Finding Creative Kinship in A Drifting Life

Finally.

Sometimes when I'm writing, everything disappears. I go somewhere, but I don't know where, just not here. In the past, I've described it as a feeling like falling in love. When I'm working on something, really working, I'm not hungry. There's something deep and nervy in my stomach, like butterflies. I don't want to sleep. I don't want to see people. When I'm not putting my characters through the paces, I'm thinking about them, having conversations with them, wondering what they are up to.

When I'm creating, the real world, and the real people in it, hold only minimal a draw for me.

Yoshihiro Tatsumi describes a similar feeling in his autobiographical work, A Drifting Life. When he is writing something he wants to be writing, it feels something like a runner's high. What is real disappears, and he's right there, right in the story, and that is the place he most wants to be.

"There was no freedom in reality," Tatsumi writes of himself in the third person. "The creative act of making something from nothing allowed him to live in an infinitely free world."

In one scene, Tatsumi describes working on the classic Japanese comic Black Blizzard, a noir mystery that takes place during a terrible snowstorm. While working on the story, Tatsumi drifted so deeply into the creative world he had created that he found himself shivering at his drawing desk even in the infamous humidity and heat of a Tokyo summer.

Reading Tatsumi's story, I feel that creative high by proxy, like a long protracted sigh of relief. This feeling is real, this otherness, this otherly-worldness, this gone somewhere, this imagining: Imagination. It's a place creatives know. It's a place of transcendence, a place we want to bring others through our work.

Just knowing that other creators feel it in the same way, makes me not feel alone. I keep a copy of A Drifting Life and a copy of Black Blizzard along with my most cherished books on the highest shelf in my living room, which doubles, triples, quadruples and so forth, as my office, my writing room, sometimes my nap room, my cat's rec room, my dining room, and my creative space. It is the shelf just above my little shrine of happy trinkets - things I've collected in life that have important meaning just to me.

On my roughest days as a writer and a creative and on my best, I look up to those books. I feel a kind of  being in love with, a creative kinship with Yoshihiro Tatsumi. I don't know if his work is for every reader, but it really is for me.

A Drifting Life is as much an incidental history of postwar Japan and an in-depth look at the manga industry during that time as it is an artist's autobiography. It's pace is slow, and it explores the minute details of Tatsumi's career, from his first publications in seventh grade well into his adulthood. It's also about his life as a creator, his desire to rise above commercial success, to innovate and provoke and make something new.

For many, it may seem mundane, and it is. That's the life and business of a creative most of the time. It is hard grinding work towards an ever moving goal. Its rewards are those brief moments when it is just you drifting, but not necessarily lost, in the seductive, magical places only you can make and dwell in.

Dr. M: Day 26--The last manga you read

I just picked up Yuri Narushima's Planet Ladder. 

Here's the synopsis from DMG: "I see the tarot cards in my dreams. I turn them over in hopes of finding all the answers — Who am I? Where do I come from? Why are these people after me? But when I turn over the last card, it is always blank. My name is Kaguya. I thought I was an ordinary high-school girl. That is, until a crazy warrior appeared in my bedroom one night and transported me to another planet where people call me princess. Now, the questions in my dream are more urgent than ever. Will I ever get home again...or is this my home?" 

I am only about 70 pages in, but so far there are weird doll-like orphans with blue eyes, tarot cards, dudes with gold hands, something about a whip, a grumpy older brother, a crazy mom, some sort of scandal with the Ministry of Finance and ancient wars being settled on the earthly plain. And there are two more volumes.

When I am done I will conduct a full review. As of right now I'm sort of "meh," but it does have potential.

Dr. M: Day 24--The best long manga series

How long is long? That's not a rhetorical question...I need an answer to that. I mean, if long is over 10 volumes that's one thing, but if we consider some series like Bleach (56 volumes ongoing), Inuyasha (56 volumes complete), Fullmetal Alchemist (a measly 28 volumes), or the granddaddy of all series Kochikami (183 volumes...are you kidding me?), or even Detective Conan (Case Closed) (78 volumes) and One Piece (68 volumes).

I'm going to have to go down the list of longest manga and see what I've read.  

I read about 8 volumes from the local library
and then I got really, really bored. 

Okay, at 45 volumes, Oh My Goddess seems to be the longest series I've read a good portion of, but I didn't actually like it, so...let's keep looking?

Whelp, the list I found only gives me the top 100 longest. So, I guess I'll go with...Bleach? Although I've only ever read about 5 volumes of it, so I don't really know. So, my final answer is: I have no idea!

Are there any long-running series that you'd recommend?

Dr. M: Day 17--A manga that you feel embarrassed about liking

Our Kingdom by Naduki Koujima is embarrassingly bad, and yet...I own the whole series and like it enough that I haven't gotten rid of it.

Check out our Parental Advisory Sticker...
Also, check out our capes! 

Here is a list of why it is bad:
1. The illustrations all look the same...as in there are two face styles, and beyond that it's just differences in hair color (and sometimes those aren't very significant.).
2. How many times can one person be kidnapped? Seriously! Someone needs to put a GPS or pet-chip in the main character because seriously. (Eventually they do sort-of do this. Good idea.)
3. Same-sex cousin incest, not that there's anything wrong with that in yaoi...it is fantasy, I suppose, but still.
4. Sometimes the aggressive sexual behavior gets a little too aggressive. No, does actually mean no.
5. EVERYONE is madly in love with the main character. He's like catnip or something...gay catnip! And yet, I see absolutely nothing attractive or compelling in him. He's cute, I guess. But he's kind of dumb.
6. CONVOLUTED PLOTS! (See #2)
7. This is supposed to be a _Prince and the Pauper_ inspired story, but I don't see it.
8. The other major character is a snotty, elitist jerk.
9. CONVOLUTED COSTUMING! (See "cape")
10. Frequent sexual harassment of a confused body-guard in every other scene. Not cool.
11. Apparently they live in a world devoid of women. As in, there are three women in this book and none of them are characters with more than two scenes. Yes, I get that this is yaoi, but women exist. That's just a fact.
12. Allow me to use #12 to reiterate how stupid the main character is. He may be the most gullible character I have ever seen. And that is saying a lot, because there are a ton of gullible characters in manga.

Why I still like it, despite the embarrassment of liking a series this bad:
1. It has its cute moments.
2. I like that poor harassed body-guard. He's the most sympathetic character of the bunch.
3. I have no idea. That's it. I have no idea. It's really dumb.

I think I'll go re-read it.

If you go to read it...the early volumes are pretty tame, but the later ones get a little, um...surprise bumfinger? Yeah.

Dr. M: Day 14?-- A manga that makes you cry.

Now, contrary to the popular belief of a few of my closest friends (like Shakespeare) and my immediate family members who have seen me break down on occasion, I am not a cryer. It's not that I don't have "feels" but that I don't feel comfortable expressing those "feels" in front of many people.

That said, the thing that's most likely to make me cry is something that isn't happening to me. I am an empathizer, I am like soaking in empathy all the time...it messes me up. It might be why I'm a little closed-off in expressing my feels. The things most likely to make me cry are stories. I cry at movies on occasion. I cry at feel-good articles or tragedies. I cry at books more often than anything. I cry when the characters I love are hurt, or sad, or even elated (so happy they, and I, begin to cry). So, I certainly cry at manga. There are a few manga that make me cry, and usually it isn't so much in frustration or empathized sorrow as it is at a deep sort of loneliness or despair a character feels. Or elation.

So, in no particular order, here are some manga that have made me cry:

1. Loveless...multiple times. There's something so desperate about the characters' need for love and acceptance. Damn.
2. Gurran Lagaan...I love Simone.
3. Constellations in my Palm...such sweet heartbreak.
4. Love Song for the Miserable...just the first read, but still. It is pretty miserable.
5. La Esperanca...every freaking time. I'm a sobbing wreck.

Robert, Georges, stop making me cry please? 

So, Dear Readers, what manga has brought you to tears?

Dr. M: Day Six--Your favorite character

I know you're wondering, Dear Readers...who among all the characters in all of manga-land is my favorite?

I am imagining all of you as the cast of Fake.
You're welcome! 

Who is the right combination of sexy, devil-may-care, tender, dorky, devoted and borderline psychotic? Who would I be content reading about in any incarnation?

DEE LAYTNER

You, Dee. You, okay?

Dee Laytner is a near-thirty-something detective for the NYPD...and just happens to be madly in love with his partner Ryo McClean. The two solve crimes, and are generally pretty bad-ass. They're also working through some childhood traumas, and the fact that Dee keeps trying to get all up in Ryo's biz. 

There's that sensitivity.
Quit pushing Ryo's boundaries, Dee. 

He's the right mix of hyper-cheesy and dude-you-do-not-want-to-eff-with. I like it. I like Dee. 

I will not! I do like you. You're like my favorite character in a manga ever.
Take the compliment, you weirdo. 

Dee has a heart of gold, behind his rough exterior...sometimes. Sometimes it's the heart of a pervert...which I'm okay with too. 

Dee may have a split personality.
He vacillates from intense to goofball on a regular basis. 

He's honest to a fault, secretly considerate (he doesn't want to mess with his tough-guy cred), kind of a doofus (not the smartest tool in the shed, but definitely a tool) and he's a good guy. A real good guy. Rough around the edges, but hopelessly devoted to those he loves. 

Dee at his NYPD finest! 

He loves kids (most of them), sports and really bad clothing. (Seriously, he is a horrible dresser.) He's loud, messy, crude and AWESOME! I like him so much that sometimes I want to shake Ryo for dissing him as often as he has. 

Dee pounce with nip-slip! 

When (SPOILER) Ryo finally gives in to Dee's advances I swooned, and then I was jealous. I want a Dee. Everyone wants a Dee. And if I ruled the world, everyone would have one...except for me because I would have two, and why shouldn't I? After all, I would be busy ruling the world. I'd deserve two. 

Dr. M: Day Five--A manga you would recommend to everyone

I am officially adding my voice to the I Love Fumi Yoshinaga Fanclub by requesting that everyone go out and read a copy of Flower of Life.

A High-school Story 

In a lot of ways the series is "just" a high-school story, but it's a high-school story that only Fumi Yoshinaga could have written.

It centers on two unlikely best friends, Haru and Shota, as they try to navigate their way through high-school and into adulthood. Their goal is to write/draw manga...but they aren't sure how to go about getting it published.

Haru has Leukemia and a crazy sister              Shota is chubby and adorable

There is also a cast of other characters. In a lot of ways the four-volume series is an ensemble piece with entwined and resonant story lines.

It's funny. Honest to a fault. Sad. Nostalgic. A little naughty at points. Poignant. Introspective. Ridiculous. Heart-warming. Troubling. It's a LOT, in a little space, yet so perfectly balanced and expressive that it never feels indulgent, or overwritten. I think this is my favorite of her works, and  I can't really imagine a single person who couldn't find their way into this slice-of-life series. I think even those, GASP!, manga haters would find something to love about this series.

Also, Shota is adorable.

Dr. M: Day Four-- A character you feel you are most like (or wish you were)

I will start with the "Character I feel I am most like," and then self-deprecate myself into who I "wish I were like" but first I have to say that for some reason this challenge was much easier with anime. Shakespeare and I completed a version with anime back in ye olde times (June 2011) you can go look at our answers if you want.

So, to answer this question, technically, I could just refer you to a 2011 post in which I claim that I am both versions of Nelliel Tu Odelschwank from Bleach.

Crazy girl-child and Badass Centaur Lady at the SAME TIME!
That's me. 

I mean, she IS in the manga! And if you want to click through, Dear Readers, you will see that I have some pretty good reasons for choosing this ousted Arancar as my "most like."

Or, I could try to make myself honest and ask where all the mangas about car obsessed, empoverished female college English instructors with pissy attitudes towards the world are located. They should be in Mechas...I am a machine. Or, maybe I'm a minor character. Someone's unnamed teacher in the background of some slice of life, school-days manga. Waaah! The thought makes me want to go rob a bank, just so I'll get my own storyline.

Who am I most like?

Shigure Sohma

Shigure Sohma. That picture above is pretty deceptive, if you have not read Fruits Basket...what a studious, smug person, you might be thinking. No...not really.

Shigure is a writer, who dabbles in both romance novels (under a pen name) and academic work. He is secretly one of the characters of the Chinese Zodiac...the dog. I like dogs. Shigure can be boisterous and flirtatious and pervy, but he also has a sort of dark, twisted side as well, which shows through on occasion. He refuses to wear socks or shoes, and is usually barefoot. I too am usually barefoot (ask around). He is lazy, and will get out of anything to complete his work, but always completes it. He's very reliable without seeming reliable at all. He can provide good advice, and is constantly telling others "Que será, será" in an attempt to calm them down, but he's not actually very "go with the flow." He holds grudges; he is spiteful; he is defensive of his family; he is capable of great kindnesses; he is easily bored and more easily distracted.

I don't look like this, but I make this face...a lot.

And then there's this:

Right on, Brother!
(Sz the lady who went to sleep at 5 am last night...why not?)

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that I'm a chubbier, girl version of Shigure. I don't know that it's a good thing.

NOW, who do I want to be like?

This is Yuki Amalsy's Chibi (cutey) version of Dean Winchester.
Go check out more of her drawings on Deviant Art. 

Too bad Supernatural isn't a manga. Someone would just screw it up anyway (like the anime...I'm still sore about that)!

Yes, I still want to be Dean Winchester, mostly because I'd get to drive that car, and fight monsters. There isn't much better than that.

Dr. M: Day Three--My Favorite Mangaka

Can I just say manga writer? I mean 私は上手に日本語を話すことはありません。(I do not speak Japanese well.)

Okay, my favorite manga writer does, in fact, not write any of my favorite manga. In fact, her manga are usually fairly mediocre at best, and kind of brutal and weird. But her freaking afterwords are just...

Eiki Eiki is brilliant. 

Eiki Eiki depicts herself as a snarky, black rabbit with alternating bouts of egotism and self-deprecation. In the afterwards she makes strange confessions, calls out her friends and fellow authors, accidentally reveals her alter egos, and expresses such bubbly glee and excitement about her stories (always troubling romances, usually yaoi or yuri) that I cannot help but fall in love with her. Look at the satisfaction evident in the singularly small phrase in "The Truth about the Masturbation Scenes" below.... "No, there has not." She centered a whole series around a sadistic rich boy who can't seem to keep his hands off his own junk. It's not good, but that sentence... "No, there has not." Seems punctuated with a mental mid-air leap and yawp to the heavens. A sort of "YEAH! I WROTE THAT...how you like me now?" which I can totally support. Good for her! Three cheers for her successes! (And what a nice cover-up with those undrawn parent-faces...that is an impressive academic excuse if ever I have heard one.)

From one of the five bits of "afterwords" materials and bonuses
in the extraordinarily depressing and wholly sinister
 _The Art of Loving_ from June Manga.

Lots of manga writers are admirable in their ability to tell complex stories through storyboard, dialog and gesture, so I really can't choose just one on that count. I can't! You can't make me! I refuse, Dear Readers. So, I had to find some other means of qualification, and I wound up thinking of the writer themselves.

Lots of manga writers have fun and even poignant afterwords (or post-scripts) to their volumes, but none of them seems as happy, regretful, and frankly insane as Eiki Eiki. She is a crackpot. A lunatic. A weirdo. A black rabbit of destruction whose very friends and family are baffled by. She is...a writer. And she may not be the best, but I'd read a whole book of her afterwords and cackle in like-minded glee because I get it.

Write on, black rabbit of doom! Rejoice Prince with a thousand enemies...hahahahah!

Dr. M: Day Two--My Favorite Manga

I started this Mangathon, and then I got sick. Boo. Sickness. Now I am sitting here, sniffly, sore, and trying to catch up on life. Day two is a curveball of a prompt. My FAVORITE manga? Oh, man. Do I pick the manga I read most often? The manga that has most stirred my inner soul (if such a thing exists)?

I'm picking Loveless. A manga I don't read, except on occasion, because it just destroys me every time.

Sobi, Ritsuka, and Semi

I am a sucker for words. I devote a lot of my life to language and Loveless is about language in a way. The teams in the world of Loveless are paired by shared names. They defeat their enemies with language. They speak (spell, really) things into being. Beautiful. 

There is a lot of power in language for those of us who recognize it. Words are power. "In the beginning was the word." That's the basis for three of the world's major religions...that language can call things into being. Of course it can. Here's a snippet of Leslie Marmon Silko's retelling of the Thought-Woman creation story from Puebo Mythology, it's one of my favorites:

Ts' its' tsi' nako, Thought-Woman, is sitting in her room and what ever she thinks about appears. She thought of her sisters, Nau' ts' ity' i and I' tcs' i, and together they created the Universe, this world, and the four worlds below. Thought-Woman, the spider, named things and as she named them they appeared. She is sitting in her room thinking of a story now I'm telling you the story she is thinking. (Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko).

Stories are creation. People create whole worlds with language, whole impossible universes. They tell stories of the living and the dead, of what is and was and what may be. It's all language. Even in our everyday lives, we forget the ways we call things into being by casting spells...spelling...duh. It's no mistake that the same word spell/spell means to form words, and to create some magical force out of language. Words are magic, they are power and creation. And names are the most powerful words. They leave their mark on us. What we are called lets us know where we are, who we are with, our relationship and really...who we are. 

Ritsuka and his brother Seimei
before Seimei's death

So what's that have to do with Loveless. Well, everything. It's a story about a lost little boy, abused, forgotten. It's a story about an artist who doesn't have a will of his own. They are left behind when the person they love most dies. They find each other. They sacrifice for one another. They seek redemption. It's a beautiful story.

And in the English print version there are some amazing essays about the power of language.

I just wish someone would re-license the series, so I could read the end.
Thank god for fanslations!

Wanna read: http://www.mangapanda.com/169/loveless.html

First Manga? From Eroica With Love

From Eroica With Love

This isn't my very first manga, but it's the first one that caught my attention after years of reading American comics.

My first impression: Is that David Bowie? What is that squiggly feeling inside me?

No. It is not David Bowie. It is Earl Dorian Red Gloria, an openly gay English art thief, and I think I am in love. And that other guy, that is Klaus. He is German and totally full of angst. He likes rules and despises the Earl, except that he secretly is totally as in heart with him as I am.

The Fabulous Earl

I love the silliness of this manga, and its beautiful 1970's aesthetic. There is something very glam and very girly and very jack boot rock 'n' roll going on here. From Eroica with Love was my gateway manga. It was odd enough to pull me out of my indie American and superhero comics malaise and show me there was something new in the world.

Oddly, I've only read three issues of this manga, even though it just goes on forever and ever. I'd be interested to know if any of our dear readers have picked this up and what their impressions are?

Klaus

A Happy New Year and a Challenge!

Greetings Dear Readers,

Image from http://robustwineblog.typepad.com
A nice site on all things wine by Master Sommelier Stanley Browne

Welcome to 2013, year of the...unapocalypse? In celebration of the world not ending, and all things anime and manga, I am challenging my fellow Squeefiniters, Mr. Empty and Shakespeare to a Mangathon. For 30 days we will each be sharing our responses to the following categories:

01. Your very first manga
02. Your favorite manga
03. Your favorite mangaka
04. A character you feel you are most like (or wish you were)
05. A manga you would recommend to everyone
06. Your favorite character
07. A manga you disliked enough to stop reading
08. The most annoying character
09. A manga you’d like to see more of
10. A manga that makes you fluffy and happy when you read it
11. Your first Manga crush
12. A manga you used to love but don’t anymore
13. The most epic scene ever
14. A manga that makes you cry.
15. The saddest scene
16. A manga you feel you should read but can’t
17. A manga that you feel embarrassed about liking
18. Favorite BL/yuri couple
19. A manga that you disliked at first but came to enjoy later on
20. A manga you started out enjoying but ended up not liking as much
21. A manga that deserves more recognition
22. A manga you wish didn’t exist
23. Best manga  villain
24. The best long manga series
25. The best manga oneshot
26. The last manga you read 

27. A manga you would never buy
28. A manga you think is so brilliant it’s like literature
29. A manga you read that was just plain weird
30. A manga that isn’t licensed but SHOULD be

Maybe we can even do a little give-a-way at the end of the 30 days to celebrate. Be sure to keep up and chime in...there will be arguments a plenty, I'm sure. 

Let the Mangathon BEGIN! 

We'll let Revy from Black Lagoon fire the opening shot
because she does like to shoot things.
Duck!

Billy Bat - Naoki Urasawa & Takashi Nagasaki

I started out my storied career of loving graphic stories by reading American comics.

When I was a kid, my dad and brother and I would go to a comic shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan called Eye of Agamotto, and we would spend hours sifting through the comics books bins. The place, in my memory, was a geek's paradise, all full up of comics and image. It was up a flight of stairs and hidden away like in another world. I loved that I was just eye level with the glass cases, the way the wooden floors creaked and noted the shuffle of our shoes, the way it smelled on warm summer afternoons, like paper and books, something mysterious.

My brother and I were going through a GI Joe phase, which was just okay with my dad, a Vietnam Vet who could connect to us through war stories. I think the owner of the place was a vet, too. I wonder, now, if they talked about the war while we wandered through the place.

I was in third grade and my brother in fifth. My brother wanted to go every day because he coveted GI Joe #2, which had a small, shitty run after the first, much touted issue, pretty much flopped. The comic was super expensive and sealed in plastic, and my brother would just stand and stare at it, then whinge about it forever.

I wanted to read it, sure, but it was way out of our price range. So, while my brother oggled his dream comic, I searched the bins. I was, for some reason, really into Howard The Duck, an "existential comic" about a duck from outer space. These were cheap, and my dad bought them for me without much of a fuss. Maybe he was relieved, because I wasn't asking for a pony or dance lessons or GI Joe #2.

Yup, I cut my comic teeth on Howard the Duck. What of it? Thus began my lifelong fascination with comics, geeks, and things you can find in bins. For a long time, I read American comics. Then I switched over primarily to manga, which I've been reading almost exclusively for the last few years. Lately, I've been really in love with manga that feels reflective of my early love of comics, a bit dark, a bit super, a bit human, not all flash lines and giant hearts and eyes, but smart, literary, and fantastic.

Right now, I'm almost finished reading Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys which has so blown me away, that I don't rightly know how to write about it. Last night, in an Urasawa mood,  I started reading scanlations of Billy Bat. I usually read licensed comics, but the art just drew me in with it's slightly American sensibility, and there I was thinking about the stories that started me on comics.

I particularly like the concept of this comic, the story of an American comic book artist, Kevin Yamagata, who is half-Japanese. His comic Billy Bat, the hard boiled story of an anthropomorphized  bat detective, is as popular as any other super hero comic out there. Kevin's success is colored, however, by the fact that he may have accidentally copied the Billy Bat character from another artist in Japan, and he must go to Japan to investigate and prove to himself that he has not stolen the story or character designs.

The story alternates between the Billy Bat story line and Kevin's life and involves mystery on all levels.

I've not yet seen any information about when this comic will be licensed in the United States, but I really hope it is because I'd like to read more.

The Pushman and Other Stories - Yoshihiro Tatsumi

If you've ever been to a manga store or even a comics shop, you've probably seen Yoshihiro Tatsumi's comic A Drifting Life. The volume is huge and the cover has an image of a manga artist bent over and drawing. That book, an autobiographical exploration of the artist's life, was drawn over a decade and is considered a classic, which is probably why it is so ubiquitous.

I have never read it.

I've always wanted to, but I always encounter the book most inconvienantly, normally when I'm on foot and already have way too much in my backpack. I usually give the book a once over, wish I owned it, and move on. Still, I've always been curious about Tatsumi. His art is simple, not your typical manga, which I've been steering away from lately anyhow. When I had the opportunity to pick up The Pushman and Other Stories republished by Drawn and Quarterly, I did so without hesitation.

This book isn't for everyone, but it is for me. It's dark. It's sick. It's slightly absurdest. Think Kafka meets Lars von Trier and Patricia Highsmith for tea and some pen and ink drawings.

For example, "The Pushman," the title story of the collection, is a short piece about a man who has the job of pushing commuters onto trains in order to pack them as full as possible. Anyone who has ever ridden a full commuter train or bus can testify to the anxiety, however short lived, induced in such a situation.

In "The Pushman," this feeling is pervasive. At one point, the pushman helps a woman who tears her blouse in the commute frenzy. They go on a date and sleep together. Later, she introduces the Pushman to her girlfriends, who rip and tear at him in a sexual frenzy reminiscent of the heated, tight, urgent commute.

Later, the Pushman finds himself pushed onto one of the trains by accident. Squashed between squirming human bodies, he proclaims, "I'm a Pushman."

I read this story on BART. It gave me the hee bee jee bees.

I think these stories are brilliant. You will not, however, if you can't handle sex, violence, human failings or aborted babies. Consider carefully before reading.

Rainy Day Love -- Satomi Konno

Publisher: DMG
Audience: The cover says 16+ (Due to the amount of naked stickiness, I say 18+)
Localization Team: Cynical Pink

Here on the West Coast, certain manga bloggers aren't immune to romance problems of their own. Sometimes, said manga bloggers, who will not be named, want to just read a cute and ideal love story and fantasize for a moment that love is just that easy.

Tonight I had the opportunity to read Rainy Day Love. It is adorable. Yes. I know, crabby Shakespeare who usually just wants to be critical of everything is saying: this manga is pretty darn sweet.

Older Teen Yuta works in his family's senbai shop. When his younger highschool buddy Shizuno appears, Yuta realizes he has feelings for him. There's not too much struggling here, not too much angst. There's just a little fumbling, a fever and some love. Shizuno's been in love a long time and has some very adorable fantasies about Yuta, which Yuta can't live up to. But, it's okay, because the real Yuta is more adorable to Shizuno than the fantasy one.

The real charm of this manga for me is the older couple comprised of Shoichi, Yuta's older brother who also works at the senbai shop, and the usually intoxicated Seigo, a family friend who had been in love with Shoichi since they were kids.

They are one of those "one part flaky but earnest and lovelorn, one part kind and responsible and terrified to get involved" couples that you just want to root for.

I actually think that the mangaka liked the older couple more than the younger couple, too, because they're drawn a bit better than the younger couple. Or maybe I am just an old lady and prefer to look at more mature male characters.

Speaking of artwork, it feels a little lazy at the beginning, but really gets much better toward the end. Some of the chibi characterizations in this are just cute as cute can be.

On the tail end of Dr. M's translation rant, I have to say that the translation for this story was really great. How do I judge that? Because, I didn't have to think about it. It was natural, well-paced and clear. I was able to get into the story and get away. Sigh.

Certain manga bloggers wish that love would just show up on their doorstep and confess itself or bumble into their workplace and have an outburst or go through some deep soul searching on their behalf. Someday. Maybe. And on that day there will be plenty of wind.

Until then, there's manga.

The Deal with Translations: An Emotional Plea by Dr. M

Here's the thing: words are magic. If you don't think so, consider that pretty much everyone in the world  learns how to write by spelling. We make words by learning to spell...get it? Words are  magic. And they mean very particular things. I feel like admitting some things about myself in this post, so bear with me, Dear Readers, as I have a hissy fit make an emotional plea to translators, and  wax all academic up in this mug  discuss the complications of writing and translating in general.

ABRACADABRA! 

Now something magics itself into being right?

Aren't you glad I didn't say Avada Kedavra?

(First Harry Potter reference of the day, y'all!)

First, I am an English Professor (not that you'd know it by my improper comma usage), which means that I deal with language all the time. I teach students how to translate ideas in their heads into writing language on the page which can then be translated by another person back into ideas and understanding...WHEW! This process of communicating (translating concepts, experiences and emotions into squiggles someone else can comprehend) is something that is extremely difficult for even the most talented of writers. When I teach I admit that. I actually do have a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing, and I still get frustrated and overwhelmed when I write. As a writer I am always trying to pin down an elusive thought or feeling into the exact right words, and sometimes failing. The reason for the difficulty is not only the nuances of our personal experiences, but the complexities of language itself. I warn students regularly about misusing the thesaurus, explaining to them that although there are many words for what seem like the same thing, but those words are NOT the same.

Every word is a living, adapting, evolving signifier with at least, if not more than, two "definitions." The first is a bare-bones basic definition, the denotation of the word. We can look this up in the dictionary and read about what a word means on its most basic level. But every word also carries within it a secondary connotation, a definition that is not only in flux (adapted, defined and redefined), but which often contains either value, judgement, nuance, emotional connection, or cultural association. What does this mean, well, maybe we should use an example? I'll use something scandalous...I know my audience.

The word Bitch means, quite literally, female dog. That's one of its denotations. The other denotation is that it is a pejorative term for an aggressive or contentious woman. Lots of words can mean two things. Unless you're a dog breeder, you aren't really thinking of the first definition, so let's look at the second one. Bitch can mean a lot of things, and the connotation of the word depends on the situation, speaker, audience and implications. If I am poking fun at my best friend (something I cannot help but do) and she laughs and calls me a bitch, I'm okay with that, because the context of the situation (our relationship, the mood, the tone of voice, and the implications of that word) makes it fine. If my sister puts a sticker on the back of her car that reads "Super Bitch," I might roll my eyes, but I know that a sticker like that is actually doing something very subversive; it is re-appropriating (redefining a word that is hurtful within the dominant culture for positive use within a minority culture) that term in a way that she can identify with, and implying that she is a strong, independent woman.

It might be interesting to discuss,
but I don't want this sticker on my car.
(Image from eshirt.com)

If a waitperson at restaurant calls me a bitch, though, he or she will NOT be getting a tip (and I should probably check my food for spit)...the context of their comment is wholly negative, critical and could even be sexist depending on the gender and intention of the server. If someone at a bar calls me this, I will wind up in a fist-fight (I told you, Dear Readers, I am admitting things today). The word itself does not change, but the meaning does all dependent on the speaker, audience and context. Over time language can morph and move in and out of popular use, it can completely change meanings in remarkable ways because language is alive.

Ichigo is confused by all of this.
Let's just let him go fight bad guys.
He's not really a semiotics/sociolinguistics fan.
(Image from Anime Vice News)

So, if writing is hard even within one's own language, imagine the difficulty translators face when attempting to move not only from artist to audience but between languages which might have very different understandings of what words mean. To be a translator you have to know a culture very well and understand not just what words mean, but how they are used in day to day interactions, between various groups of people (among whom a particular word may mean something different in different contexts). The language of a culture reflects the ideas, values, and texture of a culture. There are words for things in some languages which simply do not exist in another language because there is no cultural equivalent, or because such a language has no use for a particular word (check out this list of 20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Jason Wire at Matador Abroad). There are also cultures that are naturally multi-lingual in a sense, adopting words from other languages and absorbing, adapting, redefining them into their own daily use. Both English and Japanese adopt words regularly from other cultures when there is no equivalent in their own language. Although the words adopted are often used in similar ways to the original language's meaning, there are subtle differences in connotation. There are even cultural groups who technically speak the same language, but their use of it is so different that it causes translation issues. English is spoken in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, England and some island nations. And yet even close neighbors like the USA and Canada have language differences significant enough to cause translation and comprehension issues. Even within a single country like the USA, there are regional and cultural differences reflected in language. I live in the rural Southeast of the United States. Shakespeare lives in an urban environment on the West coast. We both lived in the upper Midwest for a while. I am from Appalachia. Each of those places has different speech patterns, dialects, regional speech, and values reflected in word usage, syntax, etc. People in different social, economic, cultural, regional and even social-specific groups can have an impossible time understanding one another, despite speaking the same language.

Shuichi is mad that Dr. M's poor fansubbed
Gravitation didn't do his story justice.
(Image by shubear88)

Translation IS hard. And I admire anyone who attempts it. In order to get my degree one of my requirements was to translate poetry (a slippery genre if there ever was one), and a snippet of critical theory from French into English. I had a hell of a time, despite knowing both languages rather well. I had a decision to make too, would I translate literally (this word is equal to this equivalent word) or would I translate for meaning and nuance (this word implies this meaning with this related word)? The whole thing is baffling and takes a careful, patient willingness to engage with original text, language and audience. I admire and respect translators to the utmost. Especially those translators who started out as unpaid fans of anime or manga, working only for love of the genre and a selfless desire to share the thing they love with their fellow fans. Fansubbers/Fanslators helped build a market for anime and manga. Now, as both traditional and digital publishers scramble to keep up with the demand of hungry fans like me, those amateur translators are starting to receive recognition for their work. They become parts of translation groups, and places like Digital Manga Guild hire them, finally paying them for their talents and dedication. Some groups are phenomenal (our new pals Cynical Pink, for instance) and produce translations that take into account the complexity of language. Some groups, on the other hand, need an editor and proofreader NOW! (Incidentally, I charge around $3.00/page for proofreading and $12/hr for editing, if anyone is interested. I have a lot of experience, and I expect people to pay for it.)

Nausicca approves of decent translations!

So, translations are hard, I understand that! They take time, and there are deadlines and rushed jobs, but regardless of those constraints they need to be thorough. Some publishers are very good at providing final edits and proofreads for their translators, and some are, well, some are...um...what's up with the bad translations lately? I find the whole thing rather dismal, and I hope that it isn't the trend of things to come. Rushed translation jobs with multiple errors in usage, syntax, and grammar (not to mention the questionable stylistic choices) are not the answer to a growing interest in the genres. I would rather have no manga and anime, than poorly translated, formatted or (for whomever's sake!) edited works. I hate slop. Slop is hard to read. Slop does not do credit to the original work, and it does not successfully convey the complexities and nuances of a story. A consideration of language, the medium by which a story is told, is CRUCIAL! For this reason, I'm glad that Shakespeare has chosen to highlight the translator, or translation teams, working to bring us manga and anime when possible. I plan on following suit, and giving credit where credit is due. Kudos to those translators who love the genre enough to pour their time and effort into the difficult process of moving between languages. And shame on those who don't take it seriously. Poor writing is sometimes the fault of the original author, but more often than not, it is sloppy, unconsidered language that can make the difference between a good story (with bad writing) and a great story. I want great stories. I think we all do, so I'll end with that plea I promised.

Dear translators,

Thank you for your efforts to bring us stories we might never have access to, but please do remember to take your time.

Love,
Dr. M

For the love of Gravitation!

Dear Readers, I promised some Rock 'n' Roll around here! And, I mean to deliver! I've been thinking for ages about how to talk about Maki Murakami's classic many incarnated animanga-marketing extravaganza: Gravitation.

But, where do I start? Let's see, there's an anime, an OVA, a manga, a "remix" manga, light novels and oh, also dōjinshi, which Maki Murakami authored herself (and it is some really sick stuff, folks, sick.). I mean, who does that? So, meta. Actually, I think it was just so disturbing her publisher wouldn't touch it, but anyway.

At the heart of the blitz of materials that make up the Gravitation-verse, the story of a budding pop / rock star, Shuichi Shindou, and his love for a tortured romance novelist, Eri Yuki (sigh...). Shuichi, the lead singer of Bad Luck, is a little pink haired freak with too much energy, self-doubt, self-belief, passion and OCD. And, hrm, he is completely not like anyone I happen to know...

I've been thinking a lot about Shuichi lately, and why I even like him as a character? Point of truth: he can be a little annoying and abrasive, moving from the highest of heights to the lowest of lows, creatively and emotionally; he goes chibi too often for my tastes, and he is kind of pathetic. His band only has like two songs, and he wears the same outfit at every concert (oh, that's just the anime? Production value? Whatever.)

But, the thing is, I just love this character.

Shuichi is naively open to love. He sees what he wants, and he goes after it. He often agonizes and mopes, but he realizes that he shouldn't deny how he feels even if others don't approve. He's passionate about his creative life, and about the people he loves.

I'm going to go on record as saying: Shuichi Shindou inspires me!

In a forthcoming post, I will actually talk about one of the myriad associated comic type, moving picture what-have-you's that he appears in.

Squeefinity in the Haps!

Dear Readers, quiet though you may be (comment already, you guys...we see you lurking), Squeefinity is trying to make ourselves louder. We had a great 2011, because we began to take our role a little more seriously this year. For 2012, we want to step it up a notch with more reviews, another attempt at a give-a-way (no one wanted a copy of the worst manga Dr. M owns? Bizzare, right?), polls and queries, news and maybe a few guest bloggers.

This past year we began, in earnest, to post a few regularly scheduled theme days, and tried to bring you our unique (read that as: weird-old-academic-literary critic-fangirls) perspective in reviewing anime, manga and even a light novel or two. We write because we love. And we do love, Dear Readers, we love you, we love characters, we love complex plots, we love silliness, we love angst, we love triumph, we love frailty, we love good writing, and we love hot anime boys, because we are, admittedly, kind of pervy at times.

This next year we resolve to bring you more. So follow us on twitter @squeefinity, circle us on Google +, follow us here, put us on your RSS feed, drop us a note, a comment, an email, and in return we promise more good things on our end.

WE JUST WANT YOU TO LOVE US!
WHY WON'T YOU LOVE US?

Manga News: SuBLime Manga

SuBLime Release Calendar

Hey, yaoi fans, you know you're out there, don't be shy, because we at Squeefinity.com certainly aren't. If we were would we admit to having read half the things we post about? No, no we wouldn't.

SuBLime Manga, seen below, releases its first digital yaoi at the end of this month.


Or above, if you're reading the captions.



The site is in beta, so you can be on the cutting edge of something...that's always nice, and it increases your cool points. SuBLime is partnered with VIS media, and appears to be along the lines of the old BeBeautiful publications, and might be continuing some of their old defunct titles...hooray! They will be producing downloadable manga soon, so sign up for their newsletter and support this new venture...especially if you like to see boys kissing other boys.

Only Serious About You (manga)

Title: Only Serious About You 1
Writer/Illustrator: Asou Kai
Genre: Yaoi
Distributor: June
Rating: Not provided...I would put it at a PG-13 (no sex, some suggestive remarks, one sweet kiss)
Fun fact: On sale at 30% off at Akadot

Okay, this is squeeworthy. Completely squeeworthy! And it has so many of the lovely things I like: older characters, character development, complex back story...plus, it's sweet. So sweet. These are the kinds of mangas that remind me that somewhere deep inside, I am still a girl (but not very often so be warned).

The main character of this manga, Nao, is like me in that his mantra seems to be "I will work harder." This mantra is my downfall, and it is his too. Nao is a single father whose daughter, Chizu, falls ill. As a single father he must take time off of his work as a cook, bartender and waiter, to care for her, but as he is alone and strapped for cash, this becomes difficult. One of the regular customers, Yoshi, who is openly gay, a serial dater and an tremendous flirt, offers to lend his help and reluctantly Nao takes him up on it. Eventually Nao too falls ill and in typical yaoi fashion the illness brings Nao and Yoshi closer together as friends. Eventually their relationship will move from close friends into romantic territory, but not in this first volume. There are obstacles in the way that must be overcome before then.

Yoshi (in bed) finally succumbs to the flu.
It is Nao's turn to take care of him. It is at this moment that Nao
realizes that he and Yoshi are alike in their reluctance to depend on others,
and that Yoshi asking for his help is actually a big deal.
They are becoming a family.

First is the fact that Nao is not gay or doesn't realize he is--that's an issue! Nao is a divorcee with a broken heart, as such he's very guarded and unwilling to get close to or rely on anyone. Chizu is the center of his life, and he sees no point in taking time away from her for selfish romance. The second obstacle is the fact that Yoshi (who Nao says is "pretty loose with his love life") never seems to be serious about the men he dates. We discover later that the string of lovers Yoshi has is his attempt to ward off loneliness he's felt his whole life (he was raised in an orphanage)...he just wants someone to love and stay with him. Both men will  find the companionship and love they desire in subsequent volumes, but in the meantime the slow pacing and development of their relationship will keep me reading. At the end of volume one some complications arise with Nao's over-protective boss, his selfish ex-wife, and Yoshi's on-again/off-again flame.

I want volume two, which comes out late this month. This is a manga I'd read again, and a manga I'd recommend to others. I want it on my manga shelf and, Dear Readers, you should want it on yours too.