Category Archives: manga

Belated Happy Birthday to Ogiue

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I am ashamed.

Just as I did last year, I failed to mention in time that last Saturday was the birthday for the great and wonderful Ogiue Chika, who if we go by the dates set in the Genshiken manga is already a productive(?) member of society.

If you recall, Ogiue at the end of Genshiken started to work as a manga artist for Monthly Afternoon. This was in 2005, and so by now she’s had about 4 years to make something of herself. I’d like to believe that in the world of Genshiken, she has worked hard with Sasahara at her side, a wonderful professional manga romance. Sasahara meanwhile is still probably working hard as an editor, possibly losing lots of sleep and wrangling manga artists to get their jobs finished on time. Such a splendid concept, being in a relationship with a person in your field who approaches it just a bit differently from you.

Let us give our goodwill to Ogiue in her future endeavors, and hope for happiness for her in the years to come.

The Pros and Cons of Technology and its Effects on Society: Magic Geox

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The Magic Geox comic series is often underappreciated and overlooked. This is especially the case with issue 12 of the series. This issue, titled Magic Geox and…the School of Magic, manages to blend subtle societal commentary with deep, complex characters in a unique setting combining magic and technology with a dash of superheroics. It also reveals much about our hero Magic Geox’s character flaws, and does so with grace on the level of Kino’s Journey.

The story begins on a world called Planet Magix III where a group of young wizard apprentices are tasked with creating shoes that are all but devoid of odor, a practical exercise fitting for a final exam from one of the most prominent magic planets in the galaxy. The young wizards-to-be, in their attempt to find a solid solution to their problem, inadvertently unleash an ancient and terrible pair of demonic shoes with a pungent aroma so foul that they are actually able to control other smelly footwear through the power of their combined stench. Ultimately, it is up to Magic Geox to descend from space and use his advanced technology to put an end to the evil shoes.

It is in this issue that we begin to truly see the level of hatred Magic Geox has for odiferous shoes. Though he hides it well with a smile, and a look of confidence, the sublime artwork really conveys the obsession inherent in Magic Geox.

A lot can be said about the symbolism strewn throughout the story, but three main points come to mind.

1) The young magicians are eager to solve their problem without thinking through the consequences, and their mistake balloons and goes out of control to the point that not even the adults in their community can handle it. This speaks to a growing paranoia in our society that children are growing up faster than their parents and guardians can keep up with, and even those with the power to control matter itself cannot entirely understand the minds of children.

2) Magic Geox is himself a technological being who arrives on a backwater “magical world” in order to save it from the perils caused by its own people. In this sense, Magic Geox is not unlike a Christ figure. Though he uses technology, he chooses to have the word “Magic” in his name, as if to say that his abilities, man-made as they may be, can still cause miracles. It does not appear to be hubris or conceit however, but rather true faith in his cause.

3) The demon shoes themselves possess sharp teeth placed in such a way that if one were to actually wear them as shoes, the pain would be immense despite at first seeming to be very comfortable. When one realizes that the “stink trails” that emit from these shoes are just creatively disguised smog clouds, it is clear that these shoes are a metaphor for pollution caused by industrialization, an interesting contrast to the promotion of technology inherent in Magic Geox’s presence. Much like Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke, this comic wants to show both sides to a situation.

Overall, Magic Geox and…the School of Magic is an ambitious work. Its main flaw may be that it is so densely packed with content in every page and panel that it becomes a difficult read. However, this is also what makes it worth revisiting time and time again.

Guilty Over My Gear (or lack thereof)

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Sometimes I feel as if anime companies are trying to guilt trip me into buying their products. Now, I will say that I download anime and manga. I also buy anime and manga, but it’s usually of series I already know are good or tend to be inexpensive purchases or both. The sheer amount of series which I think are good and worth my time are far greater than my income. I still get series, but as anime companies struggle to keep up, the feeling I occasionally get from interviews and such is that I am not doing enough. It’s really uncomfortable.

This is especially true of series which I think are quite good and even somewhat affordable but simply am unable to purchase in the near future. Should I be getting it in lieu of others simply for the sake of “supporting?” If I buy a series from one licensing company but not the other, is it all right for me to be supporting the anime industry as a whole but not helping out all the companies which put the shows I like?

The Differences in Realism in Video Games

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For as long as video games have existed, there’s been a graphical arms race. The Intellivision claims its superiority over the Atari 2600 due to its much more accurate-looking versions of Basketball and Football. The Sega Genesis has 16 whole bits, twice as many as the NES, a number whose significance in marketing was always accompanied by images to show much better Genesis games looked. With the rise of 3-d graphics, particularly with the era where the original Playstation was king, there’s been a push towards manufactured realism. While it’s not like the pursuit of realism didn’t exist previously (Mortal Kombat’s digitized graphics looked amazing at first), it was with 3-d graphics that the foundation was laid due to the simple if faulty logic that a three-dimensional game is more like our three-dimensional world.

As we look at today’s graphics, we know that the pursuit of realism is still going strong, with improved lighting, increasing numbers of polygons per model, and just tons of work and money being put into getting a scene in a video game to look like a photo. While I’m not a fan of this push towards realism as I believe it to be somewhat of a dead end, what I am interested in is how America and Japan differ in their depictions of “realism” in video games, or at least what the perceived difference is. The reason why I say America and Japan of course is that these two countries are really considered to be the places where mainstream video games happen.

Let’s take a look at male characters in games. In essence, characters in “realistic” games made in America are stereotyped as a bunch of square-jawed tough guys who have to drink beer and shoot enemies with automatic weapon fire as a display of their manliness. The male characters of Japan are criticized as being overly effeminate, sometimes to the point that people wonder whether or not it was necessary to make them guys in the first place, and even the more muscular and masculine guys in Japanese games tend to have a bit of beauty to them. Neither category is actually true and you can find a million exceptions, but these are where the stereotypes stand. And as I looked at these generalizations, they seemed oddly familiar, as if I’d seen this argument happen before, and it also occurred between Japan and America. And then I remembered: Comics vs Manga.

The same complaints that are leveled at the male characters of Japanese and American games are given to the characters of comics, from complaints about superheroes being too musclebound to bishounen being too much bi and not enough shounen. And so I have to wonder, how much do comics play a role in the depiction of realism in games for either culture?

By now, we know that the realism from games isn’t meant to actually be “like reality,” but rather a sort of hyper-realism where things we consider to be part of the actual world like muscles and sweat are emphasized and exaggerated. The difference then comes from what is perceived to be important to realism, and when it comes to non-abstract comics, I believe these elements are also very present and perhaps even more prominent. Of course, I can’t completely ignore the idea that both comics and video games are simply influenced by the reality of society. Most likely, it’s not a unidirectional relationship and at this point, especially as video games enter the mainstream more and more, and they will affect the aesthetics of video games and the environment around us in even more profound ways.

Dragon Ball Kai over Dragon Ball Z?

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Dragon Ball Kai, for those of you who don’t already know, is the remastered, revised new airing of Dragon Ball Z with the filler cut out and the pacing altered to remove the fluff and get closer to the pacing of the original manga. Obviously, this is going to at some point be released on a physical format for purchase. Most likely it’s even going to be on Blu-Ray what with this being a remastering for HD broadcast.

If you enjoyed the series on Cartoon Network or syndication but never purchased any series, is how willing would you be to buy Dragon Ball Kai INSTEAD OF the original Dragon Ball Z anime? If you have the original DBZ anime, would you be willing to sell it in order to get DBKai, or does the original hold too much sentimental value?

It’s supposed to be about half as long with everything improved, so it looks to me like a more enticing purchase, but I just want to get a better idea of what others think. Would DBKai being essentially a condensed DBZ anime be a more attractive product to lay money down on? Is DBKai something only existing DBZ fans will pay attention to? Can it draw in a new audience, one that was born within the past decade and is now just reaching the target age for a classic great shounen series?

Sue and Patty’s Excellent Adventure: Pop Japan Travel’s “Fujoshi Paradise” Tour

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Kransom has informed me of Pop Japan Travel’s plans for a tour package in Japan centered around fujoshi activities. Departing from Los Angeles, prospective American fujoshi will get to walk down Otome Road in Ikebukuro, hit up Akihabara, go to a butler cafe, and visit something called the MUSCLE MUSICAL. I haven’t bothered to research what Muscle Musical is because the name alone has sold me. If there’s any indicator that the word “fujoshi” has creeped into the American otaku lexicon, this is it. They want people to spend money just for the right to live like a Japanese fujoshi for a week. You know aside from shamefully hiding your fetishes and living in a small dinky apartment saving money as much as they can so they can make the occasional yaoi doujinshi purchase. Close enough, though!

2channel has gotten word of this development, and they’ve got some amusing comments to throw around.

パティみたいのが大勢来るのか
Will there be lots of girls like Patty’s coming here?

らき☆すた？それとも絶対可憐チルドレンのパティたん？
Lucky Star’s? Or do you mean Patty from Zettai Karen Children?

いや、「げんしけん」のスー
Nah, they’ll be like Sue from Genshiken.

腐女子までいるのか
There’s fujoshi over there as well?

アメ公のキモ腐まで来んな
Stay away, you disgusting American fujoshi!

アメリカ人の腐女子なんてたくさんいる。
スラッシュ（ヤオイのこと）小説の二次創作サイト運営してるし、
オタコンなんかでは毎回ボーイズラブ小説家が招待されて
サイン会とかやってる。
There’s plenty of American fujoshi. There are sites devoted to “Slash” (Yaoi) fan works, and every Otakon they have autograph sessions for Boys’ Love writers.

Oh the wonders of fandom.

Losting

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Welcome to this KRAZY! Time

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I went to the New York Japan Society’s exhibition on anime, manga, and video games yesterday. Entitled KRAZY!, the exhibition explores a variety of artists and works, from Moyoco Anno to the guy who made Afro Samurai, from Shigeru Miyamoto to… Shigeru Miyamoto. The point is, this is totally about stuff that the kids like: ANIME AND MANGA AND VIDEO GAMES. As expected, it seemed to attract a young audience, something most museum and gallery exhibitions wish they did without it being just 20-something hipstrs.

Overall I didn’t get too much of a “HEY GUYS! ANIME!” vibe from the exhibition, and I liked what they had to say about the Super Mario Bros. series being a collection of simple rules which opens up a rich and complex world to interact with, but I couldn’t really tell who exactly the exhibition was trying to draw in. Passing by their video room filled with clips from Akira, Patlabor the Movie 2, Paprika, and Macross, I got this strange feeling that this is not what the kids these days see as “anime,” nor is it what they want. It’s kind of a baseless feeling, but when you see all those movies together and realize that the styles aren’t very “modern” (despite Paprika having come out recently), I think you might get the same impression. All I could think about was how others would handle the exhibition.

There was one blurb however that really pissed me off when I saw it. In one part of the exhibition is an area devoted to the music of Yoko Kanno. Now, neither Yoko Kanno nor her music anger me, but when the description of her music is prefaced by, “Prior to the late 80s all anime music was of poor quality,” then I have some serious issues! The emphasis is mine but they actually used the words POOR QUALITY. It’s as if no REAL music aficionados could POSSIBLY like ANIME music before REAL MUSICIANS like Yoko Kanno and her contemporaries graced the industry with their presences and sprinkled magic fairy dust and now ANIME MUSIC IS GOOD! WOW! Hey, wait to take a dump all over those hardworking composers from the mid-80s and before! Joe Hisaishi? Apparently the man who composes Studio Ghibli music is garbage!

There are apparently other things like this in the exhibition where it’s like a guy trying to convince REAL ARTISTS that anime is totally artistic too and making mistakes in the process. For better or worse, I didn’t notice any other glaring instances though.

All in all, it’s worth a visit at least once, just calm down when you visit the Yoko Kanno section. I hope the kids who visit this exhibition at least learn something.

Oh yeah, and I’m probably gonna go read Sakuran. Sounds interesting.

Polytechnic Anime Society Spring Festival 2009

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As mentioned previously, I attended the one-day Polytechnic Anime Society Spring Festival 2009 at NYU Polytechnic (formerly known as simply “Polytechnic”). It wasn’t my first visit there; I had friends tell me about it back when it started. Still, I figured that it was worth a trip into Brooklyn to see what was up.

Sadly, I was unable to attend Sub‘s panel on Most Dangerous Anime, which he informs me was just watching Crystal Triangle and being amazed at how every scene, every moment, had something terrible about it. Still I got to see cool dudes and it was fun seeing the younger anime fans going around.

What I like about the PAS Spring Fest is that it gives young anime fans in New York a taste of what anime cons are like, especially because it’s free. It doesn’t prepare you for everything, but it lets you see stuff you haven’t seen before, lets you hang out with friends in a somewhat unfamiliar environment, and meet new people. I personally did not do much at this event, but I don’t think PAS Spring Fest is really meant for that sort of thing.

After the event was over I had sushi with Sub and other excellent dudes. What better way to cap off the day? I mean, that’s what I do at Otakon too, so why not?

One criticism I do have of the event is the lackluster execution of its game rooms. The event had two rooms for games: The first had only two TVs with a PS2 and a fighting game each, way down from the last time I went where there at least twice as many TVs and the game variety was excellent. The second room however was six tvs, but they were all devoted to Smash Bros Brawl. The worst part? You couldn’t even play a casual game of Smash as ALL SIX TVS were taken up by all-day Smash Bros tournaments! And later I found out you couldn’t even sign up for the tournament AT THE CON and that you had to do it on an internet messageboard weeks prior!

But as long as you weren’t looking forward to playing the games, it was an all right time.

“She’s So Developed!”

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There’s something about a lot of anime and manga that I think lends them much of the praise and criticism they receive from people, fans or otherwise. I wouldn’t call it a unique or exclusive property of anime, but it’s something that I believe recurs more often when compared to other mediums. What I am talking about is the ability for a character to both be sexualized and objectified by its audience while still being able to move the audience with a well-developed personality.

Sheryl Nome. Arika Yumemiya. Kawashima Ami. Practically the entire female cast of Gundam 00. Every girl in Godannar. All these and more are designed on some level to explicitly titillate, but I would not call any of their characters excessively shallow or designed purely with fanservice in mind. Nor would I say that pure fanservice characters do not exist at all, but I feel like more often than not in anime and manga, blatant, in-your-face sexual attractiveness does not come at the expense of strong characterization or at the very least attempts at strong characterization. Much of the eroge and visual novel industry is built on this premise.

I do not see this happening as often in other mediums. Of course sex appeal still exists in them, but very rarely do they try to turn both dials up to max, rarely do they say, “Hey we want to basically tell the audience outright to fantasize indecently about this character while still showing the strength of their personality.” Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet) on Heroes is clearly meant to invoke a reaction from male viewers with her attractiveness, official assignment as “cheerleader,” her clothes, and pretty much everything about her, but there’s some attempt at keeping the character Claire’s “fanservice” somewhat implicit. The DC Comics character Power Girl, known for her super strength and her enormous chest, seems to go through constant subtle shifts in characterization as writers and artists seem unsure how to balance the development of her character with a design clearly meant to get guys’ mojos going. Fans of DC Comics run into a similar problem. In other cases, a character who is obviously sexually attractive while possessing good characterization will have their sexuality incorporated into their personality and character.

Meanwhile, many anime fans embrace this double threat. Others do not of course, and I think this causes some of the conflict as to whether or not a character is “good” or not. Does being explicitly sexual in design and presentation work with characterization, or against it? Or do they perhaps run parallel to each other? Wherever you fall, if you meet someone who thinks otherwise, there’s a chance that, because your approach to characters is so different, arguments will arise. This is probably where arguments about moe find most of their ammo, no matter which side fans are on.

As a final note, keep in mind I used female examples because that’s what gets me. Feel free to replace all examples with male equivalents if that’s your thing.