Quotes January 2013, part 4

Shaenon Garrity on Banana Fish: "One month, he criticized Akimi Yoshida for drawing Ash tricked out in huge bandoliers, when the firearm he was carrying did not fire that type of cartridges. In the course of his explanation, Carl may even have implied that a male gun-otaku manga-ka (like, say, Doing Time creator Kazuichi Hanawa, who was arrested in 1994 for hiding real guns in his collection of perfectly-crafted imitation guns) would not have made such an elementary error.

But Carl spoke too soon! In the next installment, instead of firing the cartridges in the bandoliers, Ash set them on fire and used them as grenades! We will never doubt you again, Akimi Yoshida."

Sean Gaffney on Strobe Edge: "As many readers of this blog know, give me a choice between a new series that’s daring, bold, experimental and avant-garde and a new series that’s more of the same as all the other series except with different bits, and I will go for the latter every time. I appreciate the value of alt-manga, but am far more happy reading Vol. 97 of Shoujo Girl X. Usually because every time I do, even if it seems like it’s going to be more of the same, there’s always something that ends up drawing me in."

Jason Thompson on Ninja Papa: "Ninja Papa is old-school, trashy, ridiculous oyaji-gar manga by salarymen, for salarymen, about salarymen. Make that super ninja salarymen. Kiminori Wakasugi (Detroit Metal City) used to be Yamamoto's assistant, and Ninja Papa has some of the same absurd-stupid sense of humor, but stupider."

Mike Toole on Christmas gifts for the anime fan in your life: "Dolls and action figures are the avatars of our youth, trusted and beloved cloth and plastic companions that help us pass many a rainy day as children. But some figures are more suited to adult collectors, and other figures are so adult that it'd probably be a fairly serious offense to give one to a minor. Enter Cattleya, powerful and motherly blacksmith of Queen's Blade, whose spectacular physique makes those Sumerian fertility goddess statues look underdeveloped."

Shaun A. Noordin on Nausiacaa of the Valley of the Wind manga: "Without giving too much away, Nausicaa gets caught in the middle of a massive war; saves the lives of friends and enemies using a combination of compassion and heroic ass-kicking; and eventually unravels secrets of the apocalypse and the wasteland."