Tag Archives: shojo beat

Review: Strobe Edge, vol. 1

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Strobe Edge, Vol. 1
Written and illustrated by Io Sakisaka
Genre: School Days/Romance
Publisher: VIZ Media Shojo Beat
200 pgs. $9.99 US, $12.99 CAN, £ 6.99 UK
ISBN-13: 978-1421550688

If you read any amount of shojo manga, one of the things you can expect to see infrequently is a completely unique setting and unique plot focuses. While there are some amazing and notable examples, there are quite a few more series set in high school, focused on the relationships of students and their dilemmas. There is good and bad to this – the good is that there is a lot to be said about the finesse of an artist; how can you take known quantities and turn them into something new or different? In the same way, there are hundreds of shojo schoolgirls in print at any given time in Japan, and SOMETHING, some unknown quality, is what draws a foreign publisher to a series in order for it to be published outside of Japan. So, of all the school days manga that we get here in the USA, we are likely getting the choicest bits, even if it isn’t wholly original stuff.

Strobe Edge is a very simple story – the main character, Ninako, is flummoxed by her feelings and lack of understanding of love, and from the beginning of “what is this heavy feeling in my chest,” to “I think you are a great guy but I don’t love you,” we see her learn more about relationships and about herself. It’s an early place to start a romance manga, and for some, this might be a major turn off. But on the other hand, we get an entire volume learning about Ninako, something that will serve the readership well in coming volumes.

Ninako has two boys in her life – the enigmatic and dark-haired Ren, and the good friend who has a very obvious crush on her, Daiki. While the first volume deals with Ninako’s understanding of her feelings and the rest of the story is a little enigmatic, I think that it is safe to say that this is going to be a series where anything is possible. Which pairing will end out as the winner is a little cloudy at this point and it’s uncertain if Ninako’s first volume crush will lead anywhere.

The art is like most other Shojo Beat manga – there are sparkles and sunbeams galore, and faces of characters are drawn in intricate detail. Still, Strobe Edge avoids some common flaws, and the paneling advances the story very easily. Sakisaka uses illustrations that exceed borders and page edges in a way that most mangaka do not, and it has a really interesting effect in Strobe Edge - characters drawn in this way seem more dynamic and sometimes more pensive.

While I can’t claim that everyone is going to like Strobe Edge, especially if you are sick of seeing the same types of stories again and again, I can say that I enjoyed it. If you are a fan of the familiar, this manga should be quite the treat.

For Fans Of: Kimi ni Todoke, Skip Beat! Shojo that isn’t about vampires
Final Verdict: Recommended

Quick Picks: Jiu Jiu, Vol. 1

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Jiu Jiu, Vol. 1

Viz Media is releasing a new title through their Shojo Beat line up next week; Jiu Jiu is a 5 volume series serialized in Hana to Yume, the same anthology as Fruits Basket, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on it. The two posing in  front are werewolves who have been adopted by the sword-wielding main character;. It sounds like a lot of fun. Check out Brigid Alverson’s advance review at MTV Geek.

Review: Sand Chronicles, Vol. 1

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Sand Chronicles, Vol. 1
Publisher: VIZ Media Shojo Beat(January 1, 2008)
Language: English
Genre: Shojo/Romance
Rated: OT for Older Teen
US $8.99, CAN $10.99
ISBN-13: 978-1421514772

I have read some comics that have been melancholy, sometimes even downright depressing. They are generally stories that show how people act towards personal tragedy or how they deal with atrocities. Comic books like Maus and Years of the Elephant show us personal pain and tragedy, and do it in a very unique fashion. Sand Chronicles may not be the most unique setting (the first volume focuses on school age Japanese students, like so much other shojo), but it is remarkably poignant and oftentimes saddening piece of fiction.

The story focuses on Ann, who starts the manga as a 12-year old who has just moved back to her mother’s rural Japanese hometown after her father and mother divorce. Ann meets other neighborhood kids, Daigo, Fuji, and Shika, and things seem to be going well for her, until the unthinkable happens – Ann’s mother commits suicide.

I feel torn by this turn of events. In one hand, the possibility of her suicide is hinted at, and her breakdown is a slow, gradual process in the beginning chapters of the book that makes it believable. But it is unequivocally the most depressing moment I have yet to read in a shojo comic.  I think that this is the general point of Sand Chronicles – it is a sad book, and it intrinsically deals with how people deal with sadness. Ann is dealt a pretty terrible hand in this first volume, and I think that she makes some very understandable mistakes, especially regarding her relationships, because of how her mother’s death overshadows her thoughts. It seems apparent that the relationships built in the first volume of Sand Chronicles cannot last, at least not in the forms in which they exist at the end of this volume. That would be making something very complicated far too simple.

The drama of these events, their effects on the human psyche, and the way that people deal with them, is a core feature of Sand Chronicles. Another is the way that Ashihara defrays her most serious situations with one-note jokes. And trust me, while I have dismissed other writers in the past for this same tendency, it works much better here, thanks to a well written adaptation, and for the sole fact that Sand Chronicles DESPERATELY needs these jokes. They are what keep the story from wallowing in the murk of despair and self-pity.

The art in Sand Chronicles is pretty standard fare, but it conveys all of the necessary emotion. I am reminded of We Were There and Monkey High!, but maybe with a little less fish-eye than We Were There and not quite the fluidity and bounce of Monkey High (all three series were/are published in Shogakukan’s Betsucomi, so this similarity may be on purpose).

Sand Chronicles is dramatic, and marked by sadness and worldliness that other shojo manga from Viz Media’s Shojo Beat line don’t manage to achieve. This is both a blessing and a curse; the series has the emotional gravitas to work out a mother’s death by suicide, but this gravitas also keeps the reading experience somber and heavy. Whether or not Sand Chronicles can stand out as a series past the first volume depends on its ability to develop a meaningful and reflective story that continues to acknowledge the drama and gravitas of the first volume. It will be interesting to see how volume two plays out.

Review: Otomen, Vol. 7

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Otomen, Vol. 7
Written and Illustrated by Aya Kanno
Publisher: VIZ Media Shojo Beat
Genre: Shojo/Romance/High School
Rated: Young Adult
200 pages, $9.99 US
ISBN-13: 978-1421532363

My first review of Otomen was also sort of a look at the digital manga content on Viz’s manga app for iPad. I am talking quite a bit about digital comics these past few weeks, but I wanted to go back to Otomen on the iPad and reexamine the series. I have been really enjoying the volumes between 1 and 7, but I think now is an appropriate time to follow up.

Otomen, for those who don’t follow this series, is a comic about a boy named Asuka who appears to be the manliest of men, but secretly loves shojo manga, cooking, sewing, and other “girly” activities. He is paired up with a “manly” girl named Ryo, and manga author named Juta who uses the relationship between the two as the basis of his best-selling manga series “Love Chick.” This pairing is sometimes interrupted by other people, such as a girly-looking boy who admires Asuka’s manliness, a flower-obsessed hunk, and one of Asuka’s rival martial artists who loves makeup. This diverse group all has one thing in common – they appear to be something, but deep inside they are the opposite of what everyone thinks they represent.

I think that there is a lot of truth in this seemingly little message, but I feel like that now that we have reached the 7th volume of the series, the same old plot constructs are getting a little stale. It seems as though the same plot point is used in every major arc in the series. Otomen uses this character technique again and again, and by the time we meet the hard rocker playboy in book 6, it’s almost guaranteed that he is going to be a giant softie. Not that this is bad – it’s actually quite fun to read. Still, I am looking for the series to develop a bit and it has instead stayed mostly the same.

There are some interesting things that happen in this volume despite its overuse of the “don’t judge a book by its cover” thing Otomen loves. We see Juta get into drag once again in order to do an autograph session for “Love Chick,” and meets his first high school sweetheart (the girl who got him into shojo manga in the first place) and a ghost story that Asuka solves despite his reluctance and fear of the supernatural. There is a huge cliffhanger based out of the last chapter that I won’t spoil here, but threatens to change the entire dynamic of Otomen. I doubt that this event will actually happen, because if it does, Otomen would have to be about something more serious. Otomen is mostly just a one-note comedy, so I would imagine whatever happens resolves in a status quo sort of way, but I’ve been wrong about this sort of thing before.

The art in volume 7 is not the best we’ve seen in the series, but it does plenty of good for the stories in this volume. Kanno definitely has the chops for the emotions, the rough action, and the cutesy bento, arts and crafts, and anything else that Asuka gets his hands on. Kanno is especially good at inserting little touches into her art – a good example is when Juta is busy writing manga – he likes to clip back his hair to keep it out of his eyes. This adds to what you know and understand about the character with very minimal talk, and some artists would miss opportunities like this.

While I’ve griped about Otomen in this review a bit, I truly love it to death. The formula, despite being present in essentially every volume, is a good one – Otomen has proven it can be a mine of comedy silver and gold. If you haven’t gotten your hands (or your mouse) on a copy of Otomen yet, do yourself a favor and get it. You won’t regret it. Just make sure you check your normal “this has to happen in shojo manga” expectations at the door.

Moving Review: Otomen, Vol. 1

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Otomen, Vol. 1, Written and Illustrated by Aya Kano
Viz Media Shojo Beat
ISBN 9781421521862, 208 pgs.
$4.99 US digital (iPod & iPad only); $8.99 US

If you haven’t seen one of my moving reviews, please give a look at my last review of Monkey High, vol. 1. The results of a review are the following:

Keep: I liked the book enough to pack it up!
Donate: I liked it or think that others will like it, so I will donate it to the local library system
Trash: I didn’t like this book, and I wouldn’t donate it (eeek!)

One of the great new things about technology is the ability to have your books wherever you like as long as you have your digital device with you. While I certainly appreciate having a physical book and feeling the paper, smelling the ink, and experiencing the raw, unfettered joy of reading, I also enjoy being able to slip multitudes of books into my pocket, and the ability to read during downtime, long bus and car rides, and basically wherever I want. That is why when the Viz Manga App first hit the iPad shortly after the tablet’s debut, I was extremely excited. I would be able to take a whole stack of manga with me on the road. Now, with the iPod App, I can keep all my books between both devices and reread manga whenever I like.

Another good thing about the Viz Manga App is that allows me to check out series that I haven’t read or seen before at a discount price from their retail selling points, and that was good enough for me to check out the first volume of Otomen. Even more exciting, I picked up the volume during Viz‘s March Madness sale and got the first volume for a dollar; you can’t beat that price!

Otomen is a shojo manga about a high school boy named Asuka who is proficient in kendo and other martial arts and spends most of his time at school trying to be the manliest man possible – except that on the inside, he loves crochet, sewing, and cooking. In this first volume, we see him fall in love with Ryo, a girl who is fairly manly.

The premise of Otomen is really quite cute, but, without proper management, could have been pretty terrible. We’ve seen other manga with reversed gender roles (Ai Ore comes to mind) that have been schlock, and others (W Juliet, anyone) that weren’t really that… well, interesting. The whole premise would be fairly predictable, but a third main character, Juta Tanibacha, spices things up nicely as a mangaka who writes Asuka’s favorite manga series Love Chick (which is obviously based on Asuka and Ryo’s relationship, except their genders are reversed).

Despite previous attempts at this type of story, I think that Otomen is probably the best crafted that I have read. The characters are very well developed and the events in the plot, while a bit episodic, are also very basic and don’t try to complicate the general plot line. The first whole volume we see Juta crafting his manga while Asuka sputters about trying to work up the courage to ask Ryo out on a date. Seeing Juta help Asuka work through his problems and try to maintain friendship with his “muse” is really quite amusing, and still stays true to the idea of the story.The whole mangaka writing a story about two characters inside a manga is enjoyable meta-humor that I think is something rarely seen in shojo published in the US, and it is what makes Otomen such a great read.

The art is also wonderful – and yes, I realize that while I normally hate on the hearts, flowers, stars, and glitter, they are quite appropriate given the subject matter, and their use is never cloying, so I can put up with it in Otomen. The art is a subtle mix of shojo and shonen characteristics, which I liked, since there is plenty of “cool tough guy action” as well as stuffed bunnies and ornate bento lunches. I also appreciated the fact that Love Chick, the fictional manga-within-a-manga has completely different art than Otomen, which seems obvious, but is a nice touch.

As far as the digital delivery, Viz Media has done an excellent job with their manga app on the iPad and iPod. Books are easily downloaded and purchased in-app, and also easily read. While I dislike the fact that other tablet users and PC users are unable to access this content, it is a great delivery system for Apple devices. The cost per volume is also very acceptable, since at $4.99 I feel as though I am getting a pretty good deal for my entertainment dollar. Free samples allow you to view the first chapter of the fist volume of any series on the app, which is a good choice, and helped me decide to start reading Otomen. The advent of the Viz manga app will definitely not change my love for the written page, but I will most likely begin to follow specific series on the iPad because I am not necessarily that rushed to get them and I really like the price point. I am glad that Viz has entered the fray with this iPad/iPod app, and hope that they will continue to expand their offerings to other platforms.

As far as Otomen goes, I think it is great fun – it is whimsical and breezy and still has enough depth to satisfy those with tastes for more complicated stories. I am interested to see how the series will continue, especially with some of the hints at what could be some messy/complicated plot lines. I’m also interested in how Juta will play out as a mangaka – this part of the book is what really makes it tick, and I hope that we continue to see his progression as a character. Overall, Otomen is a great read that is cerebral enough to approach gender roles and identity and still has time for a “standard” shojo love story, an unusual mix that makes a really entertaining comic book. Highly Recommended.

Mover’s Ranking: Keep

It’s not hard to convince me to keep my iPad, and that’s one of the strengths of this type of content, but at the same time, even if I had the paperback books, I would be packing these up for my move. This is a manga you really need to read!

Moving Review: Monkey High!, Vol. 1

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Monkey High, Vol. 1
Written and Illustrated by Shouko Akira
Viz Media Shojo Beat, 192 pgs
ISBN 9781421515182
US: $8.99, CAN: $11.99

One major thing after another is coming up this month, and for me, part of that is moving to the great snowy north of Cleveland. My manga collection is certainly a big part of my possessions, and in order to pack things like, well, clothing, I have to decide whether or not to keep or donate books that I have accumulated over the past 6 years. My shojo section is the first to be thoroughly scrutinized, and I’m going to be doing “mover’s reviews” with the end of the review being one of three options:

Keep – I pack it and bring it with me
Donate – I like it but I’m giving it away to our local library system
Trash – I don’t think it is good enough to donate to a library (…ouch!)

Cliche is a large part of manga writing. It makes sense, financially, to continue to produce similar products because your audience enjoys the similarity between one product and the next. That’s all well and good when you are making toasters, but with manga series, it tends to create books that are eerily similar to one another. Finding a shojo series where the girl finds the guy that is thoroughly unique is about as hard as can be. Writers tend to acknowledge these cliches by either avoiding them, trying to modify them slightly, or my favorite, subvert them. Monkey High! understands the stereotypes and the cliches, and tries to subtly subvert one of the underlying principles of almost every shojo manga – the heartthrob high school hottie always wins over the stubborn, stoic girl with some combination of charm, wit, sensitivity, and that winning smile.

Monkey High! is absolutely… not that. Instead of the hottie, our heroine, Haruna falls for the class clown, a short guy Macharu (who looks/acts like a baby monkey). She’s recently gone through some trouble since her politician father has fallen out of favor due to some political scandal. Its the same, “bad things happen, school transfer, meet the new kids, find a new boyfriend” storyline that is familiar to most shojo manga readers. Haruna is an interesting main character because of her initial misgivings about her new classmates. She likens students to monkeys, with their cliques and fighting, and aggressively does not want to build friendships and romantic relationships. This is a different style of character that lends itself more heavily to introspection and reflection than most shojo leads. Atsu, Micharu’s best friend, is the heartthrob of the series, and attempts to woo this cute new girl, but finds his suave moves incapable of winning her over. Instead, it’s Macharu, with his honest smile, simple acts of kindness, and forthright charm that catches her eye, and we get to see the two of them begin their relationship together after a long school field trip involving hiking and group cooking. The rest of the cast is mostly classmates who fade in and out of existence to facilitate some of the major scenes in the book, but don’t necessarily have names.

The art of Monkey High! is mostly serviceable, and comes from the same vein as Yuki Obata’s We Were There (although the eyes in Monkey High! look less fishy and more human). Nothing out of the ordinary here, besides some pretty nice panel composition. Shading and toning are all fairly standard, and while the lanky shojo character is the norm here, it is nice to see that both Haruna and Macharu are at least drawn slightly out of range of that normal “tall, skinny, and cute” shojo illustration palette that I am so used to seeing. Another change is the lack of glitter, flowers, and starbursts in the toning of this manga, which is generally a given in this type of shojo story. I for one, am quite grateful.

The best part about Monkey High! is its strength of character and pacing, which are natural and also (sadly) somewhat unique to popcorn shojo manga. This book has the tendency to make you think a bit more than its fluffier counterparts and for its troubles, Monkey High! ends up being quite an enjoyable romantic comedy. Where others have failed, Monkey High succeeds in its subversive attempts to reshape the shojo story, and delivers a well timed and appropriate coming of age story. While it is not the most breath-taking manga, readers will certainly enjoy this well illustrated, well written romantic comedy, and even readers weary of the genre can find a lot to like.

On a lighter note, if ever o’ ever a tagline were to be printed on a back of a book that could make me cringe, “Going bananas for love!” is definitely one. Really Viz?

Mover’s Ranking: Donate.

While I enjoyed Monkey High! I don’t have a lot invested in the series (I only own one volume), and it wasn’t great enough to make me want to read it again. Still, it’s a fun title and I enjoyed it, and I’m sure patrons at the local library would love it.

Review: The Story of Saiunkoku, Vols. 1-2

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The Story of Saiunkoku
Written by Sai Yukino and Illustrated by Kairi Yura
Publisher: Viz Media’s Shojo Beat line
Rated T for Teen
Historical/Shojo
US $9.99, CAN $12.99,
Vol. 1 ISBN 1421538342
Vol. 2 ISBN 1421538350

 

I have been reading quite a bit of shojo lately. I don’t think that my interests have changed all that much, to be honest. I still love Takahashi, and I am impatiently waiting for the next volume of Negima! to be released by Kodansha USA. Still, after putting off a few shonen series that I haven’t been following too closely, I realized that the bulk of my reading material was actually comics for girls. Which is fine with me, because, in the case of The Story of Saiunkoku, whatever sword-fight or display of power I could find in a shonen action/adventure, I also get in a more appreciable, subtle way with this odd-ball shojo love story.

The Story of Saiunkoku is a period drama based on light novels written by Sai Yukino, and it focuses on the headstrong and wily Shurei. Born of a noble family, her intelligence and strong will have made her a perfect candidate for public office – except she is ineligible for said office because she is female. Booooo sexism. Instead, her destitute family is offered a large sum of money when one of the emperor’s advisors asks Shurei to be the emperor’s consort. Shurei is quick to agree.

The Story of Saiunkoku opens with a the sort of clockwork style these types of shojo stories are known for, but The Story of Saiunkoku manages to do a bit better than most because it does not take itself too seriously in all the right places. Sai Yukino seems to be adept at changing the tone of the book in natural and yet unexpected ways that make the series fresh and unpredictable. The cast of characters is also quite interesting; we get a mix of old and young advisors, family members, and servants that are all written well.

One of the driving forces of The Story of Saiunkoku is the idea of ambition. It is Shurei’s ambition that leads her to be come a consort for the emperor, and it is Ryuki’s supposed lack of ambition that leads her to him. The ambitions of court advisors lead to some very dramatic and quickly-paced chapters in volume two, which in the end make for a great read. I think the ambition of The Story of Saiunkoku is the sort of tone that the entire series gives off. The art is beautifully detailed, and the language is smart and a little old fashioned without being “Fakespearean” like another historical drama I read *coughOokucough*. The Story of Saiunkoku is an ambitious shojo manga, and it ends up meeting its ambitions in the first two volumes. Frankly, it is a gem in the wave of new releases this year, and should not be missed by anyone who likes a love story or a period drama.

Review: Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 1

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One of the most interesting things I find with the domestic wine industry is that it is geared towards immediate consumption of wine. 90% of wines bought at grocers and other stores are consumed within 48 hours of their purchase. Still, that 10% of wines is destined to be stored in a cellar to age before they are finally consumed. Some wines even need to sit for a few years before they are really ready to be consumed. Some manga series are the same way.

Kamisama Kiss feels like one of those series that needs to age a bit. It features a cute highschooler-now-shrine-goddess with a lot of spunk, and a grumpy fox kami with just enough character to make the same old determined girl/jerk guy cliche a little less tedious than normal. The jerk boy/spunky girl romance is a well worn shojo cliche, and I certainly have seen it written better than this. The interesting thing about Kamisama Kiss is its unusual premise, which should allow the series to grow in unique ways compared to other manga with the same theme.

Naname is a fine lead. She is quirky, smart, and doesn’t put up with anyone’s crap. After she gets evicted from her home, she is quickly and quietly removed from the school setting you expect from this type of shojo and dumped into an old Shintu shrine. Our heroine is given the control of a worn down love and relationship shrine, and must now take care of it after accepting control of it from its previous master. Along the way she deals with a bunch of demonic garbage, and starts learning how to be a goddess.

Her partner in shrine care Tomoe, a fox kami, is a jerk. After he finds out she’s nothing but a human, he attempts to abandon the shrine he has worked at diligently for the past 20 years. He is proud and boastful, and when Naname refuses to give in to his demands, she tricks him into serving her with a kiss.

The artwork flirts with the bizarre at times, which is quite wonderful compared to most shojo manga. The wispy line work is both simple and effective. At times I did not like the panel composition, and I often thought that there were times when background and screen tone could have been used more effectively, but the sparse style is unique to Julietta Suzuki, and is more of an artistic choice than a lack of skill.

I find the yokai in this book to be creepy and at the same time endearing. Most interesting is the catfish swamp princess who shows up in the last chapter of the book. Her story will conclude with the second volume, I would imagine, and it should give us a better idea of what this series will eventually become.

I wish that I had more to say about Kamisama Kiss, but unfortunately, I don’t think that the series has cellared long enough to have a favorable taste. Certainly it has the complexity and strength of character shine, but it will take great care and handling to make sure attains its potential.

One-Shots in the Western Manga Market and Reader Surveys

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Last week, I received the November edition of Yen Plus, and in it was a cute little story by George Alexopoulos called “Prom Night”, a Western independent artist/comics writer who has a nice little web portfolio you can check out. Earlier this year,  Yen Press published a one-shot by Queenie Chan which was surprisingly interesting. These two writers are just a small pinch of the talent out there that’s trying to get work published as independent comics writers.

George’s story reminded me of a little fact – that anthologies, like in Japan, are perfect for one-shots. In Japan, contests exist throughout the year that allow new and aspiring authors get their work into an anthology and have it graded by the readers. Readers pick what they like and what they don’t, and those stories that they end up liking the most oftentimes get turned into long-running manga series. For example, if the readers of Yen Plus liked “Prom Night,” they would be able to vote it up and see what happens. While “Prom Night” is a fairly one-minded short, its characters, who are all cute, awkward, and lovable, could definitely be part of a longer running series.

The question is though – what is the point of a one-shot manga in the US? The publishing world in the West is a lot different than the publishing model in Japan, and making one-shots available to the general reading public isn’t nearly as important if you aren’t going to do anything with them. Showcasing talent is an okay use of space, but I really want to read more of “Prom Night,” and I’m fairly certain that I’m not going to get to.

It interests me that anthologies like Yen Press and Shonen Jump have surveys that have ranking systems like the original anthologies, but I wonder if they use the information they get from the surveys is used to influence publishing decisions. As an aside, the survey in Yen Plus is a page of the anthology that you need to tear out and fill in and mail to Yen Press. It’s pretty flimsy paper (because the anthology is printed on low quality paper) so it doesn’t hold up very well.  It would be a better system if they could get one of the post-card inserts that sells subscriptions to be a survey card. I would definitely fill that out and put it in the mail. Survey postcards would be sweet, but digital works too – give readers a slip to vote in an online poll and offer a small prize (maybe a copy of an upcoming manga release) to a randomly-drawn participant (Viz does this with Shonen Jump, but Yen Press doesn’t do this with Yen Plus).

When Shojo Beat went down, it concerned me that manga anthologies might be going the way of the dodo here in the US, and I think that giving readers a say in what gets published and what gets cut is an essential move for any anthology. If, in some imaginary world, I was a Japanese manga reader and the Japanese version of Yen Plus released “Prom Night,” I could vote on it and know that my votes would count to whether or not it got published again. That’s power for the reader, and it increases the investment that your anthology subscribers have to your brands, as well as your manga licenses.

Getting this to work would require some tabulation and extra work for each publishing team, but the trade-off is a strong idea of the popularity of each series in an anthology within weeks of its publication.The strength of such a series popularity survey is unmeasurable – letting readers have a say in what they read is just another way that manga publishers can interact with the community, change their content for the better, and sell more copies.

The Implications of Shojo Beat’s Demise

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Well, it’s official; it’s been way too long since I’ve updated my blog, but finals and heavy coursework will do that to you. I’m in finals week here at University, so my free time is going to increase very soon (more time to read manga! yay!!). In the meantime, I have been working hard at http://www.eyeofthevortexonline.com, and the May edition is finally ready for your viewing pleasure. We’ve got a ton of great features this month, so check it out.

I clicked over to ICv2 earlier this afternoon and was shocked to see that Viz Media is canceling their Shojo Beat anthology magazine in light of economic issues. This disappoints me for a number of reasons, which I’ll get to in a moment, but I think it’s safe to say that overall this is fairly disheartening, especially for anyone that had subscribed to the magazine. I cannot say that I was one of those people, but it’s akin to when Newtype USA was canceled; something you enjoyed every month is now missing.

The most difficult issue with economic downturn is that you start to see what portions of a company’s business are profitable and which aren’t. This normally isn’t a problem, but when the product is something you’ve invested in emotionally, it can get a bit hairy. Viz is traditionally known as a manga publisher with a very strong shonen lineup, including the chart topping Naruto, Bleach, and Black Cat. Their shojo line is also strong, but doesn’t get near the amount of attention that the shonen does.

The strange thing is though, that manga as a whole, is a comic s0ld to women (at least in your major book retailers). Shojo Beat is the heart of the girl’s comics movement, a collection of the “normal” girly magazine stuff with comics specifically written to be enjoyed by girls. And, when most of your bookstore market is the young female audience (who doesn’t have Twilight to distract them this summer), it seems like an inopportune time to cancel the anthology. More appropriately, it would seem, now is the time to give the anthology more press, more promotions, and try to tie it into product lines and get it into the hands of its chosen audience.

In contrast, Shonen Jump has received a lot of tie-ins with other products, giving it some cover recognition in stores, with its Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and other promotions. It also has Saturday morning cartoons to back it up, giving it more eye appeal to the younger crowd. Can we say that for Shojo Beat? Did it ever really get its chance to shine? Or was it more of a background player to the antics of Naruto and his other shonen buddies?

One of Viz’s interesting moves is that they’ve promised to send all Shojo Beat readers a free copy of Shonen Jump, which is well intentioned, but for the most part, seems misguided. The people who enjoy shojo and shonen are completely different, and the subject matter in Shonen Jump is far different from the content of Shojo Beat. You may get a few converts, Viz, but the people that would read both anthologies are probably already doing so anyway.

While I’m sure funds are tight in manga world right now, I don’t know that Viz is doing bad enough that it absolutely needed to cancel Shojo Beat. I’m sure Shojo Beat wasn’t profitable. I’m not actually sure that Shonen Jump is profitable. I think it was probably the right business move.

But as I say this, we see the loss of a very specific, important piece of the manga puzzle. Manga is meant for anthologies, like fish are meant for water.  It has been my joy to subscribe to Yen Plus, and I’m currently looking at Shonen Jump, because I think the anthology is so key to the way manga is written and should be read.  In losing Shojo Jump, we lose a part of that experience, and we lose a quality publication which has inspired and entertained consumers since it was originally published.

Viz has promised to continue the series in the magazine through their paperback manga volumes, but the effect is certainly not the same.  It seems like such a tragedy that such an important portion of the manga industry in Japan is so lacking here in the USA, and the loss of Shojo Beat further removes manga from its traditional format here.