The YouTube experience continues with another video dedicated to manga. This time around it’s a holiday sampler of manga recommendations, ranging from the legendary (like Oyasumi Punpun) to the relatively obscure. I tried to include as many licensed titles as I could (those of you in France are luckier than English-only speakers), but the sole criteria was that these be series I love and haven’t yet discussed at length here or on the podcast.
As always, please share your feedback in the comments either here or on YT, and of course I’d be deeply grateful if you’d like and subscribe. My filmmaking skills are a work in progress to be sure but I hope you enjoy these videos, organic as they are.
Red
December 20, 2020 at 10:28 pmThanks for the video, I think an introductory sequence to grab viewers’ attention can improve future videos. I’ll be checking out the Climber first as it really looks like a Takehiko Inoue manga from a visual standpoint, also what’s up with the Shaft studio dislike, is it due to their visual style?
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2020 at 7:43 amOn SHAFT it’s a combo of many things. Their choice of material to adapt rarely meshes with mine. They impose their St. Virus’ Dance visual ticks on everything they make. And they tend to substitute trickery and gimmicks for real animation and flair. Just not a fan of Shinbou and his aesthetic.
Thanks for the input. What sort of intro were you thinking, specifically? It’s a good idea.
Red
December 21, 2020 at 7:27 pmThis is only based on what I’ve seen on youtube as my knowledge on video editing is pretty nil, they tend to have some sort of avatars or just the name of their channel and add special animations at the beginning of each video.
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2020 at 9:04 pmI’m working on the avatar/logo/title card thing. Animations are going to be tricky though, given my zero knowledge of suchlike.
Jindujun93
December 21, 2020 at 12:50 amWoah, it’s been a pleasant surprise to hear you talk about Heavenly Delusion (or well, you used the original title Tengoku Daimakyou), because it definitely has been a very good read so far. Got super excited when they licensed it over here in Germany where I live, for multiple reasons. I loved the mangaka’s earlier work on SoreMachi for starters, but in general I’ve always been interested in Ishiguro’s works ever since I found out that his earlier oneshots are sort of responsible for Mizukami kickstarting his own career as a mangaka, haha.
In general, there’s also a few other pretty cool titles in that list that I can appreciate you mentioning. I’ve been considering to buy Go with the Clouds since it’s also licensed over here (and I got kind of interested in Aki Irie’s stuff too), but haven’t actually pulled the trigger on it yet. Punpun’s a big one that I do need to get to at some point, but I’m definitely waiting for the right opportunity since I know it’s heaver stuff and it probably won’t be easy for me to process at times. It’s definitely on the bucket list though.
And My Son is Probably Gay is just a joy to read, feels good and is just the right kind of tactful, so every time I see a new chapter of it floating around, I’m already getting that big grin on my face.
As for Kokou no Hitou… yet another one in my backlog where it basically boils down to ‘One day, I swear!’ for me. Though for now, I definitely want to prioritize Kamigami no Itadaki by Jiro Taniguchi instead, since that one’s also about climbing and I’ve heard a lot of people I trust absolutely praising it. A store nearby has the entire series in stock, might be time to go for it pretty soon too, haha.
Definitely fun to hear you talk about several manga – these days I find myself being more into manga than anime especially considering that a lot of the great stuff doesn’t even get adapted, but in terms of discussion it’s very often overshadowed by anime in the English-speaking community. So this video was definitely appreciated.
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2020 at 12:08 pmYou can’t go wrong with Taniguchi Jirou.
I was not aware that Ishiguro was influential in Mizukami becoming a mangaka – that’s pretty wild. Do you have a link to a story about that, by any chance?
Jindujun93
December 21, 2020 at 2:09 pmMizukami actually published a sort of story about his own way towards becoming a mangaka called Ore no Mangamichi (Kari). Uploads it to his own pixiv account once in a while, and if you know where to look (which you definitely do), there’s also a group translating it. Basically, Mizukami kind of figured out how to do oneshots himself after reading Ishiguro’s debut work.
And yeah, definitely can’t go wrong with Taniguchi, and we are pretty lucky over here – a lot of his works have been translated over here, so I have a lot to choose from, haha. He’s pretty popular here in Europe, especially in France and Germany, in general, considering that Haruka na Machi e also got a live-action adaption of sorts over here.
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2020 at 2:16 pmHaruka is one of my favorite manga of all time. A masterpiece of the highest order. He’s relatively popular in the States too – quite a few of his works have been licensed.
If I’m not mistaken Mizukami publishes snippets from that to his twitter account from time to time.
Jindujun93
December 21, 2020 at 2:23 pmYeah, it’s the one work of his that’s already in my shelf, and I absolutely loved it. Worth every single cent I spent on it. I also read a few of his other works, but mostly his older ones (Benkei in New York, and stuff like that).
And yeah, I do think he shows snippets of it on twitter from time to time, too.
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2020 at 3:29 pmROFL, he was inspired by Oshikiri Rensuke too. It’s funny how artists we like can have the same tastes we do.
Jindujun93
December 21, 2020 at 5:11 pmGreat minds think alike, after all.
Panino Manino
December 21, 2020 at 7:49 amI still didn’t read Heavenly Delusion, because I’m still feeling hangover from Soremachi…
Man, I miss that manga.
You’re fast, already up with Insomnia.
With me it didn’t won me “immediately”, it took 3 chapters. Fortunately the first volume was already available so I could start reading without having to wait and because of this I didn’t miss in the fun.
To sell this manga I can say that the only thing you need to know about is that it’s a Iyashikei, or so some say. Besides this the only (true) thing that matters is that the mangaka at this point already perfected her own style of storytelling. It’s not a manga about nothing, neither it’s too preoccupied with telling a story. There’s a bit of drama and progression but everything happens casually, very smoothly. There are times when things are revealed seamlessly at random because for the characters making the revelation, to us readers, he is just on a casual chat, the moment isn’t that important or dramatic to him. This way all the weight is removed from the drama, maybe because, I can say, the point is not the pain, it’s about overcoming the pain and healing.
It’s a very pleasing read, always making your heart beat a bit in a warm way.
Also, for those who knows about the previous two manga from this mangaka, the art is even better and this one have zero fanservice (btw, I recommend the other two, this fanservice I’m talking about is also done there in this mangaka particular style, very mild).
The only negative thing about this manga is imagining it being made into a live action. Most lives today are… disappointing. I keep imagining and lamenting that it can’t be done someone like Nobuhiko Obayashi or Shinji Somai. Maybe, Kiyoshi Kurosawa? Did you watched “To the Ends of the Earth”?
Guardian Enzo
December 21, 2020 at 12:12 pmNope, haven’t seen it.
I’m not that many chapters into Insomniacs, but I get the feeling something is being hinted at about one of the leads, and I’ll leave it at that…
Lia
December 21, 2020 at 1:57 pmGlad to see Irie Aki get mentioned here. She’s one of my favorites now, most especially her finished work, Ran and the Gray World. Not just gorgeous visuals, but really awesome world-building.