The seventh issue of GEN Manga continues to evolve from its doujinshi roots into something more like a genuine underground, alternative manga culture anthology that encapsulates upcoming Japanese creators presenting their own unique and personal manga inspired by their own distinct influences. GEN no longer feels like a tentative, experimental project or an attempt to clone Kodansha’s Morning or Afternoon magazines. The periodical now feels like a confident, eclectic primer on varieties of contemporary Japanese manga outside the mainstream of shounen, shoujo, and otaku-centric themes. Fans of conventional manga may find GEN now even more alien while fans of both the manga art form and alternative comics – Japanese or otherwise – may find GEN becoming more rewarding and essential monthly reading.

Nakamura Shige’s boxing serial Wolf continues to largely exclude background art, which focuses attention on the foreground characters but also makes the story lack weight and substance. Brief panels in the seventh chapter which occur in natural environments and include impressionistic backgrounds are appealing and evocative, suggesting how much stronger the manga could possibly be. This chapter introduces a new, interesting plot twist that I haven’t seen in any other boxing manga. The seventh chapter also briefly reintroduces a character who’s been absent for some time, suggesting that Shige has a very conscious and detailed plan for the direction of the narrative. The new plot twist seemingly isn’t used to a great extent, but it is useful in fleshing out protagonist Naoto’s personality, leading up to a chapter conclusion that really reveals a natural maturation in Naoto’s psychology.

The latest chapter of Mihara Gunya’s fantasy serial Kamen introduces some political intrigue and seems to briefly advance the story, but the chapter is once again too short to be very substantial. The visual design in this dialogue-centric chapter requires less dynamic detail than the previous action-filled chapters, so it’s effective although not flashy. Reminiscent of previous chapters, this chapter’s final shot of the castle, rendered with precise, sharp geometry clashes with the rough, sketchy art that characterizes the story. Kamen continues to hint that it has a large and complex universe, but the very short monthly chapters readers are provided only begin to imply the scale and scope of the story and its world, making Kamen just as frustrating as it is rewarding.

The seventh chapter of Souls, continuing the story of Edo era male prostitute Takao, feels largely like a yaoi melodrama. At the same time, this chapter begins to tie threads together, suggesting the possibility of more significant story development to come. Karino Arisa’ art continues to improve. While human faces remain a weakness, proportions aren’t so noticeably wrong in this chapter.

Takayuki Fujimura’s latest chapter of Sorako whimsically illustrates a simple, routine day in protagonist Sorako’s life. The art design and selected focus on particular everyday items gives the chapter a vibrant, almost bohemian energy. The conscious manipulation of making panels progressively bigger evokes a sense of Sorako’s perspective, her life and her sense of freedom expanding from her bedroom to the larger but still constrained workplace, to the freedom that comes after the end of the workday when she’s able to indulge in fancifully pursuing her dream. Although nothing in particular happens in this comic chapter, the story is still engaging and fun, granting viewers a glimpse into the minute of a foreign life.

Hajime Taguchi’s Alive does a masterful job of illustrating the mournful, conflicted teenage sense of alienation and idealism; the sense of not knowing one’s place while harboring a private romanticism that justifies that anxiety. The nameless, hopeless teen protagonist meets a soul mate, a girl in whom he finds companionship and empathy more valuable and engaging than irrepressible adolescent lust. He creates his own Eden, complete with a garden and an angel so beautiful that he fears that his very touch would corrupt her. But this Salinger-esque fantasy cannot withstand the cold, uncompromising insistence of reality, and the story wonderfully reminds readers of that fact ironically before the story becomes too mopish and sentimental. This chapter does include a few panels of non-graphic nudity.

The second chapter of Ryo Hanada’s Good-bye Geist is, honestly, confusing because it develops multiple plot threads simultaneously with no concessions for the reader to keep up. Although the art design resembles shoujo manga, the dialogue is presented in curt, almost abrupt statements that evoke a sense of realism but entirely avoid conventional, and in this case possibly even welcome, exposition. The result is an intriguing manga chapter that challenges readers and seems familiar while being very unusual and unique.

The seventh volume of GEN manga retains Japanese visual sound effects without translations. The absence of translations may be noticeable, but it doesn’t detract from the appreciation of the stories at all. Japanese language signs are translated only when vital to the reader’s understanding of the story. Translation in this issue seems natural and fluid, free of typos and grammatical errors. The layout and monochrome coloring of the PDF pages is crisp and easy to read.

Particularly with the inclusion of “Sorako,” “Alive” and “Good-bye Geist,” GEN Manga increasingly feels like a publication with its own voice and unique value to readers and the American manga publishing community. GEN Manga is a great alternative for readers curious about the scope of manga beyond the mainstream, and a fine primer for alternative comic fans curious about the style and quality of Japanese underground, alternative comics.

Husband and wife creative team “Yamaaki Doton” have won numerous Japanese awards for their original manga yet remained unknown in the English speaking world until the recent publication of their first English language translation. One Peace Books has done a great service to English speaking manga readers by providing an accessible adaptation of Yamaaki Doton’s masterwork tragedy manga Breathe Deeply, as published in Japan in 2010 as “X-saibou ha Fukaku Iki wo Suru” (X Cells Breathe Deeply).

Breathe Deeply introduces two high school boys, both deeply in love with a charming girl slowly dying of heart failure. Fifteen years after Yuko’s untimely demise, the boys, Sei and Oishi, have devoted their lives and energies to researching opposing philosophies of cardiopulmonary medicine. Oishi pursues advances in stem cel research and the growth of live organs for transplant. Sei verges on revolutionizing medicine with the development of synthetic organs indistinguishable from natural ones. Both men remain tormented by their lost love and adolescent regrets. Their fortunes rise and fall until a startling secret comes to light, bringing the two men back together again over their common past.

In Breathe Deeply, creators Yamaaki Doton create a complex, multi-faceted tragedy that incorporates romance, drama, suspense, science fiction, and crime, masterfully blending each component so that no parts of the story ever feel unnatural or out of place. The story evokes sympathetic emotional angst along with complex, provocative themes including the morality of medical research, the ethics of organ transplantation, the cutthroat internal politics of medical research, the conflict between compassionate subjectivity and objective science, and the conflict that exists been society’s desire and social convention. Underneath all of the complex and provocative themes lies a brutally heart-rending tale of sadness and loss, and the unending human struggle to prevent, mitigate, or inevitably accept tragic loss. The narrative prologue instantly draws readers into the story and forces readers to empathize with Yuko, Sei, and Oishi. This prologue is so effective that it quickly becomes devastatingly painful to read. The artwork and narrative, which creators Yamaaki Doton spent four years revising and perfecting, does such a superb job of capturing and expressing motion and emotion in revealing still frames that in only a few pages readers become so connected to the characters that the anxiety and grief within the pages powerfully transfers directly to the reader.

The story then leaps forward by fifteen years while continuing to reveal additional character and subtext through judicious flashbacks. The mid-section of the story replaces emotional torment with engrossing and intriguing drama until a surprise revelation kicks the story and characters into a suspenseful second gear that ratchets up the tension and resurrects deep emotional resonance. The narrative includes some strong profanity, some nudity, and brief adult situations, but nothing is sensational or exploitive. The strong language and scenes vitally animate the story and add further verisimilitude to a tale already vetted by numerous credentialed doctors and research scientists.

Visually, the manga vaguely resembles the draftsmanship of artists including Katsuhiro Otomo and Yoshihiro Sono. Even though the story is set in present day, it has an evocative, nostalgic tone that enhances the narrative’s sense of being haunted by the past. Unfortunately, the graphic art isn’t preserved or presented in the American edition as faithfully as could be hoped for. Introductory color pages in the 2010 Japanese publication are presented in monochrome in the translation. Tone reproduction is also darker in the English translation, sometimes blurring or hiding shade and detail more evident in the original Japanese publication. The alterations may not be the fault of One Peace Books, however. Original Japanese sound effects and background Japanese text is seemingly arbitrarily translated in the English adaptation, suggesting that One Peace Books may not have been provided access to ideal publication master files in the first place. Manga purists may be mildly perturbed over the English adaptation’s seeming arbitrary alteration of the original art. However, typical readers will find that the editorial decisions are consistently made in favor of easing readability. The dialogue translation flows naturally and appears practically free of errors excepting a number of lines throughout the book that lack proper punctuation. Once again, the grammar flaws are only noticeable and briefly distracting to the most observant and critical of readers. The book includes a short glossary providing definition and explanation of the medical abbreviations peppered throughout the dialogue.

The broad narrative concept of two young men pursuing opposing avenues of science out of devotion to their mutual love may seem reminiscent of director Makoto Shinkai’s 2004 anime film The Place Promised in Our Early Days, but the specifics of Breathe Deeply’s development are entirely different and far more substantial and affecting than Shinkai’s earlier story. Despite an American publication that visually looks a generation removed from the original Japanese publication, the narrative alone is strong enough to compensate for weaknesses in its presentation. Breathe Deeply is masterfully woven tragedy that will inevitably leave readers in tears. It’s a powerful, deeply moving story which absolutely belongs on the bookshelf of every reader that appreciates exceptional comic literature.

Model kit from last month’s Spooky Empire horror convention in Orlando, Florida. Paint job courtesy of Justin Cartisano.

The sixth issue of Gen Manga (pronounced with a hard “G” in reference to the Japanese kanji character for “origin,” although I’m told by editor Robert McGuire that pronouncing the title with a soft “G” is fine too) is available to subscribers and consumers now. The October issue introduces the first chapter of a new, ongoing serial, Ryo Hanada’s Good-bye Geist, and shifts the magazine even further toward being America’s exclusive and foremost introduction to contemporary Japanese alternative and gekiga manga.

In the latest chapter of Nakamura Shige’s boxing manga Wolf, the expressions on characters’ faces have more subtelty and greater expression. The visual sense of momentum at the end of Okami & Morimoto’s second round of boxing is so forceful and evident that it’s nearly physical. However, the absence of background art is still a bit distracting. Although the art judiciously uses speed lines and sound effects, the amount of white space on each page makes a noticable impression on the reader. The rendering of sound effects partially compensates for the lack of background art, as sound effects are appropriately drawn in different sizes and styles. Although the sound effects aren’t translated, they don’t need to be, as they’re just as much a visual component of the panel design as an audio cue, if not more a visual component than an aural one.

Mihara Gunya’s Kamen, as usual, is a frustratingly short chapter, frustrating in this case because issue six’s story is especially exciting, illustrated with a selection of unusually dynamic frames and perspective angles. With this chapter being all action, movement is illustrated with particularly cinematic flair and distinctly Japanese pacing. The chapter also introduces an intriguing new plot twist.

Karino Arisa’s historical drama Souls shows significant improvement in its sixth installment. While impressive from the outset, by this sixth chapter, Karino’s mastery of drawing detail and background has improved even further while characters now, finally, look more natural and less disproportioned. Dialogue flows significantly better now, allowing readers to clearly distinguish who’s speaking and easily follow conversations. However, unlike the issue’s prior stories, translation typos still creep into this chapter of Souls including, “If it were bleeding” instead of “If it was bleeding” or “…had been bleeding,” and “…tell myself everything’s alright…” instead of “…everything’s all right…” The story in this issue is thankfully more subtle and less pretentious than it’s been. The chapter ends with some uncharacteristicly pleasant humor that encourages the reader to wonder what will happen next.

Fujimura Takayuki’s Sorako slice-of-life drama serves as a welcome visual contrast to Wolf & Kamen as its visual design is jam packed, reminiscent of a Japanese interpretation of an American 70′s or 80′s underground comic. Unlike the three prior stories, the art of Sorako is fluid, quick, imprecise. Lines aren’t perfectly straight nor details entirely accurate, but the rough drafting style gives the frames energy and character, enhancing the impression that the artist’s goal is to tell Sorako’s story, blemishes and all. Sorako finds herself once again beset with young adult ennui, or perhaps it’s simple laziness. But this time around, rather than finding enlightenment, Sorako finds something else that provides a nice, amusing conclusion to the chapter.

“The Hole to Brazil” installment of Hajime Taguchi’s dramatic and provocative manga Alive is an incisive and moving story about human nature and cathartic transformation. Deeply revealing characterization exudes from seemingly minor and simple dialogue and interactions. The alternative narrative focus is also mirrored in the visual composition that evokes artistic, alternative seinen manga with full backgrounds and details but occasional frames or illustrations that look sparse or even amateurish. The dialogue translation preserves Japanese honorables, as signifiers like “-chan” and “-san” are vital to express the relationships in the story without seeming stilted. The translation also flows well with the exception of rare lines like, “Does he belong on the side of those who gets things taken from them?” and “I loathed the man who took her from me to death,” that may either reflect the speaker’s natural thoughts or may be poor grammar. This chapter of Alive is certainly not conventional teen-oriented action or comedy. This is psychological drama about guilt and regret being stripped away by honest confession. It’s not the type of story that most manga readers desire, but it’s very affecting and satisfying for readers that want mature, literary manga that challenges as much as it entertains.

The newest addition to Gen Manga, Ryo Hanada’s Good-bye Geist visually resembles a contemporary shoujo drama but suggests that it will revolve around darker, more complex and threatening themes than typical high school crushes or college entrance exams. The relatively short first chapter introduces characters within the context of mysterious threats including serial animal abuse and a potential stalker. The potential for a compelling narrative is obvious, but readers will have to wait for future installments to see how the story develops. Unlike Alive, the translation for Good-bye Geist translates honorables into conventional English titles. But within the context of this story, the use of “Mr.” and “Ms.” seem natural and appropriate.

As of issue six, Gen Manga continues to evolve, and more importantly, mature into an increasingly interesting and revealing primer of cutting-edge Japanese gekiga manga. With Suzuki Yu’s serial VS Aliens now concluded, Gen Manga has graduated from conventional teen-oriented manga stories into a broad spectrum of adult-oriented manga. From sports to fantasy action to historical drama to contemporary slice-of-life, Gen Manga issue six presents independent manga for readers that want something different, mature, and literate. This is a true look at bleeding edge artistic underground manga stories that are far more concerned with the integrity of their storytelling than with creating popular, mainstream appeal.

Gen Manga issue six is available online in either two-page spread PDF format or single page PDF format. Archival collectors and fans of traditional books should also consider investing in the limited edition print copies of Gen Manga. Particularly as of recent issues, Gen Manga has spared no expense on the print edition, using nicely textured cardstock covers and bright white interior pages that highlight fine detail and make the top-notch printing really burst off the page.

The personality of Arrietty and her parents, some degree of Haru’s personality, and the rapid cut editing of this first American trailer for Ghibli’s Karigurashi no Arrietty completely reinterpret & misrepresent the spirit and tone of the original Japanese picture.

After a number of years, I’ve finally managed to obtain the final remaining collection of Risky Safety production art from the collection of a fellow AnimeNation staffer, adding the two boxes of hand-drawn genga art to my own collection. I am pleased.

The fourth and fifth issue of Gen Manga continue to evolve and mature, further developing ongoing stories while more obviously stepping closer to becoming the cutting edge alternative manga showcase that the magazine promises to be.

Shige Nakamura’s “Wolf” continues to unfold as a good old-fashioned sports drama. But a variety of development emerges in the fourth installment. Nakamura’s graphic art is gradually evolving. Chapter four, especially, exhibits a decreased focus on background and more refinement in its character art, making the manga less of a throwback and more of a uniquely stylized contemporary manga influenced by 60′s and 70′s manga aesthetics. Chapter four introduces a new element of humor that does a great job of counterbalancing the dour tone of the drama. And the fourth chapter continues to peel back the psychology of protagonist Naoto’s estranged parents. Whether by accident or in respect for the readers’ intelligence, the fourth chapter alternates the use of “wolf” with “okami” without any translator note explanation. Both installments include some mildly salty language, but the occasionally strong dialogue enhances the narrative, giving it a sense of reality. The fifth chapter allows a typo in the dialogue to slip by: “bait” spelled “bate.” The dialogue translation in the fifth chapter also frequently feels a bit stilted. But the fifth chapter also introduces a prolonged boxing match that keeps the pace and tension of the story high.

The pacing of Yu Suzuki’s romantic melodrama “VS Aliens” picks up considerably in issue four before declining into a stew of absurd, rapid fire plot twists that feel as much like desparation as carefully plotted narrative. As this particular series has done repeatedly, the graphic art quality improves in the fourth chapter then receeds again in the fifth.

Mihara Gunya’s “Kamen” series likewise gains momentum in its fourth and fifth installments. While the art looks just a bit stiff in the early pages of issue four, the action picks up considerably throughout issues four and five. These two installments also begin to suggest some context for the story that may answer some reader questions.

Arisa Karino’s graphic art largely continues to impress in Souls. Fine detail, texture, and ample use of screentone give the visual art a sumptuous depth and tone. Unfortunately, Karino still seems challenged by natural, human looking facial proportions, and dialogue remains periodically difficult to attribute to a speaker, or even difficult to decipher, as though characters speak at each other instead of with each other. Unfortunately, typos and poorly translated lines like, “The saw beyond your the five senses,” and, “Then that’ll the end for us,” make following the dialogue even more difficult. While this new story arc presented in issues four and five seems a bit better developed than the first story arc, situations like a lengthy abstract philosophical debate between two prostitutes regarding their psychological acceptance of their roles and status, using a wounded pigeon as a metaphor, seems near laughably unbelievable.

Issue four concludes on a high note with Takayuki Fujimura’s self-contained short story “Sorako.” This nice story about young adult ennui and the way that small, routine events shape people’s perspective and personality is illustrated with a compact, stylized art that may be called contemporary gekiga. The concise art and storytelling do a fine job of focusing succinctly on expressing action through art & dialogue. This is far from shounen action/adventure, but it’s also not anime-esque iyashikei slice-of-life. This looks and feels like personal transformation presented through graphic storytelling. Not for readers that want tales of ninjas or aliens or even high school romance, this is a pleasant story for readers that appreciate manga as literal visual storytelling.

Taguchi Hajime’s “Alive” that ends Gen Manga issue five aims for a similar effect but succeeds just a little less successfully. This Kafka-esque gekiga drama about hopeless, despair-riddled people who rediscover self-respect and purpose in their lives is intriguing, but the pivotal epihanies that the characters have could be better illustrated, to make the turning point in these characters’ lives more evident to readers. Although not exploitative or sensationalistic, “Alive” does depict some provocative and adult subjects and images that elevate the story into respectable adult literature but may also surprise readers used to the typically all-ages friendly content that Gen Manga has published thus far.

Gen Manga was founded on a principle of being brand new, cutting-edge independent Japanese manga to English speaking readers. The publication’s first three issues have done a commendable job of introducing new Japanese talent and beinging new manga to American readers, but it’s issues four and five that first begin to fulfill the promise of publishing not just new indie manga but new cutting edge manga that aims for an older, more sophisticated audience. Issues four and five don’t eschew the popular genres of action, supernatural, romantic comedy, and fantasy manga; these two issues compliment conventional themes and genres with more provocative, literary, adult-oriented manga tales.

The increasing scarcity of certain domestic anime DVDs has surfaced as a topic of conversation in the American otaku community lately, so here’s my contribution to the discussion. Just because I’ve been collecting domestic anime discs for so long, I’ve got a fairly extensive collection. But there are still some noteable gaps in my collection. Anybody want to assist me?

Included among the numerous discs I’m still looking for affordable (or preferrably inexpensive) copies of are King Gainer volume 6, Zegapain volume 4, all of Sailor Moon S, Panda! Go Panda (particularly a non-Signature Series edition), a set of Ronin Warriors, Night on the Galactic Railroad, the Patlabor Original Series & New Files collections, Shonen Onmyouji volume 5, Dunbine volumes 11 & 12, Maison Ikkoku sets 2 & 4-8, Lupin the 3rd TV series vol. 11, and most of the Gatchaman collections.

And a Kimagure Orange Road TV series volume 6 replacement cover to finish off a second TV series set.

Granted, most of these discs I don’t strictly “need,” but would rather like to own as momentos of the R1 anime DVD era. If anybody feels like doing some trading, drop a message to me. I’ve got some obscure duplicates like AnimeEigo’s Spirit of Wonder, a Night Warriors volume 2, Cat Soup limited edition, Ariel, Gatchaman OVA, Prefectural Earth Defense Force, and a couple extra sets of Fate/stay night. Plus a whole lot of extra copies of more common discs.

I couldn’t resist this adorable Ichigeki Sacchu! Hoihoi-san Legacy diorama that features Hoihoi-san, Combat-san, and Pest-X in pajamas. It’s due out at the end of the year, and I can’t wait.

The striking, stark and powerful cover images of Gen Manga issues 2 & 3 immediately inform readers that what these books contain is not necessarily the typical mainstream, mass consumption manga that readers may be most familiar with. Gen Manga issues 2 & 3 continue to serialize the four stories begun in issue one. While these subsequent issues reveal some development from the first issue, some of the weaknesses of the first issue also persist.

While none of the four stories serialized in Gen Manga can be called especially unique because all of them draw inspiration from earlier Japanese works, Shige Nakamura’s “Wolf” is the strongest of the stories, not because it’s especially original but because it’s the most fleshed out. As the story expands in issues two and three, new characters are introduced, and the narrative gets more interesting as backgrounds are revealed and characterizations become more developed. For a retro boxing manga, “Wolf” is interesting because it draws more inspiration from the narrative and drawing styles of particularly Fujio Akatsuka and Ikki Kajiwara than from Tetsuya Chiba, its presumed most obvious inspiration. Readers used to contemporary manga may find “Wolf” old-fashioned, but readers that can appreciate its contemporary awareness mixed with reverence for 70′s sports manga should find it quite interesting. Particularly the second issue’s installment introduces a lot more profanity, but the language is all natural and appropriate in context. The second issue’s installment also allows a few translation typos to slip in, including “practive menu” instead of “practice menu” and “with you hand” instead of “with your hand.” The translation in this particular story, unlike the other stories contained in Gen Manga, at times sounds just a bit stilted, but the oddity is minor enough to cause only momentary distraction.

Yu Suzuki’s “Vs Aliens” story is the most kindred to contemporary teen manga, which may make it attractive to readers but also makes it flaws most evident. The story unfolds more slowly, as if it wants to spend more time focusing on its three characters, but instead of revealing anything substantial about its cast’s personalities, the narrative spends its time on superficial trivialities. The narrative development is also weakened by uneven and amateurish development including a cliffhanger in issue three that seems artificially abrupt and unnatural. The art is issue two’s chapters seems especially rushed and careless, evoking the design of a 90′s American indie comic attempt at mimicing Japanese manga. The art in issue’s three’s chapters is cleaner and stronger. Noticably unlike standard practice in Gen Manga, one large panel in issue two’s installment contains a noticable sound-effect translation directly in the panel instead of outside of the artwork. Issue two’s chapters also allow the distracting typo “You can bet they she has a plan,” to slip in.

Gunya Mihara’s fantasy adventure “Kamen” continues to be enigmatic through issues two and three, despite issue two containing a longer than normal installment. The art continues to look nice, although a few drawings of castle walls look like they were drawn with a ruler, which makes them distinctly stand out against the surrounding art’s more rough and evocative look. The character name “Olnela” is distractingly spelled “Onela” the first time it’s introduced, and the typo “”Hiuman language” slips through unchecked. “Kamen” continues to seem like the dark horse of the collection, but readers will have to wait until further issues to determine whether it will develop into something great.

Even more so than the first issue, the art design and use of screen-tone in Arisa Karino’s “Souls” story is lush and gorgeous in its second and third installments. However, the art still suffers from a poor sense of proportion resulting periodically in characters with too-small heads or slightly deformed facial features. This supernatural story of a troubled love between a mother and daughter wants to be very incisive and affecting, but its effectiveness is partially hamstrung because the author’s dialogue and narrative development seem to partially forget that while the writer knows this story inside and out, the readers do not. So motivations and plot developments aren’t always presented literally, forcing readers to guess and interpret from context. Furthermore, extensive use of floating dialogue makes distinguishing who’s saying what difficult to do. The fact that both mother and daugher have similar psychological scars makes the dialogue even more difficult to properly attribute. So instead of immersing in the story and sympathizing with the charactes, readers spend their time trying to analytically process what’s going on and who is saying what. I respect Karino’s goals, but I guess that inexperience with visual storytelling results in her manga having a stronger concept than execution. Translation typos including “Thety all looked down,” “Please listen to be for a moment,” and, “Too much time has past since,” instead of “Too much time has passed since,” also distract a bit.

With its second and third issues, Gen Manga continues to challenge manga publishing convention in America, and for that, the magazine deserves commendation. Gen Manga issues two and three, like the first issue, may not suit the tastes of all American manga readers. But Gen Manga does an excellent job of exposing Americans to another facet of Japanese manga and offering American readers the opportunity to read brand new grassroots manga. These early issues demonstrate growth and development from both the publisher and the manga artists represented. It’s rewarding to experience and support this fledgling effort, and I’m sure that the minor flaws will iron out with more experience and future issues.

In terms of cinematic quality, the 90 minute long Tekken: Blood Vengeance 3D CG movie falls in-between the Resident Evil: Degeneration and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children CG pictures, landing significantly closer to Advent Children, thankfully, than the atrocious Degeneration. However, seemingly by design, fans hoping for and expecting the thrills, gritty cyberpunk atmosphere, and bone-crushing fights of the popular Tekken game series and its wonderful CG movie sequences may find themselves disappointed by the feature film.

The movie revolves around schoolgirl Ling Xiaoyu. After she’s drafted to serve as a high school spy for the G Corporation, she bumps into classmate Alisa Bosconovich, a plant for the rival Mishima Conglomerate. Both girls are tasked with getting close to schoolboy Shin Kamiya, whom both the G Corporation and Mishima Zaibatsu have their eyes on, for a mysterious reason. In the post film interview, screenwriter Dai Sato reveals that he consciously wrote a screenplay that would differ from the Tekken games. His intention was to create a movie that would give viewers a different look at Tekken, offering plot & character development and action unlike the games. And the movie succeeds in that aim, for better or worse. Revealing Sato’s experience as an anime screenwriter, the bulk of Tekken: Blood Vengeance is a high school mystery in which two teen girls bare their hearts to each other. While the picture moves along briskly, it actually includes only three martial arts fights in its entire running time (arguably four depending on how one chooses to define the first half of the climactic battle). More troubling is the fact that its central mystery is not only a MacGuffin, it’s largely counterproductive. In effect, the movie’s narrative seems to be several disparate ideas crudely mashed together, ideas that don’t effectively compliment each other or effectively develop their themes. However, with the briskness of the plot development and its frequent cuts to supporting characters, viewers aren’t likely to notice the plot holes until after the film is finished. To its credit, the movie is never aggravatingly stupid, but it’s also never fully engrossing. The few fight scenes are nicely rendered and satisfyingly lengthy, but the movie never consistently develops the suspense or intensity that characterize the Tekken games’ cut scenes. The film does benefit from a subtle and effective sense of humor. Further to its credit, the movie includes nods to the Tekken cast but doesn’t get bogged down with character cameos. The movie concentrates on being faithful to its narrative which results in a substantial ten or so game characters appearing in the film but not a roster of unnecessary and distracting character cameos.

The film’s animation is fluid and natural. Faces are never especially expressive, but their animation is adequate. Details like clothing and hair are nicely modeled, and textures throughout the picture are good with the exception of a few shots at the beginning of the film that are noticeably simplified and look unfinished. The English dub is usually adequate, although some moments seem forced or unnatural, and some lines of dialogue seem as though they may be loose localizations. The bigger problem with the dub is the fact that it’s noticeably a post-animation dub. Since the animation was designed around spoken Japanese language, character expressions and reactions are sometimes barely but noticeably out of synch with the spoken English dialogue due to the natural differences in Japanese and English grammar. In effect, at times a character’s physical motion will seem a half-second ahead or behind of the triggering dialogue. The film score is used sparingly, and while serviceable, it’s not memorable or even particularly noticeable.

The audience reaction in the theater I watched the movie in was positive, reacting at all of the right beats. But the audience was also noticeably deflated as the credits rolled, pleased to have seen a decent film but disappointed that the film was a typical anime starring Tekken characters rather than a movie which really expanded the excitement, intensity, and tone of the Tekken games onto the silver screen. The film doesn’t disregard its core audience of Tekken faithful, but at the same time, by conscious design, it doesn’t deliver precisely what’s made the games so popular. According to Tekken project leader Katsuhiro Harada, “We want to make a movie that everyone can enjoy… Not just Tekken fans.” Having Digital Frontier, the CG animation studio that rendered the game’s FMV sequences, animate the movie was a wise decision. However, bringing in screenwriter Dai Sato, who is an avowed fan of the Tekken franchise but not especially familiar with the games’ narrative, results in a movie that refers to Tekken plot points and stars Tekken characters but feels like a conventional teen adventure anime rather than the hardboiled, dystopic Tekken fighting games.

The Tekken: Blood Vengeance movie will hit American Blu-ray in November billed as “Tekken Hybrid,” a Blu-ray disc that will include the CG film, playable on any BD player, and Tekken Tag HD, a Playstation 3 exclusive high definition re-release of the 1999 Tekken Tag Tournament fighting game.

Tampa was overcast by a lightning storm on the morning of Friday, July 8, which caused my departure to Chicago, on my way to Toledo, Ohio for Glass City Con III, to be delayed by about 15 minutes. The transfer at O’Hare went smoothly, and I lounged in the Toledo Express airport for ten minutes before Mimi arrived to pick me up. During the drive to the Comfort Inn down the road from Owens Community College, I learned through conversation that steampunk is much more popular up North than it is down in Florida. At the hotel, I was walked to my room around 2pm and left to my own devices. A can of Coke for lunch and a 20 ounce bottle of Coke for dinner may not have been especially healthy, but I had little motivation for anything more substantial. Without a plan or schedule, I woke Saturday morning, lightly partook of the hotel restaurant’s free breakfast, and sunk into a hotel lobby chair with the idea of making myself easy to find. Eventually a convention staffer arrived, and Matt Greenfield, followed shortly by his wife, Tiffany Grant, entered the lobby. With opening ceremonies looming, Matt & I were chauffeured by the McDonalds drive-through so Matt could grab a bite, then taken directly to the convention’s opening ceremony. On the way Mr. Greenfield mentioned that I seemed to have gotten stuck with attending the little con while my compatriots had attended the previous weekend’s Anime Expo. I realized that Matt had confused my affiliation with AnimeNation with Anime News Network but said nothing. To my pleasant surprise, during the opening ceremony introductions, Matt recognized his mistake and jovially apologized.

The Owens Community College campus is typically sized but very spread out. The guests were escorted to a nicely provisioned green room attached to a dealers’ room significantly larger than I’d anticipated. Since the two-day convention is free and open to the public, the young and very enthusiastic crowd was already swelling. An hour after the opening ceremony, I presented my first panel discussion, an audio-visual introduction to unusual and obscure anime like TV commercials, religious and political propaganda, educational anime, and pilot films for unproduced anime. The small room packed to standing-room-only capacity and even with me providing commentary on the video clips as they played, rather than before they played, I had to forego introducing music videos entirely, and select highlights from several of the other categories I wanted to introduce. At the end of the panel, I offered the 20 extra DVDR copies of my visual aid I’d brought along. They all disappeared swiftly.

The panel room I moved into next was less populated. In fact, I was entirely alone for the first ten minutes of the “Ask John” panel. Eventually a curious trio wandered in, eventually to be followed by another several participants. We collectively discussed the merits of Tenchi Muyo GXP, our favorite mecha anime, the differences in Japanese and American reaction to Shinji Ikari, the sexual orientation of the Gundam W boys, the relative vintage of select anime tropes, and the relative impact of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni versus Elfen Lied.

As that hour ended, I stepped into another panel room to participate in the convention chairman’s well-attended panel discussion of censorship in anime. While con chair Chris Zasada was delayed in arriving, I found myself warming up the crowd with some initial discussion. The presentation eventually touched upon 4Kids’ censoring of One Piece, Dragon Ball, and Sonic X, Japanese censoring of Dragon Ball Kai, and various edits and related situations including Tokyopop’s “Tricked Out” Initial D, Mew Mew Power, music edits, translation edits in Angel Cop, the hierarchy of domestic Kite releases, and much more.

Chris and I were then scheduled to host a discussion about the lost treasures and trash of the domestic VHS era. I was pleased and surprised to have Matt Greenfield volunteer to sit in on the panel as well. Matt corrected my pronunciation of Carl Macek’s name. (It’s “Maysek.”) Matt argued that Madox-01 and Akira Production Report were America’s first commercial VHS releases. I debated that Akira Production report isn’t a conventional “anime” and that while Madox-01 was screened publicly first, it wasn’t released on commercial VHS until March 1990, three months after US Rendition’s first Gunbuster & Dangaioh tapes. When Lensman came up, Matt revealed that the the E.E. Smith estate despises the movie, and the film was never officially licensed for domestic release, which explains why Streamline’s (unauthorized) domestic release is so obscure. Matt also explained that VHS is actually capable of supporting two, switchable audio tracks – a fact that neither Chris nor I knew. The capacity was never widely used because few VCRs had the hardware capability to select VHS audio tracks. Regrettably, due to technical difficulties delaying the formal start of the panel discussion, the focus on further specific VHS era favorites was cut short.

With my scheduled responsibilities for the day completed, I retired to the green room to stuff myself with peanut M&Ms. Matt kindly invited me to join he and Tiffany as they roped a staffer into taking us to a local restaurant for an early dinner. We ended up at a nearby American & Mediterranean restaurant. Over dinner, Matt, Tiffany, and I discussed the evolution of con culture from our early days until now, our shared experience of a restless Friday night in the local Comfort Inn caused by a rowdy convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses (no kidding), our love/hate reaction to dumb questions from fans, and our mutual dismay that we’re all getting old when an anime title like Maburaho is now considered “old school.”

During my minimal free time during the day, I dove into the “Vendor’s Venue,” initially picking up the first volume of the Nin x Nin ga Shinobuden domestic magna for $5 and the Revoltech Toro with optional Hatsune Miku costume for $25. I mused to myself, especially when spotting a pair of obscure Pixel Mari-tan Nendoroid figures, that I should have brought a bigger suitcase. With just a school backpack, I didn’t have enough room to take large purchases back home with me.

To pass the evening, I wandered into the very poorly attended “Real Men Watch Princess Tutu” panel run by a con staffer dressed as Ponyo’s father. I found presenter Kyle Smith a bit too absorbed in attaching TV Trope labels to characters without explaining what the witticisms meant or why something so seemingly filled with clichés was actually so good. But at the same time I respect his obvious affection for the title. After again stuffing myself with Green Room peanut M&M’s, I seated myself for the late evening panel introducing shibari. The panel started with an explanation of practical cultural history – erotic Japanese bondage growing out of the martial art of binding prisoners and convicts – to a guide to varieties of rope and resources for aspiring fetishists. When the panel moved into the hands-on phase I departed, not because I was offended or nervous, but just because I was exhausted. A considerate staffer volunteered to drive me back to the hotel.

Sunday morning started with two con staffers fetching, initially, me, Matt, Tiffany, and Doug Smith. With no early responsibilities, I sat in the audience for Matt Greenfield’s “Anime B.C. (Before Conventions)” history lesson. While I personally learned little new, hearing it all first-hand was interesting. Matt concluded the panel by stating that a typical contemporary anime may be licensed now for the cost of a house. He then stipulated that he didn’t specify what size house or where. Most of the roughly half-dozen audience members stayed seated as I took over to present my recollection of the history of AN Entertainment. I surprised myself by discovering that by revealing all the dirt I could recall, I actually managed a 50 minute discussion including a few audience questions.

Since my convention duties for the day were done, I hit the dealer’s room again. At the AniGames table, I spotted a Zenki DVD volume 4. When I inquired about the price, store owner Stan initially responded $40. When I hesitated, he offered $30, and I pulled out my wallet. I then inquired about his unopened volume 3. Stan again quoted me $30, so I bought that one too. He explained that in his experience volume 1 had been tough to find. I said that I’d never had trouble finding the first two volumes. It was now sets 3 & 4 that I had trouble locating affordably. Stan then asked me to identify myself. When he realized that I was “Ask John” of dubious fame, he kept me anchored in place with a lengthy, but not uninteresting, explanation of his idea for a website that would provide concise, practical descriptive analogies for anime series, like calling Galaxy Angel “Anime meets Looney Tunes” or Slayers, “Lord of the Rings meets M.A.S.H.”

Finally, I noticed a pocket sized plush coin purse in the design of a teddy bear’s head sticker priced at $3. I decided that it was too cheap and cute to pass up.

Because video game journalism isn’t too terribly different from anime journalism, I stuck my head into the “Video Game Journalism” panel, only to discover that it was, due to limited attendance, just a conversation between video game reviewer (and brand new father) Aaron Auzins and a single aspiring video game journalist. I did feel encouraged to see an anime convention actually providing an attendee with pragmatic, useful advice and guidance about progressing within the industry. As that panel concluded, I stayed seated for Kyle Smith’s presentation on the Sluggy Freelance webcomic which I’d never even heard of before. The planned panel, due to lack of attendance, turned into Kyle literally explaining various Sluggy Freelance story arcs and character backgrounds to me. Again, honestly, I have little interest in web comics, but I appreciate Kyle’s enthusiasm. After roughly a half-hour and a second panel attendee wandering into the room to take my place, I excused myself to attend a panel ostensibly discussing the parallels and differences between Super Sentai and Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Once again, largely due to minimal attendance, the panel quickly turned into a two-person Power Rangers love-fest with me listening in. I’m not complaining. If I wasn’t enjoying the discussion, I could have left. By that time, the anime industry guests Matt & Tiffany, Robert Axelrod, and Doug Smith, had departed the con. I sat in on the closing ceremony and post-con critique. In its third year, Glass City Con had attracted over 1,500 attendees. Glass City IV would, for the first time, have to charge an entrance fee, but a minimal contribution of as little as $5 would be a bargain for a convention as robust and enjoyable as this one.

Not wanting to impose or interrupt the clean-up, I lounged in con-ops for about an hour before the staff arranged a ride back to the hotel. Since I hadn’t eaten anything at all Sunday apart from a few cubes of day-old cheese and a few handfuls of peanut M&M’s, I walked a quarter mile to the nearby Arby’s for dinner. My night concluded with watching Batman Begins on TV, then reminding myself of how awful Batman Forever was.

I woke early Monday morning to overcast skies and nasty rain. I remained in the hotel room until one when con chair Chris Zasada came to fetch me. We first stopped at Tony Packo’s Hungarian Chili-dog restaurant for lunch before visiting the AniGames store where Stan and his wife were exceedingly gracious. Honestly, I saw little that I actually needed, but I didn’t want to leave empty handed. Although I already own new copies of CPM’s Ariel and “Cat Soup” Limited Edition DVDs, I purchased duplicate copies because Stan’s asking price of $18 and $15 each respectively for still unopened discs was very reasonable. Stan then surprised me by giving me a deck of the “Family Fluxx” card game and a box of Pocky for the road. From there, we visited a second Toledo anime specialty store (Was it “Next Door Anime?” Forgive me if I’m wrong.) The place was small and sparse, but I respect its posted “No Bootlegs” policy, and I respect the determination and devotion necessary to launch any anime retail store. Chris then took me to “Seann’s Anime & Comics,” the retailer that still had one of the Pixel Mari-tan Nendo figures unsold. I wavered over the $50 price tag, but I really wanted to contribute to the independent anime retailer. When Seann offered to ship it to me for free, his extending the extra effort was enough to push me over the hump of my hesitation.

From there, Chris saw me into the Toledo Express Airport where, after slight flight delays in Toledo and Chicago and an unexpectedly painful $60 parking fee for leaving my car at the Tampa International Airport for four days, I arrived home, tired but happy.

I’m grateful to the Glass City III convention staff, volunteers, and participants for welcoming me to their convention and treating me graciously. I’ll gladly come back next year if they’ll have me, and next year I’ll run an anime trivia contest, too.

New York City based independent publisher Gen Manga Entertainment has made its first step into the exciting but tenuous waters of original manga publishing with the first issue of its original manga anthology Gen issue 1. The premiere digital issue is 71 pages presented in PDF format (the equivilant of 142 print pages) containing four original manga stories from independent Japanese artists. Unlike typical manga published initially in Japan then exported to America, the stories contained within Gen Manga are created specifically for Gen and published first with translated English dialogue.

Underneath an attractive cover drawn by Yousuke Abe, Gen Manga issue 1 begins with perhaps its strongest entry, Nakamura Shige’s “Wolf.” Drawn with a simplified graphic style that recalls the work of Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, and Tetsuya Chiba, “Wolf” sets up a dual sports story about two young men that come to Tokyo to persue their dreams: one to become a sumo wrestler, the other to avenge himself upon his distant boxing champion father. While the art design is relatively simple, dynamic use of speed lines, sound effects, and screentones enliven the art, creating a sense of motion and activity that effectively compliments the minimalist art design. The narrative is very much an initial introduction to the primary characters and their circumstances, but it develops with a natural pace that effectively allows readers to get to know the characters. Readers used to or expecting the distinctive quirks and lighthearted nuances of contemporary, mainstream manga may find this retro story a bit slow. But readers comfortable with a diligent, if slightly conventional, manga drama should have little complaint.

Yu Suzuki’s “VS Aliens” channels a much more contemporary tone with a familiar school setting and a slightly off-kilter mystery in the vein of tales including Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko and Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu. The drawings of cute female characters Aya Segawa and Sana Sakuma are consistently attractive and detailed, but male protagonist Kitaro is drawn with a simple, impressionistic design that looks like mid-80′s American attempts at mimicing Japanese character design. The narrative development is likewise a bit compromised. While the story concept of a schoolgirl who just realizes that she may be an alien seems intriguing and ripe for development, the narrative rushes forward through three short chapters without taking adequate time to solidly establish its character personalities. So character interactions and decisions seem inconsistent. “VS Aliens” both looks and feels as much like a contemporary Japanese comic story as an American attempt to emulate Japanese manga style, which may intrigue some readers and frustrate others.

Mihara Gunya’s fantasy adventure tale “Kamen,” is the book’s most intriguing story in part because it’s the shortest contribution to the collection. Like Utawarerumono without the girls, “Kamen” introduces a mysterious man who wakes with a sentient mask covering his face. He encounters a small traveling bad of aggressive soldiers transporting what appear to be slaves, and the manga installment ends. The art design of “Kamen” resembles a simplified Hiroaki Samura, which creates an interesting and confident personality for the art. Like all of the stories in Gen issue 1, backgrounds are minimal, but careful blocking and panel layout give “Kamen” a more accomplished, effective, and cinematic look and feel than its compatriot stories. However, a relatively minimal use of sound effects and the story’s conscious panel blocking create a striking but noticably static feel that lacka a strong sense of motion, liveliness, and energy. The story that’s presented seems interesting, but ultimately what’s presented is too little to base a judgement upon.

Karino Arisa’s entry “Souls” plays out a bit like a female version of the Mononoke anime series, introducing a mysterious female traveler who perceives spirits. The art design makes extensive use of screentones to create a lush visual depth, but the effect is weakened by poor character designs that frequently exhibit a weak sense of proportion. The background design is reminiscent of a simplified Hiroya Oku design style. Lots of sharp, stright lines and negative spaces create a palpably sterile and artifical impression that doesn’t seem intentional as it clashes with the rustic setting and narrative theme. This concluding story also suffers from distracting technical weaknesses including difficult to read black text on black backgrounds, and spelling errors in the translation including “nonsense” spelled “nonsence,” “trapped” spelled as “rapped,” and “lent” instead of “lend.” The story then ends extremely abruptly, before developing its characters and story enough to draw in readers and before establishing whether “Souls” is a complete story or the first chapter of a longer narrative.

The digital presentation of Gen Manga issue 1 is solid. The shaded monochrome art is vivid and crisp. Lettering is usually clear and easy to read. The English translation, apart from some minor errors in the fourth story, is natural and organic with honorifics translated into natural English equivilants when necessary. Japanese sound effects and langauge graphics are kept intact with footnote translations. The stories are published in authentic Japanese right-to-left format.

Readers used to and expecting the professional polish of professionally serialized Japanese manga may find the entries in Gen Manga issue 1 amateurish or unfulfilling. However, as examples of authentic grassroots Japanese manga brought to American readers, the variety of narratives and art styles contained within Gen issue 1 is diverse and respectable. For its very reasonable price – in fact, the first issue is free – Gen Manga issue 1 more than sufficiently proves its value as an interesting and entertaining window into contemporary Japanese manga culture. Publisher Robert McGuire and his staff have done an admirable job of assembling an eclectic selection of original Japanese manga for American readers, and this sort of bleeding edge innovation deserves support.

Saturday I opened the front door of my house to discover that someone had left two mid-1990′s Hobby Japan magazines and a 1997 Otakara Figure Daizukan magazine on my doorstep. I’m certain that there are worse things I could find waiting at my door, and I’m certainly pleased to have anime related goods donated to my collection, but I’m also quite surprised and a bit confused by this unanticipated windfall. Presumably the magazines were left by someone I know. But in that case I’m curious why the contributor didn’t knock on my door to say hello, or leave a note. The alternative explanation is that someone I don’t know happens to know where I live and know that I collect anime merchandise.