The Magic Behind Manga

The Magic Behind Manga

Wednesday, February 15, 2017 / No Comments

An acoustic ditty (possibly sung by Urasawa?) plays in the background of the intro animation

Manben, an NHK documentary hosted by Naoki Urasawa, gives us a look into the laborious and sweaty, yet wholly enchanting world of mangakas. Urasawa himself is one of the veteran manga masters, having brought into our world several inimitable thrillers such as Yawara, Monster and 20th Century Boys.

The world of an aspiring mangaka is fraught with financial instability, consequent disapproval from family and possibly worst of all, dealing with the temperamental masses over the years. If you've ever thought about making it as a mangaka, or as a storyteller, this is the series for you. I watched it right after finishing Bakuman, so my brain was totally ramped up. Fun stuff.
 
So this is how the episode goes:  Cameras are set up in the workspaces of the artists, over hours or days, in order to capture a slice of their usual workflow. After filming, the featured artist and Urasawa engage in a dialogue that takes a deeper look at their thought processes, work philosophies and technical decisions. How did they get started? Where do they get their ideas? What do they draw with? How fast do you have to draw? All these questions and more are thoroughly explored and answered.
 

Observe Hanazawa-san's suffering as the deadline creeps up on him

The series originally debuted as a one-off special in 2014 featuring Kaiji Kawaguchi (Zipang, Eagle) and Kazumi Yamashita (The Life of Genius Professor Yanagizawa). Fortunately for us all, it was extended to feature twelve more names so far.

Episode list:

1 x 1    Akiko Higashimura (Princess Jellyfish, Kakukaku Shikajika)         
1 x 2    Kazuhiro Fujita (Karakuri Circus)
1 x 3    Inio Asano (Solanin, Goodnight Punpun)    
1 x 4    Takao Saito (Golgo 13)    
2 x 1    Moto Hagio (Poe no Ichizoku)       
2 x 2    Kengo Hanazawa (I am a Hero)        
2 x 3    Daisuke Igarashi (Kaijuu no Kodomo)         
2 x 4    Usamaru Furuya (At Na Chan's)
3 x 1    Ikegami Ryoichi (Heat, Lord)
3 x 2    Miyake Ranjou (Imuri)
3 x 3    Takahashi Tsutomu (Jiraishin)
3 x 4    Urasawa Naoki

What is especially interesting to observe is that regardless of the commercial popularity of their creations, the artists all display an incredible devotion and consistent fascination with the process and the responsibilities that come with being a mangaka. Perhaps you think the art by a particular mangaka isn't great, that you wouldn't mind if that work was wiped off the face of the planet. But it seems that the point isn't to make a perfect, universally-appealing manga. The greatest blessing that we, as readers, can hope for, is for the artist to always have an attitude of improvement and experimentation. That way, they can keep bringing us on new adventures. In exchange, we have the power to make all sorts of fickle, scorching comments like 'this art reeks of laziness' and 'wow totally unoriginal'.

I had encountered most of the works featured before, but carelessly brushed them off in search of something else after judging their covers for like two seconds. That still doesn't even mean I have to look through everything, because it's not a practical possibility. Isn't it tough being a mangaka in this world?

For mangakas working on weekly serials, they have to accept that showing their best work given the sheer crunch is really just good enough, because the most important thing is that manga is being created. That's what keeps the culture going. A constant pushing and pulling between readers, publishers and artists.

The artists push themselves unrelentingly on the problems of plot and characterization

Due to the nature of publishing, mangas sometimes have 'breather' or the more horrible-sounding 'filler' chapters. I'd like to think from now on that these chapters are what reminds me of the living souls behind manga. Manga really isn't created the same way books are written. It is a living, breathing medium that depends on the mind-numbingly long-term intensive efforts and vision of up to dozens of people. Sometimes you have to take a break if you want to be able to run the rest of the marathon. I'll read and enjoy the journey with that in mind.
 
Since catching the episodes, I've picked up Igarashi Daisuke's fabulously illustrated Children of the Sea.

Igarashi comes from a Fine Art background, and his artistic sensitivity towards composition and colouring is particularly evident. There are several underwater scenes rendered in a beautiful painterly style which are an absolute joy to behold. I've also started on Dead Dead Demon's DedededeDestruction by Asano Inio.

You may recognize his intense, graphic vision from his earlier works. Some spreads from Dedede were featured in his episode and the artwork was just mindblowing so I had to check it out. No regrets.

Dead Dead Demon's DedededeDestruction 
デッドデッドデ−モンズデデデデデストラクション
Volumes 1-5 are currently available at Kinokuniya for $16.10 each if you want to dash out and buy them as I often feel like doing when I find something beautiful. This series is in progress.

Children of the Sea 海獣の子供 
Single volumes or the full set of five volumes can be purchased from Amazon JP for ¥771 and ¥1440 respectively. ‎

DVDs and BluRays of Manben's Japanese-language individual episodes are slated for release throughout 2017, with bonus booklets and clips. They can be preordered right now for up to 20% off depending on which site, which works out to be roughly $42 SGD before shipping. I'm a huge fan of Higashimura Akiko and Inio Asano so I'm definitely reserving funds for those. I do wish they'd release a box set actually, preferably at a lower price... Officially translated episodes on Crunchyroll or something would be nice too, as I'd venture to say that this is a topic that people all around the globe are interested in.

At the official NHK Manben site, there are transcripts and extra clips available for viewing. (Japanese only, but easy enough to navigate)

Written by Mana

A Closing Prayer for Love Live Merchandise: SIF Official Illustration Book 4

A Closing Prayer for Love Live Merchandise: SIF Official Illustration Book 4

Monday, February 13, 2017 / No Comments

It might not be a secret that these books are for SIF art. There are 4 books up until now and with this we will end the 1st rotation for Muse. That means, the 4 books holds all the URs of the first round of pairings for the Muse girls. This ends with the Devil set featuring Umi and Nico as URs.

Round 2 will start with Pool Honoka and Kotori URs.

For this book, I'll be doing a simple show-through to the sets, but will not be showing every image or page. If you wish to purchase this book, I'm pretty sure it's still available on Amazon JP and ships directly to Singapore, which was how I got the book myself. It's going at 2000+ yen too.

The ordering of the sets might be a little messed up due to the mishap my camera had. Rest assured that the book itself definitely follows Klab release order.

Let's begin!

I find that this is a good choice for the cover of the book as the Arabian outfit is something less common in the idol world, hence set them apart from other illustration books. It is also something more unusual for Love Live! hence, more fitting to put them on the cover (instead of say, swimsuits).

Front and back covers of the book features all the girls in this set. This is something kept common since Volume one. As a side note, out of all the SRs in this set, I like Hanayo's best~

Animal set (URs: Maki Honoka)

Ball/Victorian set (URs: Nozomi Kotori)

Christmas set (URs: Eli Hanayo)

Circus set (URs: Umi Maki)

 Fairy set (URs: Nico Rin)

 Taisho Romance Set (URs: Honoka Hanayo)

 Baseball set (URs: Maki Eli)

 Dancer/Arabian Set (URs: Rin Kotori)

 Idol set (URs: Honoka Nozomi)

Devil Set (URs: Umi, Nico) 

  

After going through the scouting cards section of the book, we see how disorganised the later part of the scouting rotation is. Honoka had a total of 3 URs in this book (Animal, Taisho, Idol) and not to mention, she will be starting off the next rotation as well with her Pool card.

In any case, let's move on. The next part is the private section which features the event cards.

Each girl has 2 events hence 2 pages, each featuring the unidolised and idolised versions of the cards. Once again, I have Honoka as an example.

Special selection shows the 9 promo URs given from log-in, which we still haven't gotten on EN SIF. That and the cherry girl Hanayo.

It follows up quickly with themed outfits and I have the more unique ones as examples. These are the mermaid and marine outfits. The shrine maiden outfit isn't based on any card yet as far as I know but have appeared in the story (hint: Nozomi) thus far. Perhaps they are also as links to the Kanda even collaboration?

This part ends with cute chibis of some of the outfits -- china dress, cyber and thanksgiving/valentines. If it were to have Cheerleader instead, I'll say it's a hint for challenge festival but as of now they look more like the straps released more than anything. That being said, it feels more like an illustration page than a goods marketing one so I'll let it slide. 

And the last section of the book (the index) is the weirdest placement because it's basically a content page at the end of the book. But then again Bushimo is famous for being a little strange, especially when it comes to Love Live goods...

Would I get this book?
I have and honestly would again. This is the ending of the first rotation of the illustrations which gives me perfect closure. With the stunted release of Mu's cards on SIF by half from now on, the books will take twice as long to be released now... except that it's more plausible they will combine Mu's and Aqours releases from now on. I don't wish to get the combined book so this might very well be my last illustration book from them.

And so I'll definitely treat it well!

~ Reina-rin

「Book Review」Love Live! Movie: Visual Artbook

「Book Review」Love Live! Movie: Visual Artbook

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Ever since the introduction of Aqours, fans of Love Live! has understood that the fandom is approaching its demise. Even the game has slowed down the release of cards from 1 set in 2 events to 4. Nevertheless, Bushimo has turned the majority of its attention to Aqours, leaving Mu's with the shorter end of the stick -- that is, a new team for their art.

Honestly, I am not a very big fan of Aqours. I do have my best girls there (Riko and Maru) but even they can't compete with the place Mu's had in my heart. Furthermore, I dislike about half of Aqours cast compared to Mu's, and find the obsession with You too heavy even when contrasted against Maki's, hence limiting the goods that are produced and the costumes featured in the goods to those You-centric such as Koi ni Naritai Aquarium. Perhaps if You were my best girl, I would have different sentiments, but she isn't so... *shrugs*

Seeing as I am so reluctant to get that many Aqours goods (I have a few), I decided to stop the artbook collecting with Mu's. My last batch that came in is the one with the Movie (this review) and the illustration book Vol. 4.

It's no secret that Honoka is my third best girl in Mu's and that might have made me slightly biased but she looks so cute here! I really do like the Angelic Angel outfits though they might have become slightly overused!

From here on, I'll be diving into a review of this book but do note that I will not be providing scanlations of any sort and neither will I be providing any clean image of any, let alone all, the pages of the book. If you wish to purchase the book, it's still on Amazon.jp (where I got my copy from) and they do ship directly to Singapore.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business!

This is the book cover and it comes with only Honoka. This is the front and the other side only stretches on her illustration to her back. Something special about this would be that the cover is actually shiny, except for Honk), making it a good statement piece to grab attention if displayed.

Removing the actual cover gives this pink cover of the book itself, decorated with items that have slight links to Love Live! and the movie where they went overseas. I don't actually see any strong connections so if anyone has a clue do let me know.

As with most of their illustrations, the first page comes with a poster of the cover, which is that of Honoka. If anyone is wondering how the other side of the cover looks like, here's a clue. Unfortunately, I only gotten myself a single copy and will not be removing this poster. My rule of thumb is to have at least 2 books before I consider butchering a copy for pages.

First comes slight recaps of the movie with some screencaps and description. Maybe it'll bring back some good memories of the movie!

Next up are the songs featured in the movie, followed by a front-side-back view of their costumes. I have never known or understood what criteria are needed for choosing the screencaps because look at that Honoka side-profile, she's anatomically hideous. I'm sure there are better screencaps they can come up with than that, honestly.

Other than Angelic Angel, other songs like SUNNY DAY SONG and Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari were also featured.

As if this whole book isn't already about memories!! The next section features an introduction to the 9 girls one by one. I swear they have this in every single one of their books.

For this section I took a picture of Honoka's page, but rest assured the other girls have their own double-page introductions too.

Seiyuus are up next and they have their own smaller small corner. This is more of an interview section and each seiyuu strikes a pose at the end of the page. I like how Emitsun is displaying how to perfectly pull off the strange anatomy in SIF cards, while Nanjo is just being all stiff~

More images of the 9 girls up next and most of them are individual. Here's where we take a memory trip down to when Love Live's art isn't so polished. But then again, they go back to this style once in a while (Initial Mu's SSRs, I'm staring at you guys) so it might not just be an ancient thing.

 And to zoom in.

 Nico are you feeling fine? You look like you're about to fall. 

Here, hold my hand for support.

This is the "Just for Laughs" corner because here's where Bushimo actually listed explicitly what Movie goods there are. It might have been a good catalog if I were interested in getting them all and keeping track of what I have and will buy, but I'm not and so this looks like a heavy marketing scheme, that in my honest opinion, fails.

It's just a waste of space really. I'd rather get more art or even the grotesque screencaps Bushimo likes to insert randomly.

 Oh look, something that actually looks cute! 

Too bad I have it already, I guess...

Following that we have a group art of Printemps--

 Lilywhite--

and BiB---?!?!

 WHO

 WHO IS THIS?!

[x] Twintails

[x] Red Ribbons

[x] Black hair and Red eyes

Oh, it's Nico.

Please don't do this to Nico, Bushimo...

Collab artwork up next!

An illustration of Nico that finally gives her cuteness justice.

I know this exists, but it's just hilarious.

And more goods. Seriously, Bushimo?

Worth of book 7/10

I say worth based on how much I think the book is worth the money I spent on it, which was about 2500+ yen. It isn't a lot but there are better things I could have gotten with the same amount. Though, do take my words with a pinch of salt as I'm rather out of the Love Live! fandom already and I'm more or less done with the things Klab and Bushimo has been pushing out to milk money from this fandom. That being said, this book was collected because it's the second and last Movie thing I own and I got this as a form of closure to the Mu's part. Despite this, I don't expect myself to go running to the Aqours side anytime soon, if ever, either.

What did I find nice about this book?
I love the cover. It was more than half of the reason why I got the book and the A3 poster inside of Honoka, that's amazing. I enjoyed looking through the songs and the outfits. Love Live outfits are usually cute, I'll give them that. In addition, I enjoyed the collab art also -- not so much of the artstyle but more of realizing collabs I never knew existed otherwise.

What did I not like about this book?
The art gets a bit wonky at times. They like to revert back to the ancient, strange looking art styles at times, evident by all my nico-picking. But they are really just a few of them in here. Screencap choices are strange, as usual. I should have gotten over it a few books back but I haven't. This book had a repeated screencap too, which was the Eli Angelic Angel screencap in the Song corner, repeated in her character introductions. Not a big point, but repeated screencap that's glaringly obvious...

And last but not least, the catalog of goods. That's ridiculous. I understand that this is a book about the Movie and people might enjoy looking at the array of goods provided but that's not an excuse of tossing in the Goods page... Twice.

Would I buy this if given the choice?
Quite frankly, I would. For the Honk cover and poster.

~ Reina-rin