The Australian paper The Age has a nice article on Osamu Tezuka, covering his life and major works. (Via the Newsarama blog, which also points us to this article about Tezuka from Hanabatake.)
Over at MangaCast, they ask readers if they want more Disgaea, get some answers out of CMX, and post the latest MangaBlogCast.
Shaenon Garrity celebrates the yaoi manga Shout Out Loud in her Overlooked Manga Festival. Worth a read even if you don’t like yaoi.
The Daily Yomiuru reports on a cafe with a Nodame Cantabile theme, opened to tie in with the live-action movie. I love that they replicate Nodame’s messy room. Maybe there’s a career for me in Japan.
Reviews: At Anime on DVD, Jarred Pine gives us a threefer: he reviews the first three volumes of Rebirth. Blogcritics reviews PhD: Phantasy Degree.
And this is a bit meta: Johanna Draper Carlson panned Mail Order Ninja earlier this week. The creator read the review and took it to The Engine. Interesting discussion follows. And later Johanna defends her review.
Actually, I posted the followup before Elder started the Engine thread, which completely surprised me, since he’d been telling me in email he was cool with the review. I guess it upset him more than he wanted me to know.
It’s at times like this that Ellis’ restriction policy is unfortunate, since you wind up with one-sided “there, there” encounter groups instead of real discussions about the topic.
Sorry, I can see where you could read it that way. It’s not how I meant it.
What’s Ellis’ restriction policy? I don’t post on The Engine, so I’m not familiar with it. I agree with the thread being an encounter group, but I liked that Deppey stepped in at the end. What he said made the most sense.
I’ve noticed this trend, and I wonder if anyone else has…many reviewers of manga have, up until this point, reviewed licensed works from Japan, where they can pan or praise, without much feedback from the creators themselves. [In Japan, it’s the fans who dog the reviewers, sometimes, quite cruelly], but as more and more OEL in all genres become available, many creators take their ire over bad reviews to the safety of their own blogs and LJs, [while some, like in this case, take it to an audience via forums and community sites]. While I support the former and not the latter, I think that reviewers, for the most part, should learn to develop a much thicker skin or tolerance for creator discomfort; the OEL manga and comics fandom, though quite large in itself, has become a smaller social enclave due to the internet…
I recently went through this with one set of reviewers, who simply didn’t like the notion that ‘people [namely me] were actually not keen on their review style, and felt that my comments to other creators and readers of my blog played a part in most creators perceptions of their style, and felt as I were attacking them on a personal level. 0_0. I’m not saying we all need to ignore one another, but as reviewers are going to be tasked to review western creators, a creator should be allowed to lick their wounds in their LJs and blogs and mailing lists where their fans and peers can make them feel less crappy, without worrying about a reviewer arriving on the scene utterly offended.
On that note though, I do think, that for a creator to take a bad review to a place as prolific as the Engine was not cool. It’d be one thing for the creator to keep it in his own ‘sandbox’, public or private, it’s quite another for it to paraded to outside parties [sole friends-list or uniquely interested feed readers] for a pity party session.
ERROR – outside parties [NOT sole friends-list or uniquely interested feed readers] for a pity party session.
Restriction policy: Elder posted in a “creators only” area where others can read but not post. Only those pre-approved by Ellis can respond in that area.
Tina: I suspect that I have a thicker skin about it than most creators. I’ve been doing this for a decade, and unless Elder starts calling my house to harass me or telling my husband he should control me better, then I’ve had worse. :)
The only thing that offends me is acting one way in email and the opposite in public. Sure, it’s understandable that creators will be upset… but in this case, the writer had asked me multiple times to cover his book. I expect someone like that to be prepared for whatever comes. It’s disappointing that it seems that he wasn’t, because I do think he has potential.
Tina: I suspect that I have a thicker skin about it than most creators. I’ve been doing this for a decade
I wish more in my genre could the same! LOL! In BL, everyone is so sensitive and at the same time, unwilling to appreciate the sensitivity of others. I’ve been guilty of this myself. ^^;;
Yeah, I applied to the Creator Conference, but have yet to hear anything back. But then again, I imagine the backlog is quite immense considering the free publicity one gets from talking about their work there.
I’ve been approached by publisher and creators who want me to talk about their book, and then at the same time, are more than happy to tell anyone who’ll listen how much they dislike me. 0_0. It’s a weird dynamic that I thought was native to my niche, I guess it’s quite common.
Heh, I like your point about fans dogging reviewers in Japan. Having done reviews on this side for a few years now I can say that’s about all I have experienced and it takes a bit getting used to. Having I assume nil connection to the artists when reviewing their works for so long, the criticism that came my way was more on my own style and opinion. Took a while to get used to but once more manga reviewers began to come online and even began to be printed in magazines and newspapers the community began to really work off each other (partially because we supported and critiqued each other more than fans did).
I am still working on whatever I do. Feel comfortable about my opinion but not how I express it. I feel its more of a conversation about manga now than just doing a review. But then again, a conversation usually takes more than one participant…. @_@
Re: Tezuka Paper
I’m so sorry about the horrid formatting. I uploaded it from the paper I wrote in college a few years ago. Since it’s directly from a .doc file during college, I’ve been afraid to touch it ever since. ;_; I’ll try to get it fixed. Of course, I’ve been putting off trying to wade through the microsoft html code stuff for years. *hangs head in shame*
Oh and Brig… the Disgaea link redirects to the very entertaining Shout Out Loud review.
I didn’t know it had hockey elements in it… Looks like a good XMas present for Jarred!
Ed,
Thanks, I fixed the link. It does look good—I’m thinking of checking it out myself once I get the stack winnowed down a bit.
Ardith,
The paper looks fine!
Tina,
Good points. This sort of thing is not new, of course, but the Internet makes it all more immediate. It used to be confined to the letters columns of literary magazines. I think both reviewers and creators need to have thick skins, and I also think if they can set personal feelings aside (never easy, I know, when its your creation that’s been dissed) and respond to each others’ comments, you can get some pretty interesting conversations.
Dang-blasted Internet…
Everytime I post anything anywhere I end up looking like a total jerk and upsetting folks for whom I have nothing but respect.
I (obviously) don’t agree with everything Johanna said, but I respect her critical acumen a great deal which is why I sent her the book in the first place. She makes a lot of valid points, several of which will be addressed in the second volume, but in this instance I just don’t think she “gets it”.
And that’s totally okay. I wrote the book for me, and if other people like it then that’s just gravy. Sometimes disinterested third parties see flaws that I would never notice and that’s why I value critical opinions of my own work. Johanna’s review has made me think long and hard about several things, and I greatly appreciate that.
So yeah. I’m not happy with a negative review, but by posting to the Engine I wasn’t trying to necessarily even rebut Johanna. She has her opinion, and I can’t really argue against that. I was just trying to solicit other opinions both positive and negative so that I can become the best writer possible. And I didn’t mean to insulate myself by posting to the Creator’s Conference. It’s just my general posting locale, and I honestly didn’t consider the stifling effect it would have on actual dialog.
So in summation: I think “Mail Order Ninja” rocks. Johanna disagrees. The world keeps spinning and all is right on both heaven and earth.
I think Joshua’s a cool guy for working to clear everything up.
NOT on creators or reviewers (is there a literary-studies book title in there?) but the Tezuka exhibition in Melbourne: I had the opportunity to visit this, and it’s well worth doing so. The show isn’t overly large, but it does cover the main periods and themes of Tezuka’s development by centering on discussion of his most well-known characters or titles – PRINCESS KNIGHT, PHOENIX, JUNGLE EMPEROR, MARVELLOUS MELMO, LUDWIG B. and so on. Some exhibits are in the form of blown-up page or panel reproductions, but most are Tezuka’s original artwork for his manga – very well chosen to showcase his artistry and increasing graphic experimentation. The paintings used for title pages and covers are often quite stunning: they work both as art and as the basis for commercial/public images. (Unfortunately the reproductions in the catalogue on sale don’t do them justice – the colour, originally bright and clear, comes through dull and muddy). Otaku in the US who can get to San Francisco when the exhibition visits next year should definitely try to do so!