Doujinshi, that is otaku, doujinshi based on Genshiken?  That is so Otaku that it is like a Neutron star, always threating to become so massive that it collapses in on itself.  Anyway here are two really funny Genshiken Sasahara-Oguie dojins translated into english. 

ABC  Gokko

ABC Gokko 2

And as is de rigeur for these posts if you need a file management /compression /decompression software I as always most strongly suggest 7 Zip.

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     Must come to an end, so the saying goes.  Still it is always a little sad when a series that you enjoy as much as I do genshiken reaches its final conclusion.  Comics Worth Reading has a review ofGenshiken Volume 9 up.  I look forward to this one once it hits the shelves, but I also wish that a series this great could go on.

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     Of all the things I mentioned as positives for Welcome to the N.H.K. I forgot to add that this book is populated by crazy people.  I don't mean they think their Jesus or Napoleon crazy, but obsessed, compulsive craziness that drives the characters to do what they do.  The deeper into this story I get the more intrigued I become.  TokyoPop bills this series as a comedy, but I think that is a disservice to both this series and to straight comedic series.  This more of drama with a pinch f romance and fair helping of gallows humor.  Even the person who at first appears to be the most stable and together of the bunch turns out to have a lot of problems of their own.  By the close of this the most recent volume I am left with the conclusion that the main characters represent to sides of the same coin, and as a result are antaganistic toward each other as defense mechanism to keep from admitting that they are alike, and consequently being able to provide a counter balance for the other.  They both fear essentially the same thing, but they express it at opposite ends of the spectrum of human behavior.  Can they ever come to see that they need each other, but not as opposites, but rather as two parts of a whole.  Take these ramblings for whatever they are worth to you, I could be totally wrong, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense to me.

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     The funniest Manga I have ever read, and likely ever will read is hands down Kyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba&!  Following the adventures of a green haired little girl it is full of funny, genuine and warm humor.  Combined with Azuma's always fantastic art and an uncanny ability to climb into the head of a Kindergarten-First grade aged kid makes for humor that is fit for anyone young or old.  This book is a great way to introduce some one who is unfamiliar with manga to the medium.

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     I know that I hardly seem the type, but I too have a softer side, okay I'll be honest, I have a less abrasive side.   A good story that revolves around people and their feelings for each other is one of the hardest things to write consistently well from volume to volume, or even from chapter to chapter.  There is only so much ground that you can cover and it has all been well covered by everybody and their third cousin twice removed since time immemorial.  Hell, the very first novel, the Tale of Genji was a romance story.  Affairs of the human heart are something that we love to read about because it is something that we all have first hand knowledge and experience with in some way or another.

     For good old no strings attached romance three series stand out for me, Pastel, Gacha-Gacha (Capsule, not New Revolution) and Suzuka.  Of the three Suzuka is by far the best, with its multifaceted charcters and wonderful art.  Pastel takes the classic guy living with the girl of his dreams story and runs with it, but rather than being boring the characters are sympathetic enough to draw you into their world, and when ever things get too heavy a bit of humor helps bring things back to a normal level.  My only complaint about Pastel is the rather spineless nature of the protaganist, but still it is well worth checking out.  Gacha-Gacha is, as I am aware, is vey much a hate it or love it series.  I like it for a couple of reasons, one it treats a serious condition in a way that is more than just an excuse for cheap laughs, not a lot of authors would be able to treat a main character with multiple personality disorder with the kind of respect that Hiroyuki Tamakoshi manages.  I was able to empathize with the people portrayed in this series.  The other thing I like about this one is that it is short and sweet, while I love a big ongoing masterpiece as much as anyone sometimes it is nice to have a story that you can breeze through in an afternoon.  Romance, with a dash of humor these three fit the bill very nicely, maybe I am not so hopeless after all.  I mean none of these are overflowing with pointy chins or angst.

Pastel: 7 Volumes out now from Del Ray, Vol. 8 drops on tuesday.            

Gacha-Gacha (Capsule): All Five volumes out now from Del Ray

Suzuka: Five Volumes out now, again from Del Ray. 

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     Sooo, I was saying that lately I have been drifting toward slice of life manga of late.  That is true but I still love a good series that is full of stuff that will simply never happen in this world.  Enchanter is a great example of this, I happened across Enchanter, much like Tetrgramaton Labyrinth by accident, the cover of volume one caught my eye and a I added it to my stack of manga.  After flipping through it a bit I knew that this was winner, with its laugh out loud humor, a fair share of action and nearly but not quite gratuitous fan service.  The main thrust of the story is about a highschool student (imagine that, a manga where the protagonist is highschool student , but I digress) named Haruhiko and the demon Eukanaria, who wants his body, and just his body.  If Eukanaria can sleep with Haruhiko she can extract his soul and replace it with the soul of her dead lover Fulcanelli, an Enchanter.  To keep this from happening happening Haruhiko takes on Fulcanelli's power and becomes an enchanter himself, keeping his soul, but having to continuosly rebut the advances of Eukanaria (who is all hips and tits), who did I mention looks just like the girl he has the hots for.  If that wern't enough there is the occansional demon attack and other stumbling blocks to a normal life being thrown at our somewhat reluctant hero.  On a curious note the distinguishing feature of enchanters is complete heterochromopathy, that is having eyes of distinctly different colors. (Digression #2, partial heterochromopathy is not uncommon, this is when one or both eyes have areas of the iris that are different shades or colors.  Complete heterochromopathy is rare in humans, but less so in certain dog and cat breeds.)  There are currently five volumes of Enchanter out from DMP, which deserves credit for sticking with the larger volume size and the use of color dust jackets, much like most manga in Japan.  I wish that was something that more companies did, but at least one company does it.

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     I find it interesting how my preferences in the genre of reading material has evolved over the years, it paints a picture of a steady but evolutionary change in what I find interesting.  While I still read and enjoy some titles that I first began following years ago I have noticed that over the past year to 18 months my tatses have shifted more toward series driven by carachters and plot than say out and out action or comedy.  I still enjoy those series, and still follow them closely but the stories I seem to enjoy the most are those that are about normal people in normal circumstances.  My favorites in this genre are varried but share the similar thread that they revolve around normal people with normal problems and concerns. They are in no particular order Genshiken, Suzuka, Pastel, School Rumble and Welcome to the N.H.K.

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     While I am certainlly no fan of the ACLU, there are times when they serve their intended purpose of helping to protect the rights of individuals when the governement attempts to violate them.  Sadly Japan is lacking an ACLU or  CBLDF* .  Yet more unconstitutional and unethical actions by the Japanese police, being aided and abetted by the courts no doubt.  A brief overview from Hisei Democracy.

     In the light of the recent arrest of a doujin artist on obscenity charges we take a look back at the past five years in the history of free speech regulation and litigation vis a vis drawn pornography in Japan. We examine the current state of affairs and speculate as to the fate of the free speech right enshrined in article 13 of Japan’s constitution, one that now seems to rest on a very fragile footing indeed.

     The first challenge to freedom of artistic expression came in the fall of 2002 in the form of the arrest of manga artist Beauty Hair as well as the president and editor in chief of Shobunkan Co. for the publication of eromanga compilation Misshitsu. This was the first ever arrest on obscenity grounds of a mangaka, and resulted in a prison sentence (later reduced to a fine) for the publishing house president. Icarus has coverage of the recent developments in the case, as does ComiPress. As Simon of Icarus points out, Beauty Hair is still active and his more recent work is readily available (albeit highly censored compared to earlier fare).

And a brief bit of background from the Icarus Publishing Blog.

     The irony is that there had been no significant obscenity case for several decades up until recently, because censors were finding themselves on the losing end in both the judicial court and the court of public opinion.  Had they continued pushing, the Japanese obscenity statute could have been in danger of being repealled completely.  But with the Misshitsu case, in which the judge flat-out ignored pro-defense testimony from legal and social experts, the moral crusaders and prosecutors found new life.  So while such cases are never good for the individuals involved, the very tiny potential silver lining is that this may get the public to pay attention to the issue of free speech again, and perhaps the question of whether article 175 has any place in modern Japan may be settled once and for all.

      So what is it I mean by the acts of Japanese governement being unconstitutional, I shall explain in detail.  First let us examine the appropriate section of the Japanese criminal code, namely Article 175 of Chapter XXII of the Criminal Code of 1907, as Amended, March 08, 2006.

Article 175. (Distribution of Obscene Objects)
A person who distributes, sells or displays in public an obscene document, drawing or other objects shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than 2 years, a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine. The same shall apply to a person who possesses the same for the purpose of sale.

     The first noteable thing about this article is the lack of definition of just what is obscene, this is the first area where the constitutionality of the law comes into question.  In the US this law would be struck down for being "Vague and Overly Broad".  Meaning that the lack of a clear definition of what obscenity is allows for too many contradictory and conflicting definitions as to what would constitute a violation of the law.  What is rather insidous and odious about Japanese obscenity law is how it is enforced as defined, or rather not defined by Section 1, Article 180 of Chapter XXII of the criminal code.

     Article 180. (Complaints)
(1) The crimes prescribed for in Articles 176 through Article 178 and attempts of the above-mentioned crimes shall be prosecuted only upon complaint.
(2) The provision of the preceding paragraph shall not apply when the crimes proscribed under Article 176, paragraph 1 of Article 178 or attempts of the above-mentioned crimes are committed jointly by two or more persons who are at the scene of crime.

      The deliberate absence of Article 175 in Section 1 of Article 180 means that rather than requiring a complaint from a citizen to the police, the police themselves may charge such a violation of their own volition.  In concept this meant only to happen when such an act ocurs in plain view of an officer, otherwise most  such actions would be based upon a complaint.  The Japanese police however have shown of late that they are, likely with the encouragement of prosecutors and possibly judges, seeking out what they see as violations of Article 175.  This is to turn the whole concept of innocent until proven guilty on its ear, when the police stop being impartial investigators and actively seek out violations of the law that are not based upon strict technical definitions (like speeding, running a stop sign, shoplifting etc) they are to an extent acting as judge and jury because the have to make a personal judgement as to wether or not the material in question is in their opinion a violation of Article 175.

      One thing that I found most disturbing while reading the Japanese criminal code was the utter lack of definitions as to just what a specific crime entails, and what acts must comitted and conditions must be met to establish a finding of guilt.  This is even more disturbing given that there is currently no form of Jury trial in Japan.  The amount of discretion left in the hands of judges who acting both as finders of guilt and innocence and the decider of points of law and referee between defense and prosecution creates a system that prevents the judge from acting in an impartial manner.  This concern for definitions is no small manner, US laws at both the state and federal levels contain very exacting definitions as to what constitutes a crime and what acts are not crimes and even what certain documents are.  An example from the Kansas Annotated Statues, Chapter 22, Criminal Procedure, Article 22, General Definitions:

(4) "Arrest" means the taking of a person into custody in order that the person may be forthcoming to answer for the comission of a crime.  The giving of  a notice to appear is not an arrest.

(8) "Complaint" means a written statement under oath of the essential facts constituting a crime, except that a citation or notice to appear issued by a law enforcement officer pursuant to and in compliance with K.S.A. 8-2106 and amendments thereto or a citation or notice to appear issued pusuant to and in compliance with K.S.A. 32-1049 shall be deemed a valid complaint if it is signed by the law enforcement officer.

       Now we come to the heart of the matter, the fact that Article 175 is a clear violation of at least one Article of the Japanese constitution and very likely two others as well.  The clear violation is the absolute right to free speech and the clause preventing censorship in Article 21:

Article 21
Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed.  No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.

      The clarity here is without question, the fact that the Government has enforced censorship upon artists in the name of preventing obscenity is in clear violation of the second sentence of Article 21.  What is all the more agregious is that the Japanese courts have failed in their duty to throw out Article 175 as unconstitutional prior restraint, legally the most offensive form of censorship.  The people have the right to draw whatever they wish, which includes people having sex and showing all of the details up close and personal wether some judge or prosecutor likes it or not.  As for the other two Articles that may be violated by Article 175 are Articles 11 and 13.

Article 13
All of the people shall be respected as individuals. Their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness shall, to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare, be the supreme consideration in legislation and in other governmental affairs.

 Article 11
The people shall not be prevented from enjoying any of the fundamental human rights. These fundamental human rights guaranteed to the people by this Constitution shall be conferred upon the people of this and future generations as eternal and inviolate rights.

      The violation of Articles 11 and 13 are subtle but very real, the people being charged are having their rights violated by the government which both articles forbid.  Additionally the guarantee to fundamental human rights includes the frredom of speech and of the press so Article 175 would be unconstitutional for this reason even if Article 21 didn't exsist.  Article 11 plays the same roll here as the ninth amendemnt in the US Bill of Rights, acting as a catch all to aknowledge and reserve to the people any rights not enumerated elsewhere.   The outcome of this case is going to very instructive as to just where Japan is headed in terms of future censorship and what the public at large will do to see to it that their rights are not violated by their government.  I hope that this case will ignite a public debate as to wether Article 175 has any place in the modern net connected world where uncensored porn is a click away.  Conversely I am not too optimistic about the public response, the Japanese as consensus driven society tend to go along with whatever the government puts forward without to much opposition, this along with a lack of strong organizations to help the victims of censorship means that this guy is in for a long and rather rough, not to mention expensive ride through the often questionable Japanese legal system.  I wish him luck, because he is going to need it.

*CBLDF= The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, they fight these kinds of cases here in the US.  The do very good work, go to their website, and please make a donation, its tax deductable to boot.

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TETRAGRAMMATON LABYRINTH*

This manga is a recent find, I ran across a copy of the first, and thus far only volume out at Borders last night.  I wasn't really looking to add another title to my shopping lists, having been looking for a copy of He is My Master, which I should have bought a while back as there was only one copy in the store at the time and I didn't feel up to driving all over town searching each and every Borders and Barnes & Noble last night.  I have done that before when I really wanted a particular manga and I am not ashamed to admit that.  Anyway this book is part of Seven Seas new Strawberry Yuri line and it is about a what appears to be a twelve year old girl named Angela and a Nun named Meg that hunt down and destroy demons in early twentieth century London.  Note that I said that Angela appears to be twelve but that is not the case.  The hook in this series is the fact that you are given just enough information to make you wonder just what is going on and what aren't you being told.  The art is top notch and the story very well paced, alternating nicely and smoothly between exposition and action.  The exact extent of the relationship between Sister Meg and Angela is still unclear at the close of volume one as with so much else but I have the sneaking suspicsion that the real twist is the secret within the secret as was once said about something else.**  I for one can't wait to get my hands on volume two when it comes out.

*Picture shamelessly stolen from Robert's Anime Corner Store

**This remark was made by Dr. John Craven in reference to the CIA's Project Jennifer.  For more details on the events that led to Project Jenifer I highly reccomend the book Red Star Rouge by Kenneth Sewell and Clint Richmond.

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[Rant]  What the hell is with people reading manga in bookstores grabbing a volume and flopping down in front of the shelves right then and their to read through it?  I mean the book stores I frequent Borders and Barnes & Noble provide a more than adequate number of chairs through out their stores and in their adjoining cafes wher one can sit and read to your hearts content.  Did it ever possibly occur to you that some one might one to see the titles your obscuring?  I guess not.  All I ask is that you show a little common courtesy, dont block the shelves and the aisles, ok? [/Rant]

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1 You have two copies of Colorful?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 15, 2007 08:35 PM (PiXy!)

2 Yep, about a year after I bought it the first time I wasn't thinking and bought it a second time when I was at Best Buy.  I was fooled by that old devil of alternate packaging, which included a new ADV item number and ISBN so I thought that it was a follow up to the first DVD.  I was mistaken but I was out all of like 14 bucks so it was no big deal.  One of these days I might do something with it, either give it to my brother or maybe using it as prize for something around here, who knows.  It remains the greatest celebration of unrepentent fan service ever I think, at least in terms of building a show around nothing but fanservice.

Posted by: Raging Tachikoma at August 15, 2007 10:57 PM (3R0Hs)

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Posted by: machen at July 29, 2010 08:38 PM (0XRIj)

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     Of late there has been something of a hullablo over suppouesdly 'dangerous' Shoujo comics in Osaka prefecture.  It raises an interesting set of issues, what exactly can any liberal, pluralistic, democratic society do to control the distribution of materials that some people may find offensive but others have the right to create and consume.  This is at best an extremely delicate balancing act.  When such a controversy arises in society that places a high value on public consensus it blurs the lines even further.  Japan is a country that at times intrigues me and at others, confounds me.  The Japanese constitution enshrines an absolute right to freedom of expression but censorship laws go unchallenged, or even if ruled unconstitutional they remain on the books.  The need for consesus and cultural tradition has largely kept the Japanese Supreme Court from becoming what the allies intended it to be.  It was hoped it would be a court not unlike the US Spreme Court, acting as a co-equal branch of government and counter balancing the power of the legislative and executive, that has not been the case.  Sadly the Japanese judiciary is lacking a Thomas Franfurter, Hugo Black or Earl Warren.  Lacking a strong proponent of individual rights on the bench a bizarre duality continues to exsist where nearly anything can be published, so long as you somehow alter or cover up genetallia.

     While I appluad Japan for all that it has done to become a more open and forward looking society I am also keenly aware that in some respects it remains trapped in its feudal past.  This leads to the contradictions noted above, and many others.  A pacifist nation with the worlds third largest navy, an enviromentally concous nation that is awash in concrete, a trading nation that remains somewhat hostile and even discriminitory toward outsiders.  I appreciate Japan for what it is, but like my own nation I refuse to view her through rose colored glasses just because she is foreign and distant.  I see both the good and bad, and I appreciate all the more for how much more good there is than bad, for no one is perfect, because perfection is boring.

Go here for full background on the Osaka story.

(And I am well aware of the irony of posting this directly above a dirty picture post.)

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     Viz will be hammering North America with a virtual tsunami of Naruto beginning in September, with twelve volumes of manga being released between then and December, plus another DVD box set, and plenty of related merchandise.  So could this be too much of a good thing?  I don't think so, after all Naruto is insanely popular, and given that all of this will be hitting during the fourth quarter (christmass shopping season) Viz has hit upon a marketing master stroke that will please both their bean vounters by raking an insane amount of jack and hardcore fans by bringing the US releases of Naruto to be near concurrent with the Japanese releases.  I for one say bring it on, there can never be too much manga in US bookstores for me.

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O.K. so light isn't exactly a word one would use to describe hikikomori.  But this is one of the best manga to come down the pike in a long time.  Following the adventures of a real live hikikomori and the girl that is determined to save him, or maybe accidently kill him is a great read.  It manages to deftly mix humor and human emotion in just the right way, unlike some books where you wish you could slap some of the charachters for their inabillity to see how things really are Welcome to the N.H.K never lets this happen.  It works because it is a book about people.  Real, flawed human beings, no magical powers, giant robots or ninja, just people who struggle to deal with their own personal flaws and failings.  This series sets a standard for other slice of life books to follow with its realistic portrayal of some of the problems currently facing real people in real places, yet it manages to leave you wanting more at the end of each volume, rather than feeling like shooting yourself or to beat down the protaganist for their utter lack of spine and or common sense.

Three volumes out so far from Tokyopop.  For mature audiences. (18 +)

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    Manga, I have some, ok  a lot, but its not like I have problem.  I mean I don't keep a hyper detailed list of every volume of it that I own.  I have two such lists, one on my laptop and one on paper.  I know I don't have the most extensive collection in the world but it keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Here is a picture of my Manga bookcase,

and another angle for good measure,

At the moment I have 253 volumes of manga, not counting issues of anthologies like Shonen Jump and Comics AG, or the old pamphlet style manga.  Not seen in the photos above are a number of volumes that I have since purcahased and at least one new series I started buying. (Welcome to the N.H.K. which I highly reccomend)  It seems strange now but I can remember when all of my manga didn't even take up a single shelf on a smaller bookcase, now it has begun to migrate to the wall built in, and that is coming perilously close to being filled as well since in houses all of my anime DVDs.

More DVDs and Manga now fill the shelf where the Slave one toy used to be, having finally sold all of my old Star Wars collection recently. 

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