Legend of Chun Hyang
CLAMP
Complete in one volume
I love CLAMP. This is no secret to my friends and family -- I have entire shelves of CLAMP's works, some in the original Japanese. I can admire the drawings even if the meaning of the text escapes me.
CLAMP is a manga circle of five women, which has been together for twenty-five years now. They have written and illustrated manga for a variety genres and using a range of illustration styles. Although I usually know CLAMP's work when I see it, no single work can be said to capture their full range of storytelling or illustration skill. However, Chung Hyang, as it is only a single volume long, is a decent place for a new manga fan to start.
The story itself is based, rather loosely, on a Korean folk character. The introductory pages of each of the first two stories explain that the original Chun Hyang was a commoner who was betrothed to a nobleman, and that she remained true to him even once they were separated. She became a symbol for chastity. However, CLAMP's Chun Hyang is a far more action-oriented girl. This version of Chun Hyang is a burgeoning martial artist, the teen daughter of the town healer, and she has a strong sense of justice which regularly puts her in opposition to the town ruler and his 'idiot son.' After a goofy, yet mysterious and handsome stranger arrives in town, the conflict between Chun Hyang and the town authorities soon comes to a crisis.
The artwork is excellent, though not necessarily CLAMP's best (Try the currently running XXXholic or their more experimental Clover series for an idea of exactly what these ladies can do). Chun Hyang does have many markers of CLAMP's style: Chun Hyang herself has big eyes with thick lashes, slapstick panels with chibi characters are used to comedic effect, and the pages are well balanced, favoring strong lines and large areas of absolute black and white.
Although the Tokyopop release is 'complete,' in that there are no further volumes available in Japanese, the story does not have much of a denouement and hints of a larger, arcing story are threaded even into the final chapter. But as each chapter forms a complete episode, this is not a major complaint for me. Legend of Chun Hyang is one to borrow for the general manga fan, but one that CLAMP fans will want to buy, for without it no fan's collection could be complete.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Monday, July 10, 2006
Earthian by Yun Kouga
Earthian
Yun Kouga
Four volumes, three currently available
I read a lot of shounen ai manga. A lot. I started reading out of curiosity -- Romances featuring two male protagonists, written by and for a female audience? What a strange phenomenon! -- but something must have resonated for me. Now a majority of the shoujo (girls') series that I pick up are shounen ai or at least suggestive of shounen ai in tone.
As someone interested in the shounen ai genre as a cultural phenomenon, I bumped into repeated references to Earthian, which is considered by many to be a classic of the genre. I was very excited when Blu started releasing Earthian in translation. The presentation itself is excellent. The manga have beautiful, pearlescent, textured covers and several full-color page inserts, and the first volume alone is 390 pages long, making it nearly twice as long as the average manga volume.
However, this is an early work by the mangaka (artist/author), and it shows. The basic story is that two angels have been sent from Eden to investigate the Earthians. Kagetsuya is collecting minuses, or reasons that Earthians deserve to be destroyed. Chihaya, a kind angel with (gasp) black hair and wings, collects pluses and believes Earthians deserve to be spared. The two angels work together as a team, despite the seeming conflict between their assignments. Eventually, they are going to fall in love with each other even though homosexuality is a crime in Eden, as is repeated ad nauseum throughout the first volume. The first volume is very episodic in nature, presenting several different short stories set in different locales around the world. There are hints of continuing story lines and implications of intrigue back in Eden, but in the first volume, these come to nothing more than suggestions of a larger plot.
The artwork is good for an early work by an artist, but not outstanding. The style favors thin linework, and close-ups of characters predominate most pages. This led me to the occasional confusion when trying to figure out where various characters stood in relation to one another when scenes were shown from a greater distance. Ordinarily, hazy proximics don't bother me that much, but I was already having trouble telling some characters apart from each other, so it caused me to stumble over particular panels. Also, the fonts chosen by Blu, although pretty, are sometimes hard to read, especially when large amounts of text needed to be fit into small boxes. As I understand, the differences between various characters became stronger as the series went on, and that particular problem may not extend to later volumes. However, I was not sufficiently enthralled by the story to continue reading past volume two, so I cannot say whether that proved to be the case for myself.
Borrow it, or engage in some standing and reading at the bookshop, if you are particularly interested in the history of the genre. If shounen ai isn't your thing, just give it a miss. This isn't the story that will convert a non-fan.
Yun Kouga
Four volumes, three currently available
I read a lot of shounen ai manga. A lot. I started reading out of curiosity -- Romances featuring two male protagonists, written by and for a female audience? What a strange phenomenon! -- but something must have resonated for me. Now a majority of the shoujo (girls') series that I pick up are shounen ai or at least suggestive of shounen ai in tone.
As someone interested in the shounen ai genre as a cultural phenomenon, I bumped into repeated references to Earthian, which is considered by many to be a classic of the genre. I was very excited when Blu started releasing Earthian in translation. The presentation itself is excellent. The manga have beautiful, pearlescent, textured covers and several full-color page inserts, and the first volume alone is 390 pages long, making it nearly twice as long as the average manga volume.
However, this is an early work by the mangaka (artist/author), and it shows. The basic story is that two angels have been sent from Eden to investigate the Earthians. Kagetsuya is collecting minuses, or reasons that Earthians deserve to be destroyed. Chihaya, a kind angel with (gasp) black hair and wings, collects pluses and believes Earthians deserve to be spared. The two angels work together as a team, despite the seeming conflict between their assignments. Eventually, they are going to fall in love with each other even though homosexuality is a crime in Eden, as is repeated ad nauseum throughout the first volume. The first volume is very episodic in nature, presenting several different short stories set in different locales around the world. There are hints of continuing story lines and implications of intrigue back in Eden, but in the first volume, these come to nothing more than suggestions of a larger plot.
The artwork is good for an early work by an artist, but not outstanding. The style favors thin linework, and close-ups of characters predominate most pages. This led me to the occasional confusion when trying to figure out where various characters stood in relation to one another when scenes were shown from a greater distance. Ordinarily, hazy proximics don't bother me that much, but I was already having trouble telling some characters apart from each other, so it caused me to stumble over particular panels. Also, the fonts chosen by Blu, although pretty, are sometimes hard to read, especially when large amounts of text needed to be fit into small boxes. As I understand, the differences between various characters became stronger as the series went on, and that particular problem may not extend to later volumes. However, I was not sufficiently enthralled by the story to continue reading past volume two, so I cannot say whether that proved to be the case for myself.
Borrow it, or engage in some standing and reading at the bookshop, if you are particularly interested in the history of the genre. If shounen ai isn't your thing, just give it a miss. This isn't the story that will convert a non-fan.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova
Dramacon
Svetlana Chmakova
On-going series, one volume released
Dramacon is a manga for everyone who's ever gone to an anime convention or simply wanted to attend one. It packs all the excitement, humor, disappointments, and sheer craziness of an anime convention in a smaller, paper and ink format which is much easier for home consumption than a full-sized convention.
Volume one introduces us to Christie, an aspiring comic author attending her first convention. With her are Derek, her artist and boyfriend, and two friends, all of whom clearly have prior con experience under their belts. Christie finds the con scene a bit intimidating -- from transportation issues and lost reservations to crazy cosplayers and huge crowds, it all gets to be overwhelming to a newcomer. But her friends don't notice her floundering-- especially not Derek who is too busy flirting with scantily clad cosplayers under the guise of selling their comic.
Frustrated beyond words, Christie takes off by herself into the con, where she runs into a mysterious cosplayer, a handsome guy in dark shades with a few insecurities of his own...
Dramacon is one of several OEL (Original English Language) manga launched last year by Tokyopop. I know, OEL manga makes people roll their eyes. But try this one before you snub it. Svetlana Chmakova’s grasp of the medium is solid. Her style makes heavy use of manga visual conventions: big eyes and small mouths abound; anger marks, sparkles, and sweatdrops appear during moments of high emotion; and, yes, characters even become chibified. But not content merely to imitate Japanese artists, she has taken these elements and combined them with clean panel layouts and a style all her own.
The story so far will appeal to fans of shoujo first and foremost. Romance definitely plays a central role in this volume -- Will she dump Derek? Will she connect with the cosplayer? -- and there are also hints of a coming of age story, as Christie tries to find her feet not just at the convention but also as a writer. But even fans of anime and manga who do not read much shoujo will find something to enjoy in this one. Between the fun supporting characters, the hidden references to other manga series, and the nods to fan culture, there's something here for every fan. In fact, my only complaint about this series is that the next volume isn't out yet!
Svetlana Chmakova
On-going series, one volume released
Dramacon is a manga for everyone who's ever gone to an anime convention or simply wanted to attend one. It packs all the excitement, humor, disappointments, and sheer craziness of an anime convention in a smaller, paper and ink format which is much easier for home consumption than a full-sized convention.
Volume one introduces us to Christie, an aspiring comic author attending her first convention. With her are Derek, her artist and boyfriend, and two friends, all of whom clearly have prior con experience under their belts. Christie finds the con scene a bit intimidating -- from transportation issues and lost reservations to crazy cosplayers and huge crowds, it all gets to be overwhelming to a newcomer. But her friends don't notice her floundering-- especially not Derek who is too busy flirting with scantily clad cosplayers under the guise of selling their comic.
Frustrated beyond words, Christie takes off by herself into the con, where she runs into a mysterious cosplayer, a handsome guy in dark shades with a few insecurities of his own...
Dramacon is one of several OEL (Original English Language) manga launched last year by Tokyopop. I know, OEL manga makes people roll their eyes. But try this one before you snub it. Svetlana Chmakova’s grasp of the medium is solid. Her style makes heavy use of manga visual conventions: big eyes and small mouths abound; anger marks, sparkles, and sweatdrops appear during moments of high emotion; and, yes, characters even become chibified. But not content merely to imitate Japanese artists, she has taken these elements and combined them with clean panel layouts and a style all her own.
The story so far will appeal to fans of shoujo first and foremost. Romance definitely plays a central role in this volume -- Will she dump Derek? Will she connect with the cosplayer? -- and there are also hints of a coming of age story, as Christie tries to find her feet not just at the convention but also as a writer. But even fans of anime and manga who do not read much shoujo will find something to enjoy in this one. Between the fun supporting characters, the hidden references to other manga series, and the nods to fan culture, there's something here for every fan. In fact, my only complaint about this series is that the next volume isn't out yet!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Welcome to Standing and Reading!
Why start another little review site on the web? Well, there's simply not enough time to read all the good books out there, so I feel a bit of direction can hardly go amiss. My plans for this blog are fairly modest -- honest reviews, when the spirit moves. I plan to review 'sequential art,' aka comics as well as text-only books. My current interests in that area tend toward manga, especially girls' or shoujo manga. I am fairly devoted to fiction. Expect mostly fantasy and 'chic lit' stories on, although I may surprise you with the odd adventure or crime novel. And even more rarely, non fiction.
The first review post goes up Friday: this week I'm reviewing Esther Friesner's Temping Fate.
The first review post goes up Friday: this week I'm reviewing Esther Friesner's Temping Fate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)