Category Archives: Rescue Me!

Guest Post: Rescue Me! Kyo Kara Maoh!

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While I intend to get my Rescue Me! series back up and running in the near future, I recently received an email from a reader of Manga Widget asking if I would be interested in discussing one of her favorite manga that is currently in need of a rescue. After a little discussion, Teresa wrote a nice guest post below. If you have a license you want rescued and would like to have your writing featured at Manga Widget, please contact mangawidget *at* gmail *dot* com. Teresa tweets at @Vineyardelf.
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Kyo Kara Maoh! is a fantasy series originally licensed by Tokyopop, but remains unfinished in English after the company closed shop in 2011.  It started out as a series of light novels written by Tomo Takabayashi in 2000, and was adapted into a manga illustrated by Temari Matsumoto  and published in Kadokawa Shoten’s Asuka anthology. The first seven English volumes are available from the secondary market, but the series is still ongoing, with at least a 15th volume in Japan currently published.

The series details the story of Yuri Shibuya, a seemingly typical 15 year-old Japanese boy, as he is transported into an alternate universe where humans and demons coexist. It turns out that Yuri is actually not of our world, and is the next king of the demons.  The story follows Yuri as he tries to make sense of his new role, from making peace with the humans next door to handling his accidental engagement to another man. He is helped along the way by his advisors and his new fiancé, all of whom have their own ideas about his kingship and how he should rule. The focus of the story seems to be on the relationships between the new king and his advisors as they struggle to bring peace and prosperity to the land, and it’s engrossing to watch Yuri develop from the different perspectives of his advisors and guardians.

At first blush, Kyo Kara Maoh! seems to be a simple male harem fantasy story, but it actually has surprising depth.  Yuri is a genuinely likeable protagonist while still managing to have flaws. In fact, one of the most appealing parts of the story is how flawed but relatable and lovable the characters are. There are no perfect Prince Charmings in this story; even the most affable of the advisors has his secrets.

The story is also light and easy to read while still being engaging. I started to read the first volume with a healthy sense of skepticism, but was completely absorbed by the middle of the book.  Kyo Kara Maoh!  manages to be serious while still funny enough to keep me giggling out loud at the lighthearted parts, to the point that I was garnering stares from people nearby. I also am impressed at the way the male-male engagement has been handled so far in the first seven volumes. It’s an important part of the story that does not overwhelm the rest of the story, and it’s really heartwarming to see the relationship develop at a realistic pace outside of mere physical attraction.

I’ve been dying to continue Kyo Kara Maoh! ever since I learned that there were more volumes. Given their previous rescue of other old Tokyopop titles, I can definitely see thing being picked up by Yen Press, perhaps in collected volumes as the single ones are somewhat thin. Jaded as I am, it’s rare for me to get so absorbed, and I would hate to see a series with such broad appeal languish.

Rescue Me! The Stellar Six of Gingacho

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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.

Rescue Me! The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko

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Here at Manga Widget, we’re taking two solid months to look at abandoned licenses of great shojo and josei series from the late Tokyopop and CMX. Last week’s entry into the series was a feature on Stolen Hearts, a traditional shojo high school romance story from CMX with a lovely kimono twist.

Here’s the list of the series (and links back to previous articles in case you missed one).

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

This week’s rescue request is The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (笑うかのこ様, Warau Kanoko-sama), which is a three volume series originally licensed by Tokyopop in a wave of really fun licenses in the Winter of 2010/Spring of 2011. Written and illustrated by Ririko Tsujita, the series was originally published in LaLa DX, a shojo anthology from Hakusensha, which is a bimonthly sister publication to their LaLa anthology. LaLa DX generally debuts new series or one shot stories which can be turned into series if they are popular. Such is the case with The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko.

Hakusensha, as I have mentioned before, is now one of the mid-list major publishers who do not have any real publishing partners in the USA.

The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko is critically lauded in the manga community in the USA for its spunky heroine, a girl much like Harriet from Nickelodeon’s Harriet the Spy or Nico from Sexy Voice and Robo, who declares that she is the impartial observer of all her classmates antics; she records activities and personalities, and unearths particular traits, forbidden relationships, and sour relationships with gusto. The catchline of “objective observer” is more of a running joke, however- Kanoko always manages to get herself dragged into problems and manages to bring justice (or her version of it) to those deserving using her particular skill set to its advantage.

One of the most interesting points to The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko is its format; because LaLa DX is a bimonthly publication, most series have to reintroduce their running storyline in the first few pages of each chapter. While this could get tedious when transferred to the collected tankoban format, The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko uses this reintroduction to its advantage, having Kanoko transfer school at each new chapter (friends from the first chapter pop back into the storyline from time to time and help her out). This allows her to revisit her “objective observer” ways and really let her start dissecting problems at each new school, allowing her to get messily involved.

Tokyopop managed to get two of the three volumes published before their sudden closure, so we get to see most of the series in print from them. Still, having read the first volume, I want to know how the series ends. Being so close to completion is really disappointing, and there are other Tokyopop series that are stuck in this “one and done” mode, so close to being finished, but never completed.

Another strong point for this license (besides its small size) is that it has an apparently successful sequel currently running in LaLa DX (恋だの愛だの, Koi Dano Ai Dano) which is currently at 2 collected volumes in length. One point regarding this sequel which a few bloggers have mentioned is the second volume of Koi Dano Ai Dano and its fairly steamy cover, so perhaps we will get to see Kanoko give up her school hopping and start making some real and lasting relationships.

Two series with a total of 5 volumes is really small and affordable, so it would be great to see this manga revisited; an omnibus from Yen Press might be just the thing for this fun and quirky little series.

Rescue Me! – Stolen Hearts

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It is hard to for me to think about Tokyopop’s closure with any sense of finality, although their gigantic yard-sale has already come and gone. The company has been a part of the manga publishing market for as long as I have been reading comics on a weekly basis, so Tokyopop’s abrupt disappearance from the market is a bit unsettling. Tokyopop, for all its faults, was a champion of comics from some of the “mid-list majors,” manga publishers that don’t have an international imprint like Viz Media or Kodansha USA, but still publish plenty of manga in Japan. Another one of these “mid-list majors” champions was CMX (part of the parent company DC Comics), and now that both are gone, there are some excellent shojo titles that are both in limbo and deserving of continued publication.

When I originally started reading Tokyopop manga, I was reading harem comedy (aka Love Hina, Ai Yori Aoshi) which is essentially for guys, but once I stopped reading Tokyopop content in 2008, I stayed away from their shonen manga until picking up the first volume of Deadman Wonderland in December of 2010. I was disappointed with the series they were releasing, and wasn’t willing to pay money for the sleezy junk they were putting out for guys. What I did keep on reading was their shojo content, which, especially recently, has been quite a bit of fun. Here are some shojo and josei series that are currently unfinished from Tokyopop (and CMX) that I would love to see completed here in the USA.

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

Each week, for the next eight weeks (or more if I come up with more entries to add to my list), I will feature the series, and talk about my experience with the title and why I think it deserves to see completion.

1. Stolen Hearts

Stolen Hearts has been on my reading list for a while, but I never managed to track down both volumes of the series until my silent month of April when they sprung up on eBay. Although I had to pay higher than retail price for the books, I was happy to get copies to read. The story of Stolen Hearts features two high-schoolers, one, a towering behemoth that everyone is afraid of (Koguma) and a petite 4’10” girl named Shinobu who accidentally spills milk on a kimono in his backpack. Koguma’s grandmother is a dealer in antique kimonos, and to pay back Koguma, Shinobu agrees to model the kimonos and pass out fliers to get more business.

Along the way, the two become a couple and go through the little missteps and awkwardness of a new relationship. Koguma’s brothers interfere with their relationship, which is a simple, sweet, and not too complex love affair that buds in these first two volumes, and appears as though it will bloom into the third or fourth volume. What makes Stolen Hearts stand out (since this is a fairly ordinary shojo story) is the setting in which the events take place – mostly, in a kimono shop. The historic and complex formal dress of the Japanese woman is drawn in beautiful detail, and make the comic, in its black and white dressing, look positively stunning with cute, fun patterns and well designed outfits. The kimonos and the detail about Japanese dress add flair to a well-worn path, and to be honest, it feels as though this addition makes the “first love” shojo cliche into a whole new story.

Additionally, Stolen Hearts is a great shojo comic because not only does it reuse the shojo cliche events like the school festival, it does so without pretension, and I would say celebrates the genre with solid writing, undeniable charm, and a bit of a kimono twist. Not many books can do that, and for that reason, I feel that everyone who likes shojo should be able to read Stolen Hearts.

One of the saddest things about Stolen Hearts is the second volume – not the story, but the back-page insert, advertising a third volume of the series in October of 2010 (CMX was shuttered in the summer of 2010). I was more than willing to pay a little extra to get both volume 1 and 2 together and in good condition, and I am glad I did – the series has stolen my heart.

At 6 volumes total, Stolen Hearts is an easy rescue. It is a nice, small series that has charm in spades, and its short length makes it less costly to pick up and release. Stolen Hearts has a lot going for it, and definitely needs to be completed here in the USA. A smaller company like Digital Manga Publishing (EDIT: or JManga!) could pick this up without much difficulty and finish it here in the USA. I would even be happy with a digital-only release. This is a great series! Someone please rescue Stolen Hearts!