Icarus Publishing

With the exception of The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow nabbing Best Director, I was wrong on every one of my Oscar picks.  I’m disappointed Coraline did not win… =(

In honor of Bigelow, I will spend the rest of the afternoon zoning out to a back-to-back screening of Blue Steel and Point Break.  100% pure adrenaline!

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Must read of the day… book designer Craig Mod sees devices like the iPad as the end of the paperback book, and sheds no tears.  Mod feels the content of most books is “formless,” and beyond sentimentality and the gap in usability that is quickly diminishing as hardware improves, there’s no justification for putting formless content in a fixed, print format.  Mod proposes that the only content deserving of print should be that which requires a physical presence to experience properly… the book itself as artifact, as art.

I had touched upon a similar point earlier, about how digital devices change the way comics are defined.  Comics are not formless, but a digital container provides limitless experimental possibilities.  Even now, I think there are many artists who think that print is a crutch, that it prevents the truest expression of their art.  This goes beyond nebulous concepts like form and paneling, to something as simple as color… most comics are colored on computer now, and standard CMYK printing technology simply cannot reproduce the color depth available to video screens.

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Spotted on Anime Vice… Manga Gamer translator “John” talks about working on visual novels, as well as the sales performance of the company’s products thus far.

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Umm… woodpunk?

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Japan Focus has an interview with author Ishikawa Yoshimi about a manga exhibit held at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum in August of 2009.  The article reproduces several of the pieces that were on display.

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A bit of a blow to advocates of free content through ad sales… tech site Ars Technica finds that some people aren’t even willing to look at ads.  (Spotted via Slashdot)

The internet gives away product for free in order to sell a message.  Advertisers give away the message in order to sell the product.  So free product is still dependent on paid-for product.  See the problem here?

Must read of the day… Ogiue Maniax provides a translation of additional passages of Kaoru Kumi’s writings on the cinematic techniques in Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa manga.

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Gizmodo has pics and a movie of Microsoft’s Courier, Redmond’s answer to the Apple iPad.  It looks quite literally like two iPads duct taped together, and it is gorgeous.  But what about wireless and content delivery to match iTunes?  Microsoft may not have done as well on the music front, but it does have transportable experience from running the Xbox Live service.  In fact, there should be interoperability between Courier and Xbox 360 or its next iteration, just like with Zune.  Or it may all be folded into the rumored Microsoft Store.

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Anime On DVD reports that the Funimation release of the anime Dance in the Vampire Bund will be censored.  Central character Mina Tepes, who suffers from a condition known in anime and medical circles as “Sasami’s syndrome,” appears in the nude frequently throughout the anime (not surprising, since author and self-proclaimed “otaku mangaka” Nozomu Tamaki is also a legit ero manga creator, those adult works having been released by Shonen Gahosha, Wani Magazine, and Tatsumi Group.)  These scenes will presumably be the primary targets for excision.

It’s easy to draw a connection between this and the recent Handley case.  But is Funimation itself afraid of running afoul of the law?  Not necessarily.  More likely, financial motivations are involved.  I’m stereotyping, but video retailers generally do not exhibit the same kind of “backbone” of book sellers in regard to controversial content.  And video retailing/distribution has been consolidated to only a few major chains which are terribly sensitive to their “family friendly” reputations.  Should just one of these accounts – Best Buy, for example – object to the content, that could immediately wipe out a DVD/BD release.  Sure, most DVD shops also sell far more horrid torture porn movies, but if you’ve been paying attention at all, you should already know that reason and logic does not come into play in culture wars.

If this were indeed the situation, then boycotting might not achieve the desired effect.

However, the original manga version of Dance in the Vampire Bund is published uncensored in the United States by Seven Seas, and carries a 16+ age recommendation.  (I’ve always had a hard time reconciling this fact with Seven Seas’ cancellation of Kodomo no Jikan.)  If you want to support the property but still send a message to the powers that be, buy the manga instead.

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And because I know this is going to come up again… lolicon manga and anime are not illegal in the US.  Obscene lolicon manga and anime are.  Stop spreading lies, message board warriors.

Such wonderful timing.  Kurt Hassler spoke with ANN about Yen Press’ success with originally developed and licensed titles like Twilight, and how serious a problem scanlation has become for the manga industry, to the point where the publishers simply cannot ignore it.  Hassler also defends the decision to alter the cover to Spice and Wolf; sales of the book seem to vindicate the decision.  Great show.

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Do women mangaka create deeper, more emotionally enriching manga?  Are they thus more qualified to write sexually risque, even sexist, “ecchi” manga?  That’s what the Anime Almanac claims, but Gia Manry at Anime Vice disputes it, pointing out that girls manga contain just as many completely vapid stories as any other genre, should one look hard enough.

Having read and re-read both entries a few more times, I’m not all too certain that the two necessarily contradict each other.  Belief that women draw the best ecchi manga does not require a dismissal of the idea that women are equally capable as men of creating shallow manga devoid of any redeeming value beyond cheesecake (although good cheesecake is one quality I deeply admire).  What is in contention is which parts of the claim should be treated as opinion, or objective fact.  Is it a fact that the most popular risque manga are drawn by women?  No, I think Anime Almanac’s list is rather selective.  Are women mangaka better at handling themes of a controversial, perverse, or sexist nature?  I don’t see any particular reason to think so, and I’m not sure if there’s any way to universally define what is perverse or sexist; there’s a strong cultural component to both.  Is the approach to ecchi manga taken by titles such as Kodomo no Jikan and DearS actually superior, based on the success of those books?  I would caution against accepting popularity as an absolute measure of quality without giving consideration to the disposition of popular taste to be in constant flux. Is the female aesthetic more conducive to ecchi manga visually?  I would share some agreement with Anime Almanac on this point, only because the prevailing style of the day, the obsession with kawaii, is heavily influenced by shoujo manga, and this too is also subject to change.  Even assuming that women are making better ecchi manga than men, is that the result of some innate ability unique to the fairer sex?  I would hesitate to think so.

Anime Vice makes the important point that mangaka are a very professional lot; they are great craftsman (and craftswoman) who are quick to react and adapt to the whims of the manga reading public.  Some might scoff, but this is a learned ability, and a highly valuable one… it is not much different from the acuity of a good comedian to the mood of a crowd, which allows him to select the best joke for the desired response.  This is not the exclusive domain of men or women.  Whether women do in fact make better ecchi manga isn’t all too important to me.  Rather, it’s the parity of women and men in the manga industry that allows creators of either sex to produce work that appeals to either or both sexes, which is actually exceptional in Japan; that there is synthesis of elements that we used to associate with only a specific genre; that neither women nor men need to feel confined to work within socially-dictated genres or constrained in the subjects they choose to explore, that fascinates me most.  Guys needn’t be shy about enjoying romance in their ecchi manga.  Girls can appreciate violence and machismo in their romance manga.

To be free of sexism ironically means that men and women are free to be as “sexist” as they want to be; the absence of all social and cultural boundaries.  Manga is one of the few places that allows it.  It’s all good.

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All About Manga reports that Tokyopop will begin a new promotional push, targeting “cons, local bookstores, and libraries.”  The company is looking for interns to be a part of what I assume is a “street team” in marketing parlance.  Knowledge of video production required.  The positions are not for pay, but it appears a lot of travel will be involved.

So manga publishers have roadies now, eh?  Will there be a lot of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll?  Mmm, if only I were 10 years younger…

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Spotted via Slashdot… Reflections of a Newsosaur (who is, according to the blog’s subtitle, a veteran media executive) reports that a group of publishers – including print, news wire services, and even blog networks – will begin a campaign to locate and stamp out copyright infringement on the web.  Instead of relief through courts, the group plans to cut infringing websites off from ad revenue.

You know, ignoring the potential for abuse (and there are always some) and assuming everything works as intended (always a big caveat), this is not that bad a plan.  The worst of the online pirates all have a profit motive.  And frankly, there are too many blogs that just repost news verbatim.  If this program is successful, perhaps it will force more people to rediscover old-fashioned skills such as “putting things into your own words,” “proper attribution,” and “personal interpretation,” elements of writing that everyone should have learned in middle school.  Even I think that would be a far more culturally valuable achievement than getting rid of some aggregate spam blogs.

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Abu Dhabi IT specialist finds his true calling in manga, creates graphic novel about falconry.  What part of that is not thoroughly kick-ass?  Falconry, man.  It’s like Pokemon, but with more rabbit-skewering talons and strips of raw meat.  (Spotted via MangaBlog)