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One of my favorite manga has ended . . . sigh. Samurai Deeper Kyo has reached its last book (well in English its last two books . . . ) and another of my regular manga reads is done. I'm still reading several series but the expansion into new series has slowed due to time and money. My stack of mangas I picked up this weekend is very diverse and amusing . . . though lacking in Shoujo, its diversity kind of surprised me and reminded me that the elements of manga are enjoyable in so many places . . .
The most surprising of those places though is in a novel, Vampire Hunter D Volume 14: Dark Roads Parts One and Two, which is the latest in Dark Horse's English adaption of the Vampire Hunter D novel series. Though D is not technically manga, as its original format in Japan has always been the light novel format, though in 2007 the D novels did begin to be adapted into manga by artist Saiko Takaki off the original novels, it still has a very close association with manga and anime for North American fans. The original 1985 D film and the 2000 film have been popular with fans for quite a while (wow, the first film is in its 25th anniversary! Wow . . . ) and the publication of the novels in tokuban size to associate it with manga is not surprising. However, what elements of manga does the D novel share?
Well, the illustrations by famed artist Yoshitaka Amano do not share a lot with manga in my opinion since most are snap shots and look more like painted posters (which is not a complaint, each one could easily be framed in my opinion). Instead it is Hideyuki Kinkuchi's prose that is very manga-esque with its attention to character actions and description of events through environment. If you put manga into words and removed the images I think you'd have Kinkuchi's D novels. (Though they share a great deal with Robert E. Howard's purple prose as well . . . ) Indeed the main element that I think the novels deviate away from manga is the use of color in description, something that manga being predominantly black and white leaves to the reader's imagination.
My other purchases along with Vampire Hunter D were traditional manga, Bleach Volume 31 and Mobile Suit Gundam Ecole du Ciel. Bleach is of a very traditional Shonen series with volume 31 showing no signs of decline in action or plot for the series that will probably last into the 50's like its contemporaries Naruto and One Piece. Bleach has not lost my interest and continues to use very compelling core elements of manga like rising action, large spreads to show certain victory or crushing defeat, and slow moving action giving us character reactions to unexpected events. Now these magna elements are very Shonen but can be seen even in Shoujo manga very often.
Mobile Suit Gundam Ecole du Ciel Volume 9 is more in the vein of Shonen but is more of a war, mecha, series different from traditional Shonen by presenting a more realistic side to battle scenes, and also greatly differentiated by Haruhiko Mikimoto's art style. The primary character designer for the original Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Mikimoto's artwork and characters are gorgeous and the series has been very compelling . . . and slow as molasses. Mikimoto is not a fast manga artist, and his assistants don't speed up this process. (I'm also wondering if he has finished this series in Japan since he is also currently doing eight chapters of the original Macross manga in Macross Ace which is beautiful as well.) Yet, when each book comes out it is a visual oasis of character moments, gorgeous mechs (which is saying something) and intricate line work. The story is not slow, and reminds me why I love mecha shows and manga for their character conflicts and beautiful battles. (To quote Lisa Hayes from Robotech, "Every battle is beautiful from a distance.") The elements of manga of strong storytelling through images, sparse but detailed line work, and strong character emotional detail is very easy to see in this latest volume.
Of all the books I purchased Samurai Deeper Kyo will stick with me the most being the last book, which I was grateful to see after TokyoPop lost the license. Yet, Mobile Suit Gundam Ecole du Ciel embodies to me what manga can really do and how the elements of manga are truly diverse. Despite having beautiful pinup worthy heroines and some odd looking characters this war manga definitely hit the most emotions, and for a series of lines made to look like real people that's saying something.
Jya mata otakus!
As always you can reach me at vdf1@hotmail.com
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