Natsume Ono MMF Round-Up: Day 1

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Alex

The Natsume Ono Manga Moveable Feast started off today with a few great reviews and my own essay on Ono’s placement of the camera in House of Five Leaves – here’s the round up!

Kristin over atComicAttack.net posted a thorough review of Ono’s large work, not simple and likens Ian’s involvement in the other characters’ lives to the fibers of a cloth – each strand he touches, he breaks, mends, or fashions, in his own way, into a different and subtle pattern.

David Welsh, one of my favorite bloggers, has a review posted at Manga Curmudgeon, that touches on Tesoro, the latest content from Viz Media, and a collection of her earlier short stories. David likes what he sees, and finds the roots of other Natsume Ono epics in these small moments. I am excited to get my copy of this book later in the week.

Finally, I have an essay that looks at the unique camera of House of Five Leaves using images from the comic itself to illustrate my points (albeit not as well as some other blogs might). I think that Natsume Ono has a very keen eye for “camera placement” in comics, and has a really unique sense of motion and what is important in some complex scenes.

Please check out the Natsume Ono MMF Archive for these and other MMF content posts all week!

The Unique Camera of House of Five Leaves

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Alex

Welcome to the Natsume Ono Manga Moveable Feast. I am proud to be hosting this month – Natsume Ono is one of my favorite mangaka, and her distinct style and narrative tone are what draw me to so much of her work.

As I have been reading House of Five Leaves, I have noticed a certain cinematography that many manga lack – Natsume Ono’s staging and scene creation are a unique feature of her work.

One of the most pronounced cinematic cues that Ono uses throughout House of Five Leaves is a “cut on motion,” where Ono breaks up the actions of characters in multiple panels. For example, this image (volume 2, chapter 11, pg 102) shows Goinkyo setting down his tea cup. While the action here is fragmented based upon the medium of comics itself, the act of putting down a cup could have been incorporated into the last panel. The “cut on motion” here adds tension and allows us to focus on the silent, thoughtful stare of Goinkyo in the upper panel.

We also see this technique used in the first fight scene of the first volume, which shows us very specific portions of the fight between Masa and the hired samurai. While on first glance, the action seems almost incomprehensible, the distinct “shots” of the action show quite a bit – a determination and fighting spirit that Masa has, the results of the fight, the fluid motion and skill Masa has with a sword.

These shots also do something important in what they don’t show us – which of the two samurai does Masa wound? How did he manage to chase them off? Ono decides that this information isn’t necessary – rather, the most necessary portion of the fight is Yaichi’s look of disbelief and gaping jaw as Masa quickly and soundly defeats his enemies. This decision-making shows that Ono is not an ordinary mangaka. For many, the focus of the fight would be an interesting way to bring action to a fairly peaceful and laid-back story – but focusing on the fight actually detracts from the content and the emotion displayed.

Stepping back to the page above, it has another trait that I find unique for its use of the inanimate object – in this case, a cup. Ono will use panels like this to create a somber mood for House of Five Leaves, where her less “serious” works, like La Quinta Camera, focus more on the characters as they say and do things throughout the book. In a book like La Quinta Camera, the story is especially told by the reactions and various emotions of the characters, but in House of Five Leaves, the emotions of the various characters are a bit more muted because of the setting. Whether the panel’s focus image is candy, a snapping turtle, money, or radishes, these steps away from the characters allow us as readers to focus on either what is being said, or the lack of words – in this case, the thoughtful silence and judgment of Masa by Goinkyo.

One of the other techniques Natsume Ono uses throughout House of Five Leaves is the downwards shot. Masa is described as being a very tall man, and Ono chooses to display this information by basing her panel composition around it. We often get the viewpoint of the main character, Masa, which often involves looking down on the other characters. As a illustration and composition standpoint, I love these scenes, because they generally contrast Masa’s strong and downward-looking glance with a weak and non-confrontational main character.

On the page to the left (volume 2, chapter 13, pg 162) we see another of Ono’s favorite cinematic shots – a series of close, personal, and stark images of each of the characters, involving their conversation and getting close and personal to each. Then, a distancing shot, which shows the world around them, and broadens the scope of the conversation (and sometimes, willfully distracts from it). Then, the distance shot followed by closer feature panels. Again, what isn’t said here is far more important that what is.

Ono’s panel construction reminds me of Japanese film, in some ways. Her dedication to composition and meaningful editing, the use of cut on motion and her incorporation of the ordinary into her most impressive scenes make House of Five Leaves a unique experience, and a read that bears repeating.

Natsume Ono MMF Archive

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Alex

This page will act as the complete archive of any Natsume Ono content written for the Manga Moveable Feast between 11/13/2011 and 11/20/2011.

Contributions from:

Groups:

The Manga Out Loud Podcast #52 – Ed Sizemore, Johanna Draper Carlson, Kristin (of ComicAttack.net), and Alex Hoffman

Off the Shelf: Natsume Ono MMF – Melinda Beasi, Michelle Smith

Individual Writers:

Derek Bown (Burning Lizard Studios):
House of Five Leaves Vol. 1 Review

Ash Brown (Experiments in Manga):
House of Five Leaves Review

Connie (Slightly Biased Manga):
House of Five Leaves Vol. 3 Review

Johanna Draper Carlson (Manga Worth Reading):
Tesoro Review

Sean Gaffney (A Case Suitable For Treatment):
Tesoro Review

Jason Green (Playback:STL):
not simple Review

Kristin (ComicAttack.net):
not simple Review
Tesoro Review

Linda (animediet.net, animemiz.com)
La Quinta Camera

Lori Henderson (Manga Xanadu, Manga Village):
House of Five Leaves Vols. 1-2 Review

Alex Hoffman (Manga Widget, Manga Village):
The Unique Camera of House of Five Leaves
Natsume Ono and a Choice of Styles

David Welsh (Manga Curmudgeon, a Manga Bookshelf blog):
Tesoro Review
Re-flipped: not simple
Undiscovered Ono

Anne Whittingham (Chic Pixel):
A Call for Localization: Kuma to Interi by Basso

Jason Yadao (Otaku Ohana):
not simple Review

Round Ups:

Day One
Days Two & Three:
Day Four
Days Five & Six
Wrap Up

Natsume Ono Manga Moveable Feast: A Call for Content

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Alex

Hello one and all! Next week, starting November 13th and lasting to the 20th, I will be hosting the Natsume Ono Manga Moveable Feast. Every month, the manga blogging community holds a virtual book club of sorts. The goals of the Moveable Manga Feast (MMF) are to promote and stimulate intellgient analysis and discussion of the month’s topic (in this case, any manga written by Natsume Ono), and to foster a community of manga readers.

I invite you all to participate, whether you are an MMF pro or have never written for an MMF before. You can find our Google Groups page if you have any other thoughts or want to see what the folks who have signed up for the MMF mailing list are talking about.

If you would like your MMF work featured here on my daily content aggregation portion of the MMF, please shoot me a line through mangawidget (at) gmail (dot) com, or contact the MMF email list through the Google Groups page.

I look forward to seeing all of your hard work and intelligent commentary starting next week!

Some Updated Thoughts On J-Manga

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Alex

We have had a little time to get used to the J Manga service, and now that I have had the chance to work with it, actually read some titles, I have a few thoughts about the future of the service and my current opinion of it. Every new medium needs some time to grow, and I think we have gotten a good introduction to the services that J Manga is currently providing (or, in some cases, not providing) for its customers.

First, is the pricing: at $4.99, volumes of digital manga are much easier to purchase and are much more reasonable than their previous $8.99 price point, but I have no idea if this price point will stay the same. Right now I am paying 4.99 for a volume on Viz Media’s manga app, which i can take on my iPhone, iPad, or any laptop computer. The manga available for purchase on the Viz site is, by far and large, better translated and better adapted. There are no graphical glitches or unreadable text, which puts it a step ahead in quality, price, and convenience, all things that I am very sensitive to when it comes to digital content. I will be interested to see if the content goes back up to $8.99 on Tuesday – I imagine that if the price does go back up, I will be discontinuing my subscription. I didn’t buy Yen Press manga for that price digitally, and I won’t pay $8.99 for digital manga.

Second is content availability: there are plenty of books listed on the J Manga site, but very few are actually available on J Manga, The majority of shonen titles in the J Manga store are just the digitally localized volumes from the Viz Media app, and the selections that are available are sparse. This needs to change immediately. If you are going to list a series as available for purchase, it needs to be available to purchase. I understand the idea that these pages are a stand in for when the manga finally comes down from the Japanese companies on high, but nothing is more frustrating or off-putting than to attempt to buy a volume of manga that isn’t actually on the site.

Third: previews – these need to be at least a chapter long. Other digital services are pretty consistently allowing consumers to try the first chapter of a given manga before having to purchase. This is a system that J Manga needs to enact as soon as possible. As it stands, they aren’t meeting industry standards, and it is not helping them sell content.

Finally is a pet peeve of my own, which I don’t think many share: the josei section, which I am extremely interested in as a reader, is mostly yaoi. Not that yaoi is a bad thing. I just think it needs its own section. It clearly caters to women as a genre, but the stories that appear in josei manga anthologies and those that appear in yaoi anthologies are extremely variable. I also find that many series appear in multiple headers. For example, some books labelled as seinen are also available in the josei section. This is misleading at best, and confuses me as a consumer.

I am certainly not giving up on J Manga all the way, despite my gripes. I am interested in the content they can provide as a matter of wanting to read content unavailable in the USA. I am also interested to see if J Manga can provide license rescues that other print publishers have been unable provide. Still, J Manga has a long way to go before I will consider them a successful publisher and not just a flash in the pan. Let’s hope they can bring things around in the next two months.

Love Hina MMF: It Gets Better

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Alex

Love Hina is a series that has, and for a long time, been a part of my background as a member of the manga fandom. It was one of the first series I read compulsively, and during a family vacation, instead of waiting a week for books I had reserved on inter-library loan to finish the series (volumes 13 and 14) I instead stopped by a local bookstore in a town I knew nothing about to buy them and find out – what happens to Keitaro and Naru?

In some ways, Love Hina and I have had a sort of tumultuous relationship. At first, I absolutely loved the series, and devoured the series published by TokyoPop. This would have been 2005, I think, so the series had recently finished publication in the USA, so it was fairly easy to find the books. Later, I purchased the entire series on eBay, and read it again, and was torn. What was the reason I liked this series, I wondered. It didn’t seem to have the same charm as it did in the first read, and I grew impatient with the stalling and bickering between the two main characters.

And then, to my great pleasure, I have had the chance to review the Love Hina omnibus released by Kodansha Comics, which has really revitalized the series with a brand new translation and a book that reads crisply and has great art. Looking at the differences between the TokyoPop edition and the Kodansha edition, it is a night and day difference in image quality. Kodansha clearly trumps the old TokyoPop versions, and it’s a cleaner and much more vibrant book. The translations are much more focused and the lettering is very clean and certainly unlike TokyoPop‘s original print run. It is obvious that whoever put this project together loves this comic, and wanted to see it released in style.

While I was reading through this new version of Love Hina, I remembered in a flash what had enamored me to it so nearly 7 years ago; like another series I had recently started reading, Harry Potter, Love Hina tried to show me that if you try hard enough, if you want something bad enough, if you work and dedicate yourself to that thing, you can obtain it. For Harry, it was resolution and the ability to become a great wizard. For Keitaro, it was an education and a wife.

When I was reading Love Hina in the summer of 2005, I had recently just resolved a really sour relationship. It had changed how I thought about relationships and my future, and now, looking back on that time in my life, I can see that I was much more depressed than I think I let myself believe, and certainly shaken to the core. I did not think that I could go through a relationship again if that was the end result of being with other people.

But, I began reading Love Hina, and found myself re-evaluating my problems. I could project them onto Keitaro (that poor bastard, he has enough problems without mine to deal with), and escape into the lovely world of the Hinata Inn. Keitaro was my proxy, and I found myself rooting for him as if I were encouraging myself to do better as I moved into the next phase of my life.

I know that Love Hina doesn’t have this deep meaning or strong themes to criticize and analyze – but sometimes, that isn’t the point. The point is to empathize and care about the results of the story, to connect, to project, and to become, if only for a moment, a character of another world. I think that is why Love Hina is a series that deserved its own MMF.

I took plenty away from Love Hina, but the most important thing that Keitaro and the girls of Love Hina taught me is that things get better. We can’t always expect life to be sunshine and roses, and there will be strange circumstances and odd coincidences that ruin your day or make you feel like your back is up against the world. You may not be able to have a high quality relationship with the person or people you care about. And that is part of life. Keitaro taught me that we make our own way, one bumbling step at a time, and if we fall, the thing that matters most is that we stand back up.

Manga Widget Investigates: Toribako House

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Alex

With the release of Bunny Drop‘s 4^th volume last week, I’ve been thinking about Yumi Unita again, who I think has one of the most distinctive and beautiful styles in published josei today. Her use of line, pattern, and white space is different from most of the comics I’ve seen published, and I think that it is criminal that only one of her series has been published in the US (major props to Yen Press for picking up Bunny Drop, even if it is on a fairly slow release schedule). Also news – it looks like Unita is writing a Bunny Drop sequel that focuses on the story before the time jump that’s supposed to happen soon (I haven’t received my volume of Bunny Drop from my order yet, so I don’t know if the time jump happens in volume 4 or 5).

This week I’m looking at a two-volume Unita series called Toribako House (トリバコハウス), published in Shodensha’s Feel Young anthology in 2003. It focuses on an early-20s woman named Miki who is living with an older man. She has a real aversion to people being in her personal space, and comes across a guy who is brash, rude, and is all up in her grill. It is these sorts of situations that Unita derives her comedy and great story-telling situations, so I assume that this would be a great read. Apparently there are some darker tones to this series – threatened abuse from Miki’s boyfriend, perhaps – that apparently give it a darker feel at some points, but I suppose that’s what reading the book is for. The metaphor is a bird in a gilded cage, as evidenced by the cover art for the first volume (check out those shirt patterns!)

Unita has a style that I find expressive unique, and delicate, and unlike other shojo or josei, focuses more on the characters themselves than the places in which they interact. Her expressive facial features and varied character composition are highlights to what I consider a very excellent style of illustration, if a bit unconventional.

Toribako is a two-volume series, so not a big investment in funds – Yen Press could have it in a one-and-done omnibus (which I think I would prefer over two volumes, although I would certainly pay for two), and I wouldn’t mind reading it in digital if I had to – it looks like it lines up well with content from Digital Manga or NetComics, although I assume JManga could get the digital rights as well.

Toribako House looks like a cute series that could possibly stand on the line between shojo and josei, and could easily make it to the US because of its small size. Who do I have to beg to get a copy of this?

Reader’s Choice: eManga, NetComics, JManga – Help!

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Alex

I realize lately that I have been talking a lot about digital comics, but don’t really have a great number of non-Viz experiences with them. I have occasionally used eManga as a reviewer, but have never used the NetComics platform, and only have one volume of manga on JManga (Anesthesiologist Hana Vol. 1, for anyone who is interested).

With all this in mind, I’m coing to my audience today with a big question: What digital series should I read next?

So, here’s the plan: I am going to list a book from each of the digital services, and leave it for you to vote in the comments. The votes will be tallied, and I’ll buy/rent the winner, and give you a review of it. Each of the pictures below links to the volume’s website, so you can read about the books if you don’t know much about them. I’ve tried to pick a wide selection here (including a yaoi title) so hopefully there is a good selection here.

Here are the picks:

eManga:

NetComics:

JManga:

Dear and kind reader, I leave the decision up to you. Please be gentle.

Gen Manga: Raw and Unfettered

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Alex

It seems I have been talking about digital comics quite a bit recently. My evaluations of JManga and a recent Manga Out Loud podcast, as well as my experiences with Viz Media’s manga app for iPad and iPhone, have been changing the way that I read comic books and the way I understand the content. If you had asked me whether or not I would be reading manga digitally three years ago, the only “digital” you could really mean was scanlations, so I would have answered with a resounding no. But now, there are multiple platforms to read manga on and purchase manga in, some more successful than others. I find myself looking at these new content delivery systems as a sort of wave of the future. There are series which I now only follow in digital, and digital comics are more and more a part of my reading experience. Gen Manga is also changing that reading experience.

Gen Manga is a relatively new monthly subscription service from Gen Manga Entertainment which offers chapters of manga of various styles and content structures. This manga is essentially doujinshi written and published first by Gen Manga, so the translation, cleaning, and lettering for the English language are done before the comic is even published for Japanese readers. So there is this sort of mix between doujinshi and what are essentially comics written by Japanese amateur authors for American readers. I will not venture to guess what kind of business model makes this possible, but Gen Manga has been releasing an issue every month and has 3 of the 5 issues available for purchase in print form.

One of the selling points of Gen Manga is the way that content is accessed and delivered. The website is slick and very functional, with a minimal amount of clicks to reach content. All comics are available at all times to read and download, so unlike Yen Plus, you can get the entire backstory and read every single volume currently released. Best of all, comics can be downloaded in PDF format and taken on the go, which is great for people who want mobile content.

Each volume clocks in at approximately 140 pages of content, which, for a monthly subscription of $2.99, is actually quite a steal (you pay how much for Ultimate Spiderman?). There are generally four to five series in each volume; consistently the base content of four different series, and in volumes 4 and 5, a one-shot in addition to the base content.

The four base series are:

Wolf: A boxing manga about a young upstart who wants to beat his father, a retired pro-boxer, in the ring, after he runs away from his family. At first, I thought Wolf was some of the worst written of the crew, but it is developing like a sports manga should, and there have been some good regrouping scenes in the past two volumes that have propped up the series quite a bit. It moves quickly, so don’t expect Adachi’s snail pace – still, it would be nice to see a little character development.

VS Aliens: Suspense/Romance/Sci-Fi story about aliens, crushes, etc. The art style is reminiscent of K-On! and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and plays to the audiences that like those books. VS Aliens is my least favorite of the series from Gen Manga, mostly because the story is just a backdrop for cute talking heads to, well, be cute and talk. The premise is interesting, but goes wacko in Volume 4-5, and not in a good way – just that same tropiness I expect from manga like this.

Kamen: Pretty standard seinen action manga with roots in fantasy and feudal Japanese history. There’s a talking mask, a super-powerful guy, and some evil guys. You can pretty much guess what happens. It’s mindless fun, but it is probably the best illustrated of the four base titles, and has enough action and suspense that you can get over some of the stodgy dialogue.

Souls: A horror/suspense story that feels like Time and Again, but with a much different focus and art style. I read the first two volumes of this one, and I don’t follow it closely – Souls could be fabulous, but I very much disliked Time and Again and my reaction to this is very similar.

The content itself is a little rough around the edges. The editorial direction is assuredly much different here than in other more established publishers, so it feels as though some of the rawness is inherent in the system, which can be quite interesting, if done correctly. Still, having doujinshi writers as your main talent, which can be quite a boon, can also be a stumbling block if the writers and illustrators are new to the art of storytelling and composition in regards to manga. You can see some of this in Gen Manga, because some of the stories move forward in a very awkward way, and it is clear that some of the authors are still learning the trade of making manga. Still, the content is starting to grow on me. Gen is very raw, and for that, it can get by with some of its flaws (for now) because it’s evidently a work in progress. The one-shot series Sorako and Alive are some of my favorite pieces published yet, so I am looking forward to more of the same type of content and maybe even continuations of those stories.

Gen Manga is certainly a step away from the norm. It functions as a gateway between the US and Japan that delivers new content and puts the reader in a very fun and unique situation. I look forward to seeing Gen Manga mature and grow as a content delivery service, and I feel that it represents a new way to view foreign content. Regardless of its longevity, it is an interesting experiment and certainly worth the effort.

Review copies were provided by the publisher. The first three volumes of Gen are available for free at the Gen Manga website.

Rescue Me! The Stellar Six of Gingacho

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Alex

I know what you all are thinking – Alex hasn’t been updating his blog lately, so he probably forgot about some of his ongoing series of articles. Well, dear reader, I am happy to prove you wrong this week with an update to my Rescue Me! series, where, for the new reader, I talk about some of my favorite and incomplete manga series published by now defunct publishers. I try to explain the reasons I liked the series and the reasons why I think the series should be rescued (and sometimes even suggest what publisher might benefit from licensing the series). This week, I am taking a look at a really low-key shojo slice-of-life series, The Stellar Six of Gingacho (Kirameki Gingachou Shoutengai, キラメキ☆銀河町商店街).

For anyone interested in looking at older entries in the series, here are the links!

1. Stolen Hearts
2. The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko
3. The Stellar Six of Gingacho
4. Skyblue Shore
5. Happy Café
6. Argentis Apothecarium
7. The Lapis Lazuli Crown
8. Suppli

The Stellar Six of Gingacho is a shojo manga series from author Yuuki Fujimoto, and it ran for a total of 10 volumes published in Hakusensha‘s Hana to Yume. It was part of Tokyopop‘s last wave of releases and licenses before Stu closed up shop and took the business out behind the woodshed. They managed to print two of the ten volumes en masse, and the third volume is somewhat of a manga rarity – copies do exist, but finding them is somewhat of a difficult proposition.

The series follows the lives of six friends whose parents all work at the Gingacho Street Market; each of the characters is a unique piece of a giant friendship puzzle. All together, they conquer their fears and the problems of the Street Market in their own way. As the group moves into middle school, they start to drift apart, but Mike (pronounced “Mee-kay”) is bound and determined to keep the group together. Mike is the lead of the series, and she is a food obsessed, emotional girl who is a lot of fun to read. Each of the other five street market kids is also really fun to read, and each has their own little quirks.

Other shojo “group of friends” manga certainly exists, but I have yet to come across a series that does it as well as The Stellar Six of Gingacho. It is a fun romp that still manages to capture a healthy dose of mono no aware and not be too dramatic about it. The Stellar Six of Gingacho is a great “growing up” story, and it’s a definite comfort manga – nothing too deep, but it certainly evokes a feeling of peace and contentment.

I would certainly love to continue reading this series, and I am certain a publisher like Yen Press would benefit from having this series in its stable. If no one bites to do a physical print run, I could certainly see JManga bring this to their digital storefront. It is a fun series that needs to find a new home.

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