Now Is The Winter Of Our Link Spam ('15 Edition)

Been a while since I've done one of these, yeah? I'll keep it short.

• The Comics Journal covers alternative manga as they talk about the Fukui Ei'ichi incident and the prehistory of Komaga-Gekiga. It's about Osamu Tezuka! Who, naturally, is a complicated man and manga-ka.
• For fans of cult/classic TV and film, Shout! Factory now has a free streaming service for the shows and movies it has licensed, including MST3K, The Saint, and some Roger Corman films (via Comics Worth Reading).
• A delightful read from the poetry Dreamwidth community: If Dr Seuss Were A Technical Writer by Gene Ziegler.
• For the ladies of Star Trek fandom, this 'A Woman's Place Is On The Bridge' t-shirt seems like a must have.
• Snack food has a fandom? Apparently so! Stumbled across snack food review site Taquitos, which reviews snacks from across the globe, albeit with a North American bias.
• Lastly, did someone say Space Dandy deck-building tabletop card game? Because Seven Seas and Funimation are saying just that and it looks awesome.
  
  

Digital Manga Continues Its Dominance of Manga Kickstarter Campaigns

Oh, Digital Manga. Beloved DMP. One would think that they would have given up on Kickstarter after the last massive campaign and the amount of criticism they have received for using it so much in the past 2-3 years. But, y'know, it still works for them, so why not?

After the success of the Ludwig B Kickstarter - which had followed a behemoth disaster of a multi-title Tezuka campaign that ended in failure and an overwhelming disbelief in the system - DMP is now doubling down with not one, but two campaigns running concurrently: reprinting the classic yaoi series Finder and printing the Tezuka 2-volume title Alabaster.

Manga Worth Reading has a good post on the entire situation, including a look at Alabaster's stretch goal and how the company is openly responding to critiques of its current Kickstarter strategy. Read the comments, too!

Personally, I haven't backed a DMP Kickstarter since they licensed Barbara. It's not because of a lack of interesting titles worth funding; I just don't like DMP's newfound reliance on Kickstarter for everything from licensing to reprinting. It shakes one's confidence in DMP as a company and makes one wonder what their finances look like if they need to crowdfund so much.

However, if you want to see a title in print a lot and DMP is the one fixing to release it, Kickstarter or not, then go ahead and fund 'em. Support your favorite manga titles! In an era of digital piracy and scanlations, putting your money where your mouth is - especially for manga, a niche product in the world of books - is more vital than ever before.

The Doctor Is In: Tezuka's Black Jack and Horror

Spoiler warning: Post contains spoilers for Osamu Tezuka's original Black Jack manga up to volume 3, as published in English by Vertical Inc./Vertical Comics.

Black Jack is a mysterious and charismatic young genius surgeon who travels the world performing amazing and impossible medical feats. Though a trained physician, he refuses to accept a medical license due to his hatred and mistrust of the medical community's hypocrisy and corruption. This leads Black Jack to occasional run-ins with the authorities, as well as from gangsters and criminals who approach him for illegal operations.

Content warning: The Black Jack manga contains explicitly drawn scenes of surgery and medical procedures. If you are sensitive to these things, you should probably avoid this series.

Black Jack is a medical drama. It is a weird freaking pick to review during October, which is supposed to be all about spooky horror titles. Of all the Doctor Tezuka titles to choose - Don Dracula would have done it, even though it's a comedic take on horror, or the stories of The Crater, or even MW and Ode To Kirihito and Book of Human Insects, which are psychological horror.

But damn it, I just wanted to talk about Black Jack again, outside of my post for the Osamu Tezuka MMF from two years ago (geez, has it been that long?). Because in several ways, Black Jack is very much a Tezuka-style horror story. Black Jack himself even looks like a horror character, with his large flapping overcoat, scarred two-tone faced and shocked black-and-white hair.

PR: Digital Manga, Inc. To Launch Captain Ken by Osamu Tezuka Kickstarter

Gardena, CA (June 3, 2014) Digital Manga, Inc. has launched a new project on crowd-funding site Kickstarter to translate and publish Osamu Tezuka's shonen title Captain Ken volumes 1 and 2 for ages 16+ in English for the first time. From June 3 until July 3, fans will be able to pledge for publication of the books and receive Kickstarter exclusive rewards including early release copies of both volumes, the digital companion with featured translation notes, decals, bandanas, messenger bags, and a handmade plush of Captain Ken's horse, Arrow.

If fans pledge a total of $13,000 or more by the deadline, both volumes of Captain Ken will be released simultaneously for Kickstarter backers to receive in February of 2015, before hitting bookstore shelves in March of 2014, through DMI's Platinum Manga classics imprint. Swallowing the Earth, Barbara, Unico, Triton Vol. 1 & 2, and Atom Cat were all successfully funded in previous Kickstarter campaigns, but Captain Ken will be first young adult fiction to add to Digital Manga’s Tezuka collection.

Manga Review: Barbara

Barbara
Author: Osamu Tezuka
Digital Manga Publishing
432 pages

Wandering the packed tunnels of Shinjuku Station, famous author Yosuke Mikura makes a strange discovery: a seemingly homeless drunk woman who can quote French poetry. Her name is Barbara. He takes her home for a bath and a drink, and before long Barbara has made herself into Mikura's shadow, saving him from egotistical delusions and jealous enemies. But just as Mikura is no saint, Barbara is no benevolent guardian angel, and Mikura grows obsessed with discovering her secrets, tangling with thugs, sadists, magical curses and mythical beings - all the while wondering whether he himself is still sane. (Source: DMP)

If your first thought when you hear 'Doctor Osamu Tezuka' is children's manga and Astro Boy, cheerful robots and visual gags and colorful fantasy worlds fit to explore through, you would do best to set all those thoughts aside. Once you open up Barbara, it's obvious that there are two Doctor Tezukas - the man best known for his creations like Astro Boy and Kimba who appeals to all age groups especially kids, while there is also the man who wrote Barbara, the man who explores the depths of human psychology in all its dark terrific details.

Barbara is, put simply (if possible), the story of one man's fall through the shadowy pit of the human psyche as he loses his mind, and the woman who takes him there. It is not so much a children's story as it is a cautionary tale for non-cautionary adults. It's a naughty fairy tale that breaks taboos, bends reality, and blurs the line between dream and nightmare.

Upcoming Reviews: A Little Light Reading

I feel bad for not posting more regularly - or with more reviews! With school and work taking over my free time . . . well, I can make excuses as much as I can, but they are still excuses.

Since I don't have any solid posts coming into view yet, I thought I'd update y'all on what reviews are coming up sooner than later. Good news: it's all manga! And all manga readily available in English. Even a bit of BL for my fellow fujoshi!

(Although at this rate, Kickheart and the first Little Witch Academia OVA will be reviewed in short time as well. As well as the Accel World EX OVAs - after starting Sword Art Online through it being aired on Toonami, I've really started to miss Accel's Kuroyukihime and Hiroyuki, who live in the same 'verse as SAO's Asuna and Kirito.)

• Library Wars volume 10 by Kiiro Yumi and Hiro Arikawa
• Rohan at the Louvre by Hirohiko Araki
• Genshiken Season 2: volume 1 by Shimoku Kio
• Attack on Titan volume 2 & 3 by Hajime Isayama
• Off*Beat volume 1 & 2 by Jen Lee Quick
• Barbara by Osamu Tezuka

Of course, if you have any recs for manga I should be reading, feel free to drop them in the comments!

Update On "Blue Hearts, Pink Hearts"

In my last post, I discussed the notions of gender in Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight/Ribon no Kishi. A great series of posts that hit upon the same things I did but in greater detail would be Gender-Bending in Princess Knight on the Sequential Tart blog. Below is one of my favorite parts of her first post in the series:

In the same panel, we are privy to Sapphire's thoughts of "I just ... feel weak in his presence ...." While the whole "girls get weak in the knees" philosophy is stereotypically used as a female reaction, men can have it too. Still, I was slightly annoyed to see that here. Thankfully, she immediately responds with "What?! You think I'll lose to you?" and disarms him, winning that round. More than weakness, her attraction to him is distracting her and his comment snaps her out of it. 

Author Sheena McNeil breaks down the manga part by part, panel by panel, and really takes a keen examined eye to Tezuka's most well-known shojo series. Don't read them until you've finished the Princess Knight manga!

Speaking of Vertical Inc. (that's the publisher that put Princess Knight in English!), read Ed Chavez on his company's digital manga strategy over at Good e-Reader. And then consider supporting them by buying a digital manga title for your e-reader/tablet (cough cough Twin Spica cough)!

Blue Hearts, Pink Hearts: Thoughts On Princess Knight

Taking place in a medieval fairy-tale setting, Princess Knight is the story of young Princess Sapphire who must pretend to be a male prince so she can inherit the throne (as women are not eligible to do so). This deception begins as soon as she is born, as her father the King announces his baby is a boy instead of a girl. The reason for this is that the next-in-line to the throne, Duke Duralumin, is an evil man who would repress the people if he were to become king, and because of this the King will go to any length to prevent him from taking over. (Source: Wikipedia)

Spoiler warning: Some spoilers for the Princess Knight manga beyond this point.

This weekend, I spent some time finishing Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight series, published in two gorgeous paperback tankoubons courtesy of Vertical Inc., as well as sending waves of unbridled WANT towards my pre-order for the first Rose of Versailles DVD set. Wait, how are these two related? Because thinking about Rose of Versailles' gender-bender ways spurred even more thoughts on its predecessor, Princess Knight, and the ideas of gender in shojo manga.

Princess Knight aka Ribon no Kishi is commonly held up as one of the earliest shojo titles and one that many later titles draw inspiration from. It's hard not to examine the series without taking into account that its one of the most definitive works in the genre. Without Princess Knight, we wouldn't have Rose of Versailles. We wouldn't have Revolutionary Girl Utena. We wouldn't have Princess Prince (Tomoko Taniguchi) or Hana Kimi or Basara (Yumi Tamura).

A Osamu Tezuka MMF Link Post

This February for Manga Moveable Feast was all about Osamu Tezuka's works - and it was loads of fun, blogging about a manga-ka that deserves all the attention he receives. His works are legendary pieces of art that continue to attract new generations of readers. Tezuka was one of those prolific historic manga-ka who created so many memorable stories and characters. For my own blog, I especially focused on his mysterious surgeon character Black Jack, among others. I can't wait to do more blog posts about Tezuka's works.

Below are some of the great blog posts written by other people for Tezuka MMF. Please be sure to leave a comment on their blog if you like what you read!

• Justin at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses reviewed the Vertical release of Ayako, the story of a young woman after World War Two, living in a Japan still in transition from before the war, and the curse of a family gripped by the pursuit of power.
• Animemiz made the case for licensing Tezuka's 1970's anime series Umi no Toriton, based on the manga by the same name. Who wouldn't watch an anime about a guy who rides a dolphin?
• Angela at Diary of a Bookwarm discussed volume 1 of Buddha and the importance of focusing on the side characters other than Buddha himself.
• Evan at Ani-Gamers took a look at a chapter in Swallowing The Earth titled "Light Motif", in which Tezuka experiments with his art style and page effects.
• Manga Xanadu reviewed the Vertical release of Apollo's Song and found that parts of the story actually repulsed them.
• Johanna at Manga Worth Reading discussed the concept of modernized Tezuka stories, such as Naoki Urasawa's Pluto, and how more manga should follow suit.
• Jason at Playback STL looked back at his own fan letters sent to Manga Vizion over the years about a certain fictional Tezuka surgeon's series that was then being serialized in MV.

If you saw any really cool Tezuka MMF posts during February that you'd like to share, feel free to drop a link or two in the comments section. I'd love to read them!

Manga Review: Black Jack GN 1 & 2

Black Jack volumes 1 and 2

Author: Osamu Tezuka

Vertical Manga

Vol 1.: 288 pages; Vol 2.: 304 pages

Black Jack is a mysterious and charismatic young genius surgeon who travels the world performing amazing and impossible medical feats. Though a trained physician, he refuses to accept a medical license due to his hatred and mistrust of the medical community's hypocrisy and corruption. This leads Black Jack to occasional run-ins with the authorities, as well as from gangsters and criminals who approach him for illegal operations. Black Jack charges exorbitant fees for his services, the proceeds from which he uses to fund environmental projects and to aid victims of crime and corrupt capitalists. But because Black Jack keeps his true motives secret, his ethics are perceived as questionable and he is considered a selfish, uncaring devil. The Black Jack series is told in short stories. Each volume will contain 16-20 stories, each running approximately 20-24 pages in length.

Black Jack is recognized as Osamu Tezuka's third most famous series, after Astro Boy and Kimba, the White Lion. (Source: Goodreads)

Spoiler warning: Spoilers for the Black Jack series so far in the following review. Read on with caution!

Content warning: The Black Jack manga contains explicitly drawn scenes of surgery and medical procedures. If you are sensitive to these things, you should probably avoid this series.

Fujoshi O'Clock: The Doctor Tezuka Edition

What time is it? It's . . . Fujoshi O'Clock, the new weekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock is a little bit different from usual, since today is the last day of MMF week for Osamu Tezuka. So I thought instead of the usual news items and reviews, I'd highlight Tezuka's more boys' love friendly works for the fujoshi audience. There is not a hell of a lot but what there is is pretty significant.

Note: I'm not saying Tezuka is in anyway a BL manga-ka! He's not even close! But some of his works contain some major LGBT themes and characters to the point that there are open homosexual relationships in works made during an era where treatment of such works were novelty at best, steeped in harmful stereotypes at worst. Although even his treatment of LGBT folks isn’t perfect . . .

Don’t worry – no major spoilers for the series discussed below!

The Greatest Robot on Earth: Astro Boy, Pluto, and the Power of Stories.

Note: Post contains some spoilers for both Astro Boy and Pluto. Read on with caution!

Back when Viz Manga was still routinely churning out volumes of Astro Boy in English (for blogging purposes I will refer to him as Astro Boy instead of Tetsuwan Atomu), I managed to get my paws on a couple of them via my local library and fell in love with the story arc known as "The Greatest Robot on Earth", which soon became one of my favorite Tezuka story arcs ever. It's classic Tezuka: a battle between robots and humanity, illustrating how humans work and feel even through the mouth pieces of robot characters.

In "The Greatest Robot on Earth", a robot named Pluto is built and sent across the world to fulfill his creator's task: destroy the world's seven most powerful robots, thus making Pluto the most powerful of them all. Naturally, the seven robots include Astro Boy, which draws Astro and his friends into a race to stop Pluto from achieving his goal. In the end, Pluto's true self is revealed, but is inevitably destroyed to save the world. It's a story arc chock full of action and drama and it is an utter enchantment to read. 

I only wish my library still had their copies of the Astro Boy manga; I would have loved to re-read them one last time before writing this post! Alas. I could go into a whole thing about libraries and their dwindling stock, but I won't because this is a Tezuka post, dang it.

AMV Of The Week: Teardrop

This week’s AMV is a little kick-off to how ridiculously Osamu Tezuka-filled this blog will be until Saturday night, due to the February MMF being about Doctor Tezuka and the massive amount of anime and manga he created. The AMV for this week is a jolly good tribute to Black Jack and Pinoko, set appropriately enough to the theme song for House. I really liked the use of scenes of surgery set alongside scenes of Black Jack hard at work with his adorable assistant.

AMV: Teardrop

Author: DevoVamp

Music: Massive Attack's "Teadrop"

Warnings: Animated depictions of medical procedures and surgeries; blood warning.