On a personal note…

Sorry for the lack of posting. My computer has died, and I’m in the process of repairing it. More to come next week!

Manga That Isn’t Manga

Recently, the American market has experienced an explosion of something that really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me: text books, non-fiction biographies, and even holy works like the Bible being converted into a manga-styled cartoon format. The idea is fairly simple; turn your Idiot’s Guide to (insert random subject matter here) into the Manga Guide to (same random subject matter) and make a quick profit with some cute cartoons that American teens have been obsessed with lately.

This is all well and good for business. Teens have expendable income, and they’re good targets for things of this nature. However, manga adaptations are not without failure. Manga Messiah, one of the biblical manga transformations, has recently been accused of being Antisemitic. While this doesn’t seem very pertinent to regular English-translated manga, which can deflect bad press by claiming that the two are nowhere close to eachother, it does bring focus on what makes manga into manga, and whether or not these manga-styled text books and biographies have any value, especially for a manga reader.

The two main culprits for the edu-manga and manga textbook movement are Trend-pro Limited, and to my surprise, DMP, a fairly well known manga publisher.  Trend-pro sounds exactly like what it is, or at least, should be considered; a company that’s banking some merchandise on what’s trendy. In fact, they’re pros at this sort of thing.  DMP really throws me for a loop though; with properties like Antique Bakery and Hellsing, you’d think that they’d be doing well enough to avoid this sort of thing. Although, in retrospect, maybe this is a very concious and willful act on their part.

The thing is, these books are not comics, in as much as they are illustrated text books. While normally I wouldn’t have a problem with this sort of thing, I find it interesting that publishers have chosen manga instead of regular comics to push their product. This invariably means that publishers like Trend-Pro and anyone who’s published a manga-version of the Bible lately believes that manga is a trend that needs to be exploited.

Unfortunately, I don’t know that the “manga Bible” or any of the manga guide to (some random material) books will actually appeal to manga readers. Manga is a style, sure, but it’s still a comic book. If you dress up your accounting guide in a comic book’s skin, it’s still not a comic book. It’s a poorly disguised text book. Manga biographies might split some ground, but I’m confidant that if a person really wants to learn about Einstein or Anne Frank, their first pick shouldn’t be the edu-manga. I don’t know about the rest of the community, but I think I can at least speak for a few of us by saying that the reason why we read manga isn’t because of the art. It’s because of the stories. And stories are something that edu-manga truly doesn’t have.

A Small, Shameless Plug

I’ve been working with a few talented guys who are starting up a magazine, which features a section devoted to anime and manga reviews. We’ve got the first issue finally completed, and so to celebrate and try to get a bit of a readership, we’ve decided to give out the first issue at no charge. The first issue is available for free at www.eyeofthevortexonline.com. Give it a look, and see what you think.  I’ve been told that subscriptions are merely 12 dollars yearly, which is pretty good if you’re looking for manga and anime reviews as well as gaming, comic and other related information. I’ve published a review of RalΩGrad, Volume 1, and have even done a bit about collectible card games.

We would all appreciate your comments and suggestions! Thanks for checking it out!

No Sizzle In Viz’s New Zazzle

Viz Media recently announced a partnership with the on-demand printing service corporation Zazzle to bring manga and anime based clothing and accessories to fans. For the uninformed, Zazzle is a pretty popular printer that prints products at the time of sale, which reduces overhead costs for companies that want to use their services. Viz has decided that on-demand printing is the way to go for apparel sales for manga and anime properties, and have set up shop.

Unfortunately, I can’t say that I’m particularly impressed with the selection that Viz has given its customers so far. A few “[insert Japanese media here] is my addiction” shirts and two different sets of eyes aren’t exactly the cornerstone for an up and coming money maker that I think Viz expects this to be. If they want to sell apparel and make meaningful money off of it, they should get to work on some Naruto, Pokemon, and Death Note designs up quickly. Otherwise, this service will fall to the wayside, like other ideas of its kind.

Be serious with me now, and answer my question honestly; who in the hell is going to get a pair of manga style eyes printed on a tote bag?

If you just raised your hand, I have this wonderful anime and manga -themed bridge I think you’d like in Brooklyn. Give me a call.

Review: My-Hime, Volume 1

(The original, abbreviated review can be found at www.comicsvillage.com)

My-Hime, Volume #1
Written by Kimura Noboru and Illustrated by Sato Ken-eisu
TokyoPop, Rated M for Mature (18+)
USA $9.99,  208 pgs.

When does a manga become more about the perverted side jokes and less about the storyline? When is it more about the upskirt and panty shots, and less about the story? Many shounen manga walk this fine line, but volume 1 of My-Hime, based on the popular anime, seems to have thrown its sensibilities out the door and embraced the perve.

The main character is Yuuichi Tate, a guy who transfers to a new school, the Fuuka Academy, due to problems from his last school dealing with the rape of a friend and his interjection. After transfering to his new school, he soon becomes embroiled in a battle between two hyper competitive HiMEs, superpowerful women who have Elements, or mystical tools that allow them to fight against Orphans, demonic monsters that plague the school. Poor Yuuichi doesn’t really know what he’s getting himself into and for each of the two girls, he becomes the “Key” they need to summon a Child, a robot-like creature that has immense destructive potential (to of course, kill some Orphans). It’s all a bit overwhelming for someone who’s never watched the anime, but I can see why this could be a popular theme. Mix some sci-fi with some pinup type girls who hate each other and just happen to be the saviors of the school, and you’ve got a good comedy mix with sci-fi geekery and a healthy dose of action.

The problem is, even if you try to get into the story, you’re constantly barraged by pages and pages and pages of sexual inuendo, tentacles, panty shots, wardrobe malfunction, and more explicit material. There is a definite reason why this is rated M, and if it got any further past the line it already toes, My-HiME might be better of sold at an adult bookstore. This would be fine, of course, if I was looking to buy porn. But I’m not. I’m looking to read a comic book.

It’s not like I’m a prude either. I loved Ral+Grad, and that was about as perverted as they come. But if you can’t tell a story without calling your main character a sexual pervert and a beast, and without showing off panties, breasts, and sex scenes every 4 pages, you’re obviously in the wrong industry.

If you don’t have problems with the explicit content, or even enjoy it, great, it’s funny and the action scenes are well visualized. The artist obviously knows what he’s doing, and the writer isn’t that shabby at writing dialouge and setting up scenes. However, I can not forgive the excessive use of explicit material to sell the manga to me.  In short; for anyone looking to get their rocks off, this might good place to start. For those of us who prefer a more substantial reading experience, stay the hell away.

Musings on Kodansha’s International Business

As we heard across the interwebs at the tail end of last week, Kodansha has pulled all of TokyoPop’s liscences in Germany. Kodansha, did not, however, pull any of the liscences for any other company publishing in Germany, or in any other region, as far as we know. This has some obvious implications, some of which, I want to talk about.

We were promised a new publisher in the US around July of 2008; Kodansha was setting up shop here in the States, bringing along its manga properties and doing who knows what to Del Rey in the process. This new imprint never materialized, however, and many of us have been questioning whether Kodansha’s move into foreign waters was a flop,  or if they held off because of bad economic conditions.

It could be, however, that they’re slow-rolling the lot of us.

Manga in Germany is published mainly by TokyoPop and Carlsen, the later being a subsidiary to a privately owned Dutch company. For Kodansha to pull all of their liscences from T-Pop, they must have some sort of plan for the geographic location; companies do not simply cut off revenue streams for no apparent reason. This could mean a few things, one of which is that Kodansha is setting up a German wing to its publishing business. It could also mean that it’s transfering its liscences to another publishing house, such as Carlsen. It could also mean that Kodansha lacks faith in the financial stability of TokyoPop, although that theory doesn’t hold a lot of water, considering that their liscences would all revert back to them if T-Pop did go belly under.

So, what does all this mean for the USA? Well, as of right now, not a whole lot. Nothing across the pond has changed. However (and this is a pretty big however); this business move means that things are about to change. With a loss of some hot properties from its German publishing wing, will T-Pop be able to handle this new bit of stress? And what is Kodansha’s gameplan?

We’ll find out soon enough, I think.