Do you have time to answer a really short survey for us ?
(5 questions; 35s to answer on average
Yes I'll do it later No
(5 questions; 35s to answer on average
Yes I'll do it later No
Forum - View topicJapan as Viewed by 17 Creators
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
|
||
|
I finally got my hands on Fanfare's newest release, Japan. An international project that features 17 cartoonist's (half French, half Japanese) take on various locals in Japan (though most take this concept and run wild with it), this is definitally an impressive anthology on basis of concept alone. I won't comment on the French stories right now (though they were equally as strong as their Japanese counterparts), but here's my impressions of the manga-ka:
Moyoco Anno-At only about five pages, there's not much to work with, but it does feature the best art I've seen from her. Anno gets a bad wrap because her stories are somewhat hard for some to get into, but she always puts out interesting stuff. Daisuke Igarashi-Igarashi really knows how to write a great fantastical story. While he writes better with a bit more pages, the weirdness and sheer imagination of his shorts always make them worth while. Little Fish-Never heard of this underground artist, and wasn't overly impressed. His story sports detailed artwork and a wordless narrative, but it comes off as artsy for the sake of being artsy. Probobly the weakest Japanese story in the book. Jiro Taniguchi-As always, Taniguchi's art is stunning. This is a pretty quiet, bittersweet slice-of-life tale, which seems to be what he currently writes. I like his older, hardboiled crime stories myself, but even his lesser works are great reads. Taiyo Matsumoto-This was what I was most exited about, and Matsumoto doesn't disapoint. I've never seen him use this drawing style before (I suspect it's inspired by classic Japanese paintings), but it works great with the story, which is a kind of folktale which I strongly suspect is partly autobiographical (leave it to Matsumoto to do something like this). One of the best stories in the book, easily. Kan Takahama-Takahama is a wonder with the slice-of-life genre. She can really invoke alot of emotions with few pages, and this autobiographical story about home and bittersweet love is one of her best. Definitally my pick for best in the book, which says something about how talented she is considering she's the youngest of the Japanese artists. Kazuichi Hanawa-This underground legend provides a nice closer to the book. His memoir about time spend in prison was facinating but almost unbearbly dry; luckly for us this story is short and sweet. He writes about a local shrine in his hometown and manages to expolore themes of devotion and faith without being heavy-handed or pretentious. I'd definitally like to see similar stuff from him. I'd write about the French stories later, but for anyone interested in intellegent and unique manga, this is a must buy. |
|||
|
|||
shamelessfanboy
 Posts: 48 |
|
||
|
"Japan" has officially made my list.
Just wanted to let you know this topic isn't going to waste. |
|||
|
|||
milcor1
 Posts: 337 |
|
||
|
I'm sure it's excellent. It's just a pain the ass for me to track their books down.
|
|||
|
|||
|
Cloe
Moderator
 Posts: 2728 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
||
Excellent. Well, now I have to pick this up. I'm falling more and more in love with Matsumoto's work every day and I can only read Black & White so many times. |
|||
|
|||
|
Kagemusha
Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
|
||
Yeah, their buisness sense certianly sucks (I'm sure it doesn't help that they aren't even in the US), but hopefully their new distribution deal will make it easier to get their books. Hopefully they'll wisen up about marketing stuff to the American market. I don't mind paying 25 bucks for Japan since it does have a high page count, and their older books are reasonable at around 15, but 20 dollars for what's essentially half a volume of Botchan, not to mention a ho-hum translation, is ridiculous. As for the French stories, most were good aside from a couple of duds, though I really don't have the energy to write about them now. Joann Sfar's story was one of the best (as expected), and the big suprise was Aurélia Aurita's story. I'd never heard of her (not suprising considering my lack of knowlege of European comics outside the big ones), but her story was really a pleasure to read; like a more upbeat (and maybe less refined as well) Takahama. As for Matsumoto, hopefully more of his stuff will get published in English. In particular I'd love to see Ping Pong (it's what Black and White would have been if he wasn't on drugs  ) or Hanaotoko (see shamlessfanboy's avatar) over here, two of his more low-key mangas. I'm even more pumped to see Daisuke Igarashi over here after his recent Tezuka nomination. Witches is one of those titles that could really bring alot of new people into manga.
|
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group