Lori Henderson rounds up the past week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu. Erica Friedman presents another edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu. And Melinda Beasi looks over the March reviews in her Manhwa Monday roundup.

The Manga Moveable Feast continues with reviews and commentary on Emma from David Welsh, Khursten Santos, Rob McMonigal, and our gracious host, Matt Blind.

The Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh, explains why he doesn’t read scanlations and adds some legitimate online initiatives he’d like to see.

Tangognat reads the March Previews and looks forward to Library Wars. Kate Dacey takes the shorter view with a look at this week’s new manga.

Akemi discusses learning about wine and Go from manga at Myth and Manga.

License requests: Lori Henderson would like to see the Square Enix title Tentai Seshi Sunred brought over here, please. David Welsh suggests some Tezuka volumes he’d like to see.

News from Japan: Kannagi creator Eri Takenashi is unable to continue the series at the moment, due to serious health problems, but her brother Shinichi Yuhki is starting up a spinoff titled Kanpachi, which will run in Monthly Comic Rex. Canned Dogs is pleased. And both Zipang creator Kaiji Kawaguchi and Suppli manga-ka Mari Okazaki are working on new series.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team checks out a varied array of manga in their latest Manga Minis column.

Kristin on 9th Sleep (Comic Attack)
Noah Berlatsky on All My Darling Daughters (The Comics Journal)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Arata the Legend (Comics Should Be Good)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of Arata: The Legend (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 30 of Bleach (Kuriousity)
Julie on Blood Honey (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Julie on vol. 5 of Bride of the Water God (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Erica Friedman on ChinMan (Okazu)
Snow Wildsmith on Croquis (Fujoshi Librarian)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Crown of Love (Tangognat)
Jaime Samms on Desire – Dangerous Feelings (Kuriousity)
Shannon Fay on Dog x Cat (Kuriousity)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 18 of Hikaru no Go (Comics-and-More)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 8 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 17 of Love*Com (Comics Worth Reading)
Tiamat’s Disciple on A Most Suitable Wife (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Julie on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho (Manga Maniac Cafe)
M. on not simple (coffeeandink)
Michelle Smith on vols. 16-18 of One Piece (Soliloquy in Blue)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 35 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Michelle Smith on vol. 4 of Phantom Dream (Soliloquy in Blue)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Stepping on Roses (Kuriousity)
Jennifer Dunbar on vols. 1 and 2 of Sugar Princess (A word is a unit of language)
Erica Freidman on vol. 5 of Tsubomi (Okazu)

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I didn’t really care for the love relationships in the show, but after this, count me in for Hino x Tomomi. That was the best indirect love confession I’ve seen. And shame on Tomomi, trying to actually test if she liked him or not by getting him out on a date. Even someone as mischievous as her can’t not be affected by this, eh.

On a sidenote, the principal is such an awesomely self-declared fujoshi. It’s so lol that the Principal of a high-class school is such a kid. Ahaha.

©2010 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Melinda Beasi has the scoop on Yuu Watase’s Arata: The Legend, coming soon from Viz. And David Welsh reviews it!

Gia picks up on some new manga licenses of note, including Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko), by Aoi Hana creator Takako Shimura, which was one of David Welsh’s license requests.

Your philosophical discussion of the day: Scott VonSchilling argues that women draw the best sexy manga; Gia answers that there’s a bit of sample bias going on, and then takes on the question of why women would want to draw smutty manga in the first place.

The latest volume of Negima tops this week’s New York Times manga best-seller list, which seems a bit more diverse than usual this week.

Pirates beware: Danielle Orihuela-Gruber lists ten ways you can legally read manga without breaking the bank.

The Yaoi Review gets an update on vol. 5 of Breath: It’s in the works but running late because of problems with the printer.

Is Sailor Moon poised for a comeback? ICv2 considers the possibilities for the manga and the anime.

Off topic, but interesting: I interviewed Amir, the writer of the webcomic Zahra’s Paradise, and Mark Siegel, the editorial director of First Second (which is publishing the comic) for this week’s Unbound column at Robot 6.

Reviews

Todd Douglass on vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Maki)
Susan S. on vol. 7 of The Antique Gift Shop (Manga Jouhou)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Black Bird (The Comic Book Bin)
Snow Wildsmith on Black-Winged Love (Fujoshi Librarian)
Todd Douglass on Blood Honey (Anime Maki)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Cactus’s Secret (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 32 of Case Closed (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Detroit Metal City (The Comic Book Bin)
Rob on vol. 1 of Dororo (Panel Patter)
Matthew J. Brady on vol. 10 of The Drifting Classroom (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
A Library Girl on vol. 8 of Emma (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rob on vol. 4 of Flower of Life (Panel Patter)
Greg Burgas on vol. 1 of Gantz (Comics Should Be Good)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (I Reads You)
Laura on vol. 13 of High School Debut (Heart of Manga)
Connie on vols. 1-3 of Jihai (Manga Recon)
Susan S. on vol. 1 of Kiichi and the Magic Books (Manga Jouhou)
Connie on vol. 7 of Mixed Vegetables (Slightly Biased Manga)
Brenda Gregson on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho (Animanga Nation)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Otomen (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Panic x Panic (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Connie on vol. 8 of Pluto (Slightly Biased Manga)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Reading Club (Manga Bookshelf)
Todd Douglass on Remember (Anime Maki)
Danielle Leigh on vols. 1 and 2 of Vampire Hunter D (Comics Should Be Good)
Connie on vol. 9 of Wild Act (Slightly Biased Manga)
Grant Goodman on The World I Create (Manga Recon)

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So this week we start off by having a little side story on Mayumi, Yamamoto-sensei’s younger sister. And same like her sister, she really has a presence that motivates people and helps them do their best.

Exhibit A here is Hanamaru-sensei, mangaka of the meta-series Panda-cat and also the author whom Mayumi is working with in her publishing company work. Obviously, Mr. Hanamaru is parallel directly to Tsucchi, in a lot of ways.

What really made me laugh this episode is also how similar both the Yamamoto-siblings are in terms of personal romance realization. Each of them realize the men interested with each other, but they are surprisingly ignorant of the fact themselves. I just had to laugh out loud when I realise how similar they are to each other.

Poor Tsucchi and Hanamaru-sensei. Well, all i can say is, keep it up guys!

Next segment has….

… oh yes, adult Anzu (imaginary).

Oh god.. what?!!

Derp… that’s really something I wouldn’t want to know about. TMFI! TMFI! Geez, Sakura-senpai, tone things down a bit!

Meanwhile, dear lil’ Koume-chan wants to grow up to be a baker. Doesn’t she just look cute in that!

As for Hiiragi… well, that’s to be expected right? But really, she sets her sights high!

Additional bonus:

Younger Satsuki is so HNNNNNGHHHHH.

©2010 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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You know, I actually watched the shitty Korean-raw+overlaid subs before, but I really didn’t think that gave me the proper experience to talk about the show until now that the Blu-Rays are out. Finally managed to catch the movie is its proper glory and I must say…. Summer Wars is a movie that gets better with a rewatch than just judging it from one go.

Of course, like DarkMirage, the whole subplot involving the virtual world of OZ and Hollywood Hacking is definitely not the high point of the movie nor is the subject of the movie itself. Summer Wars is all about family and the unbreakable bonds between its members, no matter how badly one can become, family will always there to be behind you.

(spoilers inbound after the jump)

It is a topic that really strikes through the heart and despite myself I did find myself teary-eyed at the touching scenes, like when Kenji was getting arrested and he confessed to Grandma Sanae how he truly enjoyed his time with the Jinnouchi family because it was a direct opposite of his house where both parents are working and barely had time for him. Or when Sanae “gave away” Natsuki to Kenji via Hanafuda before passing away shortly after the next morning. And when Sanae’s will was found and finally read, galvanizing the spirits of everyone to beat the Love Machine once and for all. These are truly some deeply-constructed writing and it really shouldn’t be taken at face value, but rather examined with the “family and bonds” theme in mind.

This is such a badass fanart of Grandma Sanae.

As for characters, Grandma Sanae is truly the heart and soul of the movie and I really enjoyed her a lot. She truly is the image of an ideal grandmother, to the point of being Mary Sue-ish, but for a movie like this, her character is the glue that holds everyone and everything together, which really does make her the central point of the family and the movie.

It’s not something I can say about the “leads” though, supposedly being Kenji and Natsuki, since it has been correctly pointed out that their character development is rather shallow. But then, the true main character of Summer Wars is really the Jinnouchi family; thus as such I feel that is justified now overall in the movie.

On to the criticisms, I believe that Summer Wars’ OZ construct subplot was really one of the weakest parts of the movie and that is mostly to do with how far way their image of the Internet is to the current real world. Basically OZ is like Second Life only more powerful and real, it’s a very distilled and simplified essence of what sci-fi imagined the Internet would be like in another 10 years time back in 2000.

But if you look at the big picture, OZ is really a manifestation of the second major theme of the movie, modernity vs tradition, old vs new, etc etc. There’s a lot of small hints of those around the movie, for example how people are still having less time for their families despite having OZ which supposedly supports virtual workplaces, how systems still go haywire and require real people to attend to them, how Sanae’s phone is still a rotary model and she manages to solve the crisis over Japan singlehandedly, how Kazuma inserts a subtle jab about LCD’s having slow response times and asks for a CRT instead and finally how the showdown at the end was done with Hanafuda. I don’t think I will elaborate more on this, but it’s something many people kinda miss at their first watch.

Included this because I thought it was cute.

Basically, Summer Wars is a good movie, but it’s best enjoyed with 2-3 watches. One will certainly be quite distracted by the whole virtual world shebang at the first watch, but on the second watch, it’s easier to concentrate on the really important things of the movie. In the end, I’ll give it a final rating of 7.5 out of 10.

P.S. It’s pretty fucking disturbing how many h-doujin/fanarts of Kazuma exist. Can someone tell me why he’s so popular?

©2010 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Deadman Wonderland, vol. 1
By Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou
Rated OT, for Older Teens
Tokyopop, $10.99

This tale of an innocent young man trapped in a prison that doubles as an amusement park isn’t exactly blazing a new literary trail, but the strands are twisted together very nicely, with clear art, good storytelling, and a bit of foreshadowing to tie it all together.

It starts with the first few pages, a hazy view of a boy and a girl playing together while a woman plays piano. The action is accompanied by a song lyric about a woodpecker who is poisoned by the gods and cannot touch his friends for fear he will poison them. Then a mysterious red man appears, armed guards storm him, and the apartment blows up. After which, Tokyo is destroyed by an earthquake.

(Spoilers after the jump)

Fast forward ten years, and say hello to Ganta Igarashi, a survivor of the Tokyo earthquake (and presumably the little boy in the opening sequence). Comfortably ensconced in junior high, Ganta is doing typical teenage things—goofing around with his friends and looking forward to the class trip—when suddenly, the mysterious red man appears in the window. Next thing you know, everyone in Ganta’s class has been reduced to slashed-up corpses. As Ganta stands up, still dazed, the red man advances on him and thrusts some sort of red jewel into his chest.

So, in the first 20 pages we have done the normal-life-shattered-by-unspeakable-violence thing twice, and we still have no clue why. But the book continues to rocket forward, and the creators drop just enough clues along the way to keep it interesting.

Ganta is quickly tried and convicted for his classmates’ murders, sentenced to death and sent to Deadman Wonderland, a prison that doubles as a theme park. This gives the creators plenty of scope for combining violence with goofy pop-culture cuteness, and they take full advantage of it, with a cartoony guide for prisoners and loudspeakers concealed inside super-cute roosters in prison stripes. The prisoners perform in deadly competitions for the entertainment of the spectators, who are told the whole thing is faked. In fact, the contests are just one of the highly creative ways that the prison administrators have of executing the prisoners’ death sentences.

Away from the public, of course, the prison is a brutal place, with a dominatrix of a guard, Makina, overseeing the prisoners and bullies imposing their will on the weak. All this is pretty much standard-issue prison-fantasy stuff. The twist comes in the form of Shira, a cheerful albino girl in a skin-tight jumpsuit who comes crashing into the story to act as Ganta’s protector and cheerleader. Shira is the ultimate manga girl—she is naïve, cheerful, unfailingly kind, and incredibly acrobatic. She absorbs much of the pain intended for Ganta, even taking a knife in the back at one point. She seems to be immune to any sort of physical harm, but it’s hard to tell whether she has some special power or it’s just dumb luck that keeps her from getting killed.

What emerges out of all this, and you can see it coming a mile away, is that there is Something Special about Ganta. On the one hand, he is determined to survive in a system that is stacked against him, and he wants to somehow prove the red man exists, in order to prove his innocence. At the same time, the whole thing is rigged: The prison administrator knows all about the red man (who is known as Original Sin and kept locked up in the same prison), and he has a special interest in Ganta, who saw the red man and lived. So Ganta is not going to be shrugged off and sliced into ribbons or tossed into an electrified tank of water like some ordinary prisoner.

Deadman Wonderland is an entertaining if somewhat gory read. The creators seem to delight in coming up with challenging and painful competitions for the prisoners, and Shira’s unexpected appearances keep the story from being too predictable. The test for this series will be whether the creators continue to bring in new ideas or allow it to become a simple series of battles, but the first volume shows a lot of promise.

This review is based on a review copy supplied by the publisher.

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What loli could resist salty AND sweet?

Summary:

Ran 10 miles and then fapped… Feeling so much better now

Ryu slyly calls Tohru down, and Tohru busts his butt at work and drives 3 hours late at night to help his little brother put Operation Long Legs GET into action.  Tohru snags Chizuru for a stroll down memory lane, and Chizuru finally tries to say all the things she always wanted to tell Tohru.  Unfortunately, Tohru reminds Chizuru she always wore shorts that showed off her legs and so the mini-skirt brings nothing new to the table.  Even when Chizuru is able to tell Tohru she loves him, Tohru pretends to misinterpret it as platonic love and returns the friendly sentiment.  As the stroll ends, Tohru tells Chizuru that he always calls her “Chi” because it makes him literally smile to say the name.

Afterwards, Tohru meets up with Ryu before making the long drive home.  Tohru collects his day-old prize bread, and implies that he always knew Ryu had a thing for Chizuru.  Ryu agrees that he is the better man for Chizuru, and then correctly guesses that Chizuru is hanging out by the ocean (since that is the last place they all played together before Tohru moved to Sapporo).  When he finds her there, Chizuru apologizes for taking everything out on Ryu and he mentions that she is the only one who would remember his birthday.  Chizuru wonders if she just saw Tohru as an older brother, Ryu tells her that her love was real.  As Chizuru finally cries out some of her emotions, Ryu holds her tightly in his arms and secretly gives himself a “Kekeke, just as keikaku.”

Reaction:

WTF is this smell??? Smells like sweaty socks and sex!

While Chizuru was a surprisingly cute kid, she never really got past that phase.  Chizuru might not have that fierce magnetism that Tohru is looking for, but she still managed to scam FOUR whole episodes near the end of the series away from the main couple.  This is what happens when you waffle, Shota!  Santa Shota better give Sawako the dick in a box next episode, or we’ll definitely get stuck with Chizuru x Ryu in the final two episodes.

I found the whole “Chi” thing interesting.  All along Tohru wasn’t some super happy guy; he just called Chizuru a lot.  Damn, the things a guy’s gotta do so that his little brother can get the little girl.  At least Tohru is following the bros before hos mantra.  I like the way Ryu is working this, and he really seems in control.  Next to Ryu, Shota is just a mess.  This leads me to believe that Shota quit the baseball team because he couldn’t ever get it done in crunch time.

©2010 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Kimi ni Todoke 18
2. Kimi ni Todoke 19

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Yen Press director Kurt Hassler is the guest on the latest ANNCast podcast.

At 4thletter!, David Brothers has a fairly nuanced response to the defense of piracy posted on Anime Vice yesterday. Alex Hoffman links it back to the Nick Simmons affair at Manga Widget.

Meanwhile, Gia lays bare the horrible truth behind the manga blogger conspiracy at Anime Vice.

At Myth and Manga, part 2 of Beth Wagner’s history of manga and western comics looks at kusazōshi and chapbooks.

Lori Henderson posts this week’s all-ages comics and manga at School Library Journal.

ANN spots two possible new Digital Manga books on Amazon, Fafner and Desire Sensibility.

Lori Henderson is looking forward to the new digital manga magazines coming from Japan.

The United Arab Emirates gets their first home-grown manga.

Hiroki Otsuka, illustrator of The Boys of Summer, will be the artist-in-residence for the Japan Society in New York this spring and summer; he will draw a full-length manga during that time.

Mark your calendar: Casey Brienza will be speaking on Manga in America at Mount Holyoke College on March 23.

No-Sword translates a bit from Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, just for fun.

Reviews

Deb Aoki on vols. 1 and 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (About.com)
Todd on vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Maki)
Kate Dacey on The Apartment, How to Seduce a Vampire, and Otodama: Voice from the Dead (The Manga Critic)
Chris Zimmerman on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland and vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (cbs4.com)
Leroy Douresseaux on How to Capture a Martini (The Comic Book Bin)
Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 1 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculturemanga (PLAYBACK:stl)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Octave (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 34 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Andre on vol. 1 of Pandora Hearts (Kuriousity)
Salimbol on vols. 1-11 of Please Save My Earth (The Chocolate Mud Wyvern Presents)
Connie on vol. 3 of Venus in Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 9 of We Were There (Slightly Biased Manga)
Vom Marlowe on vol. 1 of A Wise Man Sleeps (The Hooded Utilitarian)

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