Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Five Badass Shojo Manga
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Oh man, it's my favorite manga of all time too! Not just my favorite manga, but out of anime, books, TV series, video games, everything, it's my favorite! I actually have convinced a few people to read it, only for them all to come back and tell me how amazing I am for telling them to read it! The only manga I've probably had more success with is Twin Spica (because, until a few months ago, that was easy to find it all, thus I was able to tell more people who jumped on it right away). Hopefully the feedback here will make Jason realize that we need a full article for Banana Fish, the most awesome bromance of all time! And Sanctuary, the second greatest bromance, has already gotten one. |
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Graceful Nanami
Posts: 303 Location: United States |
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This is the best article ever. I mean DAMN.
I am so happy to say that I own all volumes of all of these except Swan. They cost me quite a lot back in the day and I can't imagine what they must cost people now. 
If they ever re-released Banana Fish, I'd buy it up again in a flash because the first half of the series I own is in the stupid flipped format from 15 years ago. I'll still treasure those books, though. I've actually shed tears while reading these series. Happy tears, complete and utter depression tears and "so amazingly badass I'm going to die reading this" tears. *punches wall* So good. Hahaha. (Basara is the best manga ever written, by the way.) |
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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Heck, I cried for over an hour after the end of Banana Fish, and I am damn proud of it! I still tear up at every re-read, though not for a good hour anymore. Even when I know it's coming, I still tear up. Though Twin Spica still wins for most tears, just reading them looking at the sky makes you wanna cry.
I've only read vol 1 of Basara, but I would love to buy that too if it got a re-release. I find it strange that, now that they seem to have an area devoted to older audiences (all the Sig and Ikki stuff), that they haven't re-printed these (and Sanctuary) as I think they would be more appreciated today as their fans have grown older and their older audience stuff seems to be selling far better than it used to. I hope someone from Viz is reading this, I really do. I didn't want them to put out Hot Gimmick in BIG edition, especially when Basara and Banana Fish weren't, it just seems so unfair. Also, aren't there some side things for Banana Fish that weren't in 19 that could totally make people justify re-buying the series? Few more side stories things? Would be epic? Oh yeah and I have the Banana Fish artbook! Yay! It's also mostly in black and white, oddly enough. Several of the US 2nd ed covers actually came from the artbook. |
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Graceful Nanami
Posts: 303 Location: United States |
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I love the epilogue in Banana Fish so much. It's one of my favorite things I've ever read. Eiji's niece was sucha great addition. And adult Sing and just... wow. It's beautiful. And them standing in front of the painting...
I always wondered what happened to Yut-Lung, though. He was such a wonderfully-crafted character. And one thing about BF... I wish the few female characters were treated a little more carefully. Shorter's sister was actually interesting. Poor Jennifer seemed like just a throwaway. I kind of liked her and wanted to understand her feelings on Ash's father more. Jessica was great. I think her conversation with Ash about rape will stick with me.
Now I want to read this again but I have too many other series to read... |
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DmonHiro
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Does Angel Sanctuary count as Shoujo, because if it does, it's badass.
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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Yeah, Jennifer was just a throwaway, but Shorter's sister was pretty awesome, as was Jessica. I think that the cast was clearly meant to be pretty much entirely male and the few female characters in there weren't offensively stupid. I feel like with most shojo where the mains are female, a lot of them have severe self esteem issues and treat rape like a romantic fantasy (they practically always seem to fall for the rapist, even if he doesn't win in the end, why would your rapist ever be a serious contender for romance?) Jessica clearly did not think of rape the same way, so that's a pretty big thing imo. Actually, the whole manga didn't look at rape as a good thing. This article talks about the three female characters in Banana Fish. |
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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I agree 100% on Yumi Tamura. The summer of '09, I borrowed all 27 volumes of Basara from the library, and I read all of them in 3 days. And just two weekends ago, I ended up reading all of the scanlations released of 7 Seeds (about 20 volumes) in a 17-hour-sit-in-front-of-the-computer marathon. I had a really hard time stopping.
Her stories are just so engaging. So much drama, so much action, so much violence. I think it really helps that Basara and 7 Seeds are both set in future post-apocalyptic Japan, which allows her to use her imagination and flush out the settings. And, damn, does she do a great job at that. The struggles that man faces ranges from the tyranny of a despotic government to the lawlessness of waking up in a world where only approximately 50 people from your country have survived. Additionally, her backgrounds are so gorgeous and detailed, and you can see her love and respect for nature from those lush drawings (even a desert can seem exciting and engaging). A theme that runs through both of her series is man's connection with nature, which can be both beautiful and horrendous. It has a stronger presence in 7 Seeds, but is still present in Basara. And she has such a wide variety of characters that are really fascinating. I love watching them develop throughout the series - Natsu (7 Seeds) blooming from a shy, withdrawn girl into someone with more self-confidence; Sarasa (Basara), whose main motivation for taking down the Red King at the beginning is revenge, ends up leading a rebellion out of a desire to create a Japan she can be proud of. Tamura's female characters are some of the best ever. So, f*** yes, Yumi Tamura. I'm going to try my best to get all of Banana Fish. Hearing so many good things about it makes me want to try at least. Hey, I ended up spending $50 each for two of Basara's volumes, what's another $100 for one of BF's? 
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jcaliff
 Posts: 156 Location: Houston |
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I would love to add a couple. The Shibata Masahiro's Red Fang/Blue Sonnet series is pretty baddass, a great psychic action series. Also, Shinji Wada's Sukeban Deka is about as baddass a shoujo manga as you can get, taking out bad guys with a yoyo.
 Honestly, there's a lot of awesome shoujo action that came out of Hana to Yume magazine.
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Hellfish
Posts: 391 Location: Mexico |
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Angel Sanctuary is a shojo (the gender of the protagonist is not indicative of genre) and I also thought it was missing on the list. |
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Graceful Nanami
Posts: 303 Location: United States |
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I wish someone would license 7SEEDS but it's just not going to happen. I actally own the first 17 volumes of it in Japanese because I'm such a nut.
At least some of her older one-shots are out there for English readers, too. Those are just as wonderful. Also, another "badass shoujo" would be Please Save My Earth. Some of the **** that goes down in that series is amazing in so many ways. Also, Red River. Lots of violence and general badass moments in that one. Yeah, it has a lot of sex, too. 
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kyokun703
 Posts: 2505 Location: Orgrimmar |
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I just started reading Banana Fish recently after scraping together a bunch of used copies. It took me about four months to finally find a reasonably priced copy of vol. 2 and 8. Luckily I got 19 when TRSI still had a few copies left.
Love Swan. I really wish it would finish. Maybe JManga can do that since nobody else will touch this series. Not crazy about X or Ceres, just because they were severely messed up and depressing as all hell. I did go ahead and order some used copies of Chicago though. Shipped today! |
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jared_thorin
Posts: 30 Location: Omaha Ne. |
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If you like it you should definately check out Wild Com as well. It's also Yumi Tamura and pretty freaking cool. I think the only title on this list that I just could not get into was Swan. It wasn't because it's ballet (I'm a hardcore Princess Tutu fan) or anything I just couldn't get into the characters. As far as I'm concerned though the rest of the list definately qualifies as badass!
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themooninautumn
Posts: 6 |
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I have read, own, and adore all of the legally obtainable series you mention, and I agree wholeheartedly with your comments. Nicely written; this article made me laugh so hard.
Red River is definitely pretty badass. It's one of the few series where the heroine actually learns some self-defense and gets to have some resulting badass moments of her own. Is Musashi Number 9 shojo? There are lots of badass moments in that one. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Badass shojo manga is my favorite shojo manga, and I agree that there is more than one way to measure badassery. Since most of my favorite titles have already been mentioned in the article and the comments (Yumi Tamura! Please Save My Earth! Red River! Fushugi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden by Yuu Watase which I was the first to bring up because I think it's heroine is more badass than it's predecessor's!)
I want to nominate The Story of Saiunkoku as an unconventional source of radical feminist storytelling. The heroine Shurei is a badass not just because she's hardworking, brilliant and tenacious towards her goal of becoming the first ever female official in her country's government, but because she decides to emphasize rather than hide her feminine side during her most difficult trial. It bothers me that in many manga, particularly Yumi Tamura's Basara, the protagonist feels like she has to hide her femininity in order to be a leader. Sasara literally has to pretend to be her late twin brother in order to inspire her people to fight, but even after her secret comes out (as such secrets are want to do; I don't really see that as a spoiler) and despite the fact that she meets a wide variety of female warriors who become mentors and friends, she still yearns for the day that the battle will be over so that she can pass responsibility to someone else and go back to her perceived "true identity" as a woman. In contrast, when Shurei in Saiunkoku becomes the first woman to pass the civil service exam in her country, her employer and mentor Kocho, a sought after courtesan, mistress of a brothel (in which Shurei did accounting and paperwork), gives her a makeup set. Kocho tells Shurei that make-up is a woman's battle armor, "when a woman is wearing makeup, she can not cry, because even a single tear will smudge her face. Therefore, she has to be strong." (Paraphrasing). I didn't buy that at first. Why would a woman going quite literally into a man's world want to emphasize how different she is from them? I think that now, in the year 2012 when our society is supposedly "post-feminist," but woman still don't always earn as much as men, actresses are still judged more for their youth and appearance than their male counterparts, and I personally worry sometimes that people will judge me as a "girl" when I am trying to make a serious point in a professional environment. And, for various reasons, I rarely wear makeup myself. But the message becomes very powerful in volume 8 of the manga. Shurei has to stand trial after she is falsely accused of cheating on the civil service exam, and she chooses to wear makeup in court for the first time, explaining that her ambitions to help her country have nothing to do with her gender. She never intended to be seen as "manly" or even to blend in adrogenously. She has feminine aspects of her personality that are just as legitimate and important to her as her intelligence and career goals, and she does not want to hide that side of herself in her new role. That is a powerful, badass, timely message to girls and women worldwide, and I was touched by it personally. Sometimes you can be a just as badass by kicking gender expectations symbolically as you can by blasting the badguys into space with superpowers! |
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