Updates: March 6, 2014

O hisashiburi! I've really been slacking off with my blog now and I haven't posted a real review for a while now. Sorry about that. Anyway, I have news that might shock you!

I have created a class for Manga! It's called Manga Studies 100: The Study of Modern Printed Visual Culture. It's a virtual class that I have started. I basically plan on teaching the basics of manga, the history of manga and the manga industry (how manga is made, published, serialized and whatnot). The problem I have is how to organize this class I started. I just wanted to create a Google Community where people can head to and learn about manga even if it's just adds a tiny bit of knowledge. I'm hoping it's gonna be a short course that people can follow in their own time.

I've posted an album that contains images that have text in them and that's how I would like to do the reading. So if you're interested, here's the link! Manga Studies 100: The Study of Modern Printed Visual Culture.

Tell me what you think about this virtual class. Comments? Suggestions? Recommendations? Anything would help, really. Thanks for taking your time to read this!

Monthly! Amagi Brilliant Park 1

This is one of the new series I'm picking up and it's a monthly! The story is quite unique where it looks like it revolves around a theme park "Amagi Brilliant Park" (hence the title). The theme park was a built during the *bubble economy of Japan and it has been a mess after the burst. I'll get into more details but for now, all you need to know is that it's a theme park that looks run down. No "guests" and no people around to enjoy their time. What is going to happen?

Monthly Dragon Age March 2014 Issue 3

(I did my research!)

From the colored splash page for this series, it says that they need to get a lot of people to go to that run down theme park. The time limit given is about 2 weeks so for someone in high school in his third semester, that's a lot of things on his plate (it's third semester, finals come rolling in).

Spoiler Alert! If you are gonna read this post, please read the actual manga first!

Review: pink

It's not the color, it's the manga. It's really awful and bittersweet. It's like drinking coffee, it's really bitter but over time, cup after cup, you get really used to it but then you realize, your tastes have changed.

Warning! This title contains nudity, sex scenes and adult themes. 

Vertical Inc. said it perfectly, "Published at the zenith of the Bubble era, women's comics legend Kyoko Okazaki's representative work captures... the spirit of the times." It is the spirit of the times where people were spending lavishly and didn't care about the future. This is like seeing Japan back in the late 1980s.

Manga in the Mail: 20

Hey! It's the 20th Mail post and still going strong! Good for me!

Review: Bakuman Volume 2

So you've read volume 1 and I've read volume 1 from a long time ago. That review was not so thorough (like my reviews are thorough and professional ＿|￣|○ )  and my current reviews have a system of sorts. So let me revise my review on this title so we can get a bit more out of it.

Draw. Draw. Draw. Write. Write. Write. Wouldn't you go insane if you did this all day long? I'm amazed at what mangaka's go through just to put a chapter out there. I also want to be a mangaka but you know, I just don't have the inspiration and the story telling down. I can draw but only stiff illustrations and most are just sketches. These mangaka's work their butts off just to make their manga last a little longer. Then you also think of a gimmick to make your manga rank higher in the polls. What a busy world manga is. No wonder Taro Kawaguchi died from work exhaustion (well, a lot of Japanese people die from over work, no joke.)

Story so far: The story starts when a middle schooler Moritaka Mashiro (Saiko) was confronted by a classmate of his; Akito Takagi (Shujin), about both of them being mangakas. Shujin goes to convince Saiko to draw for him. Unknowingly, Shujin cooks up a plan to make Saiko become a manga artist. After the execution of the plan, Saiko is now determined to be a mangaka and is now aiming for his work to be in an anime!

Manga in the Mail: 16

I like drama. Well, the kind of drama that makes you pity a character for his/her situation. Combine my liking for drama with my fascination with psychology, specifically, the autism spectrum disorder. I am sincerely curious about the things that go into an autistic child's mind.

With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child Volume 3

Review: High School Girls Volume 1

So if you've been reading my blog from the very start (which I doubt anyone did), I have posted my now-reading post about High School Girls Volume 1. I've just finished it recently and I want to say, it's a documentary about an all girls high school.

Warning! This contains a bit of fan-service. A bit. A girl can probably stand it.

To start it off, this is a slice-of-life comedy manga that can either make you look at women differently. Your opinion about girls being all tidy and neat might be destroyed so if you don't want to see the ugly side of a girl, then do not read this. If you want to laugh out loud about the facts of the girl-life, then please, do so.

Now Reading: 6

INBO!!! (Japanese for: Conspiracy) If you haven't figured it out, I have one more and you should know it by now (if you are an otaku like me): Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai (N.H.K. = Nihon Housou Kyoukai [Japanese Broadcasting Association] is a real broadcasting channel in Japan.) I gave you all the clues, and you should know it by now...

Welcome to the N.H.K. Volume 1

Warning! This volume contains mild nudity!

Before we move on, I will explain what a Hikikomori is. The people being called Hikikomori in Japan are shut-ins/recluse who close their worlds and only function within the confines of their apartment/room/house. There are anti-social and usually see the world as a threat to their existence. Hikikomori's are usually otakus who have been hurt by people's comments about them. Some are just afraid of contact with other people and don't feel the need to communicate with other people. I'm also an anti-social person (hence the blog) and I only go out when I need to but that is due to the lack of interpersonal skills on my side. I can understand why people would choose to be Hikikomori and why they choose to be inside their safe zones instead of going with the flow. They are humans too, they are just too afraid of being hurt, either by society's comment or by embarrassment.

Review: Kingyo Used Books Volume 1

"Why would there be manga at a goldfish store?" - one of the unique characters. (Kingyo = Goldfish) So yeah. A used bookstore that only sells manga and magazines that are solely for manga. What story is there to be told about that you say? A lot.

So, I hope by now you know that uhm... I... you.... me and you... I know we have a lot in common so uhm... if you want to maybe... 

Manga in the Mail: 10

I got this along with my order of a crappy MP3 Player. I'm loving one the first one I'm gonna mention and I'm really stoked to read the second one.

Kingyo Used Books Volume 1 and Blade of the Immortal Volume 1

Review: Genkaku Picasso Volume 1

Sublimation, a defense mechanism that turns a negative feeling into an acceptable form. Most artist (painters, musicians, writers and other creative people) have this defense mechanism as they tend to express their anger, happiness, sadness and every other emotions humans have. I have this but I don't think I've needed it for so long. What does this have to do with the review? Well, you're about to find out!

From the outside, it looks like a manga about an artist who dreams to become a big hit. I took this title at it's face value. I love art, so why don't I read a manga about art. If you thought the same thing I did, well, we're both wrong.

Manga in the Mail: 6

I've received three volumes in my mailbox back at the 10th of December. Here they are!

Blood Alone Volume 1, Full Metal Panic Volume 1 and Genshiken Volume 5

Review: Genshiken Volume 1

"I want to read a manga series that deals with manga, can you recommend one?" Why, yes! I'm glad you asked! Here's a favorite of mine:

You learned about how to get published, manga-wise, in Japan. This title tells the life of an otaku, the consumers of anime, manga, video games, cosplay and such. I'm writing a paper about this and I'm kinda occupied with anime right now.

Manga in the Mail: 5

I'm gonna finish this manga haul with a bang! Everything that's not been included in previous manga mails post (except for one.) So here we go!

Hino Horror Volume 3 and 4: Oninbo and the Bugs from Hell ; Hell Baby; School Zone Volume 1

All of these are horror manga. HORROR! I bought these because I'm craving for horror manga. I feel like I really need to read more from the horror genre since I have a ton of stuff about romance, action, fantasy and such.

Review: Bakuman Volume 1

So I just finished volume today, like, really early today. Early, as in 1AM early. I posted this volume in one of my Manga in the Mail days ago and I was too excited not to read it.

Bakuman Volume 1, a manga about making manga. It's all about the two main characters trying to reach their dreams of becoming the number 1 mangaka (manga artist/manga author) in all of Japan!

Manga in the Mail: 1

Today I received two volumes of manga, Bakuman Volume 1 and Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Volume 1.
I really liked the anime for Bakuman so I decided to order it online as soon as it went on sale. I have been eyeing Ikigami for a while now because I'm intrigued by the little synopsis it has, "Congratulations! You have been randomly selected by the Government....to die in 24 hours!" I think that's enough for me to pick it up.

Of course, these are used as I don't really buy them at retail price (that would break my bank and I would have to wait, maybe about 3-4 years, to get to my current manga count. I need to update my manga inventory (haha, like I'll sell mine.) to keep track of my collection (humblebrag much?) and to look at what I'm missing. I have a lot of volumes 1 and 2 of a title for checking them out if I like them or not. Sometimes I buy 4 or 6 of a title because I feel like I might really like it.

So yeah, I might review this after the year ends or maybe before. Who knows?

Manga 101

Manga, is the equivalent of western comics in Japan. That is not the only thing that separates comics from manga, here are a few comparisons:

1. Japanese books read right-to-left, not left-to-right like we usually do. It takes some getting used to as the reading style in manga is flipped. Once you get used to it though, you open a book from the back like you're reading a manga. (Yes, I do that all the time now.)
2. Manga has a wide span of themes, genres and titles to choose from. From supernatural to reality based genres. There's a lot, including sports, horror, fantasy, romance, ecchi (which is basically the letter "H" and the abbreviation of hentai which means weird, odd, perverted in Japanese) and some other genres you don't want to know (I'm talking about you yaoi and yuri.)
3. Manga closely resembles graphic novels, because mangas and graphic novels have endings. They don't just continue to live on or be replaced by a new character to fill in for the death of a former one (*cough*Marvel*cough*.)
4. Manga tells the story through action instead of dialogue like comics and graphic novels do. Some manga titles do have lengthy dialogues but they lean more towards action.
5. Manga is not just black and white comics, as it does not need color to tell a story. It does use screen tones to make it feel lighter and express feelings like shock and sadness.
6. Comics usually come out in volumes as trade paperbacks (or TPB.) Mangas do that too, they are called Tankobon.
• Most tankobons have more pages than TPB's (Tankobon's are usually in the 200 pages range while TPBs are in the 120 page range.)
• Tankobons are smaller but thicker while TPB's are larger but thin (duh, the pages.)
7. Some manga titles come out weekly and some are monthly. Most comics come out monthly.

Those are some of the manga and comic differences and comparisons. Hope you find that informative.