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Reviewed by Barb Lien-Cooper Back when I was reading more comics than manga, my husband and I had a copy of The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide. It was essential, informative reading that was well worth the money. You could go back to it again and again for reference. I've often wished that the same sort of book would appear on the manga scene since, as manga fans know, there are a lot of manga titles out there. Some sound appallingly similar to each other (e.g. Mobile Fighter G Gundam and Mobile Police Patlabor, although that's a rather minor example). Others have vaguely Japanese titles that, while way cool, don't always tell you by the title exactly what they're about (e.g. Buso Renkin, Saiyuki). Some titles are anime-related (e.g. Rune Soldier Louie, Cowboy Bebop, FLCL), but it's hard to know in advance if these manga counterparts are worth reading or not. Thank God for The Complete Guide To Manga. Um, before I go on, I should mention that this book is published by Del Rey, which I didn't know when I volunteered to review it. My husband and I are freelance editors over at Del Rey, although we're not attached to this project. I just thought I should mention that fact before I went on with my review. I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm having any kind of conflict of interest. This book is smart, it's thorough, it's incredibly well-written, and unless you are more of an otaku than I am, you need it on your bookshelf. Not only will it save you a lot of time and money when you're buying manga, it's also loaded with interesting information about series and genres. For instance, I had no idea that, while major publishers in Japan often won't take horror series (although they'll take ones with horror elements), the smaller publishers will. Get ready to argue with it, though. Yotsuba&! only gets three stars? I mean, c'mon, it's a perfect little series (I'm using "little" in an affectionate way here, so don't think I'm being disrespectful)! The book also has a few prejudices in favor of classic mangas that not all of us share, especially those who are more recent manga converts. Oh, I'm not a recent convert. I've read manga since the early 1990s--and I know that some of the manga here that's being given four stars actually has dated art, occasionally stiff adaptations, and some bad storytelling. Just because something's old and in canon doesn't mean that it's necessarily aged well. I also don't agree with the seeming love affair the book has with CLAMP. It's as if they can do no wrong. Well, being a collective, CLAMP's work can be a very mixed bag. As a fan of xxxholic, I'm certainly not anti-CLAMP by any means. I just feel that some of their work is good and some is simply not very entertaining. I think that certain "classic" manga and certain CLAMP works are just going to have to be areas that the book and I agree to disagree on. Praising with Faint Damns Department: In the next edition, please, please make it easier for the readers to see exactly which American publishers are publishing various manga (bolding or just offsetting this information would help a lot). It's just that there have been three or four series I've read about in the book that I didn't find out until after I'd read the review and was determined to get them that the works aren't (as of publishing time) readily available. Also, in the next edition, please, please review what is probably the best untranslated manga out there: Master Keaton. Unlike its anime counterpart, this manga is probably not coming to America any time soon (possibly because of legal/copyright problems that are mega-complicated), and its heyday has long passed, having last been published in 1994. But the manga is so good I don't want either the manga or the anime to fall through the cracks. Now, I'm not one to read scanlations, as I feel a little squeamish about the copyright issues involved (I have a bit of a conscience about such things), but I told my conscience to go to hell and found Master Keaton scanlations online just because the anime is so wonderful. From what I've read, this series is worth publishing stateside. Seriously, Dark Horse, Viz, Tokyopop, someone, if you don't have plans to do so already, please bring this manga series over to the United States. Sorry, I got a little carried away there; I see the day when I'll become a total otaku at this rate... Apparently, The Complete Guide To Manga is up for an Eisner Award (an American comics award) this year. I hope it kicks ass. It's taken long enough for the Eisners to recognize and reward quality manga-related books, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Comment on this review of The Complete Guide To Manga on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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