old hat's manga corner

[old hat]

This is a new things I am trying.  In this topic I will give some information about manga I am reading and talk a bit about them.  Others can chime in with questions or comments if desired or talk about manga they are reading.  No 'adult' manga or dojinshi please.  Keep it clean.

Since it was the first manga I really bought and read I will start with

Title - Azumanga Daoih
Original title - (あずまんが大王, Azumanga Daiō?
Author - Kiyohiko Azuma
Genres - slice of life, comedy, coming of age
US Publisher - ADV Manga
Volumes available - 4 individual volumes or a single volume Omnibus edition.
Status - Completed, in-print
Anime adaptation - Yes, 26 episode TV series
This title is in a four panel/Yonkoma format similar to daily comic strips in American papers except read from top to bottom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonkoma

This is the first manga I bought and read and it is still one of my favorites.  The series follows a group of girls through high school and chronicles their daily lives.  It follows them from the first day of school through graduation.  Two of their teachers are also prominently featured.  It's a slice of life title so there is no overarching plot or theme other than the general theme of coming of age.  What made this title for me was the great cast of quirky, endearing characters and the series' warm and off-beat sense of humor.  The main cast is charming and funny and endearing and each is lovable in her own way. Yes, her.  The cast is almost entirely female with only a single male supporting character.  Other slice of life school series like Hidamari Sketch/Sunshine Sketch or Lucky Star also have almost entirely female casts.  The series is really about day to day school life in japan so now and then some of the humor rather escaped me.  Some of the word play didn't translate very well and comments on day to day things that someone in Japan would get instantly went right over my head.  There isn't a lot of this but it cropped up now and then. 
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I'm still thinking about exactly how I want to do this and what information to include.  Is there something you would want to know that I didn't mention?

I had thought about putting in a picture for each series to show the artwork but that could become cumbersome and really slow loading times.

[old hat]

My first shonen series

Title - Bleach
Original title - ブリーチ, Burīchi?, Romanized as BLEACH in Japan
Author - Tite Kubo
Genres - Shonen, action, supernatural
US Publisher - Viz Media
Volumes available - 31 volumes
Anime adaptation - yes, 263 episode TV series, on-going
Status - on-going, in print, currently being serialized in Shonen Jump

This was my first shonen series and my first long series.  I picked it largely because at the time B&N in Fresno happened to have a fairly long run (from 1-15 or so) in stock at the time.  I wanted something where I could get a bunch of sequential volumes at once.  This series is one of the Shonen Jump big three along with Naturo and One Piece.  The hero is high school student and fill-in shinigami (literally death god) Ichigo Kurosaki.  The first few volumes meander a bit as the main cast is introduced and the Kubo sets up the premise.  The main cast is Ichigo Kurosaki (the hero) and what have been sometimes been termed 'The Scoobies' who are his friends and companions.  It really gets going when the first major arc (the Soul Society arc) kicks off.  The series structure is fairly standard for a shonen fight series but it has famously (or infamously) large cast of characters and quirks and wrinkles of its own.  The action is generally good but some fights drag on a bit long.    There is a large cast of interesting characters but so many that quite a few get very little screen time.  If your favorites are in this group, you won't see them very often.  There are currently 29 volumes out in the US and there are 14-15 more volumes worth so far published in Japan with more to come.  I would guess there will eventually be at least 50-60.

[ScottM]

What's the difference between a shonen series and manga? Are there other sub-categories? Do non-Japanese comics fit in the same categories, or are they strictly reserved for from Japan titles?

Scott

[old hat]

Manga is pretty much just the Japanese word for a comic book.  In the US it generally means a comic originally published in Japan. 

Comics in Japan are typically serialized in magazines marketed to a particular demographic.  Shonen literally means 'few years' or a small number of years but in use refers to boys from elementary school age to around 20.  Shonen manga are serialized in magazines targeted to this demographic.  They generally feature lots of action and fighting, sports team or fighting team style camaraderie and various cool special powers and tech stuff.  Shojo manga are marketed to girls in the same age group.  They usually focus on relationships and pretty idealized romances.  There is often a fantastic setting but the powers and abilities are generally not focused on as much and are left more vaguely defined.  Seinen are for older males.  Josei for older females.  Kodomo manga are written for little kids.  Most manga released in the US are shojo or Shonen series. 

[old hat]

and my first Shojo series.

Title - Fruits Basket
Original title - フルーツバスケット, Furūtsu Basuketto
Author - Natsuki Takaya
Genres - Shojo, drama, romance, supernatural
US Publisher - TokyoPop
Volumes available - 23
Status - Complete, in-print
Anime adaptation - yes, 26 episode TV series

This one, like several I got early on, was also picked because the Fresno B&N happened to have a large block in stock at the time.  It starts with heroine Tohru Honda stumbling on to a house in the woods and accidentally learning of their secret.  *dun dun dun*  It's hard to describe this title in detail without giving away too much.  It is in turns funny, dramatic, sad, heartwarming and suspenseful.  The characters are beautifully done and engaging.  This is one of the best selling, most popular and beloved shojo titles for a reason.  The artwork is a bit unusual and may take some getting used to.  Tohru Honda sometimes treads pretty close to the line between sweet and sappy and maybe sometimes crosses it.

[old hat]

Note: entries now indicate the US publisher for the title.  You will likely notice that most manga relased in the US come from a handful of companies: Viz Media, ADV Manga and Tokyopop.  There are other companies like Seven Seas but they are smaller and their products are hard to find in stores.  Often they release more niche titles.  June Manga specializes in yaoi or BL (boy's love) titles.  Manga featuring homosexual men.

Title - One Piece
Original title - ワンピース, Wan Pīsu?
Author - Eiichiro Oda
Genres - Shonen, action, adventure, fighting
US Publisher - Viz Media
Volumes available - 54
Status - on-going, in-print, serialized in Shonen Jump
Anime adaptation - yes, 444 episode TV series, on-going

This is the second if the Shonen Jump big three.  I don't read the last one (Naruto) so I won't talk about that one.  Maybe someone else will chime in on it.  One Piece follows the various adventures of hero Monkey D Luffy on his quest to claim the legendary treasure One Piece and become King of the Pirates though he is more interested in the adventure and challenge of finding the treasure than the treasure.  It is constructed as a series of adventures each pitting our hero and the pirate crew he accumulates over the course of his adventures against a seres of bad guys.  Luffy and his crew are called pirates and call themselves pirates but they are more like sea-going do-gooders than historical pirates.  They would never do anything as crass as stealing from people who have earned their money honestly though one does specialize in stealing from other pirates who have gotten their loot dishonestly.  They would never bully normal people or anything rude of that sort but they spend a lot of time fighting bad guys who do.  This series is great fun and the author is wildly inventive.  The artwork is crazy and takes some getting used to.  Here, for example, is a character named Perona that appears later in the series.

She also has a very peculiar laugh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuqu1rWGzJs
This sort of craziness is common in One Piece.   

[old hat]

First manga I bought solely on someone else's recommendation

Title - Genshiken
Original title - げんしけん (Genshiken) short for Gendai Shikaku Bunka Kenkyūkai (現代視覚文化研究会?) (The Society For the Study of Modern Visual Culture)
Author - Shimoku Kio
Genres - slice of life, comedy, drama, romance
US Publisher - Del Rey
Volumes available - 9 volumes
Status - Completed, in-print
Anime adaptation - Yes, 12 episode TV series, 3 episode OAV, 12 episode 2nd TV series

This manga follows the lives of members of the Genshiken (see above for full title).  It's a club encompassing all aspects of 'modern visual culture' from manga to anime to video games to cosplay.  Basically, an otaku club.  The viewpoint character is, very loosely, Kanji Sasahara who is starting his first year at Shiiou University as the series begins and joins the already established Genshiken.  The series follows the lives, trials and tribulations of the various members of the club.  Over time, new members join while others graduate and move on (more or less).  In some ways it is like Azumanga Daioh above but in others it is quite different.  The characters are college age rather than high school age.  The cast is mixed male and female.  The characters have more adult relationships including sexual relationships.  It is also about fans and fan culture and parodies both fan culture and anime and manga.  Most of the members watch or read a fake franchise called Kujibiki Unbalance which has snce become a real franchise with both anime and manga versions.  It sends up both fandom and the objects of fandom but mostly in a affectionate way.  Some of the references will be lost on people who are unfamiliar with fandom or some of the things referenced like Flanders no Inu (Dog of Flanders) which are well known in Japan but not as well known here.       

[Hive_Minded]

Oh how I miss reading manga...stopped way back at Hellsing five or six, and only bought the first few of once piece (Though the anime is one of my favorites by far)

Nice to hear more good things about Genshiken, everyone tells me its pretty good so I'll need that on my list when I have time to sit around and read again.

I do enjoy these reviews your giving.

[old hat]

Title - Shugo Chara!
Original title - しゅごキャラ!, Shugo Kyara!?
Author - Peach Pit
Genres - Shojo, magical girl, action, romance, comedy, supernatural
US Publisher - Del Rey
Volumes available - 8
Status - In-print, complete, 8/10 volumes released in the US
Anime adaptation - Yes, 51 episode TV series, Shugo Chara! Doki  (51 episode sequel series), Shugo Chara! Party! (25 episode 2nd sequel series)

This one follows the adventures of elementary school student and magical girl Amu Hinamori.  She has the outward image of a cool, aloof lone wolf but is really just shy and not good at talking to people she doesn't know.  She feels that she is unable to be who she wants to be or really is.  One day she finds 3 eggs in her bed and from each hatches a sort of guardian angel.  They represent the 'person that she wants to be'.  They represent a person's dreams.  They also allow her to do things she would not normally be able to do and, in need, to transform in the usual magical girl way including a different outfit.  and so her career as a magical girl begins.  The series is in turns fun and light hearted and pretty serious.  It looks at fairly serious issues of growing up and coming of age using the vehicle of the guardian characters and the corrupted X characters they can become if people's dreams become distorted or lost.  It also looks at the differences between our true selves and the selves we project at the world around us.  Peah Pit has a tendency to push the envelope in certain ways and they do it in spades here.  Considering her age, the main character is sometimes presented in what I would consider to be an overly sexualized way. 
           

[old hat]

Title - Imadoki!, Nowadays
Original title - イマドキ!?, Imadoki
Author - Yuu Watase
Genres - shojo, romance, drama
US Publisher - Viz Media
Volumes available - 5
Status - in-print, complete
Anime adaptation  - None

A fairly short 5 volume series by the author of Fushigi Yugi.  The main story is a fairly straightforwards but sweet love story involving the heroine Tanpopo Yamazaki who has just entered the snooty Meiô Academy.  Over the course of the story she acquires a circle of friends who have their own side stories which vary from funny to sad.  The heroine is very cute but a somewhat stereotypical shojo heroine.  The story in this one is smaller and more intimate than the sweeping fantasy story in Fushigi Yugi with a smaller cast and scope and no supernatural goings on.  It is one of the relatively few shojo manga I own that does not have some supernatural element.  Some are high fantasy set (at least to a learge degree) in a fantastic supernatural world like Fushigi Yugi  or low fantasy set in a version of the real world like Vampire Knight or Alice 19th but few lack supernatural elements entirely.  It's a sweet story with a good cast but it's somewhat formulaic.