A weekly look into American otaku culture

Warning: review contains some profanity

Our hero in today’s story is Yukio, a 14-year-old nerd who live a very boring teenage life. He has a crush on his childhood friend, Izumi. She used to be a tomboy, but now she’s the hottest chick the whole middle school. In other words, he doesn’t stand a chance of getting with her. But all that changes when he comes across Beck, a dog with Frankenstein-like fur. Yukio saves the mutt from being bullied by a group of kids. Beck’s owner, a 16-year-old rock musician named Ryusuke, takes a liking to the boy, and returns the favor later on when Yukio is in trouble. What they later discover is that Ryusuke had just come back from America, where he had just missed out being part of a Nirvana-like band. To show that he’s not a complete failure, Ryusuke has made a vow to form the greatest band in the world, and it looks like he wants the timid Yukio to be a part of it.

There’s really only one word you can use to describe BECK, and that would be, “cool.” Everyone has their day-jobs (Yukio and Izumi are students, Ryusuke is a fisherman), but at night they like to hang out and listen to rock music. The mood that is created by reading it is exactly what it’s like to experience it. It reminded me a lot of my teenage years going to those run-down rock clubs.

While the “Loser-to-Rock-Star” formula is quite old in American stories, it is very unique to Japanese comics. In fact, the whole idea of American pop culture being trendy in Japan is what makes this story so interesting. While Yukio wants a beef bowl from Yoshinoya, his hip friends want McDonalds. While he listens to the latest J-pop star, his friends are into grunge rock. English and Japanese are constantly being interchanged with each other, and if you are familiar with both languages, you can relate to how much the characters struggle with it. And even some negative American stereotypes, such as gun violence, are present in this book.

	If you get the jokes behimd any of these images, thent BECK is the kind of book for you.

But this series does have some serious things going against it. The main blow is the artwork. It’s just… ugly! It’s simple character design and attention to clothing styles and attitude makes it look like a stylish shojo manga, which is my least favorite kind of manga. And then there’s the dog Beck. He is a Frankenstein creation of different breeds of dog fur stitched together. It’s sad and disgusting, really. That’s not to say that it’s all bad, though. Every once in a while, the artist does manage to make the lead girl, Izumi, look very cute. But that still doesn’t make up for the rest of the art.

Another thing that’s questionable is the behavior of the characters. Since the story is based on American teenaged punks, the characters act just like them. They use a lot of profanity and say some of the dumbest things possible. It reminded me all too well about having these kinds of dumbasses in my high school class, and how much they annoyed me.

But at the same time, this kind of behavior is the subject of many jokes in this series, and I really like having a good laugh over the stupid things that people say. Take for example this lovely analogy uttered by a random rock fan as he’s watching Ryusuke’s band perform:

Rock Fan: Whoa, this band’s got, like, two ass-kicking guitarists! Two radically different styles that blend together perfectly. Like two snakes fucking!
Yukio: Snakes fu–? I guess that means they’re good!

I don’t know why, but something about “two snakes fucking” is stupid but comedicly brilliant at the same time. And this series also has some great moments too when it “breaks the fourth wall” and talks about itself as a manga. One of the funniest panels is Yukio watching his friend playing a video game at an arcade, and then the narration instructs the reader to “Just stare at this panel for 10 minutes to get an idea of Yukio’s life is like.”

But finally, I have to express my disappointment in how Tokyopop handled this translation. In a move completely unlike anything else the company has done in the past, the editor went nuts with adding comments in the margins of the pages. Sign translations, inside jokes, and explanations pollute the white space, and it really is a waste of time to read and at times confuses the reader. I get the most confused at the points where very tiny Japanese text is translated in the margins. You have to actually search for where the text originally appeared in the art because it’s not that obvious.

If you like what you see, please support this series by buying BECK vol. 1 at Amazon.com or your local bookstore.

One of the best sleeper hits for me was a manga that featured a couple of high school girls on the cover. It looked so cute that I knew it would be my kind of manga. When I brought it home and opened it up, I was surprised to see that it wasn’t like anything I’ve read before. It was a collection of four-panel comic strips that told a linear story. But after reading the first couple pages of this quirky comedy about high school girls, I was hooked. Azumanga Daioh quickly became one of my favorite manga at the time, and I feel it to be one of the best series of all time. But I thought that I had seen it all, considering that all of the manga and anime has been out for quite some time. So, man, was I surprised to see this new title on the shelves the other day while at my local Borders. I wasn’t even aware that it was licensed in the US! But is it as good as it’s predecessor? Well, I believe it is, and maybe even a little better!

Yotsuba&! is Kiyohiko Azuma’s follow-up to Azumanga. It’s the story of a naive little girl, Yotsuba, and how she observes the world around her. The book starts off with her moving into a new house with her father, and we’re introduced to the family living next door, a mother and her three daughters. While the mother is very dull, each of the daughters have their own cute personalities that often clash with each other. The oldest is the pretty one, Asagi, and the youngest is the smart one, Ena. But probably the most important daughter is the middle one, Fuka. She’s not that pretty and draws some pretty bad artwork, but she’s very helpful and polite.

Fuka: We should take this next door for them to sign.
Mother: Mm.. Alright then. Do it for me, will you?
Fuka: OK. I’ll be back.
Mother: You’re such a good girl, Fuka. You do your mother proud.
Fuka: Ha ha. um… it’s no big deal.
Mother: Asagi on the other hand… she’s worthless. You know, she ate my ice cream last night. I’ll never forgive her for that.

Yotsuba and her father are also friends with a really tall person with the nickname Jumbo. Jumbo has to be one of the coolest characters in all of manga history. He has some of the funniest lines in the whole book.

Mother: YOU’RE HUGE! What happened to you?
Jumbo: My dad’s ancestors were giraffes.
…
Asagi: It must be difficult finding clothes in your size, huh?
Jumbo: Bah! Clothes! Who need’s clothes?!
…
Ena: YOU’RE HUGE! Oh, I’m sorry. I- I mean, you’re tall.
Jumbo: ROWRR!

If you hadn’t already noticed, Azuma has a very unique sense of humor. However, I feel that it does translate well to the foreign audience. He’s quirky, there’s really no other word to describe him. He has one of his characters do something very strange, and then all the other characters react to such bizarre behavior. Azuma’s hollow-eyed “in-shock” expressions have now become common in other anime series. Ken Akamatsu’s latest series, Negima, would be the best example of this.

How Yotsuba&! differs from Azumanga is that since the title character is just a naive little girl, her ridiculous behavior can be just considered, “oh, she just doesn’t know any better.” In some cases it’s considered more cute then funny, which may be a positive thing for this series. But every once in a while you’ll get the adults acting up to remind you that everyone crazy in the world of Azuma. Take, for example, this exchange between Yotsuba and her father when he put a pair of boxers over his head:

Father: I AM BOXERMAN!
Yotsuba: Boxerman! We meet again!
Fuka: What do you mean, “again”?
Father: Which way is up? Which way is down? I do not know!
Yotsuba: Curse you, Boxerman!

The only gripe I have would be the English title of the book. I don’t know why the guys at ADV would chose such a translation for it, but God is it an eyesore!!! The Japanese title is “Yotsubato!” with “Yotsuba” being the name of the main character and “to” meaning “and.” So the title is meant to be read “Yotsuba and…” with each chapter title filling in the rest. “Yotsuba and Moving”… “Yotsuba and Manners”… “Yotsuba and TV”… you get the point. So yeah, the title does make sense in that respect.

But an ampersand?!? Who the hell uses an ampersand anymore?!? That is a very, very poor and unnecessary decision on ADV’s part. I understand that they couldn’t leave it as “Yotsubato!” because it wouldn’t work with the chapter titles that way. But still, they should have just done it as “Yotsuba and!” or maybe just put a damn space before the ampersand. Yeah, it’s still difficult to read and understand, but it’s a hell of a lot better then trying to read “Yotsuba&!”

But that still doesn’t bring down one of the best books to come out this year. If you were a fan of Azumanga, Yotsuba is a must have book! With loveable characters, great punch-lines, and the most quirky humor out there, I can’t stress how much I just LOVE this book! (^_^)

Please support this series by buying Yotsuba&! vol. 1 at Amazon.com or your local bookstore.

And now for something completely different.

There are many genres in Japanese comics that you really do not see being brought over stateside. A lot of them are understandable, such as series about Pachinko and Mahjong. But there’s a certain kind of comedy called “gag comics” that are very popular in Japan but not here. Why is that?

Well, simply put, the Japanese and Americans have different scenes of humor. There is a lot that can translate well between the two, but a lot of it just blows right over the foreign audiences’ heads. The problem with “gag comics” is that jokes are merely just for cheap laughs and come at you at a very rapid pace. Well this might be good for the funny pages in your newspaper, but it is very overwhelming in a comic book format. Typically a page would look like this:

Panel 1: set-up
Panel 2: set-up
Panel 3: punch line and reaction
Panel 4: new set-up
Panel 5: set-up
Panel 6: punch line and reaction
Panel 7: new set-up
Panel 8: punch line and reaction

This formula doesn’t usually work well with American readers. A number of years ago, I picked up the gag comic “Crayon Shin-chan” because I knew it was one of the most popular series in Japan. Well, I hated it. It was the stupidest manga I have ever read. It currently has the title of being the only book I have ever returned to the bookstore.

So what the hell was VIZ thinking with their newest release from Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama? Well, not only does “Dr. Slump” translate well in the US, but the fact that it is a gag comic sets it apart and anything on the store shelves at the moment. `

Written in 1980, “Dr. Slump” shows the antics of a crazy inventor, Senbei, and the robotic girl that he created, Arale. The plot really does not get more in depth then that, just our characters being put in different situations and watching how much they goof up. Hey, why don’t we send them to a coffee shop? How about middle school? Lingerie department? X-ray glasses? Prehistoric times?!?

Yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous, but just don’t take the story too seriously. The real point of the series is the comedy. For something that’s over a quarter of a century old, the jokes are surprisingly not outdated. Most are about Arale having a naïve understanding of sexuality and the virgin inventor’s handling of the question. He tells Arale that he couldn’t make realistic reproductive organs for her because Japanese censorship laws prevented him from seeing a real female’s crotch in pornography. But the real gems are the jokes that poke fun at the comic itself.

Woman: [looking at Arale] Say, your nose…
Senbei: S-something wrong with her nose?
Woman: You don’t have nostrils!
Senbei: NEITHER DO I! This is a manga, for crying out loud! A manga!
Woman: Hey, you’re right! No runny noses!

The artwork is outdated, but that makes it interesting. Most of it is done in a silly cartoonish way, which I guess matches the silly cartoonish story. But every once in a while Toriyama draws an extremely detailed panel. This adds a little more emotion while setting up for some good punch lines. This switch works well with the medium for making great comedy.

What should be noted is that while the word “Dragonball” is plastered all over the promos for this title, this is about as anti-Dragonball as you can get. The art, story, humor, pacing… EVERYTHING is different! In fact, if you look at the Dr. Slump cross-over in volume 7 of Dragonball, you’ll see that even that looks and feels much different then the original series.

But it is for these differences that I recommend this book. Dr. Slump is the most unique reading experience I have ever had reading a manga that I actually enjoyed. I look forward to reading more of this series in the future.

Please support this series by buying Dr. Slump vol. 1 at the VIZ Media Store or your local bookstore.

Finally, there is a manga out there that speaks my language. The “slice of life” genre is very common in manga and anime, but just whose lives are we slicing? High school girls? Office ladies? Salary men? Well they might make up much of the manga market in Japan, that’s clearly not the key demographic in the US. After seeing the American anime culture represented at a recent convention, I discovered just where most of the fan base is.

College boys and girls.

We all know that college is the time for everyone to party and get wasted, but that’s just not the kind of lifestyle that nerds like myself tend to follow. Instead, we pursue other hobbies that are socializing but in a safe and creative way. Many turn to video games. It’s not uncommon to see a group of guys gathered around a dorm room playing the latest Madden game. Many others turn to anime and manga, with sharing fansubs with their friends, writing in anime web forums and blogs, or joining anime clubs on campus where they can watch and talk about their favorites. This is the anime culture in the US, but what about in Japan?

Well, it turns out things are similar there too.

Genshike is the story of a group of college-aged nerds. Sure, their school has an anime club and a manga club, but those are for sissies. These guys are the most hard-core otaku, not wishing to be limited to just one medium of choice. They form their own club, Genshiken, or “The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture.” Hmmm… I like calling it “Modern Visual Culture” instead of manga and video games. It sounds so much for sophisticated!

We start off with two college freshman as they stumble across this crazy crew. The first is Kanji, a very shy boy whose been a secret anime fan for a while. He’s always wanted to learn more about the culture, but is a little taken a back at first with dealing with the other club members.

Then there’s pretty boy Matoko. He’s quite the heartthrob and has an attractive girl, Saki, swooning over him. This is not your typical profile for an otaku, and yet he appears to be the most hard-core of them all. His dorm room is cluttered with figures, plushies, video game systems and accessories, hentai video games, and stacks upon stacks of manga magazines.

We’re also introduced to the older members of Genshiken. The leader is a tall and scrawny nerd with a bowler hair cut and glasses. Then we also have two heavy set fellows under him. Each member specializes in a different aspect of anime fandom, from personal artwork to cosplaying.

The story is great as it deals with the kind of stuff we anime fans enjoy. As Kanji makes learns about otaku behavior, the reader is taken back to when they first started making the same discovers. Hentai video games are the first topic brought up as the naive boy checks out his first one. During a demonstration from his fellow members, he joyously announces, “Wow, their ‘hair down there’ matches their normal hair color!” Unfortunately, they don’t quite share the same enthusiasm for the observation.

But the main focus in this volume is the world of doujinshi, which they appropriately translate to “fan-zines” in this version. Doujinshi is really something that Americans don’t understand the magnitude of it in Japan. And so this manga does a good job at teaching us this particular aspect of anime culture. The group makes several trips to stores and conventions to buy the latest issues of their favorites. Yes, they have huge three=day conventions for JUST doujinshi! There’s also a lot of talk amongst the members about creating their own, which I have a feeling will be explored more in future volumes.

So, as a college-aged hard-core anime fan, I found myself loving this series. I could identify with the characters, and I can laugh at some of the ridicules things that we do because of this. Genshiken is the “slice of life” manga that the US fans can finally identify with.

They say that the average teenage boy thinks about sex every 7 minutes.

Now you would think that this fact would me more true for some boys then it would for others. If you recall your adolescent and teenage years, you will remember that there were some real perverts and horn-balls back then. You know, the boys that would bring porno magazines to school or spend most of the time talking to others about how hot the girls are around them.

But then at the complete opposite of the spectrum comes the guys like me. Hopeless romantics that spend all daydreaming about finding that perfect girl to call their own. Someone to go out on dates with. Someone to give gifts too. Someone to just simply love. Surely these guys are not at all like the perverts. They’re not thinking all those nasty things, right?

Well, as the hero of our story puts it, “Guys who aren’t interested in naked girls only exist in fairytales!” It’s just a fact of life that from the perverts to the sweethearts, sex is on the mind of every teenaged boy. And this is the idea and inspiration behind Masakazu Katsura’s latest US release, I’’s.

I’’s (pronounced “eyes”) is the story of Ichitaka Seto, a typical high school student and overall a very sweet guy. He has a crush on his fellow classmate Iori Yoshizuki. He experienced a harsh rejection from another girl very early in his adolescence, and so now he’s too shy to show his feelings for her. But as luck would have it, the two of them were chosen to pair up to run a class presentation together. And so she cutely calls the group “I’s” since both of their names both being with the letter I.

But the situation has changed very quickly for “I’s” as Iori was recently featured in a magazine doing a swimsuit photo shoot. The magazine starts circulating among the boys in the class, and they all go crazy for the sexy girl. But of course in every high school, you got a bunch of boys that are complete perverts and have no shame at all when it comes to sex. They end up harassing the poor girl by shouting such things as “Show us what you got!” and chanting, “Strip! Strip! Strip!” to her. Ichitaka sees this and is disgusted at the other boy’s behavior, so he does what he can to protect the girl he cares about.

And this is where the drama and conflicts in the story come in. As disgusted as he is with the perverts, he can’t help but to agree with them to some level. He saw the magazine himself and has been thinking his own little sexual fantasies about Iori ever since. He can’t help himself from staring at her butt as a sudden gust of wind shows her panties to him. So in his head he’s battling with the question, “Just what makes me better then those low-life perverts?”

But Ichitaka is truly a nice guy inside. As he watches Iori acting in her drama club, he’s blown away and wonders, “How could I think those nasty thoughts about her?” He really does care about Iori’s feelings over his own self interest, but it’s just human nature to get carried away sometimes with sex. He doesn’t want to be a pervert, so he does feel guilty when he loses control. As the reader you understand his true intentions, and you cheer him on as he finds is way to showing the girl how he truly feels. It’s this kind of story that paved the way for other great shounen romances in recent years like Love Hina and Ichigo 100%.

But manga is made up of story and art, and this title shines in both. One of the things that makes Katsura so great in my mind is the way he shows the beauty of the female body. His girls are not your typical exaggerated anime babes. They often have petite figures with realistic waste and breast sizes. His proportions are dead on, and his details and shading are incredible. His nudes look as if he had sketched real female models. He proves just how much manga is an art form. In particular, the cover art is amazing. It shows Iori but drawn to look like a photo-realistic Japanese girl. Now while the rest of the comic is not done in this style, is still look very nice.

So not only I did enjoy this series, but so far it’s one of my favorites. And judging by the fact that it lasts for 15 volumes, I’m sure that the quality will not go down for a while. This is the series that the American Love Hina fans have been waiting for. I’’s is a great story of teenage love, sex, and comedy.