Nakama Britannica

A new manga imprint is always cause for rejoicing and the promise of ‘Unfiltered manga for the unfettered mind’ was enough to make this self-confessed mangahead sit up and take notice. Yen Press have launched their list in the UK this autumn with an exciting and varied list of titles, including the first volumes of five manga series. Four of the five are competitively priced tankoubons at £5.99 per volume and while the fifth is more expensive at £10.99 but for a good reason: it’s not just the stand-out title of the first batch, it’s 527 pages long.

With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child Volume 1: Keiko Tobe

This series brings something rare to us in the UK: a ‘josei’ or women’s manga that is not only a heart-warming and moving ‘slice-of-life’ story based on a real-life situation but also contains much helpful and informative material about autistic spectrum disorders. It’s a well-paced and affecting read, telling the tale of Sachiko and Masato Azuma, an ordinary couple looking forward to the birth of their first child. At first all goes well but soon Sachiko suspects that something is not well with little Hikaru. “He doesn’t answer me and he hates being held and throws tantrums.” Criticized by her mother-in-law for being a ‘bad’ mother, and worn down by Hikaru’s puzzling and exhausting behaviour, she feels very isolated. The reader is soon drawn into Sachiko’s long and often frustrating journey from expert to expert in her aim to understand and help her son. Yet this is not a depressing read; Sachiko’s determination to do the best for her son in spite of the many obstacles she encounters is inspiring. Different – and highly recommended.

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning by Kyo Shirodaira; art by Eita Mizuno (Teen)

Any reader who’s enjoyed ‘Case Closed’ will appreciate another series whose main interest lies in the uncanny ability of its central character to solve mysteries. Ayumu is the younger brother of world-class detective Kiyotaka Narumi. Growing up in his brilliant brother’s shadow, Ayumu suddenly finds himself in the spotlight when his brother disappears and he becomes the prime suspect in a murder at his school. Aided by Madoka, Kiyotaka’s wife and fellow detective, and the bubbly Hiyono Yuizaki, the female president of the school newspaper, Ayumu sets out to clear his name. Called upon to use his own exceptional powers of reasoning, he soon finds himself involved in the sinister mystery of the ‘Blade Children’, the very case his brother was investigating when he disappeared.

I had great hopes for the anime TV series of ‘Spiral’ which, in spite, of the intriguing premise, proved to be frustratingly slow. So I was interested to see if the manga on which it was based would prove any better. It’s early days yet as much of this first volume is concerned with setting up what is to follow. But Ayumu and the irrepressible Hiyono make a likeable pair of investigators, and although this first volume is not earth-shatteringly exciting, the word on the street is that this series is well worth staying with as it improves not only on the art front but also ups the stakes in excitement and plot development.

Zombie-Loan by Peach-Pit (Older Teen)

Orphan Michiru Kita is one of those anxious-to-please high school girls who end up being put-upon and bossed around by their so-called friends. Two good-looking classmates, Chika and Shito, come to her rescue. The boys are the sole survivors of a horrible accident. Or are they? For Michiru notices that they have strange dark rings around their necks. She knows to her cost that they are warnings of impending death; she saw rings just like these on the necks of her own parents before they died. Timid Michiru resolves to try to help the boys, only to find herself in far more trouble than she could ever have imagined. Yes, there are zombies out there – and Michiru, with her special gift, is just the one to help her bickering class-mates who, in exchange for an extra lease of life, are working for a most unusual agency to pay off their debt.

The two mangaka team Peach-Pit are probably best known for their gothloli shojo fantasy series ‘Rozen Maiden’ (Tokyopop) and their charming fantasy for younger readers ‘Shugo Chara’ (Del Rey). So the dark comedy of ‘Zombie Loan’, with its 16+ label comes as quite a contrast to these other works. Well drawn with a good sprinkling of dryly ironic humour, there’s surprises and fights in plenty as well as a heroine with strong moe appeal.

Black God: story by Dall-Young Lim; art by Sung-Woo Park (Older Teen)

Everything goes wrong for games programmer Keita Ibuki when he stops by a noodle stand late one night for a bowl of ramen and ends up giving his meal to a cute – and starving – girl. This drunken act of generosity lands him in the middle of a full-scale battle between Mototsumitama, beings with superhuman powers, during which his arm is sliced off. Coming to in his own apartment, he finds that his arm has been reattached. Or has it? Kuro, the cute girl, explains that she has replaced his arm with her own – but he must stay close to her while it ‘fuses’ or it will rot away. And she’s been raiding his fridge as she’s still starving. Keita

‘Black God’ is a fast-paced, exciting action series, with plenty of fights and an interesting (though at first a little confusing) premise. (Even though the artist and author are Korean, ‘Black God’ is a manga, not a manhwa, set in Japan and reads right to left.)

Alice on Deadlines: Shiro Ihara (Older Teen)Shinigamis (Japanese gods of death or grim reapers) are big in manga and anime at present (look no further than ‘Death Note’ or ‘Bleach’). Lapan is a good-looking but lazy, skirt-chasing shinigami who messes up his next soul-reaping assignment on earth with disastrous consequences. Sent to the Human Realm to retrieve a eandering spirit, Lapan ends up inhabiting the curvaceous body of high school girl Alice, whilst poor, virtuous

Alice is displaced into Lapan’s skeletal form (a punishment imposed on him by his boss for his idle attitude). What’s more, Lapan obviously enjoys being a curvaceous sixteen-year-old so much that he’s in no hurry to swap back, especially when there are so many of Alice’s girlfriends (all oblivious at first to the swap) to hug and squeeze. ’Alice on Deadlines’ is, in some ways, another variation on that well-known theme, the teenage boy’s wish-fulfilment fantasy manga, although there is a frenetic comedic quality to the manga that recalls other off-the-wall fantasies like ‘Excel Saga’. ‘Pervy’ would be the best way to describe the humour with plenty of titillating shots to please the fanboys.

The Yen Press approach to translating sound effects alongside the original Japanese ‘in situ’ has been criticized elsewhere for holding up the action and making for a bumpy read. For example, when a door opens, we get the original Japanese lettering, plus ‘Gacha’ and (Creak) the translation in brackets; after a while this becomes rather intrusive. The advance publicity states that ‘Our goal…is to give you a reading experience as close to the original as possible…We’ll fret over every little sound effect…so that you can “hear” the cadence being evoked.’ A laudable goal, but I’m not wholly convinced that it succeeds.

Overall, these titles make up a really promising start to an interesting and varied list, with plenty of good things to follow in 2008, including global manga ‘Y Square’ from Judith Park and vampire series ‘Nightschool’ from Svetlana Chmakova (already well-known for ‘Dramacon’). A link up with manhwa publishers Ice Kunion will bring ‘Angel Diary’ and ‘Moon Boy’. Out in January 2008 is ‘Sundome’ by Kazuto Okada, the first with an ‘M’ rating. New Japanese supernatural series ‘Kieli’ is promised for April 2008 and, rather pleasingly, three yaoi titles from Lily

Hoshino, starting with ‘Love Quest’ in October 2008.

In Summary

Yen Press (www.yenpress.com) have brought out a strong and varied selection of titles, all of which are well worth investigating. I’m looking forward to checking out their new titles as well as following up on these five series in 2008. But I’d be interested to know what other readers think. I confess that I’m not a fan of global manga but both Judith Park and Svetlana Chmakova have already garnered many good reviews. Are Yen Press trying to cover too many different types of manga or are they right in diversifying?