World War Blue, Vol. 1

1 Reply

By Anastasia Shestakova and Crimson. Released in Japan as ‘Aoi Sekai no Chūshin de’ by Micro Magazine, serialized on a mobile service. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of this series going in. Its author is supposedly Russian (though that feels like a pen name), and it originally ran in Japan, as far as I can tell, as a cellphone manga. Those are a lot bigger there than they are here, and it’s gotten up to nine volumes. The gimmick, as it were, is that this is a shonen fantasy re-imagining of the console wars between Sega and Nintendo in the 1980s, with our heroes on the Sega side battling the evil Nintendo Empire. (I do admit this does not look good for our heroes, if we stick to established history…) I know a little bit about gaming, but not much. So how confusing would this title be to me?

worldwarblue1

The answer is not very. Honestly, if it weren’t for the obvious Kingdom names – “Segua” vs. “Ninteldo” – and the author’s interspersed notes giving a brief history of gaming in the 80s, I may not even have noticed the metaphor. The leads are supposed to represent a different game – Gear, the hero, is Sonic the Hedgehog; his childhood friend Nel is Phantasy Star 2; his tsundere love interest Opal is Fantasy Zone, etc. I didn’t know this until the notes told me. More importantly, these are stock shonen characters – the author even admits she created Gear to be a shonen manga role model, and that he is.

Because when it gets right down to it, this isn’t really for fans of computer games as much as it is fans of Fairy Tail. Gear is a fast fighter who wants to avenge the death of his friend. He goes to the capital city and joins the army by means of simply defeating everyone in it. Opal is even more stock character, immediately hating and challenging the young man who appears out of nowhere, but falling for him the second she is defeated. Even the perverse mentor who shows our heroes how to get stronger while constantly making suggestive remarks feels right out of Dragon Ball.

This has the feel of a Magazine title more than Jump, mostly due to the sexual overtones. There’s actually very little fanservice so far (much to my surprise), but the aforementioned perverse mentor (who’s meant to be Tetris, I think) keeps talking about plugging the gaping holes in everyone’s defenses with his rod, and also gropes the heroine to teach her a lesson after she’s magically exhausted. And the army commander, Ramses (she’s meant to be Columns, I guess?) gets sexually aroused seeing Gear fight (we see her naked, in the one piece of fanservice in the volume) and is describes as having ‘unspeakable hobbies’. But again, these types of sexualized ‘guy jokes’ would not be out of place in Magazine or Champion.

In all honesty, this is pretty generic shonen. I’m interested in seeing how Ninteldo (which is, of course, led by Mario) looks once we see them in action as more than just evil guys. That said, I am totally behind Seven Seas licensing this and putting out more of it, for one very good reason: it’s nothing like anything else they publish. Seven Seas is trying to expand a bit away from their mainstay market of ‘otaku fanboys’, as we’ve seen with the female-oriented Alice spinoffs. This is another step in that direction, showing off a series that appeals to the shonen boy in all of us; a young man vowing to fight for his country against the bad guys, using powerful moves. Let’s see how Gear can differentiate himself from Luffy or Natsu.

Licensing Round-Up – Anime Expo 2013

3 Replies

I’m not at AX, but through the magic ability of being able to follow the tweets of those who are, I can give you my thought on what’s happening over there! There’s actually quite a bit of stuff brewing.

ax1

We started off with our friends at Vertical, Inc. They only had one license, but it looks like a lot of fun! Moyoco Anno is not only an award-winning mangaka, but she’s also married to otaku legend Hideki Anno. The one-volume Kantoku Fuyuki Todoki ran in Shodensha’s Feel Young magazine, and is a comedic yet heartwarming autobiographical look at what it’s like to be married to such a legendary otaku. Vertical will put it out under the title Insufficient Direction.

ax2

Digital Manga Publishing had some of the biggest news of the con, as they announced an agreement with Tezuka Pro for digital release in North America of the unlicensed Tezuka titles – all of them, supposedly. I admit, I’m not expecting some of the weirder, more adult or ‘problematic (antisemitism, etc.) titles anytime soon, but for the Tezuka fan this has to be an incredibly happy day. Much of his work had been released lately through Vertical, but DMP has been doing a few as well, including the Kickstarter projects of Barbara, Unico, and Atomcat. Given that it’s DMP, I’m also hoping these will be downloadable rather than cloud. Looking forward to more about this.

ax3

Most of Right Stuf’s announcements were, understandably, in the anime arena. But they surprised us at the very end by announcing, in partnership with Tokyopop (still around, in case you were wondering) the release of Axis Powers Hetalia Books 4 & 5 before the new year! I’ve made no secret that I really enjoy this goofy gag manga about anthropomorphic nations, which has moved beyond its sketchy WWII origins and embraced exaggerated stereotypes of every era! If you pre-order, you’ll get color pages as well, which are only available in the first printing.

ax4

Kodansha Comics didn’t have any new titles to announce (they indicated that SDCC in two weeks might be a different story), but this did not stop them from having a few big things to say anyway. It’s no secret that Attack on Titan has EXPLODED in fandom, particularly with the release of the anime. Kodansha, therefore, has decided to speed up the releases, similar to what they’re doing with Fairy Tail, till they catch up with Japan by the start of 2014. One a month, that’s a lot of titans.

Bigger news, though, particularly for me as I’ve been begging for it, is that they will be releasing their titles digitally on Nook, Kindle, and Google Play (and, in fact, shuttering their iTunes app, though you get to keep the books you have on it.) They’ve been Apple only for years, so this is fantastic news, as they were the last holdout (bar Seven Seas, who don’t have digital for their Japanese titles yet). Now Android users (such as myself can enjoy the following titles digitally:

Arisa
@ Full Moon
Attack on Titan
Bloody Monday
Cage of Eden
Danza
Fairy Tail
Genshiken (omnibus)
Genshiken: 2nd Season
I Am Here!
Kitchen Princess (omnibus)
Mardock Scramble
Missions of Love
Ninja Girls
No. 6
Sankarea
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
Until the Full Moon

In other words, most of their current lineup, with the major exception of Sailor Moon, which I suspect would require a lot more negotiating with Naoko Takeuchi. In particular, it’s great to see Zetsubou-sensei there. By the way, Kodansha still insists it’s not cancelled, but it’s still on hold due to low sales and being a pain in the ass to translate. Having tried my hand at the endnotes for Vol. 10, I can sympathize.

ax5

And that leaves Viz Media. They did not disappoint. There is a new seinen title (I am assuming it will be in the Signature line) called Gangsta, that runs in Shinchosha’s Comic @ Bunch magazine. It’s apparently very similar to Dogs: Bullets & Carnage. Nisekoi, which has its first three volumes out digital only, will start to run in print in January. They are re-releasing Dragon Ball in larger trim, around the size of US comics.

ax6

Deadman Wonderland is not only a Tokyopop license rescue, but also more than 10 volumes and still running, making it a surprising pickup in my mind. It’s a Shonen Ace series from Kadokawa that is another in the ever popular survival game genre… this one set in a very strange prison. And, big news for us old fogies… Ranma 1/2, back in print, unflipped! 2-in-1 omnibus volumes, starting in March! Given the digital app doesn’t do flipped, I wonder if this is a way to get it out digitally. In any case, great news for old-school fans!

Lastly, some hope for fans of cancelled Jump series Gintama and Reborn – SJ is looking into bringing them back digitally, though no promises just yet. I imagine if they do well they may look into continuing them digitally as well.

What in this list excites you the most?

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Vol. 2

2 Replies

By Yoshikazu Yasuhiko; Original Story by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Hajime Yatate; Mechanical Design by Kunio Okawara. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Gundam Ace. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc.

When we last left our heroes, they’d finally gotten back to Earth. Of course, this proves to be only the beginning of their troubles… they’re in enemy territory, and are being told by their allies in South America “get here first, then we’ll tell you what to do next.” Their ace pilot is having a bit of a PTSD attack, and wants no part of all of this. The refugees they picked up are resorting to taking hostages just to be allowed to leave. And our man in charge, Bright Noah, just can’t seem to get any respect. But then, this is what happens when your enemies call your ship the “Trojan Horse”… you have all the luck that Troy did.

gundam2

To get the obvious out of the way first, most of what you enjoyed about the first book is present and correct here in the second. The battles are done very well, with lots of attention to detail and realism (given that these are robot wars), but don’t take up so much of the book that you get bored with all the combat. The overall tone is serious, but there are some very amusing dashes of humor, including Lieutenant Reed’s ulcer, Fraw Bow’s jealousy (and a flash of the same thing from Amuro), and every exasperated face Noah makes. But overall, the message continues to be what Gundam does best: war is a horrible thing that destroys entire cities, and one should never revel in it.

I think my favorite party of the volume was watching every single interaction between Char and Garma. After all the earnestness that our heroes fall into, it’s great seeing two people who clearly despise each other attempting to one-up each other in how politely smug they can be. Char’s needling of Garma, and manipulation as the story goes on, really shows of his people skills, albeit not in a good way. He spends much of this volume simply watching things develop (well, that and taking long showers so that he can properly show off his fantastic naked body to the reader). This makes his arrogant sneering at Garma right at the end all the more startling, and reminds you once again that he may be the bad guy you love to hate, but he’s still the bad guy.

As for Amuro, he gets the bulk of the second half of this volume, as he reunites with his mother. I’ll be honest, I totally expected him to return and find his mother dead – all the signs were pointing that way – but then, this series has pointed one way and gone another before, so I shouldn’t be surprised. What we got was even better, though – his mother has no context for what’s happened to Amuro at all, and all she can see is that her little boy has become a killer. This is far more visceral than most stories of this time, given Amuro has to lethally fight his way out of the encampment his mother is living in. It’s the emotional heart of the story.

And then there is the titular Garma. The Gundam story makes sure that we don’t simply see the Zeon enemy as “space Nazis”, and Garma’s desire to be worthy of his name, as well as his romance with an Earth girl, is part of this. I was never quite sure till the end how invested he was in Icelina, but it seems to be more genuine than I thought, and I wonder if she’ll return at some point down the line. But in the end, this is a story about war and the prices that one pays during it, and the final images we see are a father brutally gunned down in front of his daughter, and a father stunned to hear of the death of his son.

I admit I would perhaps have slightly fewer mech battles if I were plotting this, but oh well. Gundam is still a riveting and fascinating series, and fully justifies why it has endured all these years. And the presentation, again, is fantastic – a real coffee table book. It’s hard to wait three more months to see what happens next.