Sherlock Bones, Vol. 1

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By Yuma Ando and Yuki Sato. Released in Japan as “Tanteiken Sherdock” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

It’s a rather odd time here in North America, where we have had a series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations of various stripes over the last couple of years. JManga had a Holmes volume up that was sort of supernatural horror with bishonen Holmes. Young Miss Holmes pays close attention to the canon even as it welds in a precocious niece. And now we have Sherlock Bones, where Sherlock is reincarnated as a dog in modern-day Japan, and fights crime with the help of a young boy who gets to be his Doctor Watson. As you can imagine, this one is geared more towards younger readers, but certainly it’s not juvenile. We’re dealing with murders here.

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The author is used to this type of detective mystery, of course, being the creator of Kindaichi Case Files under another pseudonym. The story is the important thing here, and Sherlock’s presence is merely a vehicle for it (as well as for a few weak “Sherlock is a dog now” jokes). Unlike Young Miss Holmes, so far the creators seems to have very little use for the Watson canon, only using the broadest strokes such as Sherlock’s pipe. As for Watson, or rather Takeru Wajima, he’s a typical shonen protagonist, bieng fairly normal but with a stubborn stick-to-it-ivness that will serve him well in dealing with Sherlock’s whims.

The book starts us off with a fairly easy attempted murder where the clues are all laid out in the open, before moving on to the main story involving a crime where the murderer is fairly obvious, but we have to figure out motive, means, etc. Indeed, motive proves to be the key here, as we learn that the culprit isn’t just evil like that but has a deeply tragic reason for committing the crime. It helps that the victim isn’t that nice a kid – but he’s still a KID, so there’s not that much sympathy.

This runs in Shonen Magazine, so the mysteries aren’t meant to be all that hard to solve, and you can usually come up with the solution at the same time as Sherlock does. Of course, since it does run in Shonen Magazine, there’s also a bit of fanservice focus on boobs ‘n butts, though certainly less than you’d see in Fairy Tail or Negima. In the end, this is a mystery anthology series along the lines of Case Closed or Kindaichi, with “Sherlock Holmes is a dog” as the gimmick. We do see a girl who’s meant to be a love interest of some sort, though given the nature of the series she could easily be killed off in Volume 2 for all I know. But for the most part I expect this to be episodic, which makes it a good series to dip in and out of without worrying too much about missing anything. It’s cute and fun, if not all that gripping.

No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!, Vol. 1

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By Nico Tanigawa. Released in Japan as “Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!” by Square Enix, serialized on the website Gangan Comics Online. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Despite a title longer than your arm, this new manga series is not, in fact, based on a light novel. It’s usually shortened to “WataMote” in fan discussions – indeed, I’ve used that tag for my Category on this review, rather than screw up the sidebar. Still, with a title like that, if you’re someone who’s been a fan of anime over the past few years, it comes with certain expectations even before you read it. High school slice-of-life, comedic misunderstandings, discussion of otaku interests. And indeed, all that is true. But it’s the heroine who drives this title, and Tomoko Kuroki is not going to simply lie back and be cute and moe.

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Tomoko gives new meaning to the term “socially awkward”. In her head, she’s got it all down – she’s starting high school, will make new friends, get a boyfriend, and her life will be wonderful. In reality, not only is she a cripplingly shy girl who can barely manage the most basic interaction, but she’s not even cute and adorable like most manga heroines with those issues. Tomoko can be hard to like. She emotionally manipulates her brother, is crass and opportunistic, and has an inability to see even basic human interaction and understand what it means.

Notably, she’s not bullied or picked on at all by any of her peers – they mostly just ignore her, but it’s not in a ‘she’s creepy’ way, she simply rarely registers on their radar. When occasional peers do speak to her, it tends to be friendly, and mostly the only time they rear back in awkward horror is when she says or does something incredibly inappropriate. Honestly, that’s a little unrealistic, but the mangaka doesn’t really want to go in a bullying direction here – Tomoko makes her own problems. We can’t even blame a poor family life – her mother and brother seem to be perfectly fine with social interaction, though her brother regards her as incredibly annoying and exhausting. And, well, he’s correct.

An anime adaptation of this aired over the summer, and many people kept asking themselves whether the intention of the work was to laugh at Tomoko’s foibles, feel pity for her attempts to bond with life and other people, or just feel incredibly uncomfortable at watching her existence? The answer, of course, is all three. We don’t want to be seen to laugh at someone like Tomoko, but honestly, some of the behavior here is pretty hilarious, and her snark is also pointed and amusing. That said, there aren’t real punchlines here, just a setup that goes off the rails. Instead of a punchline, we see Tomoko sitting on a park swing, looking miserable, as her brother silently stares at her. Or in a bathroom, ripping a pair of panties to shreds in a terror-stricken bout of mortification.

This manga seems to push against its own audience, which is otaku-oriented males. At one point, Tomoko talks to her one friend (who I hope we see more of), and is asked about the new anime season. Tomoko blithely responds that it’s all moeblob shows this year. This may be slice-of-life, but it’s no K-On! I do want to read more, but I am very grateful that it’s only coming out here every three months, as Tomoko is as exhausting and frustrating to read as she must be to live with. Definitely recommended, but be aware that this title pulls in several different directions at once, and deliberately doesn’t resolve any of them.

NYCC 2013 – Day 3

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The final day of New York Comic Con, I had only one planned panel. I took some time to walk around the show floor some more, now that the crush of Saturday was gone. Picked up a 2000AD book after their excellent panel the night before (though it ended up being none of the titles they had recommended). Got Summer Wars from Vertical, which I had missed the first time around. Discussed the one-week delay on Random House manga with Diamond Distributors – they’ll look into it. Quite productive.

Then, after lunch, I decided to go to Main Events. My panel wasn’t for 2 1/2 hours, but hey. Luckily, I was able to walk right in. No lines at all. Hooray for huge rooms! What I ended up seeing was the network FXX advertising its wares. They had a fantasy football sitcom called The League, which is in one of my least favorite genres (group of horrible people are all friends and are horrible every week – see It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as well), but I will admit made me laugh a few times. The cast were all quite personable, and it’s clear they love making the show.

I then saw the world premiere of a new animated cartoon called Chozen, which stars the odd combination of Bobby Moyhihan from Saturday Night Live and Method Man from the Wu-Tang Clan. It’s about rappers, and I liked the episode far less – it read like a rap version of Family Guy, which I despise. The Q&A was more interesting, particularly when folks were asking Method Man about a Wu-Tang reunion (their 20th anniversary was this week) rather than about the actual show. Again, not for me, but everyone involved looked really hyped about it – this doesn’t have the feel of bringing in folks to cash a paycheck.

Then came what I had been waiting for – the Big Finish Doctor Who panel, with Nicholas Briggs, Jason Haigh-Ellery, and Colin Baker. Honestly, a lot of people in the room (now filled to capacity – my choice to camp there early was a good one) weren’t really all that familiar with Big Finish, being New Who fan types, but this may change their minds. The panel started with a costume parade – there were a huge number of Who costumes at the con, and not just Smith/Tennant stuff either. Lots of kids, who looked adorable. They all walked around to the KLF hit “Doctorin’ The TARDIS”.

Then came the panel proper, livened up greatly by Colin Baker, who knows how to work a crowd. We heard a preview of Big Finish’s 50th anniversary story, which stars Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann, along with various companions. Called The Light At The End, it was written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, and will be in standard CD, deluxe CD, and super deluxe LP editions. Colin notes that on audio, he can look the same as he did in 1984 – the power of imagination!

Big Finish was discussed as a “proving ground” for many young writers, and of course two Big Finish dramas were rewritten into the TV series – the Sixth Doctor story “Jubilee” became “Dalek” from Christopher Eccleston’s season, and “Spare Parts” was made into the Cybermen 2-parter in Tennant’s first season. Indeed, pre-Doctor Who, David Tennant did loads of Big Finish audio dramas, particularly in the miniseries Dalek Empire.

The company only has the rights to the “Classic” series, so can’t use the Silence or the Weeping Angels – which aren’t really fitting for audio in any case. Colin, discussing the episode Blink, wondered why winking wasn’t an option! He also noted that we never saw him regenerate (due to the nasty way the BBC let him go), therefore all the Doctors after him are imposters!

Colin dislikes using the word “favourite”, as it implies a ranking system, which he avoids. That said, the audio drama Arrangements for War was noted as being a highlight of his series with Big Finish. He did feel the new series had a leg up on the classic one as it can avoid the bad special effects that plagued the series – Colin describes being unable to walk off as he was holding up the wall at one point. And he wanted to not only be able to do the “Everybody lives!” scene from The Doctor Dances, but wanted Eccleston’s costume – his original idea had been for the 6th Doctor to wear a leather jacket.

There was some amusing bashing of other Doctors – Colin quickly noted this is a tradition amongst them, and not to read too much into it. He hasn’t seen Sylvester’s episodes (everyone tends to avoid the one that comes after them), but feels that if you are a good actor, anyone can be the Doctor. Nicholas Briggs also discussed how his Big Finish work got him the role of “Dalek voice” in the TV series, and how he was once cast as the Cyber voice without actually being booked – he was simply asked “Why aren’t you on set?”.

There was an amusing anecdote about an actress who shall not be named (though it’s obvious in context) who had trouble being scared by the Dalek in its titular episode, as she thought it looked ridiculous. The director sighed and shouted at her “It’s been killing people!” They all discussed their great love of Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, and are excited to see what Peter Capaldi brings to the role – Capaldi is a Doctor Who fanatic, with toys and everything. Colin was also quick to note Nicola Bryant was his favorite companion in her role as Peri.

Lastly, as a reader of the BBC Doctor Who novels, my favorite anecdote of the night was when they were casting Fitz, one of the 8th Doctors book companions, for an audio project, they almost cast Matt Smith! He was thought to be too young for the role. Little did they know…

And then I tapped out for the last time and left Comic Con to go stand in an even longer line at the hotel to collect my suitcase. But it was a lot of fun. Yes, the lines were abysmal, and I think some of the room choices showed an astonishing lack of foresight, but this is one of the dangers of having a con with over 100,000 people. Overall, it’s a great unifying experience of fandom.