Why Slam Dunk is dunking me

Due to budgeting issues sort of related to the economic downturn, I am only able to purchase about one volume of Slam Dunk a year, and I think it's going to kill me. 


Unlike certain tournament shonen series, you really kind of need to read a whole game of Slam Dunk at once, or you lose all the narrative momentum and totally forget who the characters are.  This last part is not as much of a problem in Slam Dunk as, say, Whistle, but I couldn't remember any of the minor characters from the last volume, so it took me a while to get the adrenaline going.  Which is why it was even more painful when it screeched to a halt a few short chapters later. 


I really want to purchase this series to show my support for all sports manga.  To make sure I purchase, I usually don't read the series in a bookstore or the library.  This way, I can justify purchasing it.  I don't know if I can hold out with Slam Dunk, though. 

I was so happy when it was in Shonen Jump . . .  I may just have to marathon it at the library and hope for better economic times in the near future, so I can purchase it and read it again.  Viva le Sports Manga!

Hei, there, Darker than Black

You know, I never thought I'd identify with the main character of Darker than Black. I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly a cold-blooded, conscienceless killer, nor would I really want to think I have something in common with one, but, well, we're all human, right?

Anyway, during episode 16, I figured out that the reason the show makes me uneasy is because I resonate with Hei-as-Li's coldness. Li wears a mask every bit as real as Hei's. His mask is that pleasant, bland, slightly vapid facial expression he adopts when he's living his normal cover life.

Since trying to figure out who he really is creates much of the tension that drives the show, I can't help but admire the creators of the show for the way he is so slippery, face at odds with thoughts at odds with intentions at odds with actions at odds with results. Nothing feels real. It's uncomfortable and uncomfortably realistic.

In episode 16, a character confronts Li and asks why he can't just be social. Li seems kind of broadsided by that question. I found myself answering the character back, talking about how it's not like he can just be friends with people because that usually ends up with those people being dead, etc.


Or you could say it's because he's a contractor (if he is), and they're supposed to not have emotions, except that they do, and you've seen them be emotional, so you can't buy that completely.

There are a lot of excuses for keeping people at a distance. Eventually, it becomes your natural mode of operating, and you don't remember (if you were) ever being otherwise. Food for thought. I love anime.

Have you ever had any personal revelations or personal nudges to deeper thought from an anime (whole show, one episode, one bit of an episode)?

Flowers, Dragons

Two Flowers for the Dragon is a lot of fun.  I'm a big fan of the author, who always does something just a bit quirky and infuses her works with something just a bit off, a little out of the ordinary.  Her characters just don't conform to the usual stereotypes.

I enjoyed Recipe for Gertrude and am liking Palette of 12 Secret Colors a lot, so I'm not sure why I didn't read this when it first started coming out, but I'm glad it's so enjoyable.  It has so much potential to be lame, but it does not live up to that potential.


5 years ago, the heroine was engaged to the kind and shy son of a prominent family in the oasis her family ruled.  The kid disappeared in a sandstorm and was presumed dead.  She ended up engaged to the much older son of another prominent family (she's very practical about the whole political marriage thing, which is refreshing), and she's quite smitten with the man who treats her with a certain amount of exasperation and a little condescension.

Then the first guy comes back, and he's no weak little boy anymore.  He lost his memories, but he gained prowess in martial and, er, bedroom arts.  He's nothing like the boy she used to like, but can someone really change that much?  She doesn't care and has no intention of finding out.  Too bad her heart doesn't listen to her head.

Fiance 2, a cold, businesslike law enforcement officer, is feeling the squeeze a little because 1 knows all about how to be sensitive to how a woman wants to be treated, and the heroine is not used to getting much kindness from 2. 

With a love triangle that is actually interesting, some no-doubt entertaining battles ahead, and the potential for tragic backstories, Two Flowers for the Dragon has me hooked, especially this early, when we're still feeling out all the characters (and they're feeling out each other in this new, radically altered relationship dynamic).  I like it!

People talking about a manga I love: Banana Fish

I do love Banana Fish, so I direct you to the beginning of an ongoing round table at Manga Bookshelf in case any of the following apply to you:

• You like Banana Fish.
• You enjoy hearing different opinionated and intelligent people talk about something they enjoyed interacting with.
• You don't have any idea what Banana Fish is or if you would like to read it but are always looking.

If the first option above applies to you, and if you haven't read Shaenon Garrity’s Overlooked Manga Festival post about it, go do that now.  Someday, I shall marathon this series in all it's awesome 80s glory, and I will LOVE it again.

More about manga searching at your public library

I has so much fun yesterday that I decided to cut that post in half and continue it today with some more tips to help you find manga in your library's online catalog.  In these lean financial times, we need all the help we can get to legally get our manga fixes, and bookstores appreciate if you don't treat their merchandise like a library loan.

Additional tip A: If you find a series title that interests you, click on one volume's title and then, if you can, click on "search for other titles by (that author)."  This way, you can line a bunch of volumes up to see what they have and set up a series marathon.

Additional tip B: Check to see if your library's catalog lets you save things to a list or something similar (a bit like the wish lists when you order things online) under your account.  Then you don't have to go through the trouble of looking it up again, and you don't have to keep track of all the great series you want to take a closer look at in the future.

Additional tip C: Learn to love your reserve options.  Just because the library nearest you doesn't have it doesn't mean that three clicks can't get it sent to the library nearest you as long as it's available in your system.  Usually all you need to set up an online account is your library card.

Additional tip D: Check with your library to see if they have any links to other library systems.  If you live in a metro area, your city library card may be good at your county libraries, as well, and vice versa.  You probably have more free and legal manga reading options than you thought you did.

Additional tip E: If any of this is confusing or you're not sure what options are available at your library, stop in and ask a librarian.  They will love helping you, especially if you are a young person.  Don't be shy about this; it will only hurt you.  And if you have the courage to ask, you may find out your library has way more manga available for you than you ever thought possible.  This is my (and possibly your) tax money at work, and we should take full advantage of it.

Additional tip F: Please, please, please, be good to the library manga.  Do not eat disgusting and/or greasy food while reading it (because then it will be coated with disgusting and greasy residue or crumbs or other gross things).  Do not drink beverages while reading and spill them on it.  Do not bend the covers, crease the pages, or break the spines.  Do not kill bugs with it.  (Yes, I have found smooshed dead bugs in manga; it did not make my day.)  Other manga lovers want to read this book, too, and they don't want to be wiping your hot dog grease, cheese doodle residue, or sticky soda pop off the manga and onto them.  Trust me.  They really, really don't.  Really.

Enjoy responsibly and frequently!

How to find manga in your library catalog

If your catalog is like my library's, browsing online to find something to read can be a chore.  Here are a couple of tips that might help you strike gold faster if you just want to look through a list of the manga your library system has.

1. Search by general keyword "manga."  It can be beneficial to sort your results by title or date.
2. Search by publisher.  If you have an advanced search option, you should be able to do this.  Manga publishing is blessed with many unique names, so this can be fairly successful.  You should be able to sort your search results by publication date or by title. Some examples that pulled up multiple results for me are listed below.

• Tokyopop
• Viz
• Udon
• CMX
• DMP (Digital Manga)
• Del Rey (lots of non manga books under this imprint, too)
• Vertical
• Netcomics
• Seven Seas
• Yen

Good luck on your search!  If you have any suggestions of your own, do share.

Love your library's graphic novel sections

Today, I discovered that my library has a second graphic novel section.  I was kind of thrilled, and I had a librarian help me find the non-YA section.  It was, well, to be honest, it was a little anticlimactic, but at least I know they have part of Pluto and Eden and Emma and From Eroica with Love if I want to recommend them to a friend who doesn't play nice enough with books for me to be able to lend them mine. 

I already have the stuff they classify in this section if I'm interested in it, but there were a few titles I hadn't read in a while, so I checked them out in an effort to boost circulation numbers and hopefully get more (like the last five volumes of Emma).  And also to get a huge laugh out of Eroica's ridiculous over-the-top, old-school, ridiculous awesomeness. 

I'm also working on a letter to send with some suggestions of what they should add to that section, but first I want to check the catalog to see if it's somewhere else in our system.  I'm hoping they pick up a lot of the new SIGIKKI titles, so I can hold them in my hands to read them.  Did you know you can suggest/request things for your library to carry?  Your tax dollars at work!

Long live public libraries!  Check yours out today, and do your part to improve your library's manga circulation statistics.  It's almost like a public service.  I can't tell you how nice this feels.  Experience it for yourself.  (Don't forget to reserve missing volumes using your computer.)  When they arrive, go on a manga binge legally, for free, and in the comfort of your own home.

Why I love Shaman King

Where else will I ever have the pleasure of reading fantastic lines like, "Hah!  Taste my perfected asceticism!"?

Shaman King has been impressing me as a great Buddhist manga series, something I never thought I would say about any manga.  I've been feeling this strongly in the last handful of volumes as not only are we hearing Budhist ideas but actually seeing them applied clearly and devastatingly in action (lots and lots of action).

I'm not a Buddhist, but I am a Christian, and as a Christian who loves to read and write, I am always interested in the way people integrate their faith with their art, especially when it's smoothly well done, as it is in Shaman King.  Hiroyuki Takei is probably not trying to make converts.  He may not even be devoutly Buddhist, though I know his previous series Butsu Zone also delved into Buddhism, so I suspect he might be somewhat interested in the religion, at least as it potentially relates to stories he can tell with it. 

Shaman King feels very integrated (pun not exactly intended), a story possessing a sort of organic integrity as the principles underlying it are played out on the page and in characters' lives (and deaths).  Yoh has always been a slightly enigmatic character, a laid-back slacker who fights on even when we aren't exactly sure why.  The last several volumes have shown him off quite brilliantly, in all his contradictory, dedicated-shirker glory.

"This is hell?  Did I get killed?" Yoh asks.
"You don't seem very distressed," Amidamaru says.

I can't really explain it in a clearly summarized, reduced way, but I think if you've been following things closely, you probably sense this integrity, as well.  I hope you do and that I'm not just doing my reading-too-deeply-and-actively-into-a-kids-comic thing that I do so well.

Have you read any comics that subtly and beautifully weave a religious/faith tradition into the storyline, so it feels like it organically arises from the story rather than is shoe-horned in?

Selections from what I've read in March: digest version part 1

I hope to kick the last of this cold from the underworld soon, so I can start reading some more shonen (what I usually read when I exercise, which I can't do when I'm coughing like this)!  

• b Gakuen Alice 3, 4, 5, 6: You know, the more I read this, the more I have no idea why anyone would compare it to Fruits Basket. Kodocha? Oh, definitely. Hyper little girl wreaking havoc on those around her? Check. Snotty boss monkey boy as an initial antagonist? Check. However, at no time in Kodocha did said boss monkey boy steal the hyper little girl's panties. I seriously can't believe that happened in the first book. Anyway, it's goofy, hyper fun with a surprising undertone of darkness. It is differently nuanced than the anime, which seems to concentrate a bit more on character development, extending some scenes and adding episodes. The one thing that was totally better in the anime: Bear. That evil eye flash gleam cannot be replicated on paper.
• b Gon 4: Ohhhhhh, I LOVE GON. There are no words, but it is a such an adrenaline rush to read! It would be the perfect children's manga if not for all the law of the jungle stuff that results in, say, the deaths of millions of cute baby turtles! Gon is a baby T-Rex who has adventures with animals. It doesn't make sense, but it is sure enjoyable (except for those poor turtles).
• b High School Debut 9, 10, 11: Awwww. Still.
• b Rasetsu 4: Okay, so my theory about one guy was wrong, and that disappoints me, but he is still mysterious, so that's okay.
• b Venus Capriccio 1: A cute romantic comedy about a tomboy and a beautiful male musical prodigy who are childhood friends. She has no luck with boyfriends, and he only has eyes for her, but it can't be that easy.

Also, I love the library, which makes marathon series reading legal and possible.  Borrow more manga from your library, so they'll get more!

How to explain fanservice to the uninitiated

A college-aged non-otaku co-worker who is a reader of comics and graphic novels saw a manga with a warning label that said excessive fanservice.  Knowing I am a huge manga-nerd, he asked, "What's fanservice?"

"What series was it?" I countered while trying not to blush. 

He told me. 

There is, indeed, excessive fanservice for many audiences in it.  (It is well-nigh incomprehensible in the "plot" department as a result and is not my cup of tea, though it has one more strike to go.) 

"In this case," I said, "it means both cheesecake and beefcake are part of the menu."

There was a long, embarrassed pause.  "Are those euphemisms for something?  If so, I'm unfamiliar with them."

I tried again.  "Are you familiar with the term 'T&A'?"

"Nope."

"Ummmmm . . ."  I gave him a more spelled out description that embarrassed us both because we're both pretty shy and conservative. 

Later that day I figured out a perfect way to explain it:  The first live-action Transformers movie: Megan Fox. 

"She has no purpose other than the 'purpose' she has," I said, hoping that a shared pop cultural reference would do the job I obviously couldn't do.

He started to say something a couple of times and then smiled and laughed.  "I was trying to come up with something to defend her, but really, there isn't any reason."  Now he understood!

Transformers also has ridiculously detailed transformation scenes for the mechs.  There are gadgets and government conspiracies and stuff blowing up galore!  Lots of fanservice.  (Also, from what I understand, excessive fanservice at the cost of plot and stuff may have contributed to the stench it emitted.)

So, next time one of the uninitiated asks you embarrassing questions you can't go into a sociological essay to answer, remember Transformers.  Let American pop-culture work for you!



Do you have any good pop culture examples of fanservice that might help explain how broad the term is?

Selections from what I watched in February: digest version

Way busier with job applications and being sick this month, but I still got some entertainment in:

• b - Burn Notice: Not anime, but it could be.  Way fun.  Glad to see a familiar face from The Pretender getting a chance in the spotlight.
• o/b - GunXSword: Not a complete train wreck.  Also, I definitely nominate the little Flash extra GunXSword-san as the most disturbing continuing extra in the history of everything I've seen.  It's kind of unbelievable.
• b - Ninja Nonsense: For fans of Desert Punk, Nerima Daikon Brothers and similar crass and hilariously inappropriate comedies.  You should see this for Sean Schemmel's disturbingly awesome Onsakamaru, but he's "great" in either language.  Also, that ending animation is fantastic.
• b - Yawara: More, please.  I'd like it if someone would also license the manga.  (I can dream.)

Ponyo's out on DVD now, so if you haven't seen it yet, let it swim its little blood-sucking goldfish adorableness into your eyeballs soon.

What've you been watching lately?

Selections from what I read in February: digest version

Starting soon, I think I'll do this weekly, or maybe biweekly.  But for now, here's February in manga.

• b 13th Boy 2: Okay, I thought the talking cactus was pretty great.  Turns out it's a talking, transforming cactus, and that's EVEN BETTER.
• o Akihabara@Deep 1: Erm, it just kind of fails.  There's potential here, but it's all squandered and incomprehensible so far.
• b Beast Master 2: Kinda cute with a nice happy ending for a short series.
• b Bokurano Ours 1: The author of this book is an evil person.  EVIL.
• b Crown of Love 1: Looking forward to finding out what happens next.
• b D.Gray-Man 16: Wow.  Creepy, gothy-art, heart-wrenching story lines of protection, friendship, loss, and frailty.  Loving it.
• b Dance in the Vampire Bund 1: Okay, hard to recommend because of the tendancy of a certain main character to eschew clothing (specifically because this character's nudity is 1) not exactly like it appears and 2) supposed to appeal to a demographic that is quite frankly creepy).  The story itself could be really good, though, a nice spin on the childhood promise and master-servant/friend relationship.
• b High SChool Debut 1-8: This is pure, unadulterated, cute shojo relationship comedy, and I love every minute of it.  Haruna is fun as the straightforward, simple character, and the secondary characters are interesting.
• b King of RPG's 1:  Crazy and hilarious, and I say this as someone who has never played RPGs or done online gaming.  I do know about obsessive hobbies, though.
• b Monkey High 1-7: Another cute, shojo relationship comedy.  In this one, the male is the airhead, and that's pretty novel for me.  It sometimes tries to be ensemble comedy like Love*Com but none of the secondary characters are well-developed enough.  Like High SChool Debut, there is some fun with love triangles, rectangles, etc., that use a somewhat hard to pin down character.
• b Natsume's Book of Friends 1: This is a quiet, contemplative, sad, beautiful little story about loneliness, connection, and mystery.
• b not simple: This is hard-core literature.  S/T has an apt definition of that term.
• b Otomen 5: Oh, dear.  I love this series.  For its author's hatred of all things sparkly while drawing a manga overfull of them, for the characters in all their over-the-top glory, for the awkwardness, for the social commentary, and for Junta.
• b Silver Diamond 5: Will the power of nice be able to save a dying world?  Stay tuned.
• b Skip Beat 20: AWwwww.  I love it.  I love the curse demons, but I also love the cute, happy, nicey stuff.   I love Moko's internal knock-down, drag-out fight with herself so much that I read it about five times.  I love that Kyoko can still give love to others even though she is so broken.