The Manga Bandwagon

You: "I'm tired of not being on the bandwagon on this manga thing. Everyone else talks about how great it is, and I'm reading the same superhero comics with the same basic characters (or ripoffs of the old characters) that I've read for years. What manga should I start reading?"

Here's what you need to know:

Manga you might want to go out and buy RIGHT NOW:

THE DREAMING: Schoolgirls at an isolated private school in Australia descend increasingly into ghosts, madness, and mystery. The Dreaming is published by female author Queenie Chan, citizen of Australia. I mention that because there's no need to fear dealing with something that started out in another language -- it didn't. When asked about influences, Queenie told us: "I was trying to get away from that and do a 'different' kind of horror than J-horror. A more elegant, gothic sort, I suppose. As you've suggested, _Picnic at Hanging Rock_ was one of its inspirations, but in terms of gothic novels, it's Daphne DuMaurier's _Rebecca_ that influenced it the most. I didn't realise this until I read your _Jane Eyre_ comment, but that book probably had a bigger influence on _The Dreaming_ than _Picnic at Hanging Rock._" If you do want more old-school J-horror, try her story BLOCK 6 (linked to Wirepop from her website) -- the easiest way to turn the pages is to click on them: http://www.queeniechan.com Queenie Chan is the writer as well as the artist of THE DREAMING, which is published by TokyoPop.

IRON WOK JAN: A couple of years ago, they loved this over at MillarWorld. Imagine if a young man who's almost certifiably insane won an episode of the Cooking Network's show IRON CHEF. Imagine following his adventures. Iron Wok Jan is about magic. Cooking is magic. Magic is cooking. What, therefore, is the nature of magic, and therefore cooking? Jan is the world's greatest chef, except for one thing -- he was taught by his almost certifiably insane grandfather, also a master chef, that cooking is about competition -- namely, winning. Jan will do anything to win. On MillarWorld, they were fantasizing about "What if Jan went up against Batman?" They predicted Jan would win. I took a chance and was more or less glad. I read it to Barb when I fear she's losing too much weight -- it gives one an appetite. Published by ComicsOne at first, now taken over by DrMaster Publications.

YOTSUBA -- Published by ADV films. This sweet, gentle manga will offend no one; instead, it will delight everyone with a heart and a soul. So it might not be for your typical forum webtroll, but should be good for everyone else. Yotsuba is a little girl with green hair. She supposedly used to live on an island with her grandmother. That's about all we know. Yotsuba is so uncloyingly sweet and honest and wonderful... I didn't know anyone could write characters like this anymore. She's not so treacle-y she'll hurt your teeth -- she's just fun. This is by the creator of Azumanga Daioh. If that means anything to you, then you know you ought to try Yotsuba, because the creator does even better outside the strictures of a 4-panel gag strip.

EAGLE -- Published by Viz. A political thriller. A Japanese-American guy is running for president. Forget your assumptions about what that would mean in real life. Read this series and follow the creator through his exploration of what America means, and democracy. It's not just weird presidential fanfic -- this is award-winning stuff. Travel back to a time before we got our current president, when anything might be possible for people with brains and morals.

NARUTO -- Published by Viz as part of an agreement with Shonen Jump. Wondering what those metal headbands that you've started seeing people wearing at cons mean? It means they love Naruto. Naruto is a ninja. Naruto lives in a fantasy world, except they have a certain amount of technology, like videocameras and stuff, which suggests that this is Earth's far future. Or maybe it's another dang dimension or timeline, doesn't matter. What does matter is that Naruto is great. It's what One Piece could have been if it wasn't so silly. I don't want to spoil anything, but let me say that I was sold on Naruto from Chapter One of Volume One. That's it. The end. If you like basic martial-arts action, try Naruto.

GTO -- Published by TokyoPop. Onizuka used to be the baddest guy in the Onibaku biker gang. But now that his youth is behind him and he's getting older than he ever thought about being (22), he's starting to think about settling down and easing into a life where he can meet some hot girls. Quickly sweating his way through sufficient college hours, Onizuka heads back to the place that adults made him hate worse than anything -- high school. He's going to make school fun again. He might as well, since the students are all smarter than he is...

GUNSMITH CATS -- Published by Dark Horse. Rally Vincent's dad was an olympic sharpshooter. He passed his love of firearms and his I-can't-BELIEVE-you-hit-that-tiny-target-from-here eyes down to his daughter, who owns Gunsmith Cats, a gunshop that specializes in making custom jobs for its customers. Rally's also a bounty hunter, making money off of bringing in the worst criminals in Chicago. Barb and I really liked this series -- we gave some issues to Wicker Man Studios artist Ryan Howe and HE fell in love with it... try it. The author knows his guns and his girls, and cuts loose with them here as he just really couldn't in OH MY GODDESS or even YOU'RE UNDER ARREST.

HARLEM BEAT/REBOUND: Two titles, one story, sort of like JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE became JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL (What? That's the best example I can think of, okay?) Basically, HARLEM BEAT (I guess since I'm trying to get you to start reading it, I'll call it by its first name, since that's where you should start) is in the genre of Sports Manga. There's only one thing to understand about Sports Manga: The characters are all trying to grow in skill and be the best and win their tournaments and stuff, and for only one reason: THE LOVE OF THE GAME. THE LOVE OF THE GAME is the one thing that drives the pure of heart in sports manga. They want to win, oh yes. They want to win more than anything. Well... more than anything except for one thing. They don't want to win so bad that it could possibly taint THEIR LOVE OF THE GAME. The only time we HAVE to win is when we're up against people who are playing because winning is everything -- players who've let fame or ego go to their heads (or who are led by an evil coach who's done so) and twist or warp THEIR LOVE OF THE GAME. HARLEM BEAT, then, fits this concept perfectly, as does every single sports manga (and every sports anime, like PRINCESS NINE) I've seen so far. Nate Torres (why does a Japanese kid have a hispanic name? Besides TokyoPop doing some shrewd marketing in translation, I think it's because the name was originally the same as the main character of FRUITS BASKET) gets involved in the world of street basketball, in which 3-person teams compete to earn points using only one hoop on a half-court. REBOUND tells of Nate leaving his street ball career behind him as he gets involved in his high school basketball team. This manga, created by a young woman, is enthralling, testosterone-driven, yet has lots of good-looking guys for the ladies.

HIKARU NO GO -- Published by Viz in connection with Shonen Jump. I told you that story to tell you this story. Basically, Hikaru No Go is also a sports manga, but the sport in question is the game of Go, which adults who think they know things will tell you is called Othello here in the states, although I don't think that's precisely right as far as the rules go (although it's similar enough to give you a vague idea -- a game of strategy in which black and white pieces are placed on a board). Sound more boring than most sports manga? It's not. One twist is that Hikaru, the boy who's the main character, finds a go board with a little stain of blood on it that only he can see -- and thereafter becomes the host of a go-playing ghost from the very old days of classical Japan. The ghost is excited to be back in the world again and to learn what slight changes have come upon his game in a few hundred years. Hikaru starts playing Go to make the ghost happy. However, we are given just enough hints that deep within Hikaru is the seed of a natural Go-playing super-prodigy, although he's got the disadvantage of coming to the game much later than most prodigies. Understand that a part of Japanese culture takes this game very, very seriously. Its simplicity combined with its strategy make it more philosophical than chess, and there's a quest among the main characters to understand the nature of "The Divine Move", which, you gather, will be a move so perfect that it will instill in one a sort of buddha-like enlightenment. It's understood that the end of this series will undoubtedly involve SOMEONE playing The Divine Move, and that whenever that happens, the ghost will be there, either playing it or witnessing it, and that it will give all who see it Inner Peace. HIKARU NO GO is as exciting as a bunch of samurai running around questing for The Perfect Swordstroke, if you will -- but make no mistake, it's all about THE LOVE OF THE GAME.

MARS -- Published by TokyoPop. MARS is shojo. What is shojo? Well there's two adjectives. Shonen, as in Shonen Jump and Shonen Knife, is, theoretically, "boy stuff", and shojo is "girl stuff". Shonen can seem very female-friendly at times, but you'll notice that it seems to have a lot more fighting or at least more jumping-around in it (HIKARU NO GO being Shonen Jump's philisophical-action exception that proves the rule). MARS is shojo. Shojo has more romance, or rather more tentative, often frustrating romance, and a lot more impossibly beautiful men, who are often emotionally sensitive or fragile, often bad-boys, and often both. MARS is about a female painter who sees an impossibly beautiful young man and uses him as her subject for a painting of Mars, the God of War. There's something in his godlike bad-boy face that nonetheless suggests struggle to her. Soon, they fall for each other, and we follow their romance. I read through every volume -- it's engrossing. It's helped by the addition of a psychotic young man later in the series who falls for the male lead himself -- adding just enough tension to finish out the series satisfactorily, as we learn why the male lead is haunted by the death of his younger brother, and the truth about his family's past.

Next time: THOSE WHO HUNT ELVES, TUXEDO GEN, OTHELLO, WHISTLE, and more info to help you determine if it's time to jump on the manga bandwagon... or, if you're already on it, you might learn about yet another instrument you'd like to play in the band...

http://www.panel2panel.com/gsg-archives.html

http://www.queeniechan.com