Posts Tagged ‘yamashita tomoko’
Wow. What a year.
As compared to last year, 2012 was good to me — very good to me.
However, because it was good to me, it also meant it ate my time. Lots of my time. Particularly, my champloo and manga reading time. In terms of my time for this blog, I didn’t fulfill my wonderful spotlight series monthly. Nor did I even continue the columns I wish to continue! I wish I can do more and please don’t blame my tumblr habit. ; 3; It’s easier to reblog than write. My life in tumblr is filled with likes, porn, and tons of reblogs. But yes, in general, I have nothing but my life to blame on why I didn’t get things up to speed. At the very least, I was happy that I managed to host my first MMF quite successfully.
Despite this madness, 2012 was still a great year of manga. Here’s a list of 12 mangas I read in the last year. They’re not necessarily manga released in 2012 but they are all amazing manga that I’ve discovered and love this year. In no particular order, here are my favorite mangas read from last year.
Just where did January and February go?!
I promised myself in my last spotlight that I will make a point in writing 12 spotlights for this year, but here I am in March writing my first spotlight! Que horror!
That said, starting the spotlight again is a lot better than not ever continuing it at all! I’ve really loved writing and sharing why I love a particular author (or series) and hear why people love them as well. More than that, March is a special month for me. It’s only in March where I get to be a little more selfish about my tastes.
I’ve decided that March is the month where I get to write authors that have driven me crazy or have puzzled me entirely. Last year, it was Nakamura Asumiko’s mesmerizing eyes. This year, it is the mystery of Yamashita Tomoko — a rising star in manga who is both amazing and cruel.
It’s Manga Taishou season again and I haven’t even started reading Therma Romae (once… I find my copy somewhere). Out of all the award ceremonies, I tend to enjoy the selection in Manga Taishou because these manga do not disappoint at all. Some awards tend to let some title win awards in order to boost its popularity. I honestly don’t know how some of these awards go behind the scenes, but yeah, so far, some winners are rather questionable. I cannot say the same for Manga Taisho though. When I look at their list, it all boils down to which manga were most amazing in the past year.
The list of the nominees is out and here’s my two cents on who have a shot of bringing home the Manga Taisho… well, at least those that I have read…
Otoyomegatari. The Bride Stories by Kaoru Mori. A very strong contender and quite popular to both critics and fans. I have full faith that there’s a high chance that Mori-san might bag this one. Can’t say much about the committee but if they gave it to Therma Romae last year, they might give this eclectic beautiful title a chance. I mean for chrissakes, she’s holding a kind of antelope on her shoulders. I’m quite sure the expectations will be high on this one.
Sangatsu no Lion. March Comes in Like a Lion by Chica Umino. This is quite an interesting tale and it’s one of those heartwarming stories that you can’t stop reading. The shougi is a nice extra but it ain’t anything like Hikaru no Go. This might have a good chance and I’m trying to think if there was something amazing that happened since its last nomination. This is Chica Umino and if you’ve read Honey and Clover, you can imagine the pace of this story. Between this and Otoyomegatari… my bet’s on the latter.
Omo ni Naitemasu by Akiko Higashimura. Filling in the loss of the amusing Himawari in Morning is her new work Omo ni Naitemasu. My friend and I have been fans of Himawari and we were hoping that this title would follow. While the humor is there, the plot in itself is a little difficult to swallow. The female lead is a mistress/muse to an artist and sometimes you just want to whack her head for longing such a horrible man. It’s a cohesive story but not exactly the best of the lot.
I think what I love more about looking at the list is the number of titles I have yet to read. So far, these are the ones that caught my eye.
Don’t Cry Girl by Tomoko Yamashita. This girl’s a BL artist and I enjoy her work immensely. I’m not exactly sure what this title is – if it’s a seinen or a josei. Either way, it looks interesting.
I am a Hero by Kengo Hanazawa. I’ve been trying to find this comic but it often escapes my mind. Maybe I should give it a shot next time.
Un chocolatier de l’amour perdu by Setona Mizushiro. It has macarons on the cover. While it’s quite josei-ish in art… it looks yummy.
Hana no Zubora Meshi by Masayuki Kusumi & Etsuko Mizusawa. I doubt this manga is about food but that girl on the cover looks like she’s enjoying what she’s doing (with those morsels of rice all over her face.) It looks yummier and maybe… just maybe… I might get to enjoy this one.
I wish all of the nominees good luck and I can’t wait to hear the results of this one!
I am shameless. Very shameless indeed.
I have been wanting to do this for the longest time but it’s only this afternoon that I actually managed to add some of my favorite mangakas over twitter. I was hesitant at first and added only those that I really really liked. And while I liked them, I realized I started to stalk their lives a little more. The way that Est Em has been wandering around Europe has been inspiring me to travel and Tagro’s crazy antics just… really proves to me on how perverted he can get.
Nonetheless, it’s an interesting glimpse on their minds and if you want to keep up on their projects, it’s nice to see whether they’re wasting their time or hasn’t seen a ray of sunshine. Sometimes, they like to post about their food and it makes me incredibly hungry. Especially Tagro. I honestly read a little of HenZemi, but I like looking at his food posts.
I got the list online from Tanbishugi and am following the following mangakas:
- @zi38 – Miwa Shirow
- @TAGRO – Tagro
- @hikakom – Hikaru Nakamura
- @wakasugi_k – Wakasugi Kiminori
- @est_em – Est Em
- @enneono – Natsume Ono
- @okamarble – Okama
- @korinntonn – Ueda Rinko
- @beef_or_beef – Yamashita Tomoko
- @Takashigee – Shigeyoshi Takagi
- @levizo – Aoi Levin
Naturally most of their tweets will be in Japanese, but for those who can read, it’d be quite interesting to see the lives and preoccupations of your favorite mangas. (And what they’re doing when they’re slacking off!!!)
kirsten on 
Anastasia on 
Guest on 
d4rkn on 
