There it is, Plain as Daylight

So, I picked up volume four of Pluto earlier this evening, anxious to dig in to the latest volume of my favorite manga series this year. My plans were dashed less than a chapter in, however, when I became so emotional that I actually had to put it down. Since this volume is new, I’ll avoid any details. Suffice it to say this was a fairly small incident (relative to the scope of the work as a whole) that just happened to hit me unusually hard. This isn’t a fatal issue, of course. I’ll pick it up again once I feel I’ve recovered, perhaps in a less vulnerable moment. Nor is it a criticism of Pluto, by any means. I want to be moved deeply by fiction. That’s why I read it. It’s a powerful testament to the craft of both Tezuka and Urasawa that the series is able to affect me so strongly.

What this experience brings to mind now as I remain here uselessly in my chair, not quite ready to pick up anything else, is other moments in manga that have brought me to tears. Continue Reading »

That title makes it sound like a new fighting game, or a superhero comic, but there it is. :) I said in my last post that there was a lot I had to say about Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok’s One Thousand and One Nights that didn’t make it into my Manga Recon review, and one of those things was elaboration on a particular statement from the review. I said at one point, regarding the relationship between the two main characters in the story (Sultan Shahryar and his “Scheherazade,” Sehara):

“Their relationship is reminiscent of that between Ash Lynx and Eiji Okamura in Akimi Yashida’s classic shojo manga, Banana Fish (though more overtly sexualized), as both stories feature a pure, open heart coming to the rescue of a man with too much blood on his hands.”

More than that would have been out of place in the review, but I’d like to discuss it further here. The truth is, Sehara and Eiji are very much alike, and both of them are of a particular type that draws me to a story like Touya Akira to a goban. My “bullet-proof” character-type if you will. Both are unusually pure of heart, but in a wonderfully understated kind of way that fills me with delight.

Ash and Shahryar, however, though each a fearsome leader with a bloody history, differ in one especially significant way that I’ll explore after the jump! Continue Reading »

One of the series I’m always trying to draw friends into is Akimi Yoshida’s classic shojo manga, Banana Fish. I first discovered this series, embarrassingly, through wikipedia, as I was trying to find shojo manga that I could really enjoy. It was this entry that piqued my interested in the series, citing a quote from Frederik L. Schodt, which described Banana Fish as “…one of the few girls’ manga a red-blooded Japanese male adult could admit to reading without blushing.” Right around the same time, mention of Banana Fish began turning up in interviews with Jason Thompson, just before the publication of his book, Manga: The Complete Guide, and though I don’t remember exactly what he said about it back then, it had the effect of spurring my interest into action, and before I knew it, I began buying the series.

I’m certainly not the only person who has tried to generate interest in Banana Fish. Shaenon Garrity made it part of her awesome Overlooked Manga Festival (one of my very favorites of that series so far), and to my mind, no further persuasion should be needed. Still, I find Banana Fish is a tough sell with friends. There’s no way to effectively preview the series, as there are no scanlations available and it is difficult to find on the shelves of brick and mortar bookstores (ditto with libraries). Anyone who wants to jump into this series pretty much has to commit to buying at least one book they may not end up liking, and I’ve found just a few who are willing to risk that. I’m going to try here to build on the case that Shaenon Garrity has already made for this series, with hope that even just one more person might choose to take that risk.

Continue Reading »

I haven’t come here to talk about manga for a while, and I’ve really read quite a bit of it in the meantime, though much of it has been a single series.  Work on my own graphic novel has been going slowly, but right now, I feel like talking about other people’s universes.

I think I mentioned that I finally got the last 11 volumes of Banana Fish (thank you to a generous birthday gift from my folks), and I gobbled them up in very little time.   

Continue Reading »