dreams of competition. Mitsuru watches the first game of the wheelchair basketball tournament with interest, thinking that Togawa’s team doesn’t suit him, and pondering the nature of Ego in team sports.

This ends up being a very Togawa-centric volume as the reader gets a bit more of his backstory, seeing how he reacted to his leg amputation surgery. Togawa ends up becoming a shut-in, only to be distracted one day when a man in a wheelchair named Tora sees him shuffling along with a prosthetic limb, gropes his knee area and discovers evidence of Rotationplasty, yells “Perfect!” and tells him to practice using a wheelchair before zipping off. Togawa also meets Yama, whose wasting disease is going to progress to a point where he will no longer be able to move at all. Yama and Tora show Togawa the possibilities of wheelchair basketball and suddenly Togawa has a new mentor and direction in his life. Tora is drawn as a sweaty beast of a man in a wheelchair, cracking jokes and always going at top speed, yet able to slow down and get Togawa to talk about his experiences adjusting to his new reality. It is easy to see why Togawa is so invested with the Tigers after seeing their former leader Tora.


Real Volume 5

After focusing on Togawa, this volume swings back to show how Hisanobu is doing with his rehabilitation. Driven on by the memory of Nomiya calling him a loser, Hisanobu is actually putting forth an effort for the first time. One of his former teachers urges him to consider going back to high school, and she takes him back there so they can make a list of the accommodations he might need. Real has an apt title, because the topics it deals with are never glossed over or treated superficially. As Hisanobu’s visit winds up, an official at the school looks at the projected costs for bringing him back and says “High school isn’t everything, is it?” He begins to talk about high school equivalency exams and special schools for the disabled. Nomiya finally gets his lisence and goes to visit Natsumi and she confronts him finally, telling him not to visit her because she thinks of him as her assailant.

Togawa gets a boost as he’s scouted for the national team and Mitsuru decides to join the Tigers. When he goes to visit his friend Yama, he’s confronted with Yama at his lowest point. Yama can no longer even palm a basketball. He’s hostile and depressed, asking Togawa and Azumi if they’ve done it yet and announcing that he wishes he could have sex before he dies. Togawa and Yama end up being able to communicate better through text message, when Yama tells Togawaa “I’m scared. I don’t know who I am anymore. By the time I die I’ll have turned into some awful person. Togawa is late to basketball practice as he texts back “I’ll tell you this, Yama. You’ve always been my hero, and you still are.” Yama is confined to his bed as Togawa yells to his team on the basketball court.

I don’t think I’m overstating anything by saying that Inoue is one of the best manga artists working today. He is able to tell an absolutely gripping story weaving together the lives of three very different people, and the supporting cast always seems well-developed and interesting. As one would expect, the art is a standout. Even a meathead like Nomiya is able to display some poetic moments of fluidity and grace when he goes in for a layup. Togawa’s power in his wheelchair is shown to be absolutely intimidating when able bodied opponents see him coming down the court at top speed. While Real centers around the wheelchair basketball world, it uses that setting as a way of exploring the underlying psychological issues of the protagonists. Nomiya desperately searches for a form of redemption. Hisanobu’s toxic habits of personality and thought patterns threaten to derail his rehabilitation. While there is no question that Togawa has the drive and personality to be an elite athlete, his lack of people skills while playing a team sport might threaten his bright future. Real is just an absolutely gripping manga, and I know I’m going to be seeking out the remaining translated volumes of the series as soon as possible.

Kicking off the Takehiko Inoue Manga Moveable Feast with your co-hosts Anna and Michelle!

June 23, 2012 by

Anna: I thought that it would be good to kick off the Takehiko Inoue feast with a short discussion of how we found ourselves co-hosting and why we both wanted to get involved in having an online discussion of Inoue’s manga. This has been in the works for some time, but I seem to remember a discussion of artist-centric feasts coming up on the MMF e-mail list and we both were leaping at the chance to talk about Inoue more. It seemed like an ideal excuse to host together, because I’d read many volumes of Vagabond and you’d focused more on Inoue’s sports manga. Does that sound right to you? Why did you want to host a Inoue MMF?


Michelle: That’s how I remember it, as well. Primarily, I wanted to co-host an Inoue MMF simply because of my intense love for Slam Dunk. Although I am not much of a sports fan in life, I love it in manga. I love rooting for the underdog, even if he turns out to be a hulking teenage delinquent with an inflated sense of his own awesomeness, and I love watching the protagonist find something in life he or she truly cares about.

But I’ve also been collecting Inoue’s other, more serious works, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to explore those. I remember one day I had a $10 credit at Border’s and was browsing the manga aisle, trying to decide what to get. Out of curiosity, I opened the first VIZBIG volume of Vagabond. I took one look at the absolutely gorgeous art and went, “Okay, this is the one.” So, not only are there good series to talk about, there’s also amazing art to talk about!

Anna: I also wanted an excuse to explore Inoue’s sports manga, and I ended up reading the first half of Real in about a week in preparation for the feast. It is just that good. For me, I think that Vagabond is one of those series I would use as an example of the best manga has to offer in terms of both artistic and literary value. I read the first couple volumes of Vagabond in the regular editions, but I really took to the series when the VizBig editions were released. It is the type of manga the reads wonderfully when you are consuming multiple volumes in one sitting. The timing of this feast is fortunate too, because it was recently announced that Vagabond was starting up again in Japan after a hiatus. What are you hoping to see with the Inoue MMF?

Michelle: I’m very happy to see Vagabond back on the schedule! VIZ has already solicited volume 34, too (due in October)!

What am I hoping to see… Well, I guess I’m hoping to see a lot of people trying Inoue that they weren’t familiar with—either Slam Dunk fans like me trying the seinen stuff, or the seinen fans trying the shounen Slam Dunk—and falling in love with it. His art is great, but the story is where my heart lies, so if even just one person dips their toe into Slam Dunk only to wind up smitten, I would be very happy indeed.

How about you?

Anna: I’d just like to see more discussion of Inoue’s works in general. It always struck me that his manga should have a bit more online buzz among English language blogs, considering the high quality of his work. I’ve stockpiled a few volumes of Slam Dunk, so I might be one of those people trying it out for the first time and winding up smitten too!

Michelle: I hope so! I should add, though, that dissenting opinions are entirely welcome! If you try Inoue and he’s not your cup of tea, that’s fine! Don’t be afraid to submit your link to us; we’re secure enough in our Inoue appreciation to weather some criticism!

Anna: Note – The Inoue Manga Moveable Feast runs from June 24-30, 2012. Here’s the original announcement post. Send current posts for linking to Michelle (swanjun@gmail.com) at Soliloquy in Blue. If you have older posts that you would like featured on the Inoue MMF archive page, contact me (anna@mangareport.com).

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