Otaku Champloo

Tag: Viz

  • Battlia Royale: Beyond Battle Royale

    Last Sunday night, I watched a pool of people deliberately choose to kill a class of students.

    My heart sank when the ushers divided the crowd and despite the pleas for their lives, only 24 chose to make the students live while the rest of the 150 or so participants in that night’s play chose to see them dead.

    The night before, only 10 out of 200 guests.

    In a play that rides on the brutal social imagination of Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale, Sipat Lawin’s Battalia Royale goes beyond adapting Takami’s vision and elevated the text by turning it into a social experiment.

    Shit gets real in Battalia Royale.

    Note: Spoilers ahead. Necessary spoilers I might add. If you want to experience this play differently. 
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  • Oishnbo MMF: The Final Dish & Oishinbo Legacy

    I feel like this week came and went and as I wrote my last few articles, I really hadn’t realized that the week was almost over.

    I actually thought that I had written so much (many of them have been written prior to MMF), but the week caught up with me well and somewhere along the way I had to give up on some ideas for articles. To be fair, it’s something that is difficult to catch up on because it’s really just a summary on the cute development of Yamaoka and Kurita’s relationship.  And to be honest, I can’t remember much since I crammed 104 volumes in my head.

    The last day is sweet and it’s not because I made dessert with French Pancake. And it’s not because I finally remembered to mention this awesome Japanese site that actually inspired me to hold the culinary aspect of this feast: Manga Shokudo which also has its own book now!

    In writing the list of unlicensed manga that mangavores and foodies could appreciate, it dawned on me that a lot of these titles wouldn’t have been present if Oishinbo hadn’t been written. After the success of Oishinbo, the manga industry found value in discussing and experimenting with food in its pages. Thus, I’m really happy that food manga was born as it gave us more manga to read.

    Food, while integral to our living, hardly finds its presence in other forms of culture other than its kitchens and diners. To see it as an effective tool in educating people about food makes me appreciate its legacy not only in Japanese culture, but in the world as well. While Ed Sizemore might be missing out on experiencing these featured flavors, I’m happy that he sees value in this genre. When we all have forgotten flavors, these comics contribute in reminding us the various tastes and textures that we experience in food.

    In my podcast, I asked about the future of food manga and Erin was talking about astronaut meals and such. Seeing other developments in cuisine also made me wonder if smaller or microscopic dishes will be enough to feed us someday. Perhaps our dining preferences may change and evolve but I think I can feel assured that if the world does end in 2012 and aliens would have to figure out what we ate, they might just chance upon these comics that tried to capture the flavors that changed our life.

    I’d love to give my sincerest thanks to all the awesome folks who contributed for this Oishinbo and Food Manga MMF. Of course, I’d also like to thank the readers for supporting us! I’ll be updating the links in the viking a few hours from now so stay abreast and follow me over at twitter for any other announcements. If you enjoyed this feast and would like to participate to similar (sans the food) Manga Moveable Feasts, join our Google Groups page!

    Next month is honestly just as exciting as mine! Michelle Smith and Anne are hosting the Inoue Takehiko Manga Moveable Feast from June 24 – June 30 at Manga Report and Soliloquy in Blue. With all these food I ate for this feast, I’m going to get my Shohoku trainers back and get myself ready. L-O-V-E RU-KA-WA! \o/

  • Scouting for Legal Online Manga: Sig Ikki

    Scouting for Legal Online Manga: Sig Ikki

    I am a print baby and I would sooner read my manga in print than in front of the computer. I will admit that since I am in front of a computer most of the time due to work, I cannot help but stray for a quick fix. But that was then and now, it’s a different game.

    In the last few years, manga has been shifting from print to digital. This was in many ways born in response of growing manga scanlation aggregators, but it’s also responding to the needs of some consumers. This year has been particularly exciting and let me share to you that there are now ways for you to enjoy reading manga online… legally!

    For this ‘column,’ I’ll be scouting for some places where you can read legal online manga. This means these are websites that have appropriately licensed and is distributed online some manga online by its publishers. Simply put: these are websites that makes sure the money spend to their website gives something back to their published authors. Your purchase for their digital manga puts food on those tired starving mangaka’s (and friends!) table.

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  • Spotlight: Kaoru Mori

    Spotlight: Kaoru Mori

    Whenever I think of maids in terms of manga, I first think of Kaoru Mori’s Emma.

    It is unavoidable to associate Kaoru Mori with the maid fetish. Shirley and Emma were created at a time when maid cafes were emerging in Japan. Her popularity was at its peak when the maid phenomenon hit its boom. I could assume that Emma became influential in establishing (in the most informal manner) a standard of maid aesthetics and behavior in terms of the maid fetish that was prevalent in Japanese society.

    Despite this, I cannot say that Kaoru Mori is the kind who builds her story on a fetish alone. Unlike the thousands of maids that emerged in manga, Emma and Shirley felt like the real deal. In reading the manga, I realize that Kaoru Mori’s not the kind who cares for fanfare. She’s a lady who loves the world of her characters enough to make them alive as she draws every single detail with her nib. After all, she did write A Bride’s Story as well.

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  • Ready to taste SuBLime?

    Ready to taste SuBLime?

    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.

  • [Exhibit] Manga Realities: The Art of Japanese Comics Today

    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.

  • Spotlight: Iou Kuroda

    Spotlight: Iou Kuroda

    I wish I had a reason for my delinquency, but work and research is no excuse for my great delay in terms of handling my spotlight. While I promised to do this every month, sickness and sudden workload kept me from opening my manga for months. Then again, I tasked myself in putting down gargantuan authors for those months and perhaps I’ll just make it up to all of you when I make up for those lost spotlights by the end of the year.

    But for now, before everyone thinks I just spotlight BL authors, I present to you the man who captured my heart with an eggplant, Iou Kuroda.

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  • Cross Game MMF: Living Landscapes

    Cross Game MMF: Living Landscapes

    Have you ever thought of something so different when you see a landscape drawn in manga?

    Say for example, you saw this river from this page in Cross Game.

    Would you honestly think of what happened next just by seeing this river?

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  • Spotlight: Natsume Ono/basso

    Spotlight: Natsume Ono/basso

    With the Toronto Comic Arts Festival coming up, I felt it best to tell the world more about Natsume Ono. She’s been getting much acclaim among manga critics however, the truth of the matter is — the English-speaking world has only grazed half of her works. Natsume Ono still has lots to offer.

    There’s more to Natsume Ono than Italian restaurants and kidnappers. In fact, doing this spotlight for Natsume Ono requires a journey for my readers. If you would allow me, I’d like to take you to a journey down to Ono’s lane because knowing her works takes more than just looking at her pictures. You’ve got to immerse yourself and experience her works to understand how Natsume Ono is definitely not simple.

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  • Yapapa Happosai

    Yapapa Happosai

    This post was not supposed to happen; however, after seeing fun changes over at twitter, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to contribute to the upcoming MMF. But what should I write about Rumiko Takahashi? It’s like asking a child her favorite candy inside a candy shop!

    It’s impossible, really impossible for me to write one thing down without endlessly rambling on to the next piece. Simply put, and I’m quite sure this is something everyone could admit, her works has touched our lives more than what we could ask for. We could all talk about Rumiko Takahashi fondly but a part of me thinks that there are things that we pass off the radar. Maybe it’s because we want to forget. Maybe it’s because it’s hard to admit that perhaps she may have created one of the most unforgettable characters in manga. Oh no, we’re not talking about the bravest heroes in Ranma and Inu Yasha. I’m talking about the greatest evil we have trapped in a cave in our deepest manga memories: Happosai.

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