Category: Ongoing Investigations

Ongoing Investigations: Case #142

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I along with thousands of others rejoiced to hear that Sailor Moon would finally be rereleased in English and thankfully with a new translation to match. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, there are also lovely color pages! Rereading something with such nostalgia for so many of us can be precarious sometimes because there is always the possibility of being let down. Sailor Moon is not that type of title if you are going in with the knowledge that this is a title meant for little girls; a mighty entertaining fantasy adventure that hits all the right notes for little girls. The strength of friendship is central to the series and it really takes hold of that right away. Equal is the intrigue (totally transparent to the audience) of Tuxedo Mask. The pace is happily brisk as Usagi whisks through villains and gains new guardians. The dialogue is rather stiff at times but not sure whether to attribute that problem with translation or not. The art of course shines and doesn’t feel aged though you can see Ms. Takeuchi getting better as the story goes which is only natural. Sailor Moon is a legendary title that changed a genre so that also means that it isn’t a perfect piece. But not being perfect doesn’t prevent it from being point of delight full of naive fantasy. It is great experiencing it all over again.

Well, if Natutaki is talking about the mother of fighting magical girls shows I might as well talk about one of its most modern grandchildren. I have been enjoying Suite Precure even if I have not mentioned it since episode 12. But since episode 35 is the accumulation of a lot of reveals I think it is worth talking about again. In that time the show has had the birth of Cure Beat,  a major power-up, the many reveals around Cure Muse, and of course the unmasking of the true villain of the series. The birth of Cure Beat was in itself pretty cool but as Narutaki mentioned the transformation from Siren to Ellen was sort of lame. It is like after she officially became a Cure some one switched her from evil to good like she was Krusty doll. The reveal of Cure Muse was better of it does require some Superman/Clark Kent and Batman/Bruce Wayne levels of ignorance. Also the reveal of Mephisto not being the big villain was pretty important as he would have made far to weak a foil especially as compared to previous masterminds. Overall I am still enjoying Suite Precure but 35 episodes in it is clear it will never be as strong as Heartcatch. But I am OK with that.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #141

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I got to read Gen Manga volumes 3 & 4 back to back. Reading both volumes in succession makes me realize that the storytelling in Gen is somewhat compressed compared to your normal mainstream manga experience. While the storytelling still has a distinctly manga feel you don’t get the impression that the stories contained within are assuming they are going to run for 20+ books. They seems to be primed to end in a book or two but could run longer. Mainstream manga seems more designed to run for a long time but could be cut short if forced to. The individual chapters still have a more manga styled decompressed flow but chapter to chapter it seems more compressed. But all the compressed vs. decompressed storytelling talk from Ogiue Maniax might be why I am noticing it more. Vs Aliens is still my favorite story in the anthology. It has a very quirky story with some unusual twists every chapter. The only problem is that is quickly coming down to the big reveal of what is actually going on. If the final reveal is lame is going to really hurt the overall story. The boxing story is Wolf is still solid but I am not sure if I really care for the added element of the hyperactive flat chested girl vs the distant chesty girl love story. My feelings on KAMEN are still up in the air as I am interested in the story but not deeply invested. There is a promise of a big fight scene in the next chapter. How well the fight is pulled off I might help me solidify my feelings. I still don’t really like Souls. Volume three ends one arc and volume four starts a new arc. Volume three ended a bit lighter than I assumed it will but this genre has just never been my cup of tea. In volume 4 there is a one shot story called Sorako. This really feels like an American indy comic. It is the story of a small town girl who feels trapped in her small life under the backdrop of looking for her dog that ran away. It is slice of life in a way that really feels like an American comic more than a Japanese style of same formula. Gen is still an interesting experiment in the U.S. It has the feel of a doujinshi anthology but will a more consistent schedule. I am curious how well it will do here.

With great elation, I started the new season of anime by watching Bakuman S2. We start the season with Ashirogi Muto waiting for their editor to come to the studio to go over their contract for serialization. It is an exciting time and they are also invited to the Shonen Jack New Year’s bash. This episode is really about them getting acclimated with their new positions, getting assistants, and meeting some new people as well as getting to know others better. It is mostly a set-up for things to come and I can’t wait for those things!

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #140

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I am not a huge reader of webcomics, but I’m hooked on Hark! A Vagrant which never ceases to give me a good chuckle. So it comes as little surprise that the writer of such a hilarious and witty comic is those same things in person. This was the book launch party and you could tell she was very happy about it. And even with technical difficulties, she just rolled with it. Once she started telling her little history a lot was learned and laughed about. She comes from a very small town where her classes through primary school were 22 people large.  She was the only artist and she always felt that comics and drawing were things she did but not jobs she could have. It was rather inspiring to hear how in college in life and then after further after graduation, with no formal training, others encouraged her to do it. She did say she feels it is much harder now to really get a webcomic going, when she jumped in it was just a fairly new idea. Showing off many of her comics over the years it was fun to track her progress and ideas. She also showed which comics went over really well for her like the Tycho Brahe one that pretty much went viral. It was also evident how much more freer her style has become, by her own admission because she wants to continue to evolve and can’t image drawing the same things in the same ways forever. This was a great talk with a wonderful turn out.

I found out about Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant from Otaku USA’s own master of moe Caleb Dunaway. He of course loved it because it is a slightly off kilter mostly historical based comedy web comic. Narutaki and I being fans of history in general were drawn to the comic as well. So when Kate Beaton was giving a talk in New York we had to go. The Housing Works bookstore was a cozy little shop that is run by volunteers where all proceeds from the café go to providing support services for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS. You quickly realized that the bookstore was not huge when the events started with about a hundred people in attendance. Fortunately we can early enough that we had seats but the place was packed. When the event started she tried to do a reading of some of her strips but technical problems with the projector nipped that in the bud. I put up a little video of that if you were curious. When that was not working out she went into how she got into web comics and the processes that she uses to make her comics and how it has changed over the years. She then did some Q&A which she eventually just had to cut off so everyone could get a signature. I think the most interesting thing was that growing up in Canada she knew almost nothing of American superhero comics. But when she got involved with the web comics community she picked up an interest just by osmosis due to going to various conventions and talking to other artists. A was also impressed with the amount of research she does. I always knew she had to do research for the comic but the amount she does seems insane. Overall she was quite friendly, intelligent, and witty. Also by the end of the night she was a bit tipsy but she was extremely cordial and gave everyone a personalized sketch with their copy of her book. We got Elliot Page a sketch of Sir Issac Newton, Clarissa from AWO a sketch of one of the Strong Female Characters, and Caleb a sketch of Queen Elizabeth. Also if you see an Einstein comic in the future we are going to take full credit for that.

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