Sunday, August 13, 2006
A FEW BRIEF MANGA ITEMS OF INTEREST
The other day I discovered by chance that Makoto Tateno, whose CUTExGUY (which you'll sometimes see written as "Cute X Guy") I reviewed here, is also the writer-artist of Yellow, a popular yaoi series that has been published in the U.S. From looking at Yellow in the bookstore, the two series seem to have little in common. And here's an interview with Tateno that I just came across.
I reviewed Hideo Azuma Fairy Tale Collection by Hideo Azuma last year. I recently found out that Fanfare/Ponent Mon has licensed a recent autobiographical manga by Azuma, Disappearance Diary Here's a brief description from Japanese Writers' House: "Winner of The Japanese Cartoonists Association Award 2005 and Grand Prize of 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival, Manga Division by Agency for Cultural Affairs. The book is an autobiographical account by the cartoonist Hideo Azuma of the two times he disappeared from his home and his later battles with alcoholism at an alcohol rehabilitation center. Instead of taking a serious approach to the matter, however, Azuma depicts the events in a disarmingly comical and light-hearted tone." There's a longer description, as well as a brief biography, here. (This may not be up for very long, though.)
Via the Anime on DVD forums, and somewhere else I no longer remember, Anime News Network reports that the U. S. edition of Yotsuba&! vol. 4 is "tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of 2007." This is good news for Yotsuba&! fans, since its publisher, ADV Manga, is notorious for cancelling series in the middle, and until now had said nothing, afaik, to indicate that they would continue to publish Yotsuba&!. For me it matters less, since a couple weeks ago I finally broke down and bought the Japanese edition of vol. 4, which has been out since last September. (Apparently vol. 5 is also out now, but it wasn't in stock at the store I went to.)
If I'd known about ADV's announcement beforehand, I probably wouldn't have bought it, but now that I have bought it, I'm not sorry. Owing to my rudimentary vocabulary, reading manga in Japanese generally requires quite a bit of time and effort, which is why I usually buy translated editions when they exist. But Yotsuba is easy to read, though some words weren't in either of the dictionaries I have. And vol. 4 is delightful, as usual.
The other day I discovered by chance that Makoto Tateno, whose CUTExGUY (which you'll sometimes see written as "Cute X Guy") I reviewed here, is also the writer-artist of Yellow, a popular yaoi series that has been published in the U.S. From looking at Yellow in the bookstore, the two series seem to have little in common. And here's an interview with Tateno that I just came across.
I reviewed Hideo Azuma Fairy Tale Collection by Hideo Azuma last year. I recently found out that Fanfare/Ponent Mon has licensed a recent autobiographical manga by Azuma, Disappearance Diary Here's a brief description from Japanese Writers' House: "Winner of The Japanese Cartoonists Association Award 2005 and Grand Prize of 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival, Manga Division by Agency for Cultural Affairs. The book is an autobiographical account by the cartoonist Hideo Azuma of the two times he disappeared from his home and his later battles with alcoholism at an alcohol rehabilitation center. Instead of taking a serious approach to the matter, however, Azuma depicts the events in a disarmingly comical and light-hearted tone." There's a longer description, as well as a brief biography, here. (This may not be up for very long, though.)
Via the Anime on DVD forums, and somewhere else I no longer remember, Anime News Network reports that the U. S. edition of Yotsuba&! vol. 4 is "tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of 2007." This is good news for Yotsuba&! fans, since its publisher, ADV Manga, is notorious for cancelling series in the middle, and until now had said nothing, afaik, to indicate that they would continue to publish Yotsuba&!. For me it matters less, since a couple weeks ago I finally broke down and bought the Japanese edition of vol. 4, which has been out since last September. (Apparently vol. 5 is also out now, but it wasn't in stock at the store I went to.)
If I'd known about ADV's announcement beforehand, I probably wouldn't have bought it, but now that I have bought it, I'm not sorry. Owing to my rudimentary vocabulary, reading manga in Japanese generally requires quite a bit of time and effort, which is why I usually buy translated editions when they exist. But Yotsuba is easy to read, though some words weren't in either of the dictionaries I have. And vol. 4 is delightful, as usual.
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