Monthly Archives: October 2011

Princess Knight, Vol. 1

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By Osamu Tezuka. Released in Japan as “Ribon no Kishi” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Vertical.

We’ve been waiting for this one a while. Gripping, depressing Tezuka seinen is all very well and good, but sometimes you have to bring out the big guns. And there are few guns bigger than Princess Knight, which most argue is one of the most influential titles ever, inspiring a generation of shoujo artists. There are actually several versions of the title; the original, in 1954; a sequel with the heroine’s children, in 1958; a rewrite and expansion in 1963; and a science-fiction tie-in to an anime in 1967. Vertical is releasing the 3rd and most well-known version.

Though enjoyable to children and adults alike, this work is definitely aimed at the younger reader, with its premise being couched in fairy tale language. In heaven, they give out girl hearts and boy hearts to babies about to be born, determining their gender. A mischievous angel, Tink, feeds a baby a boy heart right before God gives the same baby a girl heart. As a result, the girl is both with hearts for both genders. And what’s worse, the girl is a princess of the kingdom of Silverland! Now the girl is raised as a boy, to avoid rousing the suspicious of the evil Duke Duralumin, who wants his own son on the throne.

The inherent sexism of the kingdom (which must have a male ruler) is offset by Sapphire herself, who manages to be incredibly badass. Yes, there are those moments where the series undercuts itself – at one point, Sapphire’s boy heart is temporarily removed and she grows weak and loses her fencing skills – but for the most part she is a bright and active heroine, one who longs to be a young woman but who also does not want to give up the freedoms of being a young man. Things aren’t subtle here – her love for Prince Charming (yes, really) verges on the histrionic at times – but Sapphire remains a great heroine throughout, who you want to see emerge victorious.

That may be difficult, though. As with many stories in this vein, there are any number of traumas and disasters that befall her. Her father is killed, her mother imprisoned. She is forced to work menial tasks a la Cinderella, turned into a swan, and kidnapped by pirates. Sexy pirates. Once it gets started, the action never really lets up, just like the best children’s stories. Not that it’s all grim tidings. The basic plot trimmings may sound like Disney, but a lot of the gags are also right out of animated cartoons, with circus horses mocking the King, plucky mice helping the heroine escape, and the villain double-act of Duralumin and Nylon hamming it up for all they’re worth.

Vertical is releasing the three original Japanese volumes here as two slightly larger ones, and so naturally we end with a cliffhanger. Their presentation is excellent, with a lovely original cover (whose color is slightly more purple than the picture above, the only one I can find online), and the translation captures the broad, declamatory language. As Sapphire swashbuckles her way through various deathtraps and tries to gain her love and her femininity while remaining strong and speaking her mind, you’ll find that you absolutely can’t put the book down. The second volume cannot come soon enough.

The Drops of God, Vol. 1

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By Tadashi Agi and Shu Okimoto. Released in Japan as “Kami no Shizuku” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Morning. Released in North America by Vertical.

Everyone’s been waiting for this one for a long time – since before the announcement of its license, in fact. It’s rare that you can say that a manga actually has an effect on the real world, but that’s what we have with The Drops of God, which has drastically impacted the sales of wine in Japan and the Far East. It’s been featured in the New York Times over here, and there’s buzz about it in wine magazines as well. Does it live up to the hype?

It does, even though it’s not quiet as revolutionary as you may have been led to believe. This is another in a long line of foodie mangas, and this time around it happens to be about wine. The plot could almost be taken straight from Oishinbo: there is a truculent young man, at odds with his father, who joins forces with a cute young woman to try to capture the “perfect” wines. Indeed, the basic setup of “people bring out food/drink and the hero and heroine gasp and describe its taste” could be from any number of food mangas out in Japan, many with volumes numbering into the 50s and 60s.

That said, where Drops of God draws you in is its writing. The main duo are perhaps not as well-written as the rest, but I’m hopeful we will see character development for them as the book goes on. (Less hopeful for romance, I’m pretty sure that there isn’t an ongoing plot with them as there was in Oishinbo.) More interesting is the so-called villain of the series, Tomine, who manages to capture that ‘sneering bastard’ type very well. I also really liked his sister Sara, who comes across as a shallow and vain model but whose description of the wine she’s drinking is possibly the highlight of the entire volume. I hope we see more of her.

The wraparound story of finding Shizuku’s father’s wine collection is really a way to develop any story needed. Here we see a man and his lover torn apart by circumstance and by his misreading the taste of a wine 15 years earlier; and the cliffhanger deals with a co-worker who refuses to accept French wine, noting that Italian is the best there is. Naturally, most of these problems can be solved by just the right vintage.

The descriptions of the wine can be a bit over the top – everyone by now knows that Shizuku describes a wine as tasting like a Queen concert – but that’s apparently true to life, and it’s noted that the ability to speak poetically about wine is just as important as the identification. Oh yes, and for lovers of fanservice, we get to see Miyabi in bed with Shizuku and in her underwear (don’t worry, nothing happened), as well as Tomine pouring wine onto the back of his lover (yeah, something happened there, but not on screen.)

Vertical’s translation and presentation is as good as we’ve come to expect from them. I was startled to find that the series is unflipped – Vertical tends to go for the widest readership they can get, which usually means flipping the art – but apparently the wine labels used throughout the manga made this impossible. You’re also getting two volumes in one, as Vertical is publishing 4 omnibuses of the first 8 Japanese volumes. The series is 28+ volumes in Japan, and not ending anytime soon, so Vertical has just licensed the first ‘arc’. If sales do well, they may get more. I’d like to see more, this is a fun title, if very typical of its genre.

NYCC/NYAF 2011, Day Three

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The final day of Comic Con was also the quietest, with only two events that I was interested in.

First up was Viz Media’s regular old panel, which followed the special press-only announcement of Shonen Jump Alpha on Friday. Much of the 2nd half of the panel was indeed devoted to that, but there were also a few other announcements. The manga title I was most interested in was Jiu Jiu, which is the new title from the author of hiatused Tokyopop series Clean Freak Fully Equipped, Toya Tobina. It’s about a female demon hunter and her two hot bishie familiars, and looks to be a lot of fun! It ran in Hana to Yume for a period, but the publisher/author has now moved it to the 6 times a year The Hana magazine instead. It’s 3 volumes and still ongoing.

The second and final manga announcement was a license rescue – the 2nd of the con! Yes, Viz has picked up Loveless from Tokyopop, and will be releasing it starting with Vol. 9, which is where it left off. This title runs in Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero-Sum, and is another of those “not quite BL but has many BL elements” series. It’s still running in Japan, and I think fans will be excited about this.

Other than that, there was a lot of discussion of their VizKids properties. Mameshiba is quite popular, and they’re doing a series of graphic novels next summer. The trailer was adorable. There’s also a new series of books based around Mister Men/Little Miss, and more Voltron Force books as well. They’ve partnered with Netflix to bring anime fans all of Naruto up to Shippuden, as well as the first Bleach movie and the 4 Inu Yasha movies. They also confirmed – finally – the Final Inu Yasha TV series, which will be out next year.

And yes, they too are working on an Android app. :)

After this, I mooched around the con for a while before it was time for the Classic Warners and MGM cartoons on Blu-Ray panel. I knew the San Diego Comic Con presenters wouldn’t be there, but they managed to get a nice all-star cast of panelists. The moderator was Gary Mariano, WB Home Video’s marketing director. On the panel was Will Friedwald, co-author with Jerry of the most famous WB cartoon books out there (The Warner Brothers Cartoons and Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies); Greg Ford, director of The Duxorcist and Blooper Bunny; Doug Compton, who was an animator on Blooper Bunny and has also been an animator on Doug, Pinky and the Brain, etc.; David Levy, director of the film Grandpa Looked Like William Powell; and Bill Plympton, famous animator and director of Academy Award nominated short Your Face.

They mentioned the Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes Platinum collections are out in 2 weeks and 1 month, respectively. The LT sets are numbered, so some lucky fan may end up with #1 if they buy it from Amazon. They showed some clips of the restoration work, with Flirty Birdy being the T&J clip and the Looney Tunes being represented by Feline Frame-Up. I’m no great judge of differences between the current DVDs and the Blu-Ray, but I thought the slips looked great.

There was then a brief casual discussion of Warners cartoons – it was clear the audience liked Tom and Jerry, but were there for Bugs and Daffy. Same with the panelists. Ford mentioned he liked Chuck Jones’ ‘dark’ cartoons such as Fresh Airedale and Chow Hound. Plympton likes Clampett and Avery, of course, and Levy warmed my heart by talking about Frank Tashlin, my own favorite WB director. They noted the fact that the personality of each director was so easily visible – you look at a cartoon and you KNOW it’s Jones or Clampett, without even needing a credit. They also likened the animators to jazz bebop groups. The music was also mentioned, with Mariano noting the long sequence of St. Louis Blues in Flirty Birdy, and his suspecting MGM had to pay a royalty for that. Carl Stalling was mentioned, and his relationship with Milt Franklyn was likened to Duke Ellington’s with Billy Strayhorn. It was also noted by Ford that music students listening to Stalling were reminded of Prokofiev.

We then watched The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, which was as fantastic as ever, even if the audience seemed a bit subdued. Q&A followed, though I had to duck out early. Yes, someone asked about the Censored 11. Mariano said he had nothing to announce now, though when some audience members booed he noted he was not saying “No plans at this time” – they have plans, they just aren’t ready yet. There was also discussion of Mel Blanc, and the new shorts being made using his old records.

After that I went and had a nice dinner with friends, and then after much public transport wackiness (those who know my Ryouga Hibiki-esque sense of direction can guess what happened), I am now back home.

Comic Con was a lot of fun, though its size is very daunting. I’m not claustrophobic, but the time spent on that show floor was enough to make me a bit edgy – it’s just a huge crush of people. I was very appreciative of the anime panels – at least the industry ones – being on the north side of the center like all the other panels – it made for far less walking. And I think I will simply have to accept arriving an hour before each panel to wait in line as something I need to do from now on. Still, I will definitely be going back again, and I thought they did a good job at keeping everything manageable.

And thanks to all my fellow manga bloggers, as well as my friends Merc, Alan and Richard, for their delightful company. Also, thanks to the representatives at Viz, Yen and Vertical for not having their eyes glaze over *too* visibly when I went on about what magazine series debuted in or exactly why I think Beelzebub is still unlikely to be licensed.

Any other Comic Con thoughts? Comment away!