Anime Vice Anime/Manga News
Anime/Manga News, Stories and Updates
Guest posts are intended to encourage diversity of thought; the opinions represented within are not necessarily those of Anime Vice or its staff.
Dante's Inferno: The Figure
So like many Pokémon fans I was really excited to pick up my copy of Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver, which released Sunday. I actually bought both because it's a remake of my favourite Pokemon game(s) and Gamestop/EB Games was offering a figurine of Ho-Oh and Lugia for those who purchased Gold and Silver respectfully.I went to pick up my copies of both games on Monday and I was disappointed to hear the wonderful manager tell me "Sorry but all the kids got to the figurines yesterday" when I asked where my figurines where. However he continued to say " I do have some left over Dante's Inferno figures though. I can give you that instead since I need to get rid of them." So cutting my losses I agreed even though I do not like the game/animated film because of what it's done to an amazing piece of Italian medieval literature. It was a strange set of coincidences how I wound up with the titular character but I thought I would take the opportunity to say the figure itself is actually really nice.
The level of detail done on the figure is pretty impressive. Particularly the cross tapestry that is sewn into his chest when observed closely small sets of scenes in a early medieval inspired art style can be observed showing soldiers fighting to a couple together inside a small house. The red strips of cloth hanging from his wrists also have the neat little touch of a small cross at the bottom. His face has a nice bit of detail added to it with a clearly defined chin, cheeks and beard stubble. The armour he wears also has some nice designs on it as well that look inspired by medieval Europe the armour itself though though feels kind of cheap compared to the rest of the figure.
The figure is made by NECA and although it was a preorder bonus for the Dante's Inferno game but you can find it on Amazon for $15. I think it's a pretty decent figure with some really neat detail and a lot of articulation. The only real gripe is the armour feels a little cheap but for 15 dollars I think it is worth the value. (Full disclosure as said above I did receive it as a replacement from EB for the missed Pokémon figurines because the manager felt bad for me/wanted to clear some old stock)
On a side note, a little bit of trivia that I found interesting is that the cross he uses is a Presbyterian cross. This is despite the fact that denomination of Christianity didn't form until the 16th century long after the Crusades occurred. Nothing huge but a fun little fact for the history buffs out there.
Below: Dante from the left and right with the detached scythe blade.
I am a huge huge huge fan of Black Lagoon, so you bet your modern-day pirate booty I'm excited for the series. Here are several reasons why.
1. The Opening. Seriously, the bad Engrish combined with the really catchy but edgy style is awesome.
2. Revy + Rock forever. Yeah, I ship them. You want to fight about it? I'll sic Revy on you.
4. Roberta. View this image. It is all you need to know about Roberta.
If you want a jump start on this OVA, pick up volumes 6, 7, and 8 of the Black Lagoon manga, and then twiddle your thumbs until July 13th, when VIZ releases #9, which concludes the arc. Yum. And if you're not familiar with the show at all, but you love a good action series with some dark humor (and dark drama, for that matter)-- a little more adult and dark than, say, Bleach --you should really consider picking up FUNimation's box set (Right Stuf still has some of the individual releases too, but it'll be a lot more expensive that way).
Share your Black Lagoon love in the comments!
It seemed that more than a few of you readers were interested in the announcement of a Clannad dub. While feedback was mixed, it won't be long till you can hear for yourself. In their latest address, The Anime Network said that they will be featuring the first and second episode dubbed next week. Wait, next week?!?! Yes, on March 25th, the episodes go into their T.V. Video on Demand (VOD) services, and onto their online stream the next day. No comment on if the content will be for premium, registered, or unregistered users... but this is exactly what we talked about on the podcast.
Basically, before I can even finish parsing the information about these things, they're already shoveling them our direction. As a result, I haven't had the chance to get distracted, and move onto something else. In all honesty though, I've heard that Clannad is a fairly touching/sad story. Dale North professed to me how the first episode of the sequel alone (Clannad: After Story) caused him to bawl openly. Of course, this is a Key project, so I expect the same quality and style I enjoyed in Air and Kanon.
Unfortunately, I bought After Story before I bought Clannad, so now I'm petrified to move forward. Looks like next week I'll finally get a chance to sort some things out.
Plot
Okazaki Tomoya is a third-year student who is labeled as a delinquent by others because of his constant tardiness. He has only one friend in the whole school - a slacker like him, Sunohara Youhei. He doesn't care about these anyways. On one of his late comings, he meets Furukawa Nagisa, a shy girl who skipped her last year due to her sickness and has to repeat last year over again - with her friends all graduated. Although Tomoya doesn't care for this girl at first, he becomes unable to leave her alone. Thus, he starts helping Nagisa with her wish, on the revival of the Drama Club. As he gets himself more involved in this, he starts to meet other people - which he - again - doesn't care at all at first, but later start to open his heart to them as he gets to know them...
The author, W. David Marx, suggests that since the manga industry in Japan has always been a source for bigger-scale productions like movies and live-action TV, a decrease in sales resulting in a decrease in items published might result in a lot of movies being made based on older manga-- which would be interesting. Though we're already seeing some of it: Astro Boy, Yatterman, Space Battleship Yamato...
Moving on to North American publishers, ICv2's latest publisher survey suggests that manga pubs are going to release an average of 13% fewer manga volumes in 2010 than they did in 2009. The main exception to this is Yen Press, who will expand once more.
More updates as events warrant! In the meantime, I am so so sad that I can't get my Kurogane Communication from Go! Comi and my Kage Kara Mamoru from DrMaster. (Aurora, by the way, still has a bunch of their titles available on the super-cheap if you want them.)
Sad to see sales dropping, of course, but it happens. Hopefully as manga grows on a global level it will make up for some of the drop-off in Japan...but it looks like that money may not come primarily from the U.S.
All that aside, it was fun to see the Chinese zodiac factor into this toon and to hear a recount of Buddha’s selection of the animals (or the Jade Emperor’s selection, depending on where you heard the story). Actually, it’s a little timely for me, given that I, myself, was born in the Year of the Tiger and, after two full rotations of the cycle, it’s my year again. But I don’t have any issues with hugging girls or turning into animals like the creepies in this show do.
Anyway, check out the first episode below and see if you feel like I do. Thanks to daotherkenji for the tip, and keep these recommendations coming, everybody!
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.
As such, while I haven't played the game I am seeeriously tempted to pick up this beautiful figure by Alter. The facial expression is a bit different from what's in the game, but I don't really care, because it's a beautiful face. Her hair looks gorgeous, and the pose is just sexy enough-- leaning forward pulls her kimono up in the back just a touch, and of course those legs. Those LEGS! (I want those stockings.)
Momohime's SRP is mid-range: ¥7,800, about $86.40 USD, and she's due out this July. HobbySearch has extended its SAL sale again, so you can get her for a little less there right now if you want.
It was this last question-- how is the Handley case affecting companies' decisions, and by extension, the fans --that got me curious, especially in the wake of Bundgate, which many fans speculated was a sign of fallout from Handley's sentencing. So I got out there and got in touch with as many manga and anime localizers as I could. I also contacted retailers and a few others. I asked them all the same question: has or will Handley's sentencing had an impact on any facet of your business decisions?
I was originally going to post short quotes from each response, but frankly, they were all quite interesting to read at length and hard to pull bits out of context, so in the end I've included the full quotes, unedited by me.
Manga Publisher - Ed Chavez, Vertical Inc.
Vertical Inc. is not particularly known for publishing prurient manga, but some of its past and upcoming titles have some very dark elements, particularly the scheduled release of Osamu Tezuka's Ayako. Ed is also a well-respected manga expert thanks to his stints editing in Japan and at MangaCast."Honestly, the ruling hasn't changed what Vertical plans to publish or what we have released in the past. While we have some scenes that are clearly not in the realm of lolicon, there is no doubt that many of our fiction titles and a few of our Tezuka titles have scenes that are intended to challenge older teens and adult due to depictions of violence and sexuality. Strictly sticking to manga, themes such as bestiality, incest, and rape are just a few topics covered in our Tezuka titles. We just released a new version of MW that covers almost every thing I listed and we never even thought about altering a scene. I think the Godfather of Manga would not allow such a crime to be committed.
There will be challenging scenes in the manga we plan to release in 2010 as well. While all of the characters that engage in sexual activities in Peepo Choo are adults, the teens in the comic are clearly fictional teens. Like teens in reality they might push the boundaries of style and fashion in certain ways. In other ways Mr. Smith goes beyond the realms of human genetics to have his characters seem larger than life in all sorts of ways. Such is the power of the fictional world of art. Knowing that coming into the license we, Vertical, never have had intentions to alter any of the content in the title. As is the case in the editorial process where mangaka change pages between magazine and tankoubon printings if Felipe Smith makes a change to Peepo Choo, it will come from him and we will not initiate the conversation. So in the case of the cover for volume 1, Vertical actually wanted to use the original image but Mr. Smith suggested against it. Instead we are looking to publish the original cover in the book as a spread for readers to enjoy.Peepo Choo
Neither Chi's Sweet Home, Twin Spica, nor 7 Billion Needles have sexually provocative scenes. But even before the Handley case we did wonder about shower/bath scenes in regard to age ratings. Would a bath scene raise a rating from twelve and up to fourteen and up? These are issues publishers deal with all the time.
Our Fall release of Ayako will be a challenge as it has a few elements that might raise flags for people who are extremely critical. As an individual who respects art for what it is it is hard for me to be offended by much in manga, but I am sure some people new to the medium might not expect scenes often found in other forms of media (prose, film, portrait painting...) to be rendered in a comic book. I think Tezuka never questioned the power of comics, so in giving respect to his readers and the themes he was conveying he never was gratuitous or pornographic with his imagery. Tezuka always maintains artistic integrity with this comics. So seeing Ayako visually blossom from a young child to a young adult, through the master's panels and character art, does not appear indecent even though it is clear how old Ayako is in each of those scenes. Tezuka compares the scene to a metamorphosis, where Ayako is visually but metaphorically shedding her skin as she grows out of it with age. Not ironically the scenes free of nudity or sexuality tend to be much more violent and disturbing. However, for some reason Americans rarely protest gratuitous violence in media.Ayako
We are currently working on acquiring new titles for Spring 2010 and even then the Handley case is not influencing our decisions. At Vertical, we aim to challenge readers perceptions of manga visually while providing outstanding literary value and cultural insight. So if a title has impacted Japanese culture within the last few decades expect Vertical to have that title on its radar no matter what the genre is."
Retailer - Peter Payne, JList
There are quite a few sites on the 'net that sell adult materials from Japan, but few are as ubiquitous as JList and its safe-for-work counterpart JBox. JList sells eroge and adult manga magazines-- along with tons of not-adult-at-all snacks and toys and clothes and whatnot --and Payne had a few things to say on the matter."It's a very unfortunate thing to have happened. The situation in Iowa, combined with the new limitations announced here in Japan, raise huge red flags about our ability to express basic ideas freely. With laws against, say, possession of certain illegal substances, it's easy to tell whether the law is being broken -- you just check for the substance and you have your answer. Every other law works this way. But with something like fictional illustrations or characters that don't exist, the opinion of ten different people is likely to be all over the map, and I couldn't think of a single anime character that would necessarily look over the age of 18 to 100% of people who looked at it, perhaps a remnant of the "cartoons is for kids" thinking from way back. And Tokyo banning showing of underwear? Are they aware they just banned Doraemon, which makes regular use of panty gags?
Anyway, while we don't agree with the developments, we'll obviously be making changes in the manga and other products we offer to our customers. Happily J-List (and our PG site, JBOX.com) has always sought to present a wide range of products from Japan without focusing on any one area, effectively mirroring the entire awesomeness of Japan in its entirety. This won't change at all."
Manga Publisher - Simon Jones, Icarus Publishing
Icarus Publishing is a publisher that specializes in hentai manga, perhaps best known for their Comic AG hentai anthology as well as various hentai manga; I think my personal favorite is The Spirit of Capitalism. As a publisher of adult works, you might imagine that a company like Icarus would have a few things to say on the Handley matter. Fortunately for us, Simon agreed to share! You should keep an eye on his blog for more insight, and occasionally smut.Icarus' Comic AG"What readers should understand, at least in regard to pornographic publications such as ours, is that we've always been acutely aware of both the potential legal and ethical ramifications of what we choose for publication, and acted in accordance with them. By ethical, I am not referring to abiding a certain set of morality or religious beliefs, but rather our obligations to retailers and readers; not subjecting retailers to an unreasonable level of risk, or harming the greater manga fandom in general. This is reflected in both what we license, and also how we conduct business. (We're rather low-key, to put it politely.)
In fact, I would say this is true for all North American licensees who work with adult material. We all knew something like this could happen one day.
The Handley case may change the business for us (some retailers may no longer want to carry adult manga, for example), but it has not changed, nor will it change the way we approach licensing. It's a historic moment, for sure, but the real problem is "obscenity," and that risk has always been present. We've always tried to manage that as well as we could. We try to push the envelop, but we've made edits when we felt they were necessary, and rejected licenses when we felt they would harm the fandom. Ero manga are often short story collections, and sometimes one out of twelve stories isn't appropriate for the Western market. That's when we may decide to make a cut, with the Japanese publisher/creator's blessing."
Convention - Sakura-Con
During my search, I was sent an anonymous tip that resulted in me being sent a copy of a document from Seattle-based anime convention Sakura-Con, which offered a reminder to exhibitors not to try and sell any materials that were in violation of the law.Dear Sakura-Con 2010 Exhibitors,
A previously unknown concern has been raised regarding certain comics as a result of a recent court case and law passed in 2008. Because we know a small number of our venders sell adult manga and the case involves certain manga, we want to remind vendors that Sakura- Con/ANCEA will not tolerate unlawful materials for sale in our exhibits hall. Exhibitors found in violation of local, state or federal law will be reported to law enforcement, asked to leave the event and face banning from participation in the future.
Please refer to the information below for more information:
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 71 > § 1466A
§ 1466A. Obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children
(c) Nonrequired Element of Offense.— It is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exist.
(1) the term “visual depiction” includes undeveloped film and videotape, and data stored on a computer disk or by electronic means which is capable of conversion into a visual image, and also includes any photograph, film, video, picture, digital image or picture, computer image or picture, orcomputer generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means;
(f) Definitions.— For purposes of this section—
Anime conventions are usually run by volunteers who may not have the resources necessary to handle a lot of lawyering. I can't help but feel obligated to point out that Artist Alley at Sakura-Con and conventions around the country are a lot lighter on their legal concerns-- but then again, copyright violations are rarely handled with arrests and potential sex offender registration, so who can blame them for being cautious?
Note that Sakura-Con has not confirmed the authenticity of this letter, though I two (anonymous) sources independently confirmed their receipt of it from the convention.
Publisher - Michelle Mauk, Digital Manga Publishing
One field of manga that may be hit harder than others is yaoi. The material, aimed at women, often gets more of a pass in bookstores than hentai, but quite a few BL manga-- including some published in the US today --feature teenage boys, and coersion or harassment is a common theme. DMP is one of the largest publishers of BL, in both its lighter June line and the more hardcore 801 Media line. Here's what Michelle had to say on life post-Handley.DMP"In terms of how this affects licensing of BL, etc., I think as a company, DMP has always been extremely mindful of what it licenses from day 1. Since we began doing BL, we have sat and gone through every single title-we mark and question everything possibly objectionable to buyers and to readers and discuss as a group how and if a title should be licensed, and to what age group it would appeal to. Obviously BL is a niche product, and in the beginning, retailers were pretty skeptical about it-but our buyers and distributors understand the product they have in their hands a lot more nowadays, and they've always been conscientious about where and to whom it's going to. The most important thing is to be clear about what it is we're selling, which we always have been-complete with the bars that state clearly on June that they're "yaoi manga"-and the creation of the June' imprint itself. The BL audience in my opinion has been a very mature, well-educated, literate bunch-that supports the artist and the medium with a passion that surprises a lot of us in the office everyday. Obviously, when you go to the June website-the very first thing on the site is a definition of what "yaoi" is.
I think the fact that the BL crowd tends to be older, has helped in the growth of BL here in the US. When we found that hard-core fans wanted titles that would typically not be licensed due to explicitness, we created a label and a distribution channel for it. As times have changed, and other publishers started doing BL and licensing more explicit material in mainstream manga, what is acceptable continues to change for mature readers, and I think that shows an evolution of the manga reader in terms of what they want to see and read. Obviously, in terms of licensing, there will be some things that we as a company won't license (like shota)-and lolicon-type manga has never really been our thing even on our mainstream line. Fan-service, yes, but lolicon/shota no-and I think that comes mostly as a personal company preference over anything derived from the recent events from the Handley case.Little Butterfly, a light BL title
However, I will say this in regards to the Handley situation-the idea that what you read may translate to your behavior, is really a very sad outcome to the case. I was really saddened by the outcome, as manga and comics are fiction and imaginary, and not indicative of potential real-world behavior. It's like all those cases with people saying violence in video-games causes violence in individuals, or heavy-metal music creates violent urges. I'd hate for jury's and people to be the thought police about what's appropriate-and I feel this comes right down to it. I'm sure people can draw correlations to all sorts of things if they wanted to, but it's disheartening. There are different standards for comics and graphic novels in the US vs. Japan, and I'm sure how manga is perceived in the US vs. how it's perceived in Japan are very different, and probably will remain so for some time. It was a bit weird to see yaoi pointed out in the statement by the attorney in terms of it's legality in the US-it absolutely is-it's just in terms of acceptability by people who don't understand or know what it is. Everything is contextual in comics and graphic novels-but that's the medium we have chosen to work in. As a company-we're just going to do our best to put titles out that we believe have artistic merit, are appropriate for the ages of the audience reading them, and do our best to educate retailers and distributors about our products. I certainly hope that the Handley case doesn't deter people from reading BL mangaka like Fumi Yoshinaga, Yugi Yamada, and the upcoming Kazuma Kodaka title we have-artists who create sympathetic, entertaining characters and stories."
No Comment
In the interest of disclosure, I wanted to include a list of everyone who I contacted who either chose not to comment, or who did not get back to me in time for this article.These companies are: Bandai Entertainment, Nozomi Entertainment, Last Gasp, Seven Seas, Yen Press, Yaoi Press, Yaoi Generation, Fantagraphics, VIZ Media, Del Rey Manga, TOKYOPOP, FUNimation, CMX, Media Blasters, Crunchyroll.
Note that some of them indicated that they would like to comment for the piece but didn't get back to me in time, so hopefully we can get some or all of them represented in follow-up posts.
That said, for the companies that chose not to comment, I don't want you to think that it means something's wrong with them. This is a very hard question for anyone to want to speak on the record about; a company will either have to say "no, we aren't going to change what we're doing," and risk drawing attention if they're releasing any questionable materials, or they have to say "yes, we're cutting back on these types of titles," and risk drawing attention from unhappy fans.
"No comment" is, if not particularly helpful or informative, a safe bet.
Analysis
It seems clear to me that there is some amount of shift taking place, especially when you factor in the wording of FUNimation's statement offering that they might not edit Bund: that they wanted to "ensure compliance with current U.S. law." I'd guess that there are several reasons for this shift-- the obvious one, of course is that companies are worried about getting in trouble with the law themselves. Slightly less obvious is that people who are worried about getting in trouble for buying XYZ title are less likely to actually buy it, whether it's legally questionable or not.
In addition to that, though, companies aren't just in the anime game for the short game of selling to you and to me-- they want to keep selling anime to people for a long time. What they release now will impact how people-- from kids to parents to bookstore buyers --see anime and manga for the next few years, or for decades, depending on the title in question. As mentioned by both Simon Jones and Peter Payne, what stores carry may change, and that will have an impact on what gets licensed.
The question from here out, then, is how MUCH of a shift are we seeing-- which is a question that won't really be answered until we see the results from licensing cycles that took place after said sentencing. Given the anger with which fans met FUNimation's news that Dance in the Vampire Bund would be edited, we'll hopefully see few titles wind up being edited. On the other hand, we may see some titles not get picked up at all, if companies don't feel comfortable releasing them unedited and fans don't want to buy them edited.
Your Turn!
...And anything else you're feeling on the matter. Let's hear it all and talk about it!
Domo arigato to kwyrt for the recommendation. Keep these suggestions coming, people. I challenge you! I will watch anything you name (as long as I can watch it online). In the meantime, everybody in the good ol’ US of A can watch the episode I just checked out below...
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.
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Overheard on Twitter: Twilight Fans vs Moe Fans
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Level-5 Soon To Announce Phenomenal Game
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Follow-Up: Twilight, Fandoms, and the Whipping Boy
Anime fans get picked on by other fan groups-- but do we pick on others in response? |
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Anime/Manga Creators Form Alliance Against Loli Ban
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Durarara 10 is Awesome. What to Do While Waiting for Durarara 11!
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The Rest Of It: Free Anime, Free iPads
If that headline doesn't win you, I dunno what will. |
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Life After Handley: Will Manga and Anime in the US Change?
Manga publishers, anime localizers, and retailers get their chance to comment on life after Chris Handley's sentencing. |
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Sentai Filmworks Loves Dubbing- Releasing Clannad, FotNS...
Say what now? |
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Follow-Up: Twilight, Fandoms, and the Whipping Boy
Anime fans get picked on by other fan groups-- but do we pick on others in response? |
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Overheard on Twitter: Twilight Fans vs Moe Fans
An interesting comparison. What do YOU think? |
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Level-5 Soon To Announce Phenomenal Game
My top five guesses on what this game could be. |
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Anime/Manga Creators Form Alliance Against Loli Ban
The greatest alliance since the Elves allied themselves with man to defeat Sauron on the slopes of Mount Doom. |
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Are North American Gamers Ready for Dating Sims?
BioWare + Type-Moon. How cool would that be? |
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Life After Handley: Will Manga and Anime in the US Change?
Manga publishers, anime localizers, and retailers get their chance to comment on life after Chris Handley's sentencing. |
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WTF Wednesday: Darkness
Sasuke’s darkness is NOT funny. |
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Durarara 10 is Awesome. What to Do While Waiting for Durarara 11!
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