Manga Musings
The Pulse has an interview up with
Tim
Ervin-Gore about Dark Horse's manga line. He talks about
which manga titles have exceeded expectations, and which series aren't
doing so well. He also states "I don't think manga sales have
reached the apex yet. I still perceive an expanding audience due to
more anime hitting television, and the ever-widening television
experience." He does acknowledge that "the market is fickle" and
things could change unexpectedly, but he sounds optimistic overall.
When asked "How do you decide NOW which titles to introduce to Western
audiences?", Ervin-Gore offers this humorous response:
First we consult the Hagakure, and then the I-Ching. After
this is a
period of meditation, concentrating on the image of a salivating otaku,
and eventually, it drives us nuts and we can't sleep for days. Of
course, not sleeping for days and still having to work, we're driven to
drink lots of tea, the leaves of which tell us, in a state of insanity,
which books we should nab. Of course, at that point, we're speaking in
tongues and we have to call down our Tibetan translator, who is only
paid in blocks of ghee and gold bullion. Sometimes these elements are
hard to come by, so it's not uncommon for other companies to swoop down
and negotiate contracts out from under us. I think it's time to rethink
the transcendental method, really.
I think this is similar to Grant Morrison's answer to the question,
"Where do you get your ideas?" (Ervin-Gore seems to become
increasingly irritated with The Pulse's questions as the interview goes
on, which makes for some interesting replies. Go read.)
Johnny
Bacardi wonders what's up with the name "Shonen Jump"?
James
Moar beats me to the punch in the comments thread, explaining that,
short answer, that's just what the mag was called in Japan; longer
answer, Japanese mags like goofy-sounded titles with one English word
in it (e.g.,
Shonen Champion,
Shonen Ace and
Shonen
Captain). As for Johnny's bigger issue--why the heck is manga
so popular and why doesn't he get it?--
Dirk
Deppey offers the start of a reply, but I'd like to suggest that
Johnny has framed the matter wrong. Manga isn't all
"transformer-style robots, samurai warriors, teenage soap operas, big
hyperexaggerated gladiatorial arena-fight style sagas, sometimes all at
once"--heck, I don't think Shonen Jump had any "transformer-style
robots" in its first twelve issues. As
Shawn Fumo proclaims
tirelessly, manga is all about diversity. We might not see all
that diversity reflected in the translated manga that's made it over
here so far, but even looking at the smaller pool of translated manga,
there's still an amazing amount of diversity in genres. Just look
at the
three
manga I reviewed a couple days ago: Bawdy comic strip humor (
Crayon
Shinchan); action/horror (
Island); political crime thriller (
Sanctuary).
If you want "transformer-style robots" and the rest, I'm sure you can
find it. But don't let those subjects blind you to everything
else manga has to offer. To do so would be equivalent to someone
looking at all the superhero comics dominating a typical comics store
and ignoring evidence that Fantagraphics exists. If you're
looking for recommendations, I'd suggest starting with
Uzumaki
(horror) or
Akira (sci-fi
action). Both of these are durn-near masterpieces, and they have
the added benefit of being "flipped" (they read in the familiar Western
left-to-right format). If these don't sound up your alley, let me
know what your reading tastes are and I'll try to think of something
more fitting.
Speaking of recommendations, yesterday I wondered what would be a good
shoujo manga to start
with. Several people have offered suggestions in the comments
thread, and
Kiril
Jones was even kind enough to include some links to reviews over at
AnimeOnDVD.com. I'm
reproducing the links below in case anyone
else is interested in learning about shoujo manga:
Other shoujo manga recommended were:
Fushigi Yugi,
Magic
Knights Rayearth,
Kare Kano, and
Kodocha.
I'll probably research these a bit and then pick up whichever one
sounds most appealing. If I were going strictly by title, I'd
probably get
Please Save My Earth --it just sounds goofy, yet
so polite. Thanks to everyone for their recommendations.
UPDATE: Kiril has also provided a helpful link listing all
the manga reviews in AnimeOnDVD's manga forum:
Manga
Review Thread Index.
UPDATE II: Shaenon,
who used to work for Viz, reveals that other names were bandied about
for the American version of
Shonen Jump, including the
"blander"
Manga Tsunami. Hmm...Shaenon's right that it
does sound bland. But why does it seem so
familiar?
