Year: 2012

Categories
Manga Blogging

Call for Participation: Shojo Beat Manga Moveable Feast

I’m excited to host a Manga Moveable Feast focusing on Shojo Beat from September 16th-22nd. I have a ton of manga in my house, but I probably have more Shojo Beat manga than any other imprint from a particular publisher. Take a look at the Shojo Beat series listing on Viz Media if you aren’t sure which series are included in the Shojo Beat imprint. Since this is a very large group of manga to draw from, I’m going to include some possible ideas for posts:

Old School Shojo Beat: The imprint has been around for a few years, and there may be some series that you’ve missed. Check out older Shojo Beat titles like Crimson Hero, Absolute Boyfriend, Baby and Me, or Full Moon.

Current Shojo Beat Reviews: Review currently releasing series like Oresama Teacher, Dengeki Daisy, Dawn of the Arcana, or Kamisama Kiss.

Shojo Beat Authors: Some authors have multiple series published under the Shojo Beat imprint. How about a post about Yuu Watase, Matsuri Hino, Miki Aihara, or Arina Tanemura

Most Criminally Overlooked Shojo Beat title: Not all series end up on the New York Times Manga Bestseller’s list. Why not write an appreciation post (Kaze Hikaru) for a manga (Kaze Hikaru) that doesn’t get the hype it deserves (Kaze Hikaru). (This could be a series other than Kaze Hikaru, I’m just very partial to it.)

Shojo Beat Mangazine Nostalgia post: Dig up your copies of Shojo Beat magazine and flip through them, remembering the days when we actually had a print magazine devoted to shojo manga.

As for what I’m planning myself, aside from the usual MMF hosting duties I might do a round-up post focusing on some of the fun two volume Shojo Beat series, as well as full reviews of some of the Arina Tanemura manga that I’ve been hoarding but haven’t reviewed yet. If anyone would want to join in on a Shojo Beat discussion post during the week, please let me know and I will put that together. If you would like to participate but don’t have your own blog, let me know and I can host your post.

Submissions can be sent to me at anna@mangareport.com
Twitter hashtag for this feast is #shojobeatmmf
Archive page for the feast is here: http://mangareport.com/mmf-shojo-beat/

I’m looking forward to the feast later this month, and I hope you are too!

Categories
Manga Reviews

Library Wars: Love and War Volume 8

Library Wars: Love and War Volume 8 by Kiiro Yumi

I knew that this volume was going to be dangerously adorable when I saw Iku and Dojo in an over-the-top romantic pose, complete with a ribbon in a heart shape proclaiming “Prince and Princess.” I’m always in favor of shoujo manga featuring prominent ribbons. Iku’s administrative woes are revealed to be caused by the machinations of Tezuka’s big brother – the evil library futurist. He asks for a meeting with Iku, hoping to win her to his side and use her to influence Tezuka. This meeting is where Iku’s so-called simplemindedness comes in handy, because she just flatly rejects him and his evil plans even when she has the opportunity to save herself from an administrative witch hunt. She says “If Tezuka learned that his big brother did something so shameful, he would be hurt. I mean how could I be so selfish? Tezuka is my friend.” Dojo shows up in a dress uniform halfway through the meeting and drags Iku away. What then follows is a totally cute scene where Dojo forces Iku to sit on a park bench because he can’t pat her head to praise her when she’s standing due to her high heels. Iku begins to ponder Dojo’s prince-like behavior, but when she gets a letter from Tezuka the Elder pointing making insinuations about Dojo and Iku’s princely ideals, she finally realizes that Dojo was the library officer who helped her save her favorite book from censorship when she was in school.

Iku spends the rest of the volume in full freakout mode as she attempts to process her own emotions and understand Dojo’s current feelings for her. There is a nice sideplot that shows Tezuka saving Shibazaki from unwanted male attention. It took eight volumes for Iku to finally realize her feelings for Dojo, but I have to say that as a fan of the series, it was worth the wait. There was much more focus on the emotions of the characters and their shifting relationships in this volume, as opposed to the usual library crime of the week. While I do enjoy all the paramilitary exercises about library books, I found this volume much more gripping than the past few volumes of Library Wars. It looks like this series is up to ten volumes in Japan, and I’m guessing it will get wrapped up in a little bit now that the central romance is finally starting to move forward. I’m looking forward to Dojo’s reaction once he knows that Iku knows he’s her prince.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Categories
Manga News

Jmanga7 signup contest

It’ll be interesting to see what Jmanga.com does with Jmanga7, their new platform for ios and android devices with free manga content. Overall, I’ve been happy with the diversity of titles on Jmanga and their general responsiveness to feedback, especially on pricing. If you sign up now, you are entered into a contest to win a Nexus or free Jmanga.com subscription.

Here’s the full press release from Jmanga:

JManga Co., Ltd., the company behind the world’s first official manga portal website www.JManga.com, is proud to announce its brand new service, JManga7. JManga7.com will be beginning service in October 2012, however, in time with the 1 year anniversary of JManga.com’s launch, manga fans worldwide may now pre-register for JManga7 for a chance to win a Nexus7 (7 winners) and a 1 year free subscription (7 winners). Pre-registration is free. For more details and to pre-register, visit: www.JManga7.com

On JManga7 manga readers and aficionados around the globe will be able to access a wide variety of manga chapters to experience online or on their preferred iOS and Android devices. JManga7 will be kicking off with a large variety of titles, scheduled to be announced in September 2012, spanning across all genres of manga from
the hottest to the undiscovered. JManga7, as the name alludes, will be updated with new manga chapters 7 days a week, giving readers the chance to read their favorite manga, or discover something entirely new, every day. JManga7 will include exclusive manga content and some new chapters will be bundled into manga volumes that will be available for purchase on JManga.com after their release on JManga7.com.

Loads of manga will be available to read on JManga7 for free, with even more available with a monthly subscription. JManga.com Members will also be able to experience and enjoy JManga7 seamlessly using their existing JManga account.

Categories
Manga Reviews

Late Advent Volumes 1 and 2 by Yuriko Matsukawa from emanga

I was excited to see that some shoujo titles are starting to pop up on emanga.com, because it seems as though most of the titles released through the DMG program are yaoi, and a little yaoi generally goes a long way with me. I often enjoy two volume series like Late Advent. Sometimes manga that’s complete in one volume doesn’t really follow through on character and plot development, but two volumes is often enough space to experience a short series without feeling rushed. I think this manga originally came out in Japan in 2000, but I thought it had a bit of an older 90s shoujo fantasy vibe.

Late Advent Volume 1

Reira Bandou is going through her normal everyday life, going to her college classes and learning about eight classic statues that depict Buddhist deities. Reira is exausted because she’s been having strange dreams, and as she’s sitting in class a strange blobby demon starts crawling up her desk. Reira starts having encounters with odd people who claim that they knew her in a past life, and that she’s descended from Ashura, the Buddhist god of War. She meets Kubanda, a feral-looking hipster who introduces himself as her lover in a past life. She also meets the gentle Kinnara, a boy with a visible third eye, a talking myna bird who is Karua, and Shagara, whose human form is that of a cynical professor. As Reira starts to adjust to her changed circumstances and struggles to control her new supernatural powers, she’s aided by the deity Gobujo, who only seems to appear as a voice or spirt but hasn’t yet manifested in human form. With the eight deities gathered together, they have to face down the new invasion of demons that might have been triggered by their presence.

Late Advent Volume 2

Matsukawa’s art is smooth and assured, with her deities shown as garbed in fantasy armor with fangs when they channel their godly powers. The adaptation here seemed smooth. I spotted one obvious error, but overall Late Advent was very readable. I found myself having a bit of difficulty following the sequence and reasoning behind all the demonic battles, and Reira seemed to gain new confidence with her powers between volumes. I was also a bit sleepy when I was reading Late Advent, so
some of my difficulties in following the plot were probably due to fatigue. One of the aspects of the series I enjoyed was the contrast between Reira’s occasional flashbacks or dreams and the current incarnations of the various deities. Elements of the past inform the present, and in some cases the current lives the characters are living provide a way for them to work through the trauma of their past lives. I did enjoy Late Advent overall. The Buddhist deities with super-powers but was a nice change of pace from some of the other fantasy series that I’ve read, and I enjoyed the old-school feeling of the art. This is a good series for shoujo fantasy fans to check out. As a shoujo fan, I want to see a good variety of publishers coming out with new titles, so I’m happy to see new shoujo on the emanga platform and hope that this series is a sign of more shoujo to come from emanga.

Electronic access provided by the publisher.

Categories
Manga Reviews

Shojo Beat Quick Takes – Oresama Teacher #10 and A Devil and Her Love Song #4

Oresama Teacher #10 by Izumi Tsubaki

Oresama Teacher has settled into a bit of a predictable formula, but Tsubaki’s particular brand of ridiculous idiocy never fails to cheer me up. This volume focuses on Yui, the ninja and erstwhile spy on the Public Morals Club for the fiendish school council. He decides that Mafuyu and Hayasaka have to endure his particular brand of ninja training, with hilarious results as his modern substitutes for traditional ninja training apparatus never seem to quite work out. Mafuyu has to struggle to get certification for the Public Morals Club, which involves tangling with Hojo, a student council lackey with a major crush on Yui. It is amusing, because while Mafuyu is incredibly dense when it comes to her own feelings, she quickly figures out the undercurrents between Hojo and Yui while Yui remains absolutely oblivious. Deranged ninja antics are always good for a laugh, and while it was nice to have the focus of this volume on a different character, I’m hoping that the next volume swings back to feature more scenes with Hayasaka and Takaomi. I’d also like to see some more scenes that show Mafuyu’s emotional development as she works through her issues with juvenile delinquency. Also, I feel like there was less face-punching in this volume than I’ve come to expect from Oresama Teacher.

A Devil and Her Love Song #4 by Miyoshi Tomori

Ordinarily I would start to get a little frustrated with a series where characters spend a large chunk of time discussing their feelings and interactions, but in A Devil and Her Love Song Maria’s forthright pronouncements and abrasive personality put her into some interesting situations. I might not feel as much of an emotional connection to this story as compared to some of my other favorite shoujo manga, but I do enjoy seeing how Maria’s presence seems to force the people around her to change and grow. In this volume, we are still dealing with the Machiavellian shenanigans around a school concert that the media is about to film. Maria’s evil teacher is planning on using her alleged “reformation” as a way of bringing favorable publicity to the school, and Hana is going along with the plan so she can show herself as a saintly angel of forgiveness. The only problem is that Maria is totally aware of the plan and decides to participate willingly just due to her desire to sing with her classmates. Maria encourages her previous bully Ayu to express her true feelings, with the result that the entire set-up gets derailed when Ayu can’t stand the blatant hypocrisy and lies around her. Maria faces even more obstacles, but she ends up putting “a lovely spin” on the whole situation, managing to salvage the concert. It’ll be interesting to see the fallout resulting from this volume, since various classmates have had emotional breakthroughs and learned more about themselves. I’m predicting that Maria will never be popular, but I’m guessing that her circle of friends will grow a bit and she’s going to treasure the loyalty of the people who actually appreciate her forthright yet slightly odd personality. Overall, this was yet another strong volume for this series.

Review copies provided by the publisher.