Change of Plans - I've been Journaling

Hello everyone. It's been a while, hasn't it? Six whole months -- the year is half over.

In January, I wrote a 2023 plans post (which you can find right here) that spoke about all the writing projects I'd planned for the blog. More Random Manga Roulette, work on the second arc of my web novel, Where Sky Meets Sea, a "Top Ten Books of 2022" post, and a long-winded Attack on Titan essay.

I now plan to do none of that. At least, not this year, or any time soon.

Things happen, things change. I've been through a lot this year; some good, most bad -- but I don't say that to garner sympathy. I'm just tellin' it like it is. What I'm getting at is that my priorities have shifted, and what I want to do with my life is, I think, possibly going through a bit of a metamorphosis. I've meditated as consistently as I possibly can since February, been holding down a steady job, and have had six whole months where I have not bothered actually writing any fiction.  

That's right. Since I've finished my fifth manuscript, I've taken a break from the world of prose narrative. I've just been busy, you know? And as things change and I approach the age of 25, I feel like I'm on the cusp of a serious change in how I live my day-to-day life. But I've still been writing... just not on the computer: 

Yup. I've been journaling. 

Journaling is a hobby I've tried to do for many years, but have always found daunting, a bit monotonous. However, writing things down has always been an easy way for me to memorize something, and I'm no stranger to books. What journaling has to do to be productive for you is become a habit, and a habit forms after seventy days of consecutive work. That was tough for me to do in years prior. Now, though, I can gladly say, then, that I've been journaling for 181 days in a row, so I think the habit has been formed.

The first two books are my Commonplace Books, both of which in the "Pocket" category, meaning I carry them around and write into them things that I see, hear, think, and read, all for transferring to a "Table" Commonplace Book at a later time. (The brown one beneath the first two is one of those). Essentially, when a thought strikes me, I'll put it in the field ledger. They're small, so I can take them anywhere. Later, when I have time to sit down and examine that thought, I put it in the bigger ledger that stays near my workstation. I'll cross-reference, analyze, and sometimes discard or expand upon this thought all in the name of growing my base of knowledge. A writer needs things to write about, obviously, and my head is not big enough to keep everything I need to know at the forefront of my mind. A lot of writers would dissuade you from keeping a journal, and I see why; it can become excessive, and distract you from your actual job: WRITING! But I've since needed a break from the craft itself, and journaling really soothes my chaotic mind. When working in the field of literature, you quickly see that material is literally everywhere; it's a state I think writers never truly get a break from. Naturally, in such circumstances, finding a way to document your findings is helpful. It has been for me.

The two corkboard books beneath that are the Diaries I've kept for 2023. So far, I've successfully catalogued the first six months in the top one, and have begun July to December in the second. I've learned a lot from the practice already; chief among my observations is that, next year, I need to choose bigger journals for the exercise. Other than that, I'll happily share with you that, yes, I do keep a diary, but no, you cannot see inside it.

Below that is my Travel Book, where I document all the places I go. I actually began this one in January of 2022, when I flew to Boise for my friend's wedding. I don't get to travel frequently, so it'll take a long time to fill it up, but I look forward to all the unique experiences that will get committed to paper in that book for future me to look back upon.

Under that is my Dream Log, where I analyze my dreams. I have very vivid and strange dreams, and this year I have had the most narratively consistent and, quite frankly, prophetic dreams of my entire life. I never used to give dream analysis the time of day, but this year changed things. While I'm not a spiritualist by any means, and I don't believe in precognition, I do believe the subconscious mind understands and is aware of things our conscious minds are not. Dreams are a way for the two communicate, I think. I've already learned a lot about myself and my subconscious by assessing my dreams, and it's painted quite the picture of my emotions, desires and fears. I recommend it to anybody who feels the need to know more about themselves.

The thin black book beneath the Dream Log is my Philosophy Workbook, where I channel out my own philosophical ideas. I'll write a thesis, and then every three lines expand upon that thesis with different assertions and criticisms, allowing room for my future self to go back in and add comments/observations to each. By the time I'm 40 I want to be able to call myself a Polymath, and while that will warrant its own post, part of the journey is becoming a philosopher. Thus, such a book is a great first step.

Below that, the gray one is a volume of compiled knowledge I call "Fact, Myth, Legend," which is mostly about ancient history and various world mythologies and religions. While a lot of that knowledge can be found in my more general Commonplace books, as a writer of fantasy (often with historical influence), I find keeping the topics in their own place is helpful for organization's sake.

Finally, the big leather one at the bottom is my Poetry Collection. It has my in-progress Epic poem, a few prose poems, and all my lyrical poems. More on that at a later date...

Not pictured here is my Meditations Log, my Media Ledger, a few finished Commonplace Books (pocket), around a half-dozen journals of various historical knowledge, and four or five notebooks all for work on my book series. 

-------

Wow! That's a lot of writing, isn't it? So don't fret when I say, "I haven't written all year," cause it isn't true (and I didn't actually say that). I'm taking this year to step back from my fiction and take a look at myself, my direction in life, and what I actually want to do. I mentioned above that, by the time the next 15 years comes and goes, I want to be able to call myself a Polymath. That is not a replacement for my initial journey as an author; it's actually a consequence of it. I want more than just to be an author. I want to be a poet, a philosopher, a painter, a botanist, an alchemy historian, a multi-media artist, and who else knows what else? A filmmaker? A polyglot? A world-traveler? It's a fantastic little umbrella term. "Renaissance man." I like that. I think I'll write my own Renaissance. 

This post was self-indulgent, and I've failed to deliver what I believed I would six months ago, and for both of those things I will say: I'm sorry. But I'm on a slightly divulging path than I was before, and all this growth has some unexpected consequences. This blog will stay up, and I will probably post from time to time, but whose to say what I'll post about? There's a whole world out there to explore and discover, and I want to see it. 

Thank you for reading, truly. I'll see you soon.

--

2023 Plans

UPDATE POST!

These are pretty rare for me these days, but 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for me. I read 52 books, flew to two different states (and I haven't done that in nearly eleven years), got a new job, and did a host of other things. Next year, I'm hoping to go to Japan, but that's still up in the air. 

This post will be more about things on the blog next year, and other writing projects. I'll break them down in a numbered list, starting with...

 

5. More Random Manga Roulette.

Yes, more Random Manga Roulette is coming! I didn't get to every volume I've collected for the project, which I'd hoped to, but as it is, life happens -- and obviously because of Christmas money I have since added more... oops. 

Regardless, Random Manga Roulette is a project I really enjoy, because it helps me with multiple things; one, is simply manifesting a coherent examination of a really short piece of media. This helps me in my writing for multiple reasons, and is a very entertaining endeavor because I get a taste of dozens of different kinds of manga. I positively adore manga as a medium, and I find it quite horizon-broadening to sample a ton of different titles. I'm pretty confident in my ability to thoroughly analyze the medium, and continuing strengthens that ability even more. 

Some titles I have plans on talking about are...

- The Flowers of Evil

- Hellsing

- Persona 5

- Genshiken 

- Record of Ragnarok

and many others. Obviously, stay tuned. 

- ~ - ~ - ~ -

4. Top Ten Books of 2022

I read a lot of books in 2022, and made an Instagram post about them on my personal (you can find that in the righthand sidebar). However, I plan on actually talking about each of these titles in a little more depth in a single post. I decided to momentarily halt on writing up a "media list" for all the stuff I consumed like I'd done in years prior, and maybe focus only on the positives. 

If you want to see my top ten list of books I read in 2022, go ahead and check out my personal Instagram account. If not, then a post will be out sometime soon. I read a lot of good books in 2022, so narrowing it down to only ten was tough, so I'll be mentioning a few honorable mentions too! 

But that begs the question; will I do a bottom ten? Worst books I read? Probably not. A lot of the books I read that I disliked this year are rather new, and I don't want to bring negative attention to people who are still alive and have careers in writing. If I read a book that's really old, however, and find it terrible, I might write about that one. Similarly, I won't hold back when talking about manga. You could see this as hypocritical, which I understand -- but there's a lot of nuance in the difference of foreign / domestic markets there, so what I say won't impact anything at all regarding a foreign import. I also have a lesser chance of embarrassing myself, since fiction is part of my trade, whereas comic making is not.

- ~ - ~ - ~ -

3. Where Sky Meets Sea Arc 2

This year, I threw one of my manuscripts to the wolves on a website called Royal Road, hoping to see if people like my stories. I've been writing seriously for over six years now, and I figured hiding it this whole time is only holding me back. However, the actual process of traditional publishing is a beast I have not dived into for a MYRIAD of reasons, nor is it a good foot in the door for establishing an audience. So I figured, what the hell, let's give it a shot.

Last year, I completed the project "The Many Horrors of Windle Rock," a 10 part short story collection that explores the vile happenings of a fictional town in Ireland. And look at that! Three five star reviews!! As of the writing of this post, it's been visited about 1,200 times, and continues to gain readership. The stories are pretty amateur, but I'm proud of the project. 

Meanwhile, as I have completed the first arc of "Where Sky Meets Sea," which is my fantasy-adventure story, I have a detailed outline for the second arc and a few chapters ready to go. I'll be expanding the world, adding new conflicts, and a host of new characters. I won't spoil it here, you'll have to read it...

...unfortunately, I don't know when I'll be posting any new chapters. When you get down to number 1 on this list, you'll see why. It could end up being a long time before we return to Owin and Caspia's adventure on the high seas, and I can't guarantee it will be soon... hopefully next year I can balance my projects like Brandon Sanderson, but that man is a nutty genius and has all the time in the world to do so. I, unfortunately, do not. So we will see. 

- ~ - ~ - ~ -

2. Attack on Titan Essay

This is an incredibly important project to me, which I had started last year and intended to finish within a few weeks, but the scope of it absolutely got away from me. It's a thorough, detailed analysis of the entire manga series, arc by arc, then character by character, then theme by theme, and hits on common criticisms, symbolism, the ending, and my history with the franchise. Given that the story is 34 volumes long, and is absolutely packed with ideas, this makes my essay, which is TWENTY SEPARATE PARTS LONG, a bonafide doorstopper; so far, I've clocked in at 55 pages at that 35%, which means it could be 150 or more pages long. Which is absolutely batshit, I know, but writing my novels took precedence. Regardless, here is a taste of the sections and my completion with them...

i: Introduction (DONE) 

ii: Disclaimers (DONE) 

1: Arc One - A Grim Reminder (DONE)

2: Arc Two - The Battle of Trost (DONE)

3: Arc Three - Female Titan (DONE) 

4: Arc Four - Clash of the Titans (DONE)

5: Arc Five - Uprising (90%) 

6: Arc Six - Return to Shiganshina (65 or 70%) 

7: Arc Seven - Marley (50%) 

8: Arc Eight - War for Paradis (no progress) 

9: Arc Nine - Ragnarok / The Rumbling (no progress) 

10: Characters and Themes - (10% with extended outline) 

11: Motifs - (started a few) 

12: The Division of the Nine Titans (60%) 

13: Victim and Perpetrator: The Price of Propaganda (maybe 35%) 

14: We Are Our Own Worst Enemies (a few sentences, not much) 

15: Give Up Your Dreams and Die - Breaking the Cycle (a few sentences, not much) 

16: The World is Cruel, Yet Beautiful (no progress) 

17: Hajime Isayama and his Inspirations (a few notes jotted down) 

18: My History with Attack on Titan (DONE) 

19: Criticisms and The Ending (DONE) 

20: Closing Statements and Credits (90%)

 

It might end up being the most thorough examination of the series on the entire internet. 

I am not kidding.

I think I'll wait for the anime to conclude, but as it stands now, I have to get numerous other things done before I can get back to talking about the series. But I have 365 whole days next year, so hopefully I can squeeze it into my life alongside other plans. 

- ~ - ~ - ~ -

1. New Novel and Novel Updates

And here we get to the biggest project of all: a new manuscript. 

That's right. Last year, I completed the third novel in my first trilogy, Letters to Soldiers. It's the conclusion to the first part of a two part series, which I plan to be six books long. So far, I have three. Take a look at this awesome photo. And yes, feel free to screenshot. 

While I plan for there to be a big timeskip and three more books in the story... the Over the Dust and Snow series is a project that launched this entire endeavor. It came to me suddenly in 2016, when I was a Junior in high school. I was just sitting on the couch, and when the thought struck me, I ran to my room and wrote it down. 

Now, I have three whole books. 

Book one, which I call Over the Dust and Snow, is a fantasy adventure story about five teens who wind up together by accident, and must travel the world in search of a magic kingdom, all while being pursued by a devious band of mercenaries. It's about 360 manuscript pages. (138,000 words).

Book two, which I call Eight Sacred Blades, is a continuation of the story with more magic, more mystery, and the inkling suspicion that something is very not right with the goings-on in this otherworld... it's about 380 manuscript pages. (140,000 words).

Book three took me two years: I started it in February of 2021, and just finished the third draft (a readable copy, essentially) in late November of last year. I call it Letters to Soldiers, as stated above, and it's the breaking point of the narrative before things change forever. 

As of now, it is around 760 manuscript pages, and 280,000 words. 

I'm very proud of myself. I've come a long way. On top of Where Sky Meets Sea, The Many Horrors of Windle Rock, and a stand alone novel I wrote in 2020 titled Kill the Wizard, the Over the Dust and Snow series is my longest and most rewarding project. I hope to have it published for all of you one day.

Until then, however, I need a break, and have come up with a different idea. I don't have a name for it yet, and while I plan for it only to be one book, it is my most ambitious project to date, with a whole new solarpunk science fantasy world, a magic system I'm making entirely from scratch, and a whole band of new characters. That's all I will say now, but I'm getting hard to work on building this story and world. Here's to hoping it goes well, and you stay tuned. 

- ~ - ~ - ~ - 

 

 That's all I got for ya! 2023 is gonna be a big year for me! 

THE LAST BOOK CLUB OF 2022 -- Bomba, by Osamu Tezuka

Welcome to the very last Book Club (and Random Manga Roulette) of 2022!

Today, we'll be taking a look at a short, one volume title: Bomba! (1970) by the grandfather of manga himself, Osamu Tezuka. Now, a few disclaimers here: this is the first of Tezuka's manga I've read. I'm a collector, so I read what I buy and stay away from digital manga (generally) because I don't like reading electronically. It's only recently that a lot of Tezuka's works are getting brought over here, so while it sucks it's taken this long for me to get to it, it makes sense. But for someone who reads as much manga as me, it's about time I give one of Tezuka's titles a try, and I'm glad it was this one. 

Second disclaimer: as a special post for the end of the year, I'll be talking about this one in a little more depth than usual, so spoilers from hereon out.

With that out of the way, let us establish: What is Bomba! ?

Bomba! is a story of a middleschooler -- Testu. Thoroughly abused at home and by the other adults in his life, he has come to fall in love with his teacher, Miss Mizushima, because she is the only person who treats him with kindness and respect. 

Testu, however, is troubled by something else: in times of isolation, often when it's dark, he hears the distant clopping of hooves getting nearer and nearer...

The manga opens with this, framed by distinctly angled dynamic panels that play with the contrast of whites and blacks to depict a train station shrouded in darkness.

 

 

Notice, too, how it's only after the train passes and the clopping begins that Tetsu's attention is shifted.

Tezuka, with only a few pages, has displayed some incredible craftsmanship in the world of early manga. It goes without saying that this art style is outdated today, and what we can construe as "better" art exists in abundance, but it's pioneers like Osamu Tezuka that laid the groundwork for the industry as it is now. I was distinctly moved by many of the pages of this manga, because if there's one thing I revere in this world, it's skillfull artistic craftsmanship. In comparison to another trailblazer, Leiji Matsumoto, (whose four volume space opera, Queen Emeraldas, I have reviewed here) I noticed that Tezuka's art and story has more structure, breadth, logic, and an acutely nuanced scene transition, in contrast the vision, yes -- but also lack of depth -- I found within Matsumoto's work.

We should talk more about the narrative, though. 

Testu eventually comes to realize that this spectral stalker is a horse, with disturbingly human eyes: 

(The horse also peeks in on him while he's using the toilet, which is fittingly intrusive to the character and the reader) 

This human-like symmetry on something like a horse is a perfect utilization of the uncanny valley effect. Tezuka queues us in with multiple avenues of storytelling that there is something very wrong with this horse.

From here, I'll give you a bit of a quicker rundown. As it turns out, Tetsu's hatred for someone, and wishing unto them death, compels the horse to seek and destroy that person. As I've seen put in a review on the (awful) website MyAnimeList: "It's like Death Note, with a horse instead of a notebook." In more ways than one, this is an apt comparison! Bomba! predates Death Note by over thirty years, so I wouldn't be surprised if a work like this from such an influential artist was direct inspiration to the Shonen Jump series. 

I'll come back to the Death Note idea in a moment. 

For now, understand that Testu is humiliated at nearly every turn before the second act of the story. To quote: 

I made an observation about this page while reading; Tetsu's feelings toward Miss Mizushima are quite Freudian, due to him comparing romantic feelings to those of motherhood. We will also come back to this.

After the horse kills a particularly abusive teacher whom Tetsu wished would die, we are catapulted into a dark world where Tetsu's spite doubles into a vengeful, self-important life-long escapade wherein everyone who dare cross him dies beneath the hooves of Bomba, implied to be the ghost of a war horse his father took care of in WWII. Its rider, a general in charge of Tetsu's father's battalion, would abuse and mistreat the man -- to the point of making him eat Bomba's feces -- until one day he wished for the horse to kill the general. The horse did, but then died in gunfire the man could have saved him from. Instead, he chose to free a woman from wartime prostitution, and she became Tetsu's mother. 

There's a lot to unpack here about the idea of revenge, mistakes, and "love," if we can call it that. First, we have to start at the most glaring symbol: the white horse.

Wikipedia: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

In classical, Biblical, and moreover Western symbolism, a white horse is often the personification of death itself: and if not, then at least the steed upon which death rides. I think Bomba, as an entity in the story, has a lot to do with the idea of karmic spite, but it's no doubt that any white horse that brings death is definitely an allusion to this broader symbolism. 

A few years into the story, Tetsu sends Bomba after his mother and father, who had boarded a bus for a trip. Bomba appears as a ghostly giant and knocks the bus off a cliff, killing them, but also dozens of innocent people.

While Bomba's first victim was a child abuser and perpetrator of sexual harassment, and therefore, not innocent, he was but one victim of the horse; but now, the horse -- or, I think, Tetsu's hatred -- has killed a group of bystanders who had nothing to do with his spite. 

This continues to escalate, which eventually spirals into a nationwide panic over a "ghostly white horse." Real mass-hysteria style. Bring in that Death Note comparison again, and I think it's even more fitting when we see the effect the "Kira" phenomenon had on the world in the story. As it happens, the idea that people are now investigating this phenomenon also links components of the story now to Freud's psychology, which is the other point I said we'd come back to! That's a double win for my reading comprehension! Yay!

But does this add another piece to the puzzle? 

"A dream of riding a horse, for example, represents sexual desire." 

Integral to both Tetsu and his father's stories, is the "love" they share for someone else. Respectively, of course, Miss Mizushima, and Tetsu's mother. While I don't know the exact details to make any of these connections super coherent, I do think Bomba utilizes this symbolism too, as a motivation for Tetsu's rage happens to be his love for Miss Mizushima. Also, it's only after his father runs off with his mother does Bomba materialize as a revenant. I might be reaching, though, but either way I find all of these ideas interesting, because they're clearly adjacent to one another, so I know Tezuka picked them on purpose. 

But ahh, I can't quite connect the dots. Looks like a loss for my reading comprehension, actually. Boo! 

Anywho: 

The most important element of the story is Miss Mizushima's death, which devastates Tetsu. Furthermore, what he perceives to be lies about her having seven suitors perpetuated in newspapers compound his insanity, to the point of outing himself as the master of Bomba publicly.

But he's in for a rude awakening. 

Bomba, of course, now comes after him. When we see remember that Bomba can only go after people he hates, the end of his pipe dream of being with Miss Mizushima -- and the destruction of her reputation -- manifests in Tetsu as self loathing, and he laments how much of a fool he was. It's all kinda sad to me, because Tetsu's whole life is framed as nothing but domestic abuse and a crush on a woman he'd never have. Furthermore, he'd caused much death and destruction all from the resulting spite, which doubles down on this strangulation of all hope from the tone. 

Up until this point, I found Bomba an extremely compelling manga. Unfortunately, I didn't like the ending, really, and I found it a bit of a cop out. I know I've spoiled quite a bit already, but I'll actually leave the ending itself out of the argument in case there are those of you who want to give it a try. I see what Tezuka was going for thematically, so it DOES make narrative sense, but I'm not a fan. However, that doesn't mean you won't be. Maybe let me know what you think!

Despite my thoughts on the conclusion, I do think Bomba! was a very solid read. After having read so much modern manga, going back to a lot of where it began, or where influential pieces were mostly made, is a treat, a challenge, and very informative. 

Thank you for reading the last Book Club of 2022!! I'm planning an update post soon to catch you guys up on where I'm at, and what's next. Stay tuned! 

Random Manga Roulette -- Dan Da Dan

BRUH. 

From several sources now, I have been hearing about one of the newer Shonen Jump + titles: Of course, that would be the one we're talking about today, Dan Da Dan. 

As much as I grow tired with some of the titles from Shonen Jump, my overwhelming love of manga, paired with a deep appreciation for the magazine (that mostly came from Bakuman) has me trying most of the new series it produces each year anyway, so long as they're brought to the states in print form. Part of the hobby for me is a haul and subsequently reading what I get, keeping what I liked, and selling what I didn't. Don't ask me, it's just what I do. Gotta get that dopamine somehow, in this nutty world. 

Thankfully, there are titles like Dan Da Dan that present to us an even nuttier world that we can escape to, a world that really pulls us -- no -- drags us away from it all. And holy fuck do I mean that for real. By the hair, man, my roots are sore. 

Before I explain anything about this manga LOOK AT THIS-- 

Yeah. 

Here's the premise: 

Momo is a girl who believes in ghosts, and is awaiting her movie-star savior. 

Ken is a recluse of a boy who believes in aliens, and spends his days reading conspiracy magazines.

Neither of them believe in what the other does. For all of one chapter. 

You can guess what happens next. 

After crossing paths and encountering each of the things they hadn't believed in, the two find their lives entangled through something of an awkward friendship where they clearly want something more -- full of hilarious misunderstandings and, afterward, some nuggets of progression toward romance. While Momo is still hung up over Ken Takakura (that movie star she loves) and can't bear hearing his name without swooning, our nerdy occult-loving boy "Okarun," whose real name is... Ken... Takakura...

~~ Oh boy, our male protagonist has the same name as the movie star! ~~

...is a self proclaimed "awkward fellow," who has no friends and no social skills. This dynamic lends to some repetitive hijinks, but it works. It's kept in line with the fact that they, having now awakened psychic powers from their experiences (in Ken's case, he's cursed by the ghost of a very horny granny), the two of them have to unravel the mystery of the relationship between the extraterrestrial and the paranormal.

It has been years since I've been this excited about a new title. YEARS. You can see it now: Momo will gradually realize her ideal of a movie-star man is just unrealistic, and Ken will learn that all he has to do to make friends, or take that further, is put himself out there. I usually do not like will-they won't they's, but like all rules of writing, some rules can be broken. Dan Da Dan doesn't just make this aspect of the manga bearable, but it makes it funny too, and takes conventional plot-writing and throws it completely out the window (which is also something I don't typically like, but I'll explain why it works in a moment). The first volume is a barrel-roll of one wacky and wild thing after the next, building on itself with a consistent tone and an inconsistent story. 

I get the impression that Yukinobu Tatsu (previously an assistant to Tatsuki Fujimoto, creator of Chainsaw Man) has literally no idea where the story is going. The most random shit possible happens incessantly, but the relationship of the characters, the immaculate, stunning artwork, and the humor make it very enjoyable to watch the mangaka come up with something new in every chapter. Now, listen. I'm someone who almost always prizes coherency over insanity. But manga has a specific element of craftsmanship, both visual and emotional, that has me appreciating titles with lackluster stories for reasons outside of the plot alone. In Dan Da Dan's case, the author probably not knowing what's going to happen next actually makes it compulsively readable, because instead of amateurism, the manga seems more like it's all intentional. Whether it is or not is an afterthought to me.

 

The horror in this manga is perfectly fused with action and humor, utilizing the Junji Ito-esque "page turn" only comics can achieve, while then sprinting headlong into a battle of powers I can only conjure in my dreams. When I say the art is immaculate, it is unflinchingly so.

There's a lot more to say about this manga, but I shan't do so without revealing I have read far beyond the first volume friends, so I'll wrap it up here with a glowing recommendation. Go pick this up. Seriously. It's fucking bonkers, in the best way.

   - Austin

Random Manga Roulette - Witch's Printing Office

 

BOOK CLUB RETURNS WITH ANOTHER RANDOM MANGA ROULETTE!!!!

And today, we have a manga known as Witch's Printing Office. 

Witch's Printing Office is one of the titles I picked up at a huge Barnes & Noble on my trip to Boise this January. A fantasy setting with a niche premise like publishing seemed quite unique to me, very up my alley. There were many, many titles in that Barnes and Noble, but the art and concept had me gravitating toward this one. 

The premise is simple; a girl by the name of Mika is hosting something called "Magiket," which is a convention for people of this world to share their various magic spells, so she and her publishing company can publish them as books. Magiket is a play on "Comiket," which is a Japanese doujinshi convention that the protagonist is implied to be a big fan of...

Wait a minute...

Mika, on the cover, has a Splatoon pin on her bag! And she named something after a comic book convention in a fantasy world with elves and goblins and dragons and magic...

Oh no, oh SHIT!

ISEKAI SPOTTED!!!

RED ALERT!!!

WORST SUBGENRE KNOWN TO MAN INCOMING!!!

I avoid isekai media like the plague, and though I try to recognize the integrity of every genre and all mediums, I cannot get over how utterly vapid it almost always is. The premise of being whisked away to a magical fantasy setting is not an issue within itself (The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, etc, are examples of decent stories in this topic), but the hollow wish-fulfillment fetishism that pervades Japanese isekai is just inane to me. One-note, clueless, "badass" everyman protagonists that are constantly getting attention from female characters that are barely written as more than archetypes, and the worst of all, a video game power/leveling system. The fantasy in these works is devoid of life, of color. It has nothing to do with mythology, or folklore, or spiritualism. It has nothing to do with vast, complex settings, metaphor, allegory, or speculative ideas. It's nothing but these authors writing out the kind of world they want to live in, all creativity stuck in the world of MMO's and JRPG's. Sword Art Online, The Rising of the Shield Hero, That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime, How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, Reincarnated as Sword, Reincarnated as Dragon Hatchling, Drugstore in Another World, the list literally goes on and on and on. It's probably the worst genre-trend in anime and manga. It takes up so much space on bookstore shelves that manga classics of yesteryear are none to be found. I know things fall out of style, but if THIS is what we're getting instead, then I'd rather be a boomer weeb, quite frankly.

Even when the setting of media like this is brutalist, like Overlord or The Saga of Tanya the Evil, the worldbuilding is still dull as hell (in Tanya's case it's just full on wehraboo bait). There are a few exceptions to this -- The Devil is a Part Timer is a funny flip of the premise, wherein the main antagonist of the fantasy world ends up getting stuck in our world, and working a McDonald's job -- Konosuba, which has similar issues as other isekai, but takes every chance it can to poke fun of these things -- and Re: Zero, which is not exactly a complex work, but makes use of the "born into another world" topic in very interesting ways, building characters and conflict with each of the protagonist's successive resurrections, compounding his problems, and making us actually care about what happens.

All my opinion, of course, but I wanted to explain where I stand with this subgenre. There are standouts, but by and large I just absolutely detest it.

So when I turned the page and realized Mika, the protagonist of Witch's Printing Office (yes, we're still talking about that, sorry) was from our world, and ended up in a fantasy one, I just balked. I nearly put it down right there. I was tricked. Had I known I would never have picked it up. HOWEVER, this caveat is on the back, which I didn't bother to read, so it's on me. Either way, I did spin the wheel for Random Manga Roulette, and thus, I must see it through. 

But biases aside, unfortunately this manga still lives up to the reputation of isekai having pretty bland worldbuilding. It's just a D&D world, but lacking the complexities that make D&D worlds fun to explore (if you have a competent Dungeon Master, that is - *slides you my card*). There's some clever wordplay in the names of things here: a faction of knights in this world are called "Akivalhalla" knights, which as the translation notes explain, is a play on "Akihabara" (a Tokyo shopping hub known for electronics and nerd merch -- weeb central, essentially) and "Valhalla," the warrior afterlife in Norse myth. (in Japanese this would be akibahara, so it's a little cleverer in the native tongue here).  There's a few things like that, and I always appreciate wordplay, but as far as making the work stand out with the world, that is all we get. 

Thankfully, the manga is held together by its lovely art: 

 

 

Crisp black colorings, great linework, and appealing character designs, male and female alike. I have no complaints here. People, magic, and the backgrounds are all fantastic. 

This is quite a wordy manga, however, which has almost no justification for how average the setting is. Like many "specific one-topic manga" that exist (as I described in my Blue Period post. I would consider this sub-sub genre different from iyashikei, but it's close), the story involves quite a lot of just talking about publishing, printing, and the various spells people bring to Mika's magic convention. The story frames some of them as interesting, and in this setting (where everyone can cast at least one spell), I suppose they would be. Unfortunately, the few we get to see are either gags (such as a pervy guy summoning a succubus with his spell) or, uh, an underappreciated necromancer bringing an old guy who just randomly died back to life. 

The last two chapters of this manga introduce something of physical conflict into the story, which I didn't expect, but they were also such a slog that I book the book down and shook my head. For all it had that was interesting, Witch's Printing Office has pretty lukewarm attempts at humor, unearned wordiness, and a sorta-fumbled premise. By the end, I didn't care whether Mika found that one spell that would let her travel back to our world or not (which is the whole reason she organized the company and convention). I just wanted to be done with it so I could write this post and move on to something, hopefully, more interesting.

Also it's an isekai so it gets a -999/10 from me. 

I don't hate it, but I will not be reading any more. 

ONTO THE NEXT TITLE, READERS!!!

            

            -  Austin

Random Manga Roulette -- Crazy Food Truck

 WELCOME BACK TO A CRAZY EPISODE OF RANDOM MANGA ROULETTE! TODAY IT'S 

CRAZY 

FOOD

TRUCK!!

THIS MANGA IS CRAZY FROM START TO FINISH. 

IT FOLLOWS A FOOD TRUCK CHEF NAMED GORDON!! HE FINDS A NAKED  GIRL SLEEPING IN A SLEEPING BAG ON THE ROAD IN A VAST APOCALYPTIC DESERT!! SHE IS NUTS. SHE EATS ALL HIS FOOD. THEY ARE BOTH ON THE RUN FROM THE FEDS! THEY LOVE FOOD AND KICKING ASS!!

 

 

 

AS YOU CAN SEE THIS MANGA IS FOR HOT BLOODED MEN! BEAUTIFUL NAKED GIRLS! CAR CHASES! AWESOME FOOD AND EPIC RECIPES. IT'S EPIC MEAL TIME! GORDON AND ARISA (THE EPIC NAKED GIRL) ALSO KILL A BUNCH OF THE FEDS, CAUSE FUCK THE FEDS. THEY PROBABLY DID NOT PAY THEIR TAXES. 

THE SETTING IS COOL! IT IS AN APOCALYPTIC WORLD WHERE GORDON DOES NOT GET MANY CUSTOMERS! SO A BOND CAN GROW BETWEEN HE AND ARISA SINCE SHE LIKES HIS FOOD! BUT ALSO, THE OCEANS ARE DRIED UP, AND OCEAN CREATURES HAVE EVOLVED TO LIVE IN THE SAND! I'VE HAD THIS IDEA BEFORE, FOR A STORY I WAS GONNA WRITE IN HIGH SCHOOL! IT IS INVENTIVE. OH, NOT THE OCEAN ANIMALS IN SAND PART. JUST THE DRIED UP OCEANS PART.

 

 

THAT'S ABOUT IT. JUST EATING FOOD AND KICKING ASS! I WILL READ THE SECOND VOLUME. SORRY I THINK MY CAPS LOCK IS STUCK.

I DO NOT GIVE FACEBOOK PERMISSION TO PRINT ANYTHING OFF OF MY COMPUTER. 

Random Manga Roulette -- Tokyo Babylon

The wheel has spun once again... today, we're talking about Tokyo Babylon, a shoujo (our first shoujo!!!) series by mangaka quartet, CLAMP. 

This is also my first CLAMP manga altogether. Before reading this title, I had no idea CLAMP was a group of four manga artists, my assumption was that it was something more corporate. Every day you live, you learn, eh? 

It's also published by Tokyopop, which is mostly defunct in the US, and god almighty does it show its age. The source material was created in 1990, but this volume was published in 2004, and that truly was an era when anime and manga in the west was just beginning to take form. There is a huge translation note right in the front of the book, the first page. Was this common for Tokyopop manga? I got into manga round 2013, so I just don't know, but I've seen and owned enough to know that the way they marketed their books was always over the top. with phrases like "100% AUTHENTIC MANGA!!!" stamped on the back, calling everything an "immaculately chosen masterpiece," and what have you. This is also emblematic of its time. Strange to see how far we've come, most manga don't even have the "this book reads right to left" label on it anymore, cause all of you should fucking know better by now*. 

Let's actually talk about the manga, though. What is Tokyo Babylon about? 

Well, it's a supernatural... uh, action? series that follows Subaru Sumeragi, an onmyoji that's also head of his clan. In this first volume, he's accompanied by his sister Hokuto, and an attendant, Seishirou, heir to another family and a supposed veterinarian. 

To give you a hint as to what's to come, I had to Google all of that. Even though I have this picture: 

Ah yes, off to a great start. 

My problems with this volume arise within the first few pages. I hate to be that guy (no I don't), I'm sorry to say (no I'm not), but I am not a fan of the art style. Ah, that has nothing to do with it being shoujo, dear audience, please believe me. While demographics are very much a thing I find myself falling victim to, (like most guys in the manga community I gravitate toward shonen and seinen manga), I've seen many a shoujo with great art styles (My Love Story, Yona of the Dawn, Maid Sama, Snow White With the Red Hair, just to name a few) and even more that have premises that interest me. Me disliking the way Tokyo Babylon looks has everything to do with being CLAMP. 

CLAMP's way of doing things, visually, is almost the exact opposite of what appeals to me. Less so than looking "feminine," as I guess you could say (maybe?) I moreso just think the art is really dated. Which is fine, it's from its time, and it's CLAMP, but it just generally doesn't do it for me. A lot of the pages seem to be full of empty space, the angles with which faces are drawn (sometimes) are a bit on the wonky side, and in general characters just look strangely thin. If you're into that sorta thing, that's totally alright. The scratchy linework of series like Chainsaw Man, and the decidedly amateurism of a series like Mob Psycho 100, are things I recognize as not having wide appeal, and even being flawed, but are still what appeals to me. Can't help taste.

And then we have to story. 

We can boil Tokyo Babylon's first volume down to a single, two part premise: 

 1. - Subaru and co. hear of a supernatural phenomenon.

2. - They go and get rid of it.

It's a simple setup, and not super compelling. These issues compound a little, because we're left with an uninteresting story that's presented in an uninteresting way. BUT

BUT BUT BUT--

There IS something special here. 

While initially brushed off, Hokuto's perspective on ethical consumption melds with another trait of Tokyo Babylon -- every unhappy spirit Subaru goes to exorcise in a woman who has been manipulated or used by the inherent, systemic trappings of society. 

Ooh, now we have something interesting. 

This undercurrent of recognizing inherent societal flaws, especially regarding misogyny and capitalism, is grounds for telling an amazing story that speaks to the human condition, premise be damned. If we can get an episodic narrative that deals with these things each time, and builds some form of bigger picture on victimhood, the evils of civilization, and either a commentary on all of this or maybe some form of cure, then that would be compelling to me! 

Unfortunately, I have serious doubts as to whether these ideas are important to the story, or are just set-dressing. It is called "Tokyo Babylon," and has several references to the actual city of Babylon -- destroyed, famously, by human ego (or one of God's many Biblical hissy fits, whatever you prefer), so I think it MIGHT go down this route, but because these things get brushed off so quickly in the first volume, I have reservations.

Another thing I have reservations about is a running gag in the manga about Seishirou being in love with Subaru. 

At first, when this possible gay romance was brought up, I was like, "Oh, cool." But then I learned that Hokuto, who is sixteen, is the older sister of Subaru. And Seishirou is explicitly stated to be twenty five. 

Oh...

Now, listen. I think this topic is worthy of its own post, but I'll talk a little bit about it here, because it's relevant: I think taking moral issue with something found in fiction is, at best, an exercise in futility. Having sensitivities toward certain topics from lived experiences is not something I mean to disregard, and if that winds up being a turn off for a reader, then that is entirely within their right. However, simply taking moral issue with something depicted in a story because it's "wrong" is not a meaningful way of interacting with media, because depiction is not endorsement. Does every writer who has murder in their story condone murder? Of course not, that would be asinine. Murder, instead, is a tool to demonstrate something contextually within the story. We must instead look at why there is murder, and only from there can we make a sound judgement as to whether it should be depicted or not.

While this is just my opinion, I really believe this logic to be infallible, because traits and tropes are chosen in writing for specific reasons that relate to artistic integrity, whether they be bad or good. In my opinion, all circumstances and scenarios deserve to be represented in our art. It is antithetical to the concept of reading to put my foot down about some things but not others -- from a moral standpoint -- because morals and ethics are fluid. They change. Stories from various time periods reflect the sensibilities of that time, and such traits are different to every person and every culture. When I criticize something, I never approach it from the angle that the thing I'm criticizing is a harmful depiction, because I think we need to understand the nuances of the relationship between fiction and reality. 

That being said, let's get back to Tokyo Babylon, and see what's going on with Seishirou. 

It is a running gag, on Hokuto's end, that he and Subaru are going to get married, or are lovers. 

Seishirou agrees with this, and has professed his love for Subaru repeatedly. 

Subaru is visually discomforted by these "jokes," as he calls them, every single time, without fail. 

So far, no serious discussions or story beats have had to do with Seishirou's pedophilia. 

But who am I to suggest this won't happen? It's possible Subaru is older than he looks, and Hokuto is actually younger than him. It's not like I've read more than one volume, after all, and if we go back to my rant about depiction not being endorsement and how standards are different in cultures, I've found the minors and adults topic somewhat frequently in anime and manga, which leads me to believe that Japan has more tolerance for depicting these things than we do in the West. While I don't think this excuses them from criticism, I can't comment on it without my biased perspective as a foreigner.*

All of which is to say, it still rubbed me the wrong way. It's just weird, you know? There's also something toward the end of the volume that can be construed as homophobic, which I also don't like so much, but again, refer to the argument about time periods and cultures having different standards. 

This is quite a lot to say about a rather underground title from like thirty years ago, isn't it? And here's another shocker: 

I'd read more. 

Yeah, who's to say these little traits of the story won't become something more interesting? I can be pretty harsh with manga, as it's a large investment of time and money, but I think it has setup enough to go somewhere. It's floppy and awkward in execution, but... eh, what isn't these days? 

Wow, that was pretty philosophical. Crazy how I launched into such a deep discussion about something so minute. Thank you, Tokyo Babylon, for becoming a mass murderer for our sake. I promise I won't let this terrible mistake you're making be in vain.

Yeah I've had enough of this, peace out. 

   - Austin

* Do not misunderstand me, I am not gatekeeping, this is a joke.

* Do not misunderstand me. I do not condone pedophilia.