Wednesday, July 18, 2007

New Manga and News

Hi all! I just got back from a long vacation in Montana and I've got tons of work to catch up on in a very short time, so I'm afraid more reviews will have to wait for a bit, but they will be returning! In the meantime, I just received another shipment of manga calculated to arrive just as I got back home. In the picture below, you'll see that I've almost entirely filled out my Taiyo Matsumoto collection - new titles are Nihon no Kyodai (Brothers of Japan), Gogo Monster, Zero 1-2 and the second volume of Takemitsu Zamurai. The only books of his that I don't have now are his artbooks, 100 and 101. In the upper right corner you will see Michio Hisauchi's 1988 Garo serial Takuran (Brood Parasite), an intriguing, medieval story of "persecuted peoples."

In the middle row can be seen the first five books of the ongoing Maison Ikkoku reprint (Urusei Yatsura is also receiving this treatment, and Ranma 1/2 got it a few years back), I suppose to coincide with the new drama. Ikkoku was always a favorite of mine back in my English manga days, and certainly the only Rumiko Takahashi series I'd spend my money at this point, so it's nice to have a spiffy new set. Following are the 22nd volume of 20th Century Boys and the first half of 21st Century Boys, the concluding piece, with the second half to be published in late September. Next to that are the latest volumes of Sing Yesterday for Me and Wanitokagegisu, and a new One Piece supplemental book.

The bottom row is an assortment of new volumes, from left to right: Hatsuka-nezumi no Jikan (Hour of the Mice) 3, Boys on the Run 6, Danchi Tomoo 9, Homunculus 8, Eden 16, A Spirit of the Sun 15, and Dosei Mansion 2.



In other news, I will be a member of a panel at the San Diego Comic Con next week! It's called Lost in Translation (scroll down to 6:00-7:00) and will feature several other well-known figures in our tiny little professional industry. I'm very flattered that I get to sit among them and more than a little nervous, but if you're there, stop on by and say hello!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn, looking at those Matsumoto manga is driving me nuts. I guess until I actually make a serious effort to learn Japanese all I can hope for is Tekkon to sell well enough to convince Viz to keep publishing the man.
And what's Takemitsu Zamurai? His new series? Any info/opinions?

flyingrobots said...

Takemitsu Zamurai's first volume is quirky. That's not really saying much when you describe his work, but it certainly LOOKS different than his other stuff -- the art style is much flatter and stylized than Ping Pong or Number Five, when he actually started to look realistic. It's kind of a storybook look.

The plot seems to follow an archetype for period piece manga. He isn't credited with writing it, just drawing it, but the story is the same as what you see in Ruroni Kenshin or others like it: a seemingly powerful but haunted swordsman who uses various handicaps to prevent himself from killing (in this case, the flexible bamboo sword that corresponds to the title, "Bamboo Sword Samurai"). Of course, being Taiyo Matsumoto and NOT Nobuhiro Watsuki, it's really an elegant character piece as opposed to a combat/action series. Worthwhile, of course, but I have a feeling it will go down as a bit of flavoring in Matsumoto's bibliography rather than the meat itself.

Ark said...

I'm curious, is Wanitokagegisu as good as Minoru Furuya's previous works?

flyingrobots said...

It's part of a trilogy of sorts for Furuya, along with Himizu and Ciguatera, so consider it to be along those lines. The fourth volume is supposed to be the end, so I'll make up my mind once I've read that, but for now I can safely say that while it's similar in execution, it's a lot funnier than either of them, and the characters are a lot more extreme (and thus less human than in Ciguatera).

Anonymous said...

Ah, thanks for the info. I always wondered what it would look like if he did a period piece. And hate to stay on the same subject, but I'm interested to see what you think of GoGo Monster, the only other thing by him that I know very little about.

Unknown said...

Are Taiyo Mtsumoto's mangas too expensive? And are there furigana in it or kanji all the way?
Thanks in advance. Good knowing you like his stuff, it's really difficult to find info about it, hope a few reviews show up in the future.

Anonymous said...

Hi Stephen,

I understand it's your translation of H2 I've been enjoying lately, and I just wanted to say thanks for the terrific interpretation. The dialogue actually makes me laugh out loud, at times, and the quirkiness of the characters is sensationally translated.

Brilliant, brilliant job. I only wish VIZ, or someone would let you do a printed version. I think it would sell, and I can't imagine anyone better suited to make it work than you. After readin an awful lot of literal and not very lively translations of Adachi's work, lately, I give you props for an outstanding job. Thanks, more than you can ever know.

Thanks for making my favorite manga-ka accessible to me, finally, after all these years.

Anonymous said...

Teneis que ver esta pagina: Fanatic Manga. Es flipante, tiene material muy bueno, imagenes, videos, series, etc...