Entries Tagged 'Manga' ↓

Two of my favorite manga blogs are discussing the idea of literary merit in sequential art. Over at Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala asks which superhero comics and manga have literary merit. Many people contribute their opinions in the comments. David Welsh adds his own thoughts over at Precocious Curmudgeon, focusing specifically on coming-of-age comics.

My first instinct was to chime in with my own opinion. “Oh, these examples of sequential art are really good!” (Most of you know there are few things I love to talk about more than what manga I think are entertaining, well-made, and/or well worth reading.) Then I hesitated. My problem? The concept of literary merit. And now, even though I know that a lot of my readers are bored by arguments over semantics, I’m going to start one anyway. I realize that I’m not the only one to make the following observations about the idea of literary merit, but under the circumstances, they seemed worth repeating.

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A while back, over at Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala posted a list of his 25 favorite manga characters. I’m a big fan of lists, but in the tradition of “5 things makes a post,” I’m going to do a shorter one: my top five favorite female characters in manga and anime.
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I’ve just started watching the BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad anime courtesy of Netflix (verdict so far: not bad at all!), and it inspired me to brainstorm all the manga and anime that I know that feature rock music as a subject or as a central theme.

First, there are the obvious shojo and shonen-ai counterparts to BECK: NANA and Gravitation, respectively. I think Yazawa Ai’s NANA is brilliant, but I found Murakami Maki’s Gravitation nearly unreadable. Then there’s 20th Century Boys by Urasawa Naoki. In this wonderful series, rock music is a important theme and motif, but the story is not structured around the central character’s musical career.

Beyond this, I have to look to western comics to find more series about rock music or rock musicians. The very funny Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O’Malley has strong manga influences (don’t miss the NANA references in the backgrounds!); the title character is a twentysomething slacker who spends some of his copious free time performing in a very bad indie band.

And that’s all I can think of right now! The other music-centric anime and manga that I can think of are both about classical music students: Nodame Cantabile and La Corda d’Oro. What am I forgetting? And what are your favorites? Tell me in the comments.

For me, learning to interpret a whole new set of cultural references and symbols is one of the pleasures of reading manga and watching anime. And one of the most widely used symbols in manga and anime, especially at this time of year, is sakura, or cherry blossoms.

Sakura is known for its short-lived beauty. As a result, it’s a symbol of transience and mortality (or, in the words of my friend Oyce, “DOOM”). In art and literature, it’s also linked with Japanese nationalism and samurai. Since sakura blooms in April, it’s associated with spring and the beginning of the new school year. In Japan, there’s also a tradition of flower viewing in the spring known as hanami.

(For more information on the cultural significance of sakura, see Wikipedia.)

So in honor of spring (which has finally arrived where I am living), here are some of my favorite uses of sakura imagery and symbolism in anime and manga.

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Just a couple of reviews this time around:

• Micole at Coffee and Ink on Vampire Knight, v. 4 and Kaput and Zosky.
• Joanna at Comics Worth Reading on Honey and Clover, v. 1.

FYI, my comment notifications don’t appear to be coming through at the moment, so I apologize for any delays in responding to or moderating comments.

(I may not have time to post on Friday, so you get this post a day early!)

If you read enough shojo manga, it won’t be long before you become an expert in how Japan celebrates Valentine’s Day and White Day. For those who haven’t yet reached that point of manga consumption, here’s a brief overview. In Japan, Valentine’s Day tradition calls for women to give chocolate to men on February 14. Men who receive Valentine’s Day chocolate are supposed to make a return gift one month later on White Day, March 14. You can read more about the holiday traditions on Wikipedia.

It’s easy to see why these two holidays have become time-honored manga plot devices. Like “the big dance” in US teen fiction, Valentine’s Day and White Day are wonderful excuses for meaningful glances, significant blushes, stammered confessions of love, and truly awkward moments between our favorite emotionally clueless characters. But in the hands of skilled writers, they can also be opportunities for great characterization and entertaining adventures.

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• David Welsh of Precocious Curmudgeon highlights offerings from Manga Month in Diamond’s Previews catalog. I happen to have gotten my hands on an advance reading copy of one of the titles he mentions, Seichi Hayashi’s Red Colored Elegy, and am looking forward to reading it when I have some spare time.
• John Jakala of Sporadic Sequential (whose blog had been sadly quiet for a while) notes the listing of a Bleach artbook on Amazon. Much as I have enjoyed Tite Kubo’s art in Bleach, that particular artbook doesn’t tempt me so much. However, I have shelled out embarrassing amounts of money at Kinokuniya to get my hands on Kazuya Minekura’s four (!) Saiyuki artbooks. The one artbook I am particularly coveting right now is CLAMP’s for Tsubasa and xxxHolic. What artbooks do all of you own or want to own?
• Over at Comics Should Be Good, commenters are discussing where they buy their comics. (My answer: Amazon and occasionally Borders, as my otherwise excellent local comics shop never seems to have the most recent volumes of manga series I read in a timely manner. In the end, though, I mostly obtain my reading material via the library where I work and interlibrary loan.)
• At MangaBlog, Brigid reviews Osamu Tezuka’s MW.

• Over at Asia Pacific Arts, Gene Yang talks about the growth of Asian American comics and his current projects in The Second Life of Gene Yang. Am I a geek for being excited by the prospect of a comic about the Boxer Rebellion?
• David Welsh’s Flipped column has found a new home at The Comics Reporter.
• Eli Neiburger expounds on the joys of Adult Swim over at Pop Goes the Library. As Eli notes, Adult Swim has been a major force in popularizing anime, especially with teens, and it’s aired a lot of my favorite series including Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Looking for more manga news and reviews? Don’t miss the relaunch of Manga Life. This week there are reviews of Sand Chronicles 1, Nana 8, and Hell Girl 1, as well as a new column by translators extraordinaire Athena and Alethea Nibley. I’ll be moonlighting as one of their writers as well and will post a link here when my first review goes live.

ICv2 has released its latest top manga and anime properties list. You’ll have to get the actual guide to see the full lists, but here are the top ten titles:

ICv2’s Top Ten Manga Properties for 2007:
1. Naruto
2. Fruits Basket
3. Death Note
4. Bleach
5. Kingdom Hearts
6. Pokemon
7. Vampire Knight
8. Fullmetal Alchemist
9. Absolute Boyfriend
10. Loveless

ICv2 Top Ten Anime Properties for 2007:
1. Dragon Ball Z
2. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
3. Pokemon
4. Naruto
5. Afro Samurai
6. Howl’s Moving Castle
7. Bleach
8. Robotech Shadow Chronicles
9. My Neighbor Totoro
10. Karas the Revelation

On library listservs I see a lot of librarians who are new to manga and anime asking, “So what are core titles?” I won’t say that these lists are mini core collection lists; older series are not well represented on them, and all titles are not appropriate for all collections. But if you’re trying to keep up with manga and anime for some professional reason, everything on here should be pretty recognizable to you: these properties are popular, and people are likely to be asking about them.