Some thoughts on the last year

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Today is the one-year anniversary of this blog, and to commemorate it I’d like to avoid doing a best and worst list as we see so often this time of year. I like so much of what I review that thinking of bests is a helpless cause, and I really don’t like to talk about bad manga unless it’s really, irredeemably bad. Merely mediocre manga doesn’t deserve brickbats. (Qwaser of Stigmata was really bad, though. You have my permission to bash it.)

So, what did this year mean to me on the blog?

1) Shilling for lost causes. Nothing made me happier this year than telling people at great length about titles most of them don’t read, most of which are poor-selling, and several of which weren’t even that good, they just hit the right buttons for me personally to really enjoy them. I am especially happy that some of these reviews *did* inspire people to pick up the manga, and I hope they got as much enjoyment out of it as I did. So, for Excel Saga, Gatcha Gacha, I Hate You More Than Anyone!, Teru Teru x Shonen, and The Magic Touch, I thank 2010.

2) The One Piece speedup. I remember when Viz announced this it was greeted with disbelief and derision. Naruto had the sales to support 4 volumes a month, just. What was Viz thinking bringing a lower-selling title such as One Piece up to speed with 5 volumes a month for 6 months? It will be a disaster! And to be fair, One Piece fans have been used to getting the short end of the stick. But all turned out surprisingly well, as the volumes did sell well, and nowadays One Piece is, though not at Naruto levels, a fairly strong seller. Moreover, reading the series in huge gulps allowed readers to power through arcs both weak and strong, and introduced everyone to the marvel that was Water Seven and Enies Lobby. Most importantly, it allowed other bloggers to join in in the One Piece MMF, which showered love and affection on Japan’s favorite rubber pirate manga. Here’s looking for more One Piece goodness in 2011.

3) The Shoujo Beat goes on. As I looked over my reviews, it became quite clear that over half of them were shoujo of some sort or another. Clearly it’s the genre that appeals to me most, and I thank 2010 for letting me take delight in the adventures of Kyoko and Ren, Asuka and Ryo, Sawako and Kazehaya, Hikari and Kei, Misaki and Usui, and Odette in general. While the right shonen property has been shown to have huge sales impact, I believe that shoujo has been shown to be the more consistent seller across the board, which is likely why we’re seeing so much of it. In 2011, I hope to be entertained by more adorably sweet girls who heal the hearts of sullen guys with tragic pasts, or alternately, by strong and stubborn yet dense as lead girls being teased by handsome and flirty guys.

4) That pesky economy. I noted to Deb Aoki the other day how I hadn’t regarded the fall of CMX as a ‘surprise’ of the year, mostly as, given their sales, my reaction was more “Ah, they finally noticed it existed.” CMX, after a rough start, carved out a niche of cult shoujo manga that appealed greatly to me, and I still feel the loss of I Hate You More Than Anyone! and Teru Teru x Shonen. Go! Comi likewise quietly died this year (very quietly – as in silently), and their relationship with Akita Shoten gave us some of the more eccentric manga in North America. Both will be dearly missed by manga bloggers, if not necessarily by consumers. (Del Rey also closed this year, though that was for reasons other than economic ones, and they have now come out of their cocoon as Kodansha USA.)

5) Things other than manga. The heading of the blog notes I write about ‘mostly manga’, which is certainly true. But sometimes I feel a need to discuss other things. I thank everyone for putting up with me going on about how I would stage Shakespeare plays, or analyzing Woody Woodpecker cartoons, or just gushing about Frank Zappa concerts. Hopefully I’ll be doing this more in 2011 as well – I need to restart the Woody reviews, and talk about the Zappa 1979 tour (oh, those Inca Roads guitar solos…), and Arden is releasing Merchant of Venice 3rd Edition this February. God knows how I’d talk about how to stage THAT today…

6) You, the reader. You knew this was coming, didn’t you? Sappy as it may be, this blog wouldn’t happen without the support that I get from those who read it, as well as my fellow bloggers on Twitter. I had initially started this thinking that writing to a schedule where I forced myself to put out a post a day would help me when it came to working on a few of my unfinished anime fanfics that I had lying around. That didn’t happen at all (the one-per-day rule has been broken a lot, especially this fall, and I ended up writing only one fic this year, though I’m working on a Zetsubou story, and I have an idea for a Lupin fic). I know that I can be somewhat hard to handle at times. My tastes are eclectic, I tend to like almost everything I review, I geek out in embarrassing fashion about publishers and magazines in Japan, and a lot of my reviews are less critiques than rambles. (Wow, look at that self-deprecation. I could be a manga author…) (Oh yes, and the parenthetical asides. So many parenthetical asides.) But simply put, this year has simply been a hell of a lot of fun. The blog has been great, talking with people on Twitter has been fantastic, I loved meeting everyone at NYAF and MangaNext, and hope to see people at Anime Boston and Anime North in 2011.

Roll on, 2011! What fresh excitement will you bring? Here’s hoping I’m still blogging when Christmas 2011 rolls around.

Skip Beat! Volume 22

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By Yoshiki Nakamura. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

In my review of Volume 21, I noted that most of it was setup for the payoff of Kyoko’s full-fledged Natsu we’d see here. And what a fantastic transformation it is, as Kyoko manages to do what she knew she had to, and make Natsu a role all her own, completely separate from Mio. Of course, this is not without a little help from Ren, who gives her some instructions on how to walk like a model, so Kyoko can strut more confidently.

One thing I enjoyed is showing that every part of Kyoko’s life has helped shape her into the actress that she is. Yes, she has an amazing acting talent, as Ren notes, but it’s not just a savant sort of thing. The reason that Ren can teach her these things in one evening is that Kyoko already has most of the model posture down from her years working at the inn – this was brought up in a much earlier arc, where she had the proper posture of an ‘ojou-sama’, but now we see how it can also create Natsu, a confident and bored princess of an entirely different type.

The remainder of the volume is filled with Kyoko, now immersed in her Natsu role, being thoroughly awesome. From the moment we see her grabbing Rumi-chan’s wayward hat, Kyoko is simply in the zone. She also understands what being in a clique is like, as we see her not sell out the other actresses to the director even though she knows they stole part of her costume. Kyoko notes bluntly that she won’t let other people solve her friend’s problems that are within the group. It’s between Natsu and Kaori, the characters.

And then there’s Chiaki, who’s the real villain behind this arc. Not content with simple pranks like the other actresses (whom Kyoko pretty much wraps around her little finger post-change, even getting them to go out to a roadside ramen stand as it’s the sort of thing a bored rich girl would find interesting), Chiaki wants to ruin Kyoko. Unfortunately, her plans backfire spectacularly here, as not only does the director decide he likes this new Natsu, but now it’s Chiaki’s portrayal of Yumika that doesn’t fit – and Chiaki who’s on the hotseat. What’s more, part of her backstory is finally revealed, and it’s not a pretty one. Manga in general is quite fond of ‘dark mirrors’, evil counterparts to our hero or heroine with similar traits and pasts. So now we see Kyoko dealing with an actress who *has* been trapped by typecasting, and is becoming more and more desperate. Cue the cliffhanger.

It’s not all drama, though. There’s lots of great humor here, ranging from Ren’s attempts to get Kyoko to relax (and tease her at the same time), to the hysterical exchange between Rumi-chan and Chiaki about the ‘new’ Natsu, to Kyoko’s ‘Ganbatte!’ note to Chiaki that’s cute but also taunting. In addition, Nakamura’s art and layout is simply stellar here, with many pages I wanted to go back and look at just for the sheer joy of the panel itself. Particularly the revelation of Natsu to her fellow actresses (balanced out with a flashback to Kyoko’s ‘plain udon’ looks of 2 days before), and the final shot of Kyoko on the stairs for the cliffhanger.

To sum up, this volume is all about Ren’s quote “Once she’s interested in the role, she takes off real fast.” I eagerly await the next volume (and particularly how others will react to it), which is all about the other half of Ren’s quote: “She’s scary once she wakes up.”

Manga the week of 12/29

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It’s the last week of the year, and Tokyopop’s here to make sure you spend all the money you have left over from Christmas on manga.

It’s not all Tokyopoop – Dark Horse has Vol. 16 of their Oh My Goddess remasters, and Udon has the 2nd and final volume of Street Fighter Gaiden, for those who miss Ken and Ryu. I think it’s Ken and Ryu, right?

But it’s Tokyopop that has the majority of the titles – 17 in all. First, and most importantly, Gatcha Gacha 8 is finally shipping to comic shops. I hope regular readers of this blog will know by now that they must get this. Alice in the Country of Hearts 5 is another title that’s been out in bookstores for a month, but is finally arriving via Diamond now.

And there are debuts! We see Vol. 1 of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko, a LaLa DX series that I hope can fill the hole in my heart left by the absence of Stolen Hearts. Or if you like shonen there is AiON, a supernatural harem manga from the Chibi Vampire author (and it has no relation to the RPG, by the way.) Fans of Chibi Vampire will also be happy that a fanbook is also out this week. It has vampire in the title!

And of course there are so many other series coming as well. A new V.B. Rose! I understand this one will be a big ol’ flashback, in the best Banri Hidaka tradition. A new Karakuri Odette! Always fun to see more life lessons for our favorite deadpan robot girl. A new Aria! Remember Aria? That series that always seems to have a very very vocal readership of about 9 people? Buy Aria 6 and make Tokyopop stop crying when it sees the sales charts!

And good lord, a new Hetalia which no doubt will clog the NYT bestseller list for 3 more months and help, perhaps, pay for Aria Vol. 7 to come out by this time next year. And Silver Diamond and NG Life, returning from the depths of hiatusland to entertain us with more hot shoujo guys. Or Happy Cafe, never on hiatus but still having hot shoujo guys. And there’s always the Shonen Ace variety of shonen, with Ratman, Future Diary and Hanako and the Terror of Allegory. Heck, there’s even Neko Ramen, for the 4-koma lover in you.

And… look, there’s just tons of STUFF, OK? Go use those Borders gift cards and go wild. Next week is bound to have something for everyone.