Category: Manga

Why we don’t do manga secret santa.

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The Secret Santa Project has been an unexpected success each time we have run it with the number of participants doubling from 2009 to 2010. It helps bloggers spread the word about their favorite overlooked titles while broadening the horizons of all the participants. The thing is, every time the project is mentioned there is always one request we hear time and time again. People really want us to do a manga version as well. This call has not been ignored. It is just there are some logistical problem we that need to be overcome.

It might not be apparent but there were several problems with a Manga Secret Santa that do not come up with the anime version. The first being a maximum length of the series you could recommend. With the average anime series being 26 episodes or less it was easy to make that the upper bound. But there is no easy cap to use for manga. Also you can get a whole anime series for about 30 to 50 dollars with anime but even just 10 manga will cost you 100 bucks (not accounting for savvy shopping). Keeping this in mind, we came up with a plan.

Our solution was simple. Instead of trying to read an entire manga series, you would get three series you have never read before as part of the project and read the 1st book of all three series and then write-up at least one of them. It seemed like a good compromise. While you would not get the comprehensive look you would from the anime reviews, it would allow people to experiment a bit more with a reduced commitment required.

But another problem still loomed: how to get everyone to make a comprehensive list of what series they have already read. Every year when we do Anime Secret Santa we get several people whose lists of what anime they have watched is missing several vital titles they forgot. Invariably someone will then recommended them the title they forgot to list. Using My Anime List as an example, it has 322 pages of anime titles vs. 857 pages of manga titles (thanks to the inclusion of doujinshi). Even Anime Planet’s more streamlined list is still 150 pages of manga as compared to 105 of anime. Other book listing sites like Shelfari have inconsistencies in their manga collections such as missing author names or wrong numbers even in the same series.

Going along with this is the fact that most people are reading dozens of manga at one time. Unlike a lot of anime where you just watch through an entire series in a timely manner. But even if you are following a show weekly, it general doesn’t go over a dozen. But manga, we are constantly waiting for the next book in English to emerge. It can take years, even decades, for an entire series to see an English release so people have myriads of titles left only partially read. The chances of people handing in incomplete lists is so high that Narutaki weeps at the thought of having to coordinate such a project.

We don’t really have an answer to this problem therefore we have decided to try to crowdsource an answer. Is there a streamlined program that lets you record what manga you have read? It has to be able to make a simple but comprehensive list of titles. Does anyone even want to attempt to do such a thing with their manga reading now that we’ve explained the dilemma?

Ongoing Investigations: Case #125

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Seven Seas Entertainment seems to like to go after supernatural manga and manga that carters to certain fetishes. Blood Alone hits both of those categories while adding the popular vampire angle to the mix. The story revolves around Kuroe Kurose, a writer with the ability to see and be unaffected by the supernatural, and Misaki Minato, a preteen girl who was made into a vampire.  They run a detective agency together while Kuroe peruses a career as a writer on the side. The detective agency takes mostly mundane cases like finding lost relatives and pets but they also help the police and private clients with supernatural cases. The book distinctly has two very different tones. Some chapters are serious business with cases like a body jumping serial killer or vampire assassin. These are very story driven and have a distinctly standard panel layout and usually have some information about the overall story of Kurose’s search for his missing sister. There are also slice of life stories about Kurose and Minato going to the pool or the amusement park. Sometimes Masayuki Takano will throw out the conventional panel layout and have everything flow in an almost dreamlike fashion. This is especially evident in the 6th chapter. Unlike Gunslinger Girl where it was a bit hard for me to tell how much they were playing to a lolicon crowd there is no mistaking what they are doing here. Thankfully there are not panty shots or overly gratuitous sexualization of Misaki but the manga unmistakably knows that it is doing. At first I was wondering how much they were going to tease this relationship. It did not seem that bad until we learn that  Misaki and Kuroe sleep in the same bed together every night. The series constantly mentions that NOTHING HAPPENS but the fact that keeps coming up as a joke says volumes in of itself.  The fact that Kuroe comes home one drunk night and gives Misaki and hickey was clearly the straw that broke the camel’s back. This series could be worse. Much worse. Anyone who enjoys the story of a young girl trapped in time by a curse and her relationship with an older man will enjoy this series. There is more story to the series that just the fetish aspect. But everyone else should not let their Blood Alone loving friends to trick them into reading this series with that fact. This is a fetish manga and it has a hard time working for anyone who is not into that fetish despite the story built around it.

I have finally started watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, I know it’s been a long time coming. The series throws you right back into the thick of things in the opening episode with a hostage situation already well under way. And it has an incredibly happy surprise at the end that had me grinning from ear to ear. But I felt the next three episodes were a bit weaker. Nevertheless “weak” SAC episodes are still very high-caliber overall. It also took me a while, and a conversation with someone else, to really grasp the refugee plotline that dominates the season. In the first 12 episodes we’ve already had two Togusa centric installments which is nice to see. I was also thrilled to actually start learning more about the Major and her past; or that she has this rich past at all! This addition is what has won be over most of all. Or perhaps it was the totally awesome opening. I do wish they would stop mentioning the Laughing Man lest it just make me miss him more. Still the Individual Eleven are interesting and really starting to take form now. I’m sure to finish this series off quickly.

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The Speakeasy #017: Viking Funeral, The Life and Death of Tokyopop

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Anime 3000 presents The Speakeasy Podcast:
Drink #017: Viking Funeral,
The Life and Death of Tokyopop

By both listener request and our own desire we discuss the influential, good or bad, life of Tokyopop. From the beginning it seemed like they had new ideas and were setting out to do something different. They rode high for a while, but things started to slip in the mid-2000s at the heart of the manga boom. It is undeniable that they changed the U.S. industry so we reminisce and discuss all that came with it.

(Listen) (Show Notes)

And now your helpful bartenders at The Speakeasy present your drink:

Viking Funeral

  • 1/3 oz. Rumple Minze
  • 1/3 oz. Jagermeister
  • 1/3 oz. Goldschlager

Mix in a shooter glass.