Entries Tagged as 'Manga'

Sand Chronicles (Series)

October 13, 2011

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)

September 26, 2011

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-

I Am Here!: Omnibus, Volume 1

May 8, 2011

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 Tokyopop

April 18, 2011

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!

March 18, 2011

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.