Otakon 2011: VIZ Media Industry Panel in Pictures

 

After a short delay from the preceding Tiger & Bunny panel, Amy Martin, the person in charge of VIZ Media’s social media accounts, started off the panel by cheerfully announcing VIZ’s 25th anniversary as well as a new website with which to celebrate the milestone. In addition to various other social media aspects, Martin proceeded to announce available and forthcoming manga, novel, and anime titles. The slideshow above is 99% of what was revealed. After the break, there’s a text breakdown of everything that appears in the pictures along with info on a couple slides that were not pictured.

• 25th Anniversary
  – www.viz.com/25years
  – Promotions on iTunes end August 23, 2011
• October premiere of Naruto Shippuden – Bonds movie
• VIZ Manga app is now available for iPad™, iPhone™, iPod™ touch.
• www.vizmanga.com
  – “Now you can finally read your favorite manga on your computer...legally!”
  – Buy once and transport across platforms/devices
  – First chapter is always free
  – Simultaneous print and digital releases
• Future Releases (Manga)
  – Oishinbo
  – Naruto to see quicker release schedule (volumes 36-45)
  – Ai Ore (volume 2) – August 2011
  – The Story of Saiunkoku (volume 4) – August 2011
• New Fiction
  – ICO: Castle in the Mist (paperback), by Miyuki Miyabe – August 2011
  – Book of Heroes (new edition, paperback), by Miyuki Miyabe – August 2011
  – Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights (hardcover), by Ryu Miysuse – November 15, 2011
• 2-in-1:
  – Tenjho Tenge “Full Contact” edition (18+) – Available now
• 3-in-1 Editions (Omnibus) – Kekkashi
  – Fullmetal Alchemist
  – Bleach
  – Naruto
• Art Books
  – The Art of Vampire Night – September 6, 2011
  – D. Grey Man – Features interview with creator
  – One Piece: Color Walk 2 – November 1, 2011
• VIZ Kids Box Sets
  – Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! (volumes 1-8), October 28, 2011 – Comes with poster
  – Legend of Zelda (volumes 1-10), October 25, 2011 – comes with poster
• VIZ Media Box Set
  – Fullmetal Alchemist (volumes 1-27) – November 1, 2011 – Comes with light novel and poster
• Specialty Books
  – Naruto: The Official Character Data Book – January 2012
  – Studio Ghibli’s Arriety – January 2012: The Art of Arriety, Arriety Film Comics (volumes 1-2), Arriety Picture Book
  – Bleach MASKED: Official Character Book 2 – March 2012
• New for Shojo Beat
  – A Devil and Her Love Song – February 2012
  – Dawn of the Arcana – December 2011
  – The Earl and the Fairy – March 2012
  – Hana Kimi (3-in-1), March 2012
  – Skip Beat
• Available Now
  – Meet Mameshiba!
  – Mameshiba On the Loose!
• Special Format
  – Mameshiba (Heart) Winter – November 2011
  – Pokemon Magnetic Playbook – November 2011
• Newest Pokemon Movie
  – Zoroark: Master of Illusions – Video and manga – DVD: September 20, 2011
• Coming Soon
  – Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamonroll – January 2012
  – Voltron Force – Old crew trains new crew – Spring 2012
• New for VIZ Kids (April 2012)
  – Mr. Men Little Miss
  – Little Miss Sunshine: It’s Always Sunny in Dillydale
• Key Summer Releases (DVD)
  – Vampire Night Guilty (volume 3)
  – Kekkashi Set 2 – August 23, 2011
  – Hero 108
  – Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (November 8, 2011)
• Continued Simulcasts
  – Tiger & Bunny
  – Blue Exorcist
  – Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan
  – Blue Dragon (uncut), If numbers are good enough, this may see a physical release.

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New Uncle Yo Album: Matching Hair Clips

Surely you've missed Uncle Yo, the anime reviewer who contributed a lot of great reviews to Ani-Gamers early in our blogging career. He's been off working on his "otaku comedy" stand-up routine for over a year now, which is why you haven't heard much from him on the site, but now he's got a new album, featuring live recordings of some of his best routines. Check it out and support Uncle Yo!

iTunes Link
Amazon Link

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Ani-Gamers Podcast #036 - Experts of Fan Controversy

Featuring: Alex Leavitt, Chris Beveridge, Ed Chavez, Jennifer Fu, Clarissa Graffeo, and Ada Palmer

Yes, yes, I promised a review of Spice & Wolf for this episode, but Alex Leavitt has forced my hand by politely requesting this long-overdue recording. That's right, get ready for ANGRY ARGUMENTS, because this is Experts of Fan Controversy (Anime Boston 2011), in which anime fandom "experts" face off on major issues of the day, including piracy and translation accuracy! OK, let's be honest here: there isn't actually much controversy or anger in this panel, but it certainly has lots of very useful insights into the workings of the anime industry and fandom. Plus it's got points. And who doesn't love points?

Show notes and links are coming soon, and cross your fingers for that Spice & Wolf episode next time!

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(Runtime: 1 hour, 22 minutes)

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Con Report: AnimeNEXT 2011 (EDIT: now with more pictures!)

The 2011 installment of AnimeNEXT took place June 10–12 at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset, NJ and, like previous generations, did not disappoint. Just over 30 minutes from my front door, there’s a familiar air about the con, and the NJ funk isn’t 100% of it. I recognize more people here than I do at any other con, even smaller ones like CPAC, lending to the sense of a wedding where extended family come and mingle more for the reception than the main event.

This was all too noticeable in the presentation of and attendance for the featured guests from Production I.G:: storyboarder and episode director/producer Koudai Kakimoto (pictured left) and animator Satoru Nakamura (center). Neither appeared in the main program guide, and Nakamura alone was brought to people’s attention via a separate Additions & Corrections flyer shared with voice actor Greg Ayres and webcomic artist Dave Lister. Still, the convention did a great job in getting guests of such quality, even if it was for an attendance of 20-some people in the Main Events area.

Organized by Universal Animation, this was the most streamlined incarnation of the fan-run convention I had experienced as con-goer and press. Rights and allowances were immediately explained, schedules were clear, and, despite being crowded, attendance levels did not hinder room or building changes. One drawback of tight scheduling, however, was the lack of grace period between panels. This lack of time meant consecutive panels sharing the same room either had to stop early to pack up, let the incoming panelist set-up during the end of the established panel, or cause the next panel in the same room to start late. The latter was the most frequent, and all three variants lent to an abbreviated experience for panel attendees. As observed with many a panel, there also seemed to be technical equipment acquisition problems and connection difficulties concerning A/V equipment that further delayed eagerly awaited presentations and discussions.

Such delays were minor, however, when you consider the variety of quality panels there was to choose from throughout all three days. Some of my favorites, in no particular order, included the Reverse Thieves’ Best Manga You Never Read (TOKYOPOP Edition), Evan’s Satoshi Kon Tribute, Charles Dunbar’s Kowai: Ghosts, Yokai and Fear in Japan, Japanese Theater, and Suminagashi: Floating Ink. The only drawback to the panels in general was the room assignments. Workshop and panel rooms meant to hold small to medium audiences were at least on a couple of instances (Totally Subversive Toons, These are a Few of My Favorite Scenes) given to panels that typically draw large crowds, leading to long lines comprised of a larger ratio of disappointed than grateful attendees.

The Dealers Room had what seemed to be a good variety of product, some at decent prices, and Artists Alley, as thoroughly covered by Narutaki of the Reverse Thieves, offered up some surprisingly fresh and original wares. Sadly, I never made it to the building where the games were being hosted as I spent most of the three-day convention panel-hopping. To my surprise, the only chance I would have gotten was Saturday, generally the busiest panel day of any con which felt very relaxed schedule-wise. The Reverse Thieves, Evan, and I even found time to sit down to record a mini-podcast (lost forever due to the fickle whim of iTechnology). So in place of that group reflection, I’d have to say AnimeNEXT 2011 was a darned fun time filled with good panels and good people at a great location. There are still kinks to be worked out concerning panel planning in terms of room size vs. demand, but overall the convention is one I will happily return to given its current quality and future potential.

EDIT: Check out Evan's photos from the convention in the Flickr slideshow below! Ink's are available right here.

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Con Report: Castle Point Anime Convention 2011 @ Stevens Institute

April 10, 2011
Stevens Institute of Technology
Hoboken, NJ, USA

Ed. Note: My bad! Here's the (very late) Castle Point report — the lateness is all my fault, not Ink's!

Castle Point Anime Convention (CPAC) at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken was the first anime con I ever attended in my home-state of good ol’ Nieu Joisy (and perhaps the second con I ever went to outside of my first Otakon). It was also where I first met Evan Minto of Ani-Gamers fame, who launched me into this high-profile world of aniblogging. While it remains a small, one-day con, the 2011 incarnation of CPAC has experienced very clear growth as seen via its inter-building pathway traffic and increased panel attendance.

This year promised a decent selection of panels, which I generally look forward to most at any con. Spread out between 3 rooms, there was always some title of interest with which to whittle away the span of the con via one- to two-hour sessions. Immediately, however, the first panel I was looking forward to, “Otaku on a Budget,” was cancelled. CPAC staff was on the proverbial ball and made sure audiences didn’t wait around in false hope, but this event ended up foreshadowing my overall panel experience.


The substitute first panel – “Lost in Adaptation,” which addressed inter-medium inadequacies – was lacking in anime examples and focused instead on video games. This was fine given the inclusive nature of anime cons as well as the highly transitory nature of the videogame medium, but the proverbial straw that broke the panel’s back was that the host called Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within a GOOD movie ... not to mention his unreasonable assertion of its claim to the “first occurrence of a space marine.” While he tried to tackle differences of various examples with humor, redundancy made of his pre-programmed wit little more than an annoying and stuttered rant.

“Otaku Culture 101,” the second panel I attended, was definitely not what I was expecting but in a very good way. It focused on the Tohou and Vocaloid aspects of Otakudom, things with which I was and still am not very familiar. I left early, however, as watching the panelist play video games and video game videos, without relevantly linking together cultural poignancies, seemed ... well, pointless. As explained to me later, the panelist did manage to tie together some relevancies at the end.

The unexpected pinnacle of my panel-going experience was the arbitrary attendance of the most academic-sounding offering on the schedule: “Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls as Visual Culture.” Despite the panelist’s seemingly creepy and frequent doll caressing, there were offered up multiple vantages on and aspects of the appreciation of said hobby as well as a rather adept examination of external media bias towards it (review/summary forthcoming).

Trying to end the panel experience on a happy note, I attended “Jawdropping Moments in Anime.” Two words: editing needed. Even if you forgive the showing of the entire Naruto Sports Festival episode, the subsequently selected clips could’ve been shortened with no adverse effect to the intended shocking/humorous situations, which were, to the panelist’s credit, decently chosen from fairly mainstream series. The only thing that made my experience lackluster, however, was that I saw this clip-show last year and, aside from a couple of new inclusions from anime I’ve already seen, everything was regurgitated and consequently seemed neither shocking nor worth more than an inconsequential chuckle of acknowledgement.

On the whole, CPAC staff and organization were superb. Room schedule postings and amendments were clear, and there were people at every turn to help attendees get wherever it was they were going. The space allotted for the combined Dealer’s Room and Artist’s Alley, moved from one gym to another on the evidently athletically oriented Stevens campus, was more than spacious enough to accommodate the traffic without necessitating the insult of the staggered wait lines of yesteryear. Also, tabletop and electronic gaming rooms offered a decent selection given their respective allotted areas, and video rooms were offering an eclectic mix of accessible anime. Additionally, I have to say that my inner-otaku regrets not having my picture taken with a maid at the newly instituted Tenshi No Ai Maid Café! or attending Cosplay Chess, especially as this year saw a significant increase in cosplayers.

All-in-all, despite disappointing panels and my own event choices, CPAC, which attracted such voice talent as Michelle Knotz, Bill Rogers, and Mike Pollock, still managed to serve up a decent, otaku-themed Sunday getaway from the everyday. The experience would not have ended on such a copacetic note, however, if not for dinner and discussion with Alain (Hisui of the Reverse Thieves duo) at the Japanese restaurant, Robongi. That conversation seemed to fill in everything CPAC panels left out.  I think, for next year, problems with panels could be well on their way to being solved by listening to suggestions on the CPAC forum's Guest Wishlist thread and inviting Charles Dunbar as well as the aforementioned Reverse Thieves.

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Anime Boston 2011: Day 3 Diary

After two days of hectic panel coverage, Sunday was surprisingly laid-back. There were far fewer attendees milling about in many of the hallways near the panel rooms, so navigation was considerably easier than it was on Friday and Saturday. Additionally, there weren't a ton of panels I wanted to cover, so I had a chance to check out a lot of the other traditional areas of the con.

My first panel experience of the day, however, was the Akira Kurosawa panel, run by so-called "Dungeon Master Jim." It was the first presentation I saw from this prolific Anime Boston panelist, and I was a little underwhelmed. There were no visual aids (surprising for a panel about as visual a medium as cinema) and Jim seemed to have only seen the "big" Kurosawa films, as the audience ended up suggesting films for him to check out. I'm not a Kurosawa buff myself, but a tip for anyone running a panel about a director: Do your best to watch literally everything they've ever worked on. Your panel isn't worth anyone's time unless you have a thorough understanding of the topic at hand.

The video game room (an area I usually neglect due to all my press work) was massive, leading to amusing wide spaces between the different play areas (see this post's image). I managed to sneak in a game of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, as I've never gotten a chance to play it, though I got handily beaten by a guy who had just started playing today!

Then it was off to Sam Kusek, Ken Haley, and Mike Ferreira's "From East to West: the Superheroes of Japan & America." Like Sam's previous panel ("Super-Flat"), it was very fast-paced, to-the-point, and well researched, and the three hosts bounced off each other well. Plus, I learned a lot about the history and influences of Japanese tokusatsu (special effects) shows, as well as some classic American comics like Superman and Captain America, all of which are topics I am woefully uneducated on.

Afterward I checked out the Dealer's Room again, this time with Sam and his buddies. After vacillating over the purchase of some old-school imported Japanese magazines at the Comicopia booth, I ended up buying a $2 Japanese children's book "Heidi, Girl of the Alps," featuring anime-style art but apparently having nothing to do with the Isao Takahata anime TV series of the same name. Naturally, this was from the same dealer (Mugen Toys) who sold me the Kosaku Shima books the day before! Then Sam, his friends, and I grabbed some great Asian food at a nearby Teriyaki restaurant, and I headed back to the hotel to catch our bus back to RPI.

My experience at Anime Boston was honestly one of the better ones I've ever had at a con, despite a few frustrating setbacks along the way. The wide range of panels and panelists opened up some great avenues of discussion, and I was able to cram in a wide breadth of events (panels and otherwise) in my time at the con. I'll write more about my specific high and low points in my upcoming con report, but let's just say that my long-awaited reunion with the city of Boston and its resident anime con was a very positive one.

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Anime Boston 2011: Day 2 Diary

Day 2 of Anime Boston was just as hectic as the first, as I had scheduled myself for way more panels than I could actually get to. But despite frantically running around the con all day, I managed to sit down for a couple of really stand-out presentations.

"The Family That Geeks Together Keeps Together" was scheduled in a tiny little panel room and hosted by the Hoffmans (father Constantine, mother Jennifer, and son Greg), a family of geeks trying to spread the word on geeky parenthood and childhood at conventions. At times the panel boiled down to recommendations for getting parents into anime, but when the audience started discussing family dynamics and geekdom in depth, bouncing off of each other, it turned into a really enlightening panel.

I stopped in for a bit at Anime World Order's Gerald and Clarissa's "Tezuka 101," which was an appropriately introductory panel that followed much of the information provided in Helen McCarthy's excellent The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga. There wasn't really anything for an amateur Tezuka scholar like myself to learn, but it was quite in-depth for people new to the artist.

"It's a Rumic World," a presumably informative panel about Rumiko Takahashi, was basically just a fan-gushing session, not too appropriate for people trying to learn about the prolific manga artist. Soon after, I checked out "The State of the Industry," which featured ONLY Adam and Rojas from FUNimation. In fact, the Anime Boston-designated moderator never showed up, so Gia Manry (of Anime News Network) served as moderator for what ended up being a pregame FUNimation panel, albeit with more industry insight and less blatant marketing. (I recorded the whole thing, and may post it up.)

One of the highlights of my day was "Remembering Satoshi Kon," Daryl Surat's panel about the late director, which I served as co-panelist on. We packed the room, and after some tripping over each other's feet, we developed a pretty good rapport.

Sam Kusek and Eric Shorey ran a fantastic panel called "'What is Super-Flat': Where Anime fits in Post-Modern Culture," which was a very academic look at post-modernism with nods to Japanese artists like Murakami and anime like Paranoia Agent. I'm considering doing a write-up of the panel, as it brought up a lot of interesting ideas.

Gerald Rathkolb's "The Sane Fan's Guide to Mecha Anime" was a pretty thorough yet basic introduction to mecha, though he occasionally lapsed into more in-depth stuff before reeling it back. Proving his point that mecha fans can be totally obnoxious, some guys in Legend of the Galactic Heroes costumes ran into the room and screamed "Sig Zeon!" (a reference to original Gundam).

After grabbing a quick dinner, I headed over to the absurd clipshow that is Anime Hell, hosted by Mike Toole, Daryl Surat, and Mike Horne. It featured a lot of Daryl's clips from his Genericon presentation of "The Panel of Doom," so I had already seen a lot of it, and Daryl's laptop had a bunch of technical problems, but it was still a hilarious night.

And during a quick trip to the dealer's room, I managed to find some Kodansha Bilingual Comics Editions of volumes 1, 2, and 3 of business manga Section Chief Kosaku Shima, which I bought for $2 each at the Mugen Toys booth! Quite a find, apparently, though I didn't realize just how rare they were when I bought them.

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Anime Boston 2011: Day 1 Diary [EDIT 1]

NOTE: This post was written last night, but since my hotel room doesn't have Internet, I had to wait till the morning to post it!

As with most first days of anime cons, today has been a complete whirlwind. I woke up at 4:30am to catch an early bus with the RSFA so that we would be on the show floor at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston by noon. Everything basically went off without a hitch, but the early morning departure meant no chance for a real breakfast, and my hectic schedule made it hard to find time to grab anything.

Once I had myself sort of settled, I decided to check in on the "Tokyo 'Nonexistant Youth' Bill and How It Affects You" panel, which was unfortunately run by what looked like a very nervous college student (EDIT: I am told by commenters that he actually has a very bad stutter in general) and filled with flimsy equivalences between the new bill and perceived future censorship.

"Fanthropologies," a panel run by the indomitable Charles Dunbar and featuring Alex Leavitt and Jennifer Fu as guests, was ostensibly about the study of fandom, both in terms of anime and other media, but it quickly turned into a much more broad discussion about copyright and fan ethics. I'm considering writing a full post on it, as a lot of the ideas that they brought up were really very enlightening.

Right after that, I had to rush to my Greg Ayres interview, only to be held up by a string of staff confusions and rescheduling that resulted in at least 45 minutes of idle time. Nevertheless, once the valiant Press Relations guy Jamison got Greg into the room with me, we had a great interview, talking over his views on the current state of fansubs and the industry.

After a trip to the oddly empty Dealer's Room with Anime World Order's Daryl Surat, I headed to Experts of Fan Controversy, which looked like it was going to be a fiery debate between some of the smartest minds in the industry, moderated by panelist extraordinaire Alex Leavitt. Instead it ended up being a totally respectful, insightful discussion between the panelists (which included AnimeOnDVD's Chris Beveridge, Vertical's Ed Chavez, MIT's Jennifer Fuu, Anime World Order's Clarissa Graffeo, and Tezuka In English's Ada Palmer), punctuated by some funny moments and Alex's wacky scoring system. I recorded the panel in its entirety, so you might hear that in podcast form very soon.

Then... not much, con-wise. We had a sort of "State of the Manga Industry" dinner that ended up being more of an informal night at a local Indian restaurant, and I was denied entry (again) to Daryl's "Anime's Craziest Deaths" panel since it was already jam-packed. (I'll save my full-length misgivings about this situation for the con report.)

Finally, I ended up just bouncing around to a couple of video rooms, settling on Golgo 13 TV, where I met two teenage girls who were loving the show. I recommended they check out the 1983 movie, the OAV, and the manga (and pointed out that most of them are available in the Dealer's Room at the con). It was one of the stand-out moments of my day — they seemed so excited, filled with the kind of exploratory attitude that we need more of as a fandom. Plus, who would've thought that teenage girls would be enjoying Golgo 13 that much? The show is for Japanese salarymen!

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Con Report: Zenkaikon 2011 – Room to Grow In

March 18-20, 2011
Valley Forge Convention Center
King of Prussia, PA, USA

Zenkaikon, the follow-up to Zenkaikon 2009, escaped the previously exclusive and cramped confines of the Radisson Hotel in King of Prussia and took over the entire* Valley Forge Convention Center. The extra space, more than adequate to accommodate the 3,168 paying people who attended (not to mention guests, vendors, artists, staff, and press), was definitely worth the extra four-month wait caused by rescheduling that consequently eliminated the chance for a Zenkaikon 2010. Floor space allowed for generous registration and autograph queues; two Artist Alleys, the main one incorporated into the Dealer’s Room and a small hallway that bordered the upstairs panel rooms; and navigation that was fast and easy compared to last con’s experience of swimming through Con Funk-flavored JELL-O Pudding. The Dealer’s Room, also benefiting from increased breathing room, was capacious and easily navigable, while the sole Main Events room was capable of hosting a riotous crowd.


The abundance of space in the Main Events room, however, also seemed an overbearing presence at times with regards to some of the scheduled panels and acts. On Friday, the Ancient Greek-themed Opening Ceremonies at 1pm brought in a decent crowd, but one that only occupied 1/5 of the room; Uncle Yo’s standup around 5 pm almost filled the main section of the same space but saw sparsely populated wings; and Gelatine’s concert at 7 pm catered to roughly 17 people total (some of whom unfortunately and very noticeably left during the performance). Though I didn’t attend them, events such as the Sakura Cosplay Ball Dance, its after-party, the masquerade, as well as anything involving guests Vic Mignogna and Todd Haberkorn most likely saw much better attendance due to scheduling (at least).

Thankfully, the echoes of footsteps audible on Friday were stifled by Saturday’s deluge of congoers. The main parking lot was mostly full as of 10 am, registration lines snaked with eager attendees, and the aisles between rows of dealer tables bustled with patrons. Almost every panel I attended seemed to bring in a decent size audience that either almost or completely filled generously sized rooms. Some panels even turned people away due to being over capacity. Sadly, I left early on Sunday and did not get a chance to gauge attendance. I hope the trend continued; the last panel I saw, Charles “Anime Anthropologist” Dunbar’s Miyazaki presentation, was pretty full.


As with the previous Zenkaikon, events scheduling was a bit awkward. Some of the troubles could be pinned on the fact that other groups had reserved certain rooms in the convention center during the con and Zenkaikon had to work around such obstacles, but the programming coordination, set to 15 minute intervals, led to awkward overlaps that often forced attendees to decide whether to leave early or arrive late if seeing consecutive panels in separate rooms. With that said, room proximity and general utilization of the convention center’s layout made for effortless transitions between events.

There were myriad points of interest, enough to cause internal conflict within even the most focused con-goer. Regarding live music, NYC’s Gelatine put on a fun, energy-filled show – I regret not being able to see them for their second concert on Sunday, and Tokyo’s own Rose Noire gave their U.S. concert debut to the applause of many decked out in goth/lolita fashion. Of course there was no shortage of good panels. Some of my favorites included “Iron Artist,” “Feminism and the Ladies of Final Fantasy,” and Charles Dunbar’s Modern Mythology and Miyazaki sessions. Zenkaikon also hosted karaoke, electronic and tabletop gaming, as well as a con-long LARP (Live Action Role Play) event. All this was supplemented by video rooms showing a decent range of anime and live action series and movies.

Panels and guests weren’t the only focus of this heartfelt convention. Held just one week after Japan was subject to an earthquake as well as the resulting tsunami and nuclear plant crises, Zenkaikon put sympathy front and center. $3,750 in donations were collected throughout the venue, supplemented by some dealers and artists passing on all or a portion of their profits towards specific charities of their choice. Perhaps the most heartwarming sight was that none of said donation stations were ever empty, illustrating the love and concern shared by all attendees for the nation and people whose culture and art have given us so much.


Thanks to a very dedicated staff (I overheard members on many occasions offering to forsake breaks in order to help out wherever needed), Zenkaikon was efficiently run and easy to enjoy. The availability of a Press Ops room was also a welcome addition for productivity as well as actual and proverbial battery recharging, and the Scanticon Hotel’s bar certainly didn’t hurt either. At its current rate of expansion (there were 1,988 attendees in 2009), I have no doubt that Zenkaikon will fill those spacious rooms without any problem and for very good reasons. Looking forward to 2012!

* minus select rooms dedicated to other organizations**
**what other organizations? THERE IS ONLY ZENKAIKON!!!

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Review: Japan, Inc. – Introduction to Japanese Economics

Medium: Manga (1 volume in English, 3 in Japanese)
Author: Shotaro Ishinomori
Genre: Drama, Educational
Publishers: Nihon Keizai Shimbun (JPN), University of California Press (NA)
Release Dates: 1986 (JP), 1988 (US)
Age Rating: Not Rated (contains some sexual material and mild swearing)

We don't tend to see much educational manga here in the US, most likely because the modern manga audience is still mostly kids who are interested in gripping teenage action series or sappy romance — in other words, pure entertainment rather than education. Sure, we got those "Manga Guide To..." books, but the Japanese manga world is filled with comics that function simultaneously as narratives and as educational tools.

It is appropriate, then, that Japan, Inc. is not a modern manga; released in 1988 by University of California Press with an introduction by Stanford professor Peter Duus, it represents a mature, academic style of manga publishing almost completely divorced from the modern, teen-centered world of North American manga. Heck, I obtained my copy by borrowing it from my college's library, which mostly has textbooks and other purely academic texts!

Released to Japanese readers in 1986 as a companion to Zeminaru Nihon Keizai Nyuumon, an economics textbook released by Nihon Keizai Shimbun (the Japanese equivalent of the Wall Street Journal), Japan, Inc. makes no bones about its status as an educational tool. Nevertheless, writer/artist and Osamu Tezuka follower Shotaro Ishinomori (Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider) makes valiant and often successful attempts at infusing a sense of humanity into the dry facts and figures that populate the comic.

Our story centers around two workers at the Mitsutomo Trading Corporation: Kudo, a young businessman who works tirelessly to ensure that the "little people" are not left out in large business decisions, and Tsugawa, a ruthless schemer who's always got his eyes on ways to make the company as much money as possible. Surrounding them is a small cast of other businesspeople, including the curious and idealistic young worker Ueda, the cute and feisty secretary Amamiya, and a number of older executives who give advice to the younger workers.

The bosses often serve as our teachers, explaining the long-term ramifications of events like the 1970's oil crisis on world trade and business, while Ueda's cluelessness about business gives us a character to connect to in the frequently confusing web of connections that Ishinomori walks us through. Most of the time, these explanations work out fairly naturally, thanks to a cast of characters with all different levels of knowledge and experience. Unfortunately, though, the need to explain far-reaching consequences of events can lead to confusing flashbacks, and at one point Japan, Inc. even employs the most dangerous tool of all: the DOUBLE FLASHBACK.

Despite Ishinomori's valiant attempts at narrative, including some examination of the differing relationships that Kudo and Tsugawa have with their families, Japan, Inc. is absolutely an educational text. The chapters are separated based on their respective topics, and given invigorating titles like "Trade Friction," "Countering the Rise of the Yen," and "Deficit Finance."

Every other page features a small footnote describing the topic at hand, and there are a few pages that simply stop the action to provide a short essay on the topic or show some graphs. (I dubbed them "economic Masamune Shirow moments.") While all this information is great to have, it's clear that the book is written for businessmen and women looking to bolster their existing knowledge of the business world, because at times the jargon can get pretty confusing for laypeople.

Unfortunately, Japan, Inc. suffers from its age, as University of California Press chose to flip most panels, but leave the ones with drawn text unflipped, resulting in page layouts that lose their natural artistic flow. Additionally, all of the information comes from 1986, so while it's fun to read predictions about how the Internet just might change the landscape of business by 2010, some of the facts are laughably out of date now. (Everybody in Japan is really excited when the yen-dollar exchange rate finally reaches ... 150 yen/1 dollar!)

Japan, Inc. is certainly not what most people expect from their manga: it's considerably drier than even the more subdued seinen manga series, and Ishinomori's art is an acquired taste, lying somewhere between Tezuka (Astro Boy), Mitsuteru Yokoyama (Tetsujin-28/Gigantor), and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball). The American version's sporadic flipping shakes up Ishinomori's panel layouts a bit too much for comfort, while the footnotes and full-page info sheets break the flow of the manga from page to page. As a result, Japan, Inc., which clocks in at just over 300 pages, is a considerably slower read than the average manga.

Without any really powerful modern relevance, Japan, Inc. stands as little more than a fun little curiosity for amateur manga historians. Still, if you're interested in economics, international business, or modern Japanese history, and/or if you enjoy seeing manga-fied versions of Ronald Reagan and the Pope, Japan, Inc. might be just the right little curiosity to pique your interest.

[Passable]

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This review is based on a copy borrowed from the Folsom Library at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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Genericon XXIV: Party in the Tundra

Genericon XXIV is almost upon us! The annual student-run anime, sci-fi, and gaming convention held at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY is going to be a total blast this year, thanks in part to some fantastic guests and panelists who are making their way to the cold, cold north of upstate New York on the weekend of February 11-13.

Who are these wonderful people? Well, they include guests like the Most Dangerous podcasters of Anime World Order, RPI alumna/webcomic artist Jenny Blanchard, independent animators For Tax Reasons, anime voice actor/fangirl magnet Vic Mignogna, Ani-Gamers' very own Uncle Yo, and Japanese-American punk band Uzuhi.

The new featured panelist program rounds out that list with Legend of the Galactic Heroes/Hetalia superfan Walter Amos, Vertical, Inc. Marketing Manager and all-powerful manga expert Ed Chavez, a group of RPI alumni panelists called "The Con Artists," super-powered podcasting duo Erin and Noah of the Ninja Consultant podcast, and the part-time anime bloggers/full-time detectives of the Reverse Thieves blog.

I am a student at RPI and the Public Relations Coordinator for the convention, so my weekend will be comprised mostly of running around trying to make sure everything works well for our attendees. However, I will be making time for two of my own panels: a new "Satoshi Kon Tribute" (7-8pm on Friday), in which I walk the audience through the life and movie-making style of the acclaimed director, and my tried-and-true character design panel, "The Changing Faces of Anime" (3-4pm on Sunday). Uncle Yo will naturally be running his popular stand-up comedy show (3:30-4:30pm on Sunday), as well as "Beyond D&D" (6:30-7:30pm on Saturday) and "Anime One-Night Stands" (1-2pm on Sunday). Our copy editor Sean Kim is also an RPI student, so he might be hanging around the con as well during the course of the weekend.

I know I'm super-psyched about Genericon this year, and I hope I'll get to see some Ani-Gamers readers/listeners up in Troy. If you happen to go to a panel from me or Uncle Yo, feel free to come up afterward and say hi!

• Genericon XXIV Schedule
• My Write-up of Last Year's Genericon

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Review: What a Wonderful World, vol. 1 (Manga)

Medium: Manga (2 volumes)
Author: Inio Asano
Genre: Drama, Slice of Life
Publishers: Shogakukan, Inc. (JPN), Viz Media (Viz Signature imprint) (NA/UK)
Release Dates: May 19, 2003 (JP), Oct. 20, 2009 (US/UK)
Age Rating: “Older Teen” (16+)

Because I love starting reviews with some kind of admission, I want to say here that I have been putting off reading this manga for a long time. Since May, in fact. (Ed. Note: The review was written in August.) It’s not because I was rushed off my feet with other manga, but simply because I was afraid to crack it open for fear of it being too powerful for my weak psyche. Author Inio Asano also wrote Solanin, an amazing manga that I have a very hard time reading simply because it is emotionally powerful and I have to put the book down every 30 pages or so for fear of collapsing into a sobbing wreck.

Yes, I’m a wuss. Deal with it.

What a Wonderful World, or World as I shall shorten it from here on out for the sake of brevity, is thankfully not as emotionally harrowing as Asano's other works in part due to it's fragmented structure. The manga is split into individual vignettes, each focusing on a single character and giving you a brief moment in their life before moving on to someone else.

Each story is wonderfully crafted, effortlessly introducing you to the new main character so you connect with them instantly each time, often with just a single panel. One such story shows you a girl staring listlessly at the split ends in her hair, and suddenly you are right there with her for the duration for her tale.

From there on you are hooked, each panel containing just the right amount of (or lack of) art, speech and action to keep you fully engrossed. Like having a door opened to find a tiny snowman with cigarettes for arms, with nothing else to clutter the page in between. The easy flow of the storytelling on the page is remarkable, as you’ll find your eyes being drawn to the right place each time by the layout of both the panels and the items contained within. This helps the art pull off some amazing shifts in perspective to get you right into things without noticing how much the viewpoint has shifted.

All this helps you enjoy the stories on offer effortlessly, and break down any barriers between you and the drama playing out on the page.

The main theme the manga explores is that of thwarted dreams or expectations, and how the colorful cast of characters deals with them, or fails to do so entirely. The storylines contain just the right amount of grit and texture to give them depth without needing a cumbersome back-story to the issues that are presented, and at the same time they give you something meaty to chew on. The characters feel like actual people who have lived rather than blank slates who only begin to live when they are drawn. It’s very refreshing in general to read something that is not just about dreams coming true but instead about opportunities lost, or times when things have slipped away. It also manages to avoid feeling grim for the sake of it, maintaining a very welcome air of absurdity whether in the form of death taking the likeness of a crow, or a turtle climbing out of its shell to escape it's owner. Everything presented as part of the human characters feels instantly relatable and, if it hits close to home, rather personal. Well, except the whole thing with the turtle. I would probably need some form of therapy if that happened to me.

Not all is sunshine and rainbows, however. Reading a whole volume in one sitting, even with its amazing pacing, can get very wearing due to the poignancy of emotion that is on display. There is only so much biting realism I can take before it begins to cause my soul to ache and thoughts to turn to happier things, and for this reason I would recommend spacing out your reading of World. Another problem is that the stories can begin to feel predictable as you are immersed by the atmosphere of the manga. After a few pages of a new story you can guess how events will play out in a vague sense. This sucks a lot of the magic out of the stories and so is best avoided by putting the book down for another day.

There is also some confusion surrounding the overarching plotline, or perhaps lack of one. Multiple times even in this first volume you will see characters recur, but in their new appearance the situation will have changed and so any previous experiences with the character have to be thrown out in favor of the new story being told. When this first happens it is very disorienting, and I found myself exclaiming "Heyyyy, wait a second! Wasn't she supposed to be in a band now?" before I realized what was happening.

So would I recommend it? Sure. World is a solid and very enjoyable manga to read, for me because it feels like a more manageable version of the Inio Asuno I know from reading Solanin. It is also the first manga Asano published (Note: according to Wikipedia and other research) so it is useful to see the author’s development from here into his later works.

World is a welcome shot of reality packaged just right to prevent it from hurting if things strike too close to home. You'll come out of reading it feeling a little wiser, if perhaps wearier.

[Recommended]

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This review is based on a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.

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2010 Staff Picks: Evan Krell

For the five days leading up to the New Year, Ani-Gamers is posting an un-ranked list of our favorite titles from the year 2010, featuring up to two choices from each writer. Be sure to check back throughout the week to find out what geeky stuff our contributors really dug this year! We now present the choices from video game reviewer Evan "BakaTanuki" Krell.

Durarara!! (Brain’s Base): This oddball show is a bit hard to describe within a few sentences. In fact, even naming the protagonist is complicated with so many characters and plot threads. From the director, studio, and original author of Baccano!, Durarara!! is rather similar, as it is built upon a huge and interesting cast of characters, their interactions, and how their own stories all intertwine into the overall weirdness of Tokyo's Ikebukuro district. The series begins with a high schooler from the country moving into Tokyo, and leaves the impression that it will be about his experiences with his new surroundings and how he will be become involved in them. While not completely inaccurate, everything in Durarara!! has some sort of twist to it — often many. Later episodes introduce and focus on other characters, and eventually these pieces all begin to fit into the puzzle. There is a ton going on in this show, and keeping up with it all is part of the fun. Things can get pretty convoluted, but the atmosphere is laid back and fun enough to not really worry about it. Durarara!!'s urban fantasy setting makes little attempt (if any) to stay grounded in reality, and it manages to pull of some over-the-top fantasy played completely straight. The visuals are all quite distinctive with a certain dark-urban aesthetic to it. The music is also very good with both jazz and rock elements throughout. Durarara!! is extremely enjoyable, and I was thoroughly captivated with it as I followed it through Crunchyroll's simulcasting. Despite only being released this year, I am currently on my third viewing and keep finding more to love about it.

Durarara!! is also recommended by Ani-Gamers editor-in-chief Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto and contributor Ink.

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Twin Spica (Kou Yaginuma): This story of a young girl pursuing her dream of becoming an astronaut is easily the best manga I have read this year. Asumi, a 13-year-old girl, has always wanted to be an astronaut like her mother was. The interesting thing about this goal is that her mom died in a rocket accident when Asumi was a baby. Twin Spica is a character drama at its core, as Asumi has to deal with various relationships with others as well as her own personal development. As expected, her father has trouble supporting her ambition to follow the career that lead to his wife's death, and she has to deal with a group of new classmates at the space training academy. There is also a mysterious boy with a Lion mask on that appears to be a figment of Asumi's mind. Twin Spica tells a heartfelt story with an extremely likeable lead. Asumi is very sweet, but has more depth than the typical cutesy anime girls. The astronomical elements add a realistic science fiction aspect to the story that enriches the experience without becoming tacked on “sci-fi.” The artwork is simplistic, but becomes more refined as the artist, Kou Yaginuma, progresses. Twin Spica has four volumes out and is off to a strong start. I find it to be an extremely compelling read, and another great release from Vertical, Inc.

Twin Spica is also recommended by Ani-Gamers editor-in-chief Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto.

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2010 Staff Picks: Vampt Vo

For the five days leading up to the New Year, Ani-Gamers is posting an un-ranked list of our favorite titles from the year 2010, featuring up to two choices from each writer. Be sure to check back throughout the week to find out what geeky stuff our contributors really dug this year! We now present the choices from editor-in-chief and podcast host Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto.

Mass Effect 2 (BioWare): When I first started hearing the video game press rave about Mass Effect 2, I knew I had to finally sit down and play the original Mass Effect. It turned out to be just about as disappointing as the reviews made it out to be — a fun ride chock full of potential that doesn't always deliver. Mass Effect 2, on the other hand, fixes nearly every glaring problem with the original game. That's not to say it's perfect, but it's hard not to enjoy this interplanetary heist story, with its quick-paced action scenes, satisfying leveling mechanic, huge catalog of background data on the game world, and endlessly entertaining cast that sticks with you long after you've put down the controller. Mass Effect 2 is some of the finest gaming I've had in a long time, and if you're at all a fan of sci-fi or RPGs, this is the game to pick up this year.

Mass Effect 2 is also recommended by Ani-Gamers contributor Elliot Page.

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Ayako (Osamu Tezuka): While Japanese readers were introduced to Ayako in January of 1972, Osamu Tezuka's classic work of historical fiction arrived in the English-speaking world just this year, courtesy of publisher Vertical, Inc. and translator Mari Morimoto. Fans of the so-called "god of manga" (known for Astro Boy and Black Jack) will find him at his darkest point yet, as he weaves a dramatic yarn of deceit and suffering, set in post-war occupied Japan and centering around a young girl trapped by her own family in the storehouse cellar for 23 years. Despite its whopping 704-page single volume, Ayako is a gripping tale from start to finish, sure to leave even the most steadfast of Tezuka fans drained by the time they reach its powerful conclusion.

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See Also:

• Ani-Gamers Podcast #033 – Daryl Talks Mass Effect, part 1 & part 2
• Ayako review

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Review: Ayako (Manga)

Medium: Manga (1 volume, 704 pages)
Genres: Drama, Historical, Suspense
Author: Osamu Tezuka
Publishers: Shueisha (JPN), Vertical Inc. (NA/UK)
Demographic: Seinen (ran in Big Comic)
Release Dates: Jan. 25, 1972 – Jun. 25, 1973 (JPN), Fall 2010 (NA/UK)
Age Rating: 16+

It's no secret at this point that Osamu Tezuka's reputation as the "Walt Disney of Japan" is fairly inaccurate. His corpus of English releases, which began with his more well-known children's works like Astro Boy (1952), has grown in years past to include a lot of the artist's more racy material, serving as a reminder that Tezuka was able to tackle a wide variety of styles. Ayako (1972), which came to American shores just last month in a new hardcover translation from Vertical, Inc., illustrates this better than nearly any other Tezuka manga I have read.

Gone are the science-fiction themes of most of Tezuka's other works. Even in his darkest of moments, such as the gripping Ode to Kirihito (1970), there are twinges of the fantastic that betray Tezuka's love for science fiction. In Ayako, Tezuka focuses on the harshness of a historical reality in which there are no robots or aliens or mysterious diseases — only humans are to blame for our misfortunes, and only we can pull ourselves out of them.

The Tenge family is reeling in the wake of the post-war American occupation. As they watch their lands in the Japanese countryside get sold off to tenant farmers, the once-rich clan sees the return of P.O.W. son Jiro, who is now working undercover for the American occupation forces. He comes home to find a family rife with sin and dark secrets. His brother Ichiro is letting his own father sleep with his wife in return for the family fortune, resulting in Jiro's new four-year-old sister/niece Ayako. After Jiro is implicated in a high-profile murder case, with Ayako’s testimony serving as the only evidence toward his indictment, the family decides to preserve their honor by locking her away in the storehouse cellar, to be kept there until she dies.

It is a testament to Tezuka's tight cast and vibrant characterization that he manages to keep the story interesting despite its frequent jumps in both time and place. The Tenges eventually spread out into different places and careers, but the connection to the original reasons for Ayako's imprisonment remain a burden upon all of their consciences, thus keeping everything centered around the title character. The small cast helps you create a deeper connection with them, as their relationships and feelings are all easily understood within the structure of their acutely dysfunctional family.

Ironically, though, Ayako herself is little more than a caricature. She emerges from her 23-year imprisonment as an emotionally stunted young woman, completely ignorant of many customs and ideas that come naturally to most people. This simplistic personality can get a little grating after a while, and it certainly makes her character hard to connect with, but Tezuka makes it clear that he intends her odd behavior as an expression of her tragic upbringing.

Speaking of tragedy, Ayako is horrifically sad beyond any other Tezuka manga I have ever read, and in fact beyond most other manga, period. With murder, rape, and incest throughout, this is not a book for the faint of heart. Sometimes it feels like Tezuka is just throwing in more tragedy for the sake of making you sadder, but it all ends up serving the author's ultimate message: a condemnation of secrecy and hidden sin. In the end, what destroys the characters is a compounding of everything they have ever done (and not done) to other people. As the vessel for the Tenge family's sins, Ayako gets the brunt of their love, hate, compassion, and anger, making its conclusion all the more impactful.

Throughout Ayako, Tezuka revels in the vastness of the Japanese countryside, providing beautiful full-page drawings of hills and fields alongside meticulously drawn cityscapes. Additionally, he tries his hand at recreations of photographic images, a technique that accentuates the historical relevance granted by his frequent references to real events during the Japanese reconstruction. It's also worth noting that only a single character from Tezuka's Star System (the detective Geta) shows up in Ayako, a very deliberate choice that serves to detach the characters and their predicaments from the sometimes whimsical worlds of Tezuka's other works.

Vertical's translation is great as always, but this time they've brought on Mari Morimoto, well-known translator of manga like Dragon Ball (1984) and Naruto (1997). The one notable facet of the translation, which may be credited to either Morimoto or the editors in charge of revising her translation, is the depiction of the characters' country accents. All of the Tenges speak in a Southern American accent, depicted phonetically in what I can best describe as the manga equivalent of a Mark Twain novel. I find that it adds a welcome sense of place to the work that manga often don't have, but some might find that they can only read "Naw!" so many times before it gets a little grating.

EDIT: Naturally, no review of Ayako can go without mentioning that it is flipped (i.e. reads left to right) and features beautiful art direction — from Peter Mendelsund — both inside and on its striking hard cover. Clearly Vertical did both of these things in order to promote it among literati types (as opposed to your average teenage manga fan in Barnes & Noble) as they did with Buddha (1972), and it does a great job. The flipping is an unfortunate consequence of this, but it should hopefully help the book find an audience outside of the manga crowd.

Ayako isn't quite perfect, mostly due to Tezuka's over-reliance on tragic twists and the title character's flat characterization, but as an examination of sin and long-term guilt, it is a powerful story, almost Shakespearean in its penchant for melodrama. Fans of Ode to Kirihito will find much to love here; in fact, its dedication to only a few locations and a centrally connected cast of characters makes it a little more accessible than the sprawling epic that is Kirihito. Be warned, however: Ayako is manga at its most tragic — in this seemingly endless bout of sin and suffering, no one is safe from the taint of evil, and no one is spared its consequences.

[Highly Recommended]

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This review is based on a complimentary review copy, graciously provided by Vertical, Inc. (and given away to an Ani-Gamers reader after this review was written).

Reminder: Ani-Gamers is giving away copies of Ayako to two lucky readers. Check out the contest rules to enter!

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Ani-Gamers Podcast #034 – Still Talking

Hosts: Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto, Elliot Page, Ink
Topic: "What'cha Been Doing?"

After a ridiculously long break between episodes, we're back with a 100% Ani-Gamers staff episode (i.e. both co-hosts are Ani-Gamers contributors). We discuss the anime, manga, and video games we've been checking out in these last few weeks, including Ink's Anime Secret Santa pick, Fate/Stay Night. Plus, in the last fifteen minutes or so, Evan and Elliot have an in-depth discussion of the wildly popular indie game Minecraft.

Check out show notes and links after the break.

DIRECT DOWNLOAD - RSS Feed - iTunes - Send us Feedback! - More episodes


(Runtime: 58 minutes)

[00:00] Evan plays with the soundboard and annoys Elliot.

[00:12] Opening Song: "R.O.D. Theme" by Taku Iwasaki (Read Or Die OAV OP)

[00:27] Introductions all around. Our hosts this time are Evan, Elliot, and Ink

[01:50] Check out Evan's appearances on other podcasts: Anime3000 (20 Questions), MangaPlasma (Dragon Ball), and MangaPlasma (Princess Ai).

[02:50] Elliot is reading the slightly disappointing fifth volume of Kiminori Wakasugi's Detroit Metal City manga.

[08:32] Evan is reading Asuka Izumi's The Lizard Prince, a silly shōjo manga about a pretty-boy Prince who has been transformed into a lizard. Did we mention it's silly?

[11:52] Ink is watching the anime versions of Shikabane-Hime, Fate/Stay Night, and Claymore. Elliot admits that he has played the Fate/Stay Night game.

[16:43] Elliot bought a Crunchyroll subscription, and is now watching Gainax and Hiroyuki Imaishi's Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.

[22:30] Evan's watching his roommate's Gundam Unicorn Blu-rays. (The show is from studio Sunrise and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi.) We talk a bit about where the best place to start is for fans who want to get into the Universal Century Gundam timeline.

[32:25] Ink watched the beginning of the Masaaki Yuasa anime The Tatami Galaxy, but had to frequently pause to read the dense dialogue.

[35:40] MINECRAFT! Minecraft? MINECRAFT! Evan and Elliot have been playing, and they get super-excited when they talk about it.

[55:43] Evan goes into the outro. Check out the site, subscribe or leave us comments on our iTunes page, visit the podcast homepage, and follow us on Twitter (@AniGamers, @VamptVo, @elliotpage, @Poetic_Ink)

[57:30] Ending Song: "WORLD END Instrumental" by FLOW (Code Geass R2 2nd OP)

[57:45] Evan's still talking. Still talking. STILL talking.

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Holiday Giveaway: Ayako by Osamu Tezuka

The holiday season is upon us, so in keeping with the spirit of this time of year, we want to give away some gifts to our wonderful readers. Thanks to the folks at Vertical, Inc., I've got two copies of Osamu Tezuka's manga Ayako (1972) sitting right next to me, and I need to select two lucky winners to receive this brand-new, hardcover English release from the "god of manga." (Note that one of these is the review copy that I read in order to write my upcoming review of the book. It is still in near-perfect condition.)

How can you win one of these fabulous prizes, you ask? Well, just leave us a comment below this post telling us about the best geek-related gift you've ever received (or given to someone else) for any occasion — not just the holidays. Extra points for anime, manga, or game-related ones, but you can stray outside of that if you want. Make sure to leave some form of contact information, because we'll be picking our two favorite entries from the comments section and sending those people copies of Ayako!

The deadline for this contest is 11:59 PM on December 30, 2010, so you've got time to report back about any gifts you might receive this year. Best of luck! Oh, and before I forget: all of us at Ani-Gamers would like to wish our readers a happy and healthy holiday season. We hope you'll keep reading for the next two weeks as we roll out our Anime Secret Santa reviews and 2010 Staff Picks.

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Review: Apollo's Song (Manga)

Medium: Manga (1 volume)
Genres: Drama, Romance
Author: Osamu Tezuka
Publishers: Shōnen Gahōsha (JPN), Vertical Inc. (NA/UK)
Release Dates: 1970 (JPN), 2007, re-release in 2010 (NA/UK)
Age Rating: 16+

Given that the main focus of Apollo's Song is love and all the strife that results, I could get away with writing a "Love is a crazy thing, isn't it?" type of intro for this review. But I won't, because the manga does a much better job of doing that in its own introduction, which shows anthropomorphized sperm in a marathon race to reach the egg. That probably sounds absurd, but the reverence shown to love and procreation comes through the page, letting you know you are reading something rather special.

The main character of Apollo's Song is Shogo Chikaishi, a teenage boy who is brought in to a psychiatric hospital with a rather bizarre malady that is the focus of much of the story. You see, Shogo hates the concept of love. He is incapable of feeling it himself, and the mere sight of love or affection of any kind disgusts him so thoroughly that he feels an unstoppable urge to kill those involved, be they human or animal.

The doctor who takes Shogo on as a patient is rather troubled by this and so decides that a suite of tests and treatments are in order, including a terrifying session of electroconvulsive therapy. It is during this therapy that Apollo's Song introduces it's key element that sets it far apart — the Goddess. Taking the form of a massive female statue she scolds Shogo for his hatred of love and forces him to confront the root of his problem. Then, as a punishment for his transgressions against the sanctity of love, Shogo is condemned to a never-ending series of trials — over and over he must come to know love, but every time it is within his grasp it will be snatched away from him. The more cynical among those reading probably just laughed and yelled “Oh, just like real life then!” out loud.

What follows this proclamation is a series of discrete tales that follow the template that the goddess outlines — each time, Shogo comes close to being cured but is ultimately thwarted, usually in a harrowing fashion. You would think this pattern would get dull, but there is another facet to the story; you are never fully sure what is “real”, or what is a dream, a hypnotic suggestion, or even if Shogo is actually dead or alive for the majority of the manga. The different trials Shogo experiences also have their own back-story and love stories within them, further muddying the waters about what is taking place in reality and what is confined to his imagination. Even the ending of the story is wonderfully ambiguous and ends on a rather depressing note for Shogo, but leaves it up to the reader to decide what the ending entails.

I am a massive fan of this sort of reality-bending fiction and so Apollo’s Song scores lots of points with me, enough to make me overlook some of its nagging flaws. The biggest among these is the repetition of the individual stories within the overall plot arc — as mentioned before, they all follow the exact pattern that the Goddess outlines. In addition, some of the stories are instantly forgettable, and even on my fifth reading I am confronted with entire chapters I had completely forgotten and am beginning to forget even as I write this review. Another, more egregious issue is that Shogo himself is an unpleasant dick who keeps undoing his own character development. While this can be seen as a normal human character flaw, especially for someone as seriously ill as he is, it can become exasperating after he fails to even attempt to reform himself for the umpteenth time in the face of great pressure to do so.

This frustration with Shogo is eased by getting know him through the art, with all emotions laid bare on the page for you to see and feel as you read. Simply put, the facial expressions and body language in the manga are among the best I have seen. At one key moment in the story an entire page is set aside at time for a single facial expression of sorrow — a powerful moment hammered home by a very simply presented image. The rest of the art (especially the layout) is equally superb, with many nice touches and unique pages added to keep you interested. The emotional highs and lows (mostly lows, in this case) are wonderfully captured on the page, with each moment given time to breathe over multiple pages and clear layouts to heighten the impact. The main triumph of the art is that each separate story told within the overarching plot looks and feels like its own separate series. You can tell from a glance what the setting feels like and how it differs from every other story presented in the manga.

While I pointed out some flaws earlier in this review that may sound like deal-breakers to some, I am still a fan of Apollo's Song due to how much it rewards revisiting. While not a short book by any stretch of the imagination, the story is just the right size to pick up and read for the hell of it without without the investment of time that MW or Ode to Kirihito demand. Due to its very powerful message and reality-bending storyline, each reading can give you something new to chew on.

I have read this story in a multitude of personal states and attitudes towards love — while happily in a relationship, in a failing relationship, and shortly after a break-up, and each time it has given me something new to think about and an uplifting feeling despite its grim storyline.

[Recommended]

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This review is based on a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.

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MMF: One Piece – A Love Story in Two Acts

This month, the Manga Moveable Feast (or MMF) focuses on Eiichiro Oda's smash-hit shōnen manga series One Piece, and since I own 13 volumes of the wacky pirate action-adventure, I decided to contribute to the project. However, I've got a rather odd admission to make: I don't read One Piece anymore. In fact, I haven't read even a single new page of the manga since the spring of 2008.

Make no mistake, though, One Piece is actually one of my favorite manga of all time. Nearly three years ago, I simply stopped reading the books, and I have not reneged on my decision since then. In part because of this decision, and in part because of the series' instrumental role in introducing me to manga, One Piece has retained a very unique place in my heart.

Boy Meets Manga

My introduction to One Piece hardly has any of the nostalgic glory of old-time anime fans' origin stories, as it starts sometime in 2003 or so (right in the heart of the mid-2000s manga boom). One of my middle school teachers passed out a Scholastic book catalog, and in it, glaring at me with all his silly intensity, was Yugi Moto from Yu-Gi-Oh! It was an issue of Viz's Shonen Jump, on sale in my school's catalog!

Naturally, after my experience with these cool Japanese cartoons on Cartoon Network's Toonami block (a frequent stepping stone for mid-'90s anime fans), I was excited to get my hands on the mysterious black-and-white comic book versions of the stories. Though I was hardly a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! as a series, I was instantly hooked by two manga running in the magazine: Naruto and One Piece. They particularly grabbed me because I had never seen anime versions of them, unlike most of the titles in Shonen Jump.

Shortly after my first time reading One Piece (somewhere in the middle of Volume 2's Buggy Arc), I scrambled to pick up as much manga as I could get my hands on. I picked up the first two volumes of the terrible .Hack//Legend of the Twilight and received One Piece Volume 2 for my birthday. And with that, I was officially a fan of rubber-man Monkey D. Luffy and his crew of oddball pirates.

As a child of the Dragon Ball Z generation, I really felt a connection to Oda's Toriyama-inspired characters, stories, artwork, and sense of humor. Everything in One Piece, from the fights to the characters' dreams, is exaggerated, filled with a passion unparalleled by the actions of real people. For a wide-eyed middle school kid, new to the vast world of anime and manga lurking under the Toonami-glazed surface, Oda's powerfully kinetic yet inherently accessible work was just the kind of thing to propel me into full-fledged fandom.

And propel me it did! 2004, the year that marked my post-One Piece anime/manga obsession, also marked the creation of an overly ambitious little anime fan site called Anime Paradise, which would later become the Ani-Gamers you see today.

Boy Leaves Manga

It's pretty clear at this point that One Piece is one of the defining works of my personal manga fandom, but why did I stop reading it after all the passion I had invested into it? It's very simple, actually.

At AnimeNEXT 2008, I pushed my way to the nearest manga vendor and started rifling through the books on the table. As I had done for the past few years, I picked up the latest volume of One Piece (14 in this case) and got ready to buy it. But then it hit me. Looking at the volumes on the table, I took note of the books that I would then have to buy after Volume 14. I thought it over in my head — "One Piece isn't even finished yet in Japan, let alone in the US. Heck, I don't even know when this Baroque Works Arc is going to end. It could be ten more volumes for all I know!"

So, on that day, I made the fateful decision, on behalf of my wallet, to stop buying One Piece. Of course, since I am strongly opposed to manga piracy (har har), reading it online is out of the question, so that means I effectively decided to stop reading the series, period. Since then, Viz Media's American run of One Piece has reached 55 volumes, and it still hasn't ended in Japan. After re-reading the volumes I bought years ago, I really miss the Straw Hat Pirates and all their crazy adventures, but the prospect of restarting my collection is a daunting one.

Indeed, that's the ultimate tragedy of the paying fan of any long-running, ongoing manga series; continued dedication to your favorite story requires an inordinate amount of money and shelf space. Nevertheless, the boundless motivation of Luffy and his comrades serves as a reminder of the importance of doing what you love, regardless of the obstacles in front of you. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll finally follow Oda's wisdom, pick up One Piece Volume 14, and start this old journey up once again.

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• Check out the rest of this month's One Piece-themed Manga Moveable Feast posts!
• Read Matt Blind's explanation of the Manga Moveable Feast

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