Categories
Manga Blogging

Announcing the next Manga Moveable Feast: Karakuri Odette

I’m pleased to announce the next Manga Moveable Feast will be hosted here from January 16th-22nd. We’ll focus on Karakuri Odette, a great shoujo series about an android girl who wants to become more human.

I wanted to make this title the focus of my first time hosting the manga moveable feast because Julietta Suzuki elevates the android-girl genre, turning it into a series that is at times both sweet and philosophical. Suzuki’s a gifted cartoonist too, and the ways she subtly differentiates android Odette’s body language from her human friends is always a treat to see. Since it is well over a month away, you have plenty of time to add a volume or two of this series to your wishlists, or maybe pick it up with your holiday money. One of the nice things about this series is that it is fairly episodic, so even if you were to pick up one of the later volumes I think it would still be easy to enjoy the manga.

Here’s a sample first chapter on the Tokyopop site.
Here’s a sampling of reviews of the first volume from:
Comics Worth Reading
My old blog TangognaT
A Case Suitable for Treatment
About.com manga guide
And a bunch of review links on Manga Views.

Categories
Giveaway

December Giveaway: The Story of Saiunkoku Volume 1

I ended up with an extra copy of the first volume of The Story of Saiunkoku, a fun fantasy shoujo series that features a strong heroine!

To enter the giveaway, just comment with the title of the manga you’d most like to get for the holidays. I’ll randomly pick a winner next Sunday.

And the winner is: Yalimar. Congrats!

Categories
Manga Reviews

One Piece Volumes 1 and 2

One thing that I’ve found a little off-putting about One Piece is the wide consensus that it takes quite a few volumes to really get going. I tend to follow a two book rule on principle when evaluating manga series to see if I want to collect them, because while I’ve read plenty of so-so first volumes that develop into an interesting series by volume two, I have a limited amount of patience when it comes to the idea of collecting several volumes just to get to the good stuff. But I only have the first two volumes on hand right now, so that’s what I’m going to look at today. I’m going to attempt to show what might lead a reader to assume that the series isn’t so great and also highlight the aspects that might cause someone to come back for more.

The first chapter of One Piece follows a very typical shonen formula. An adventurous proto-hero gets inspired by a total bad-ass and decides to become a hero himself. I’m sure there are numerous examples of other manga that have similar beginning chapters, but the ones that come to my mind immediately are Tegami Bachi and Gun Blaze West. The heroic quest idea gets a little bit of a twist in One Piece because Monkey D. Luffy decides that he’ll become “The King of the Pirates.” Luffy is aided in his ambition by his inadvertent ingestion of the fruit of the Gum-Gum tree, which adds him to the ranks of stretchy superheroes. I’ve often thought that elastic powers give a cartoonist the license to go absolutely crazy, but Luffy’s powers mostly seem to manifest in near-invulnerability and the ability to do devastating super-stretchy punches.

Luffy is a hero who is made engaging due to his almost stupid levels of enthusiasm and his tendency to leap into action without any fear for himself. He sets out in a dinghy for the fabled “One Piece,” the legendary pirate treasure that will make him Pirate King. Luffy’s early adventures show him gradually assembling a team that will help him fulfill his quest. He’s joined by Zoro, a swordsman with a hilarious three-sword technique (he fights with swords in both hands and one clenched in his teeth) and Nami, a greedy femme fatale of a navigator.

The art in One Piece is one aspect that might be off-putting to a new reader. Oda’s style is cartoony, with plenty of exaggerated facial expressions. If someone comes to One Piece wanting slick art featuring the giant blades and billowing costumes of Bleach, they’re going to be disappointed. I enjoyed the Oda’s art, just because it looks very different from most shonen titles. I especially appreciated the variety in the character designs for the villains Luffy faced, which ranged from a hideously gigantic pirate queen to a corrupt navy captain with an iron jaw and an axe for a hand. I wasn’t surprised to see that Oda once worked as an assistant on Rurouni Kenshin, because I always thought one of the great things about that series was distinctive villain character design. That’s something I look for when reading shonen manga, so that goes in One Piece’s bonus column for me.

The storyline in the first couple volumes will likely perplex anyone who is wondering why One Piece is a bestseller in Japan. Luffy pulls his team together due to his enthusiasm and genuine friendliness. Even if other characters initially think Luffy is crazy, they end up falling in with his plans despite their earlier intentions. The first couple volumes feature plenty of fights made more interesting by the unique qualities of the villains as well as some episodes that have a bit of after school special type moralizing about the power of friendship. Luffy meets a boy whose ambition is to join the navy and fight pirates, and he becomes Luffy’s first friend from outside his village. Later, a dog’s loyalty is shown to endure past the life of his master in a town decimated by pirates.

The emotional tone in the first couple volumes is one thing that I think hasn’t gelled yet. The series seems on the surface to just be fairly goofy, with the exaggerated villains, plenty of action scenes and jokes, and a hero who can’t be hurt by anything. But there are scattered scenes that emphasize the arbitrary nature of violence and death. Luffy’s hero gets his arm bitten off by a shark and seems largely unconcerned about the sudden amputation. Zoro’s back story is about moving on from tragedy and while Luffy is largely unharmed by fighting with pirates, his companions don’t have that luxury. Zoro fights past the point of exhaustion and announces his intention to sleep on the battlefield, and Luffy cheerfully flexes his muscles and decides to take over. The darker element of violence mixed with the more frivolous elements and usual shonen boosterism of friendship might hint at darker times ahead for Luffy and his crew, and that’s what I’d be interested in seeing later on in the series.

If I was just going by the first couple volumes of the series, I might just assume that One Piece was just a slightly better than average shonen series, with the added bonus of piracy. But seeing how many people are genuinely enthusiastic about this manga makes me think I should at least check out a few of the omnibus volumes even though I am frightened of getting hooked by a 60+ shonen series. I will be looking for One Piece at my local library too.

Categories
Anime

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Read Or Die

Today’s Saturday morning cartoon is one of my all time favorite anime: Read Or Die!

Categories
Manga News

PR: Kamisama Kiss Coming Soon From Viz

I tend to only run press releases I am genuinely enthusiastic about, which is definitely the case with the new Julietta Suzuki series Kamisama Kiss. I’d want to get it in any case because I think her series Karakuri Odette is fantastic, and now I’m intrigued with the premise of the story:

Nanami, alone & homeless after her dad skips town to avoid the debt collectors, saves a mysterious man from a dog attack. Grateful for the rescue, he offers Nanami his home with a kiss on her forehead. Little does she know, but Nanami has just taken over his home…AND his job as the local deity! Adjustments and new responsibilities lay ahead as Nanami faces a host of supernatural creatures, and finds what might be love with the recalcitrant yokai caretaker!

Suzuki managed to make the off-putting at first glance premise of an android girl attending high school genuinely interesting and heartwarming, so I’m very curious to see what she does with gods and yokai. Here’s the full press release:

VIZ MEDIA RELEASES DIVINE ROMANTIC COMEDY KAMISAMA KISS

A Kiss On The Forehead Is A Girl’s Ticket To A New Home And An Unexpected Life As A Deity

San Francisco, CA, December 2, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, will release the shojo manga (graphic novels for female readers) romantic comedy, KAMISAMA KISS, on December 7th. The new series, created by Julietta Suzuki, will be published under the company’s Shojo Beat imprint, is rated ‘T’ for Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.
Nanami Momozono is alone and homeless after her dad skips town to evade his gambling debts and the debt collectors kick her out of her apartment. So when a mysterious man she’s just saved from a dog attack offers her his home, she jumps at the opportunity. But it turns out that his place is a shrine, and Nanami has unwittingly taken over his job as a local deity!

“Plenty of surprises are in store for Nanami as she adjusts to life at the shrine, taking on new responsibilities and facing a whole range of hidden dangers that she doesn’t fully understand yet,” says Pancha Diaz, Editor. “A kiss on the forehead might have bestowed the land-god mark on Nanami, but she will have a lot to learn as she faces a bratty sky god, a mysterious swamp deity, and a strange, cute boy who might have supernatural powers of his own!”
Julietta Suzuki’s debut manga The Day One Becomes A Star appeared in Hana to Yume Plus magazine in 2004. Her other published works include The Devil And Sweets, Karakuri Odette, and Kamisama Kiss, which is currently featured in Hana to Yume.

For more information on KAMISAMA KISS, or other shojo titles from VIZ Media, please visit www.ShojoBeat.com.