Review: Eden, It’s An Endless World! vol. 1

Eden: It’s an Endless World! Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Hiroki Endo
Dark Horse Manga
Rated M for Mature (18+), $12.95 USA
214 pgs.

Eden: It’s an Endless World! is a manga that defies expectation. Originally published in 1998 by Kodansha, Eden follows the tale of two children and their decedents after the world is plagued by a virus that slowly turns a person’s skin to stone as their insides become unstable and fall apart. Set in a fictional future, Eden’s post-apocalyptic world is a place where people replace their bodies with machines, where humanity has changed from the master of the world to just another animal at the mercy of nature.

Hiroki Endo is an excellent story-teller. The characters he develops are unique, the setting is realistic, and the plot is believable. We meet Hannah and Enoah, two young adults who were born naturally with an immunity to the virus that is killing off humanity, and Morris Layne, a gay scientist who is slowly succumbing to the virus. The small group of survivors lives on a small island, away from civilization. Flashbacks give the reader information about what has happened, and what the world government has done to cope with the disease that is running rampant throughout the human population. As the plot develops, it becomes clear that both Enoah and Hannah must leave their Eden to find what remains of humanity.

Dark Horse has a higher price point for all their manga than competitors like Yen Press and Viz Media, but where it may cost a few extra dollars to get a Dark Horse manga, they make up for the increased cost with a very high quality book. The paper is high quality, the ink is clean, and there aren’t any printing issues. There also aren’t any extras or advertisements, which is different from other manga in the market currently.

Eden is a book that defies the classic Western definition of a comic book. Like Alan Moore’s The Watchmen or Spielman’s Maus, Eden is, in my opinion, not just a comic book, but rather, a comic book that has transversed an indefinable void and has become literature. Endo’s storytelling and thought-provoking new world demands that the reader ask questions and find their own answers.

Manga in Montreal

I’ll be out of internets for the next few days as I travel to Montreal. I will be taking a few manga with me (most notably, Eden, It’s an Endless World! vol. 1,  Kaze no Hana vol. 1, and I’ll be working up drafts for my review of I, Otaku vol. 1).

Of course, Montreal has a wonderful and vibrant “China-town” (where I’ll undoubtedly find products from every part of Asia) so I’ll be scouring the open air stalls for manga and other goodies. Wish me luck!

Review: Negima! Magister Negi Magi vol. 19

Negima! Magister Negi Magi, volume 19
Written and Illustrated by Ken Akamatsu
Del Ray Manga
Rated OT for Older Teen, $10.95 USA, $12.50 CAN
192 pgs.

This is the series that started it all for me, and I always have the latest edition on hand, no matter where I’m at in the world (Negima! #7 travelled with me to Italy in 2005, and Negima! #15 went with me to China about a year ago). My history with the books has been nothing but eager anticipation. If my love of manga were to be judged by this series alone, I think I’d be judged as a bit of a fanatic. That all being said, if a bit of my love for the series shows in this review, hopefully it’s just because the series is good, and not because I’m over-zealous.

Ken Akamatsu continues to impress with amazing artwork, character development, and a good sense of humor. The characters are really what did it for me when I bought the first edition. Each is differentiated from the other by a hairstyle, height, personality, and Akamatsu keeps track of all of them very well. I never had any problems in this issue with knowing or understanding which character was which.

One of my main beefs with the series is its lack of user-friendliness.  Any book besides book #1 in the Negima! series is not the book to start on, and volume # 19 is no exception. With all the characters, their relationships, and their experiences building off every book before the book you’re reading, it’s hard to get into the series in the middle. The story also has a high learning curve, and it takes a lot of effort to get into the series and learn all of the detailed, complex relationships and quirks of each character, which is an odious feat, considering the 30+ main characters of the book.

As a stand alone volume in the Negima! series, you can see that this book is wrapping up storylines from the festival arc, and is doing the prep-work for the upcomming “magical journey” arc, so there isn’t as much action in this book as there was in the past 4 or 5 issues. Instead, this volume develops the relationship between Asuna and Negi, and their loyalty and devotion to one another. There’s also a nice humor segment (the last chapter in the book) that segues into the movement of the White Wing from Japan to Wales. This volume certainly isn’t the best of all the books in the series thus far, but it’s not the worst either.

Del Ray Manga continues to produce a good book, and some added bonuses in this book make it worth the extra two or three dollars to buy it new (stickers!). In some panels, it was hard to read the text, because of its proximity to the spine of the book, but it was never so bad that I couldn’t read the book. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen in many panels, so it doesn’t ruin the experience of reading the book. The cover is sturdy, and the paper caries the art very well.

All in all, it’s a good book, but light on substance as a transition is made to move out of one story-arc and into another. It’s not a book you can start the series on, but nevertheless, it’s got me waiting impatiently for volume #20.

Moé the Escape Artist

It took me a while, but I’ve finally seen what everyone has been discussing this past week. The collective blogsphere is taking a closer look at moé, and for obvious reasons. Moé, for those of your who don’t know, is a word that means, roughly, “a plant sprouting,” and it’s a word that’s used to describe a style and sometimes genre of anime and manga that feature characters that are youthful, innocent, and cute.

It’s surprising, but moé is about 1/3 of the expenditure of the entire manga and anime market in Japan,according to the figures as recounted in this recent blog re-post by Scott VonSchilling. If you tally up your yen and do some converting, you’ll find that’s quite a bit of cash (just under $1 billion US). His information also states that unmarried men in their 30s account for the large majority of the market for moé in Japan.

Moé has been on the “otaku internet shitlist” for a little while now, because many people associate it with pedophilia. People make this link fairly quickly, because characters in moé anime and manga are drawn, colored, sculpted, and printed to look young, innocent, and evoke some sort of response from the people that are a part of the moé market. The real question, and the question that causes a lot of conversation, is what kind of response does moé initiate?  And furthermore, is that response appropriate?

Some have said that moé flourishes because men want to be fathers; I’m not exactly sure that’s the case for everyone who likes moé. The same could be said about the idea that moé is a form of pedophilia, which is a valid point because moé and lolicon have quite a bit of overlap due to their “cute” nature. I don’t necessarily believe that that’s the whole case, although the evidence that moé is sexualized is quite apparent.

My thought is that moé is just like many other forms of manga and anime; that moé is a form of escapism, but it’s not necessarily a “healthy escapism,” as Scott puts it. The base consumer is an unmarried man who’s window of opportunity to have a family is slipping away. This is obviously a kind of depressing thought. Some men use moé to escape from the realities of their social and familial position. In this context it can be sexualized, but isn’t necessarily a completely perverted thing. After all, I don’t think I know a person who doesn’t like to see something cute every once in a while, and who has never called a baby cute?

I  think that escapism is a better answer than “everyone is looking for a child of their own” or “everyone who likes moé is a pervert,” but it certainly isn’t complete. Escaping from the dreary office, dirty subway, and single apartment life might be a normal activity, but idolizing cute dolls and characters isn’t necessarily healthy.

Review: Rosario+Vampire vol. 1

Rosario+Vampire: Volume #1
Written and Illustrated by Akihisa Ikeda
Viz Media’s Shonen Jump Advanced Line
Rated OT for Older Teen, $7.99 USA, $9.99 CAN
188 pgs.

Trying something new this week with my reviews.

The Short Story: Rosario+Vampire is an interesting shonen manga, because it mixes three different genres (action, fantasy, and romantic comedy), and it does so without too many flaws. The repetition of plot events between the first four chapters does get sort of cloying, and Ikeda sometimes pays little attention to the drawing of his male lead. All in all, an enjoyable read for monster buffs, but an average shonen for other readers.

The Long Story: Rosario+Vampire starts off showing us a fairly non-descript guy, Tsukune, who can’t manage to get into any high school in Japan. With some luck, he manages to get into one… but it’s a school for monsters. (Maybe it’s actually bad luck?) He meets a cute girl who immediately attaches to… his neck. Moka is a vampire, and she’s the heroine and love interest of Tsukune.

Throughout the novel, we learn about the kind of monsters that live at Yokai Academy. Succubi, Werewolves, and Mermaids all make their apperance in this first volume, and it’s clear that the author has done a little research. All of the environments and situations where Moka and Tsukune battle against other monsters are really quite ingenious. I especially loved the chapter that focused on a vampire’s weakness to moving water. The plot is enough to make a monster buff squeal.

On the downside, the plot follows a fairly distinct pattern for each chapter, so it gets kind of boring by the end of the final chapter. There are variations to the theme, but nothing truly interesting. I’m glad to say that this isn’t necessarily the case for the second volume, but I don’t want to spoil anything, so we’ll wait until vol. 2’s review to get to that.

Viz has done a great job with the book. I’m disappointed that there aren’t any full color pages, but everything is well put together, the paper is fairly good quality, and still at a better price than most manga. Ikeda’s artwork is a bit rough around the edges sometimes, and Tsukune varies a bit from chapter to chapter (probably because he’s so non-descript). A 3-page omake follows the end of the final chapter, with 4 amusing yon-koma (hooray yon-koma!).

While this manga isn’t for everyone, and it certainly isn’t a blockbuster manga like Deathnote or some of the other Shonen Jump Advanced manga, it’s worth a read if you’re a fan of monster movies. It’s up to volume 2 for me to see if I stick around, or kick Rosario+Vampire to the curb.

Review: Song of the Hanging Sky, vol. 1

Song of the Hanging Sky: Volume #1
Written and Illustrated by Toriko Gin
Go!Comi, Rated OT for Older Teen, $10.99 USA,
200 pgs.

When I first started reading Song of the Hanging Sky, I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into. It turns out, that what I’ve gotten myself into is a tale of tragedy and loss, of hope and love. We follow the story of a medic, Jack, who has abandoned his post as an army medic and lives in the mountains with his dog, Gustave.  The book opens with Gustave finding a young child bird man, an evolutionary offshoot of normal humans. As Jack nurses the child back to health, a bond is formed between the two, and it is this bond that forms the basis of the entire storyline.

Jack is a character who almost immediately earns favor with the reader. His gentle, calm manner, and his unswerving loyalty to Nuts Peck (the birdman child he saves) is immediately obvious, and wonderful. It’s inspiring to see a character that is written so naturally, and after the first chapter, I felt that I had known Jack my entire life.

It is here that Gin excels. The characters are believable, alive and vibrant, unlike any other shojo manga I’ve ever read. The issues are complex, and the questions that are raised by the story telling are part of what make this such a good read. The art is also quite good, and the small details of the artwork only add to the credibility of the story which is being told.

The allegory that Song of the Hanging Sky presents is quite obvious. The cultural and linguistic barriers between Jack and the clan of birdmen are identical to the relationship early settlers had with Native Americans. Within this framework, Song of the Hanging Sky gains an even stronger sense of purpose, and gives the reader something to truly mull over.

One of the more interesting plot devices of this manga is that the action of the book is split into two perspectives, the perspective of the tribe of birdmen, and the perspective of Jack. In places, where it’s clear that Jack is a benevolent and well meaning character, the tribe of birdmen are preparing to kill him due to his foreignness, and his knowledge of their existence. It is Nuts Peck (who becomes renamed to “Hello” after he meets Jack) that is finally able to bridge the gap between these two perspectives and join Jack with the tribe in a most interesting way.

I do have one gripe with the manga, but it lies at the feet of Go!Comi to fix: The book is fairly sparse, with medium quality paper, no full color pages, and only a one-page omake written by the author of the book. In addition, the printing of the book seemed a bit off, in that sometimes speech bubbles would be cut off the end of the book (as if the alignment wasn’t 100% correct when they cut the book). This was never a serious enough problem for me to stop reading, and it didn’t make it any harder to read, but it was certainly irritating.

While Song is classified as a shojo manga, I say that this classification does it little credit. This isn’t a tale that can be pidgeon-holed. Song of the Hanging Sky is a work of art that anyone can, and should, enjoy. If the upcomming volumes are just as good as the first, I believe I may have found a new favorite series.

Questionable Content

One of the more interesting questions that I’ve been asking lately about manga goes something like the following; “Why is it that certain manga are not (or probably won’t be) supported by publishers in the American market?” When I say this, I’m thinking specifically about books like Saint Young Men (Amazon), and more generally some of the BL titles that are out there. For a variety of reasons, these books are not being supported by publishers, or in some cases, are being published, but aren’t being carried by major book sellers.

Saint Young Men, for those of you who aren’t aware, is a comedy manga by Nakamura Hikaru that’s based on the premise that both Jesus and Buddha decide to kick the deity/enlightened spirit habit for a little while and become young adults living in a cheap rental place in a suburb of Tokyo. The premise sounds hilarious (and maybe a bit sacrilegious), and for that reason, the book is unlikely to gain any publisher support here in the States because of religious activism.

Not that the novel is particularly offensive, from what I hear. I mean, sure, Jesus and Buddha going to an amusement park isn’t exactly religious canon, but it’s not harmful either, is it? The manga-ka isn’t cursing the religions from which these two figures come from. Nakamura Hikaru is just taking them out of the past and the divine and putting them into the now, and seeing how they would interact with the world at a personal level.

We also know that the BL thing is still taboo for major booksellers. Barnes and Noble carries yaoi, but not some of the more graphic/pornographic volumes that BL fans are looking for. I’m not a fan of yaoi, but then again, not being able to get what it is you would like to read can be quite frustrating, especially when the books are translated, published, and already available in the market.

It seems odd to me that manga that focus on relationships (like the relationship of the divine to the world, or the relationship of two men who are lovers) are the books the market is not ready for, when books that portray violence, rape scenes, gore, and death, (Gantz, I’m looking at you) have already found their place in the American market.

One thing is for certain, at least as far as I can see it; as manga grows and becomes more and more a part of pop culture, boundries will be pushed, and limits will be tested. It’s up to the fans of these “troubling” manga to prove to the world that they aren’t terrible, sacrilegious, or otherwise, but instead, are stories that reveal something about humanity to all who would dare read them.