Category: Comics

Yen Plus Online Magazine, Where’s the manga?

1 Comment

hisuiconIn July of 2008 Yen Press put out their inaugural of a brand new manga anthology called Yen Plus. It was a unique combination of manga from Square Enix, Korean manhwa, and American comics. It was an interesting experiment that had some killer titles with distinct name power from all over the globe but as of July 2010 the magazine will no longer be in distributed in a paper format and instead it will be avaliable online. This week we will be looking at the change from a print to digital distribution. What is lost, what is gained, and do we feel that the new online Yen Plus is worth the subscription fee.

As we have all heard time and again digital distribution is the future of, well, just about everything. Print media has survived, and continues to thrive in a physical format better than most, but things like periodicals and magazines are feeling the squeeze. So it was with a heavy-heart the community took the inevitable news that Yen Plus just could not keep up. Bringing the magazine, format and all, to the online market is an intriguing move and adding a subscription fee, though small, is even more of a curiosity.

Continue reading →

Ongoing Investigations: Case #094

9 Comments

From the first episode Durarara!! seemed to say “watch me” and watch I did, even when I wasn’t sure how I felt about the show. And I ended up enjoying it at the beginning, but a weak second half marred Durarara!! making me wish it had ended on its 12th episode. Eventhough the story of Celty’s head and the gang wars in Ikebukuro are connected through the characters, the characters whose stories come to light in the later half can’t stand up to the ones highlighted in the first. They just plain aren’t as interesting. I’m sorry if this is coming off rather vague, but without throwing out spoilers it’s the best I can do. In fact, what Durarara!! did best was surprise me with many of the reveals throughout. It had a good sense of timing and suspense and, of course, the atmosphere was thoroughly brought to life. But I felt the atmosphere and story were leading and not the characters. But if they decide to spin-off Celty and Shizuo into a crime-fighting team anime, I’d be down.

hisuiconDurarara!! finished and it seemed to have the audience divided on their reaction. While I do not think the second half was a strong as the first I did not take to it as poorly as other people did. I think the main problem with the series is the first light novel hooks you into this supernatural world mixed with the everyday life in Ikebukuro. The second light novel is content to deal with some of the more mundane characters which took out some of the flair that the first half had.  While I felt we had to start dealing with the high school trio they could have had some stronger B plots along side that to liven things up. The other main problem was they introduced characters that were the light novel but do little to nothing in the anime. Shinra’s dad and the motorcycle cop don’t really do much especially considering how much screen time they got. I assume they were in the light novels and introduced at the time in as setup for later novels. But unless they make another season they come off as extremely superfluous. I would rather they cut their scenes and work more on what they had already. Despite all of that I enjoyed the series. I am curious to know what happens in the later books. Izaya clearly has more up his sleeves, we never really learned anything solid about Simon, and of course more Celty and Shizuo is always welcome. Considering how horrible the light novel market has been the only hope of seeing later novels is if the make a sequel.

Continue reading →

Ongoing Investigations: Case #093

Leave a comment

hisuiconChi’s Sweet Home may be the greatest possibility of being a mainstream success with an older audience that manga will ever have. Everything about it is extremely friendly to the casual reader. It is flipped and in color which gives it a distinctly high end American newspaper comic feel. It is cute and delightfully innocent. The book is superbly designed. Everything is crisp and clean and the whole book is as well designed as the Japanese version if not better. So rightfully you will see tons of praise for this series on the Internet and it deserves all the praise it gets. That being said I ultimately found the series utterly boring. The whole books is kitten moe. The book utterly relies on you finding Chi adorable. But the problem with Chi is the problem you see with any moe show. People who love K-ON! love it with their heart and soul and everyone else wonders what the heck that crazy person is babbling on about. Now moe for humans quickly gets into weird and uncomfortable sexual issues for some people which thankfully are nonexistent in Chi. But the underlying problem still remains. If you collect cute pictures of kittens, post in Caturday threads, and/or are just in love with felines in general this book will be catnip to you. To me it was like one of those extremely profitable newspaper comics that I read and then just shrug my shoulders. I understand why it is so successful but I just seem immune to it’s charm.

As far as I know Kekkaishi 22 is my last pre-ordered volume, I must remedy that! In this installment we see the consequences of Tokine’s actions at the end of volume 21 plus the mysteries surrounding the scared sites just keep getting thicker. We also meet a character that I kept seeing in fan-art who is a member of the Shadow Organization’s special unit. As per previous suspicions and hints, someone in the Organization is behind the murders going on but we are still no closer to finding out who. There’s a decent dose of humor in this book despite the very serious circumstances of Tokine’s predicament. And this time around Yoshimori atleast asks first to be reckless before leaving, a step in the right direction maybe. We end mid-stream as Yoshi finally connects with Tokine and a major battle is slated to ensue. A good, solid volume.

Continue reading →