It’s quite an interesting month for manga and I wish I wasn’t so busy to miss this merry month of manga in Manila. Part of the Manga Realities exhibit is actually a lecture from a professor from Kyoto Seika University, Jacqueline Berndt. As some of you know, Kyoto Seika’s the only university in the world that has a faculty of manga, hence it’s interesting to hear from the perspective of people who have dedicated their lives to manga. Now, on to the details of the talk!
The Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM) in continuing its mission to promote international cultural and arts exchanges between the Philippines and Japan, is bringing to Manila Prof. Jacqueline Berndt for a two (2) day lecture on Manga. The lectures will be held on 9 September (Friday), 4:00 pm at the Ayala Museum in Makati and on 10 September (Saturday), 9:30 am at the Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo de Manila University in Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
Jacqueline Berndt received her Ph.D. in Aesthetics from the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. She has been teaching art theory and media studies in Japan after receiving her doctorate. In 2009, she became Professor of Comics/Manga Theory at the Faculty of Manga, Kyoto Seika University. At present, she is the Director School of Manga Studies, KSU as well as the Deputy Director of the KSU’s International Manga Research Center which is located at the International Manga Museum in Kyoto, Japan. Her research interests include aesthetics of comics/manga, art discourse in modern Japan and animation studies. She has published the first comprehensive monograph on manga in German, Phänomen Manga. Comic-Kultur in Japan (Berlin 1995, Spanish transl. 1996), co-edited Reading Manga: Local and Global Perceptions of Japanese Comics (Leipzig 2006), and edited the bilingual volume Comics Worlds and the World of Comics (Kyoto 2010).
The lectures are in cooperation with the Ayala Museum and the Japanese Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University. The lecture at Ayala Museum, “Manga and Art: Alleged Traditions, Museum Galleries and Appropriative Artists” tackles the legitimization of manga as an art form. Prof. Berndt’s lecture will focus on three aspects: 1) the ir/relevance of traditional Japanese painting for contemporary manga; 2) manga museums compared to recent manga exhibitions in Japanese art museums; and 3) the unilateral interest in manga by contemporary artists such as Murakami Takashi and Aida Makoto. The lecture is part of the “Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics Today” traveling exhibit which is on view at the Ayala Museum from 16 August to 2 October.
The lecture at the Ateneo Art Gallery, “Manga beyond subculture”
discusses the rekindling question about manga’s role in the Japanese society. It takes the A-bomb manga “Barefoot Gen” which started in
1973 in the Weekly Shonen Jump and was introduced into Japanese school libraries in the early 1980s as its point of departure and examines its impact on public consciousness.
For inquiries and reservations for the Sept. 9 lecture, please contact the Ayala Museum at telephone numbers 757.7117 to 21 or email: museum_inquiry@ayalamusuem.org. For the Sept. 10 lecture, please contact the Japanese Studies Program at telephone numbers 426.6001 loc. 5248 or 426.4326.
If you’re gonna ask whose manga are those on the cover… well… =3=)~~ *whistles*
Popularity: 4% [?]
The US Yaoi-con just wrapped up and while I have never been there to witness the famous slave auctions, this year, there was one announcement that I wanted to catch up on: Viz’s BL line, SuBLime.
I’ve been teasing in twitter that Viz doesn’t need a dedicated BL line because they already have titles that has been keeping the fujoshi heart ablaze. Shounen Jump has enough treasures for us. We can start with Naruto, then down to Bleach, Gintama (although they stopped before it even got more fun), even One Piece and now the new favorites: Ao no Exorcist, Reborn, and the Legend of Nura. We can also look back at some Shounen Jump classics like Prince of Tennis and even some Shounen Sunday favorites like Case Closed for some fujoshi staples. Needless to say, Viz has enough to make some fujoshi squee with joy.
However, I honestly don’t blame them considering starting a BL line considering that there’s currently one active publisher that sells BL manga: DMP. I personally am not a big fan of DMP hence I welcome SuBLime in the market! I also find their name cute because it seems that a good number of BL publishers have this knack of finding BL in their names (BL-ink?). More so, it’s loaded with meanings of subtext and lime. For those in English fandoms, you might remember that lime was an old term used to describe the soft porn of fanfics. Yaoi was not spared from the lime category and thus I thought, it was a smart homage to that old term. Of course, I was surprised that they didn’t color their pages to lime and chose the more romantic, harlequinesque color of purple. I asked them over at twitter and they’ve noted that it was because it was a mature color. It’s actually nice and pretty. Not bad, but we’ll see how they package their covers as DMP seems to have started mimicking the famous Beboy Comics side box.
SuBLime has made the announcement of their website and their plans in the recent US Yaoi-con. Here’s a rundown of their nefarious plans:
1. SuBLime is a partnership between Animate and Libre.
This means we’re going to get access from the treasure trove of BL titles that are published by Libre. We have titles running from the classic BeBoy, Beboy Gold, Beboy Luv, Super Beboy, etc. What also excites me about this is this means that Viz will have access to Libre anthologies too such as Citron, Beboy Honey, and Beboy Phoenix!
2. Partnership with Libre means access to some of the best BL authors out there
While I have been writing spotlights for Ohta Shuppan authors like Asumiko and basso, Libre does have an amazing wealth of BL authors under their belt: Est Em, Kyuushu Danzi, Suzuki Tsuta, Aniya Yuiji, Nekota Yonezou, Natsume Isaku, Akira Norikazu, and I can go on forever. Some of these artists, such as Naono Bohra, have not been licensed yet and finally… FINALLY they’re getting some love in English. It honestly excites me to finally see these titles in English. Among the authors that they’re publishing, look out for Sakae Kusama, Nitro+Chiral, Naono Bohra, Akira Norikazu, You Higashino, and Natsume Isaku!
3. The partnership entails worldwide distribution of BL manga via the SuBLime website, as well as printed English translated titles.
YESSSSSS!! \o/ This means our tropical isles and every other place in the world that has access to internet CAN download their BL. According to the news brief, it’s a Download to Own option, which I am curious as to how this will be folded out. I suppose this means that after paying, we basically own that copy. If I base it on Viz prices for manga online via the iPad app, it will cost around $5.00. Still cheap compared to the prices of English BL manga here (which can go for $15-16) However, unlike the vizmanga.com app, this one is going global. I wonder how they will address non iPad users. Could they even sell via Android? I remember Amazon taking out BL titles from their kindle line, and with Kindle Fire coming out, will they have something to answer to that as well? If it’s download to own, does this mean that we can keep the file to ourselves and access it anywhere and everywhere and even offline? I’d like to see those details someday. Also, what would be the payment scheme for SuBLime? Can they account for the number of fujoshi with no credit cards yet?
With all of these lined up, it made me reflect on a couple of things.
- Will the BL scanlation community stop scanlating titles from Libre?
- Is SuBLime the only publisher for Libre titles?
- Are they a dedicated Libre publisher or are they willing to venture out and license titles from other publishers?
- Will SuBLime also tap Shueisha’s BL-ink titles?
- What will happen to DMP? Will they focus towards titles outside of Libre?
With all of these questions running in my head, I can only hope and look forward to the launch of SuBLime. For now, it’s looking good.
UPDATE: It seems that the ANN article was not enough and Lisa Patillo has some answers to my questions already:
1.) They are just working with Animate and Libre but they can look at other publishers as well (please look at Ohta Shuppan!)
2.) Digital manga costs $5.99. Not… bad. You do download the manga and they seem to rely on trust of the buyers to not spread it around for pirates. We’ll see about that. Let’s hope the fujoshi do follow through and support BL authors the way they have always been advertising in their credit pages.
Popularity: 6% [?]
It’s quite an interesting month for manga and I wish I wasn’t so busy to miss this merry month of manga in Manila. Part of the Manga Realities exhibit is actually a lecture from a professor from Kyoto Seika University, Jacqueline Berndt. As some of you know, Kyoto Seika’s the only university in the world that has a faculty of manga, hence it’s interesting to hear from the perspective of people who have dedicated their lives to manga. Now, on to the details of the talk!
The Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM) in continuing its mission to promote international cultural and arts exchanges between the Philippines and Japan, is bringing to Manila Prof. Jacqueline Berndt for a two (2) day lecture on Manga. The lectures will be held on 9 September (Friday), 4:00 pm at the Ayala Museum in Makati and on 10 September (Saturday), 9:30 am at the Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo de Manila University in Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
Jacqueline Berndt received her Ph.D. in Aesthetics from the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. She has been teaching art theory and media studies in Japan after receiving her doctorate. In 2009, she became Professor of Comics/Manga Theory at the Faculty of Manga, Kyoto Seika University. At present, she is the Director School of Manga Studies, KSU as well as the Deputy Director of the KSU’s International Manga Research Center which is located at the International Manga Museum in Kyoto, Japan. Her research interests include aesthetics of comics/manga, art discourse in modern Japan and animation studies. She has published the first comprehensive monograph on manga in German, Phänomen Manga. Comic-Kultur in Japan (Berlin 1995, Spanish transl. 1996), co-edited Reading Manga: Local and Global Perceptions of Japanese Comics (Leipzig 2006), and edited the bilingual volume Comics Worlds and the World of Comics (Kyoto 2010).
The lectures are in cooperation with the Ayala Museum and the Japanese Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University. The lecture at Ayala Museum, “Manga and Art: Alleged Traditions, Museum Galleries and Appropriative Artists” tackles the legitimization of manga as an art form. Prof. Berndt’s lecture will focus on three aspects: 1) the ir/relevance of traditional Japanese painting for contemporary manga; 2) manga museums compared to recent manga exhibitions in Japanese art museums; and 3) the unilateral interest in manga by contemporary artists such as Murakami Takashi and Aida Makoto. The lecture is part of the “Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics Today” traveling exhibit which is on view at the Ayala Museum from 16 August to 2 October.
The lecture at the Ateneo Art Gallery, “Manga beyond subculture”
discusses the rekindling question about manga’s role in the Japanese society. It takes the A-bomb manga “Barefoot Gen” which started in
1973 in the Weekly Shonen Jump and was introduced into Japanese school libraries in the early 1980s as its point of departure and examines its impact on public consciousness.
For inquiries and reservations for the Sept. 9 lecture, please contact the Ayala Museum at telephone numbers 757.7117 to 21 or email: museum_inquiry@ayalamusuem.org. For the Sept. 10 lecture, please contact the Japanese Studies Program at telephone numbers 426.6001 loc. 5248 or 426.4326.
If you’re gonna ask whose manga are those on the cover… well… =3=)~~ *whistles*
Popularity: 4% [?]
After braving fogs, dealing with a queen bee, and hopeful that I have the energy to even move after a hectic work weekend, I was fortunate to have some time to actually attend the Japan Foundation’s Manga Realities Exhibit in the Ayala Musuem. The opening night last August 15 was such a wonderful experience that I honestly didn’t want to leave and just wanted to stay in that exhibit forever.
Popularity: 8% [?]
I have been more excited about this than the Kingdom of Characters display (I had tons of things to complain about that one!) and more so, when I saw this in the Japan Foundation Magazine, back then, they only hide five series on display.
And now they have more!
The Japan Foundation will be holding an exhibit on the art of Japanese comics called “Manga Realities: The Art of Japanese Comics Today.” I am particularly excited about this exhibit as it contains some of my favorite mangaka and more. In Japan Foundation’s July Newsletter, the curator of this exhibit, Takahashi Mizuki of the
Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, noted that the exhibit intends to “recreate, in installation, sound and video, the same feeling of entering a “manga world” that you get when you read in manga…. Manga is experienced in private but this style of exhibition makes it possible to share the experience of manga with family and friends.”
I’m quite excited to see this exhibit and I hope manga fans will enjoy this as well!
Manga Realities Exhibit
Manga Realities: The Art of Japanese Comics Today
Ayala Museum, August 16-October 2
The Japan Foundation and the Ayala Museum in cooperation with the Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito in Japan, will bring to Manila the traveling exhibition, “Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics Today”.
It is widely known that Japanese manga and anime are attracting global attention today as the leading media of Japanese visual culture. Starting from manga comics by Osamu Tezuka, the master cartoonist of postwar Japan, this country’s manga has established a distinctive style that is different from American comics or French bande dessinée. Once depreciated as children’s amusement or a subculture, the public perception of these media has been changed considerably in recent years. Japanese manga and anime are now regarded as the main culture as the soft power that represents Japan today.
The exhibition which will be on view from August 16 (Tuesday) to October 2 (Sunday) at the Ground Floor Gallery and at the Glass Lane and Luna and Amorsolo Rooms at the Third Floor of the Ayala Museum will showcase nine manga artists and their works including Ninomiya Tomoko (Nodame Cantabile); Harold Sakuishi (BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad); Asano Inio (Solanin); Anno Moyoco (Sugar Sugar Rune ); Igarashi Daisuke (Children of the Sea); Kuramochi Fusako (Five Minutes from the Station); Kyo Machiko (Sennen-Gaho); Matsumoto Taiyo (No. 5); and Wakaki Tamiki (The World God Only Knows). During the exhibition run, other activities including lectures and workshops will be conducted.
From its first exhibit in Art Tower Mito, Japan, the exhibition has traveled to Artsonje Center in Seoul, South Korea and to the Vietnam Fine Art Museum in Hanoi, Vietnam where it has received considerable acclaim.
Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Manga Today is presented by Ayala Foundation and the Japan Foundation; additional support is provided by Lyric Piano and Organ, Acer and Via Mare.
For inquiries, please contact the Japan Foundation, Manila at telephone numbers 811.6155 to 58 or visit www.jfmo.org.ph.
Ayala Museum is located at Makati Avenue corner de la Rosa St. Greenbelt Park, Makati City. The museum is open from Tuesday to Friday (9:00 am to 6:00 pm) and Saturday to Sunday (10:00 am to 7:00 pm). For more information, please call Ayala Museum at telephone numbers 757.7117 to 21 or visit www.ayalamuseum.org.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Gan on 
Goran Markovic on 