If today is Thursday, this must be Neo-Venezia

by dm00

Tom Harris has started an experiment picking an episode of Aria at random each Thursday and watching it.

Also discussed here.

Today: Season 2 episode 4.

Dear Akari-sama: even undines get the blues

by dm00

Aqua as a dream seen from the alleys of Dystopia (source: http://paricross.sakura.ne.jp/aria/ariatop.html)

Recently I stumbled across mention of Dear Akari-sama, a doujinshi re-imagining of Aria that starts off grim, gets yet grimmer, then brightens in a way that brought tears to my eyes.

The artist does a wonderful job of translating Kozue Amano’s art to the pestilential alleyways of Manhome, before the clouds part and the light shines in — from the depths of despair to, well, Aria. It’s brilliant.

Google will help you find translations, if you can’t read the Japanese version. Go. Read.

Look for this image to find "Dear Akari-sama"

ARIA Volume 6 Chapter Log

By TheBigN

I figured that for the Manga Moveable Feast (if it accepts this article), which focuses on AQUA/ARIA this month of March, rather than write a general impression on the volume, I would do a quick impression for each of the chapters in this volume, and try not to spoil in the process. Granted, if you don’t know of the world of Neo Venezia in the first place, this would probably be of no help to you. But some of the articles in the main MMF link will do a good job of filling in that blank. And this blog might also have some pieces lying around that can also help. The general theme is that AQUA/ARIA is relaxing, mysterious, and enjoyable if you sit back, read the story, and just experience it all.

Aria GN 6

by dm00

There's something about Alicia....

14 months after volume five, TokyoPop has brought out the sixth volume of the Aria manga.

Akari is spending her second winter on Aqua. Life has settled into a pattern of daily practice with her friends Aika and Alice.

This volume contains stories familiar to fans of the anime, and, I’m afraid the manga suffers a bit in comparison. The stories here are: Alice discovering Maa; Akari considering a ride on the Galactic Express; the Three Water Fairies reminiscing about their apprentice days (and how rarely they are able to take time to sit together over cocoa these days — a prospect that’s a bit daunting to their three apprentices); President Aria’s adventures in a gender-swapped alternate universe; Akari transports a gondola full of Neo-Venetian glass; and “What Makes Alicia So Magical?”.

Kozue Amano’s art is clean, and her principal characters are as lovely as ever. Still, the anime managed to bring more magic to most of these stories. Here in the manga, the Night on the Galactic Railroad story is a bit goofy (or perhaps I should say akary) the anime managed to make it just a little creepy (you give a little sigh in relief when Akari gives her train ticket to a cat forlorn at being forced to say farewell to its friends as they board the train).

The printing is okay — Amano’s lines come through crisply and clearly. There appear to be some monochrome reproductions of what were probably color plates in the Japanese editions, and these look a bit disappointing. Plus TokyoPop uses an ugly modernist font for the title of the book.

There is a preview of volume seven at the back of the book. Hopefully it will come out before 2013.

Aria fans: GN6 on December 28

by dm00

This is the Japanese cover. The English cover will probably have that 60s-era futuristic font for the title that TokyoPop has used on the other volumes.

First Taisho Baseball Girls, and now this. Merry Christmas.

Minky Momo and the Bridge over Dreams

by dm00

 

Minky Momo on the bridge

 

Inspired by chatter about an “anime licensing wish list”, I watched Minky Momo: Yume ni Kakeru Hashi (Minky Momo and the bridge over dreams) last night.

It’s a neglected treasure made in 1993 during the golden age of the OAV — the era when an expermental work like Angel’s Egg or Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer could be made. This simple little film is not embarassed to be in the company of those films (though it’s a good deal more accessible and less “arty”).

Kingyo used books mono yes, but no ware?

by dm00

Where's the bookstore cat?

I read Kingyo used books from Viz’s IKKI imprint recently (sample chapters can be found here).

It’s about redemption through (used) manga. If the woman who works in the bookshop (the owner’s long-suffering grand-daughter) were a good deal more bright-eyed and bubbly, it could be like Aria substituting old manga series for Venice. Real manga are used as examples in this series — there’s an appendix describing the series and mentioning whether they’re out of print or still available in Japan (one of the highlighted series is Dr. Slump).

But she’s not Akari, nor even Aika. The series seems to be missing something. Or maybe out-of-print manga series just aren’t as compelling to newcomers as Neo-Venezia is. I imagine the book works better for an adult Japanese audience, for whom many of the series are probably remembered with fondness and nostalgia.
(That said, I am going to look for one of the series mentioned — a manga biography of Hokusai called Sarusuberi.)

The initial draw is books, and mostly it stays that way, except it doesn’t pull it off (and there’s a bit of clunker plot-element in the form of a young man obsessed with the Japanese Tintin). I think the first chapter is the one-shot that launched the series, and it is a fine short-story about reconnecting with old friends and reminiscing about old manga series. That has a certain charm that can reach a foreign audience unfamiliar with the specific works. Later we have a chapter about someone whose sour mood is cured by some old gag-manga series. But we’re not in on the joke because we’ve never seen the series. The hook isn’t baited for us.

The 84, Charing Cross Road of manga has yet to come to these shores, it seems.

The book ends with one-page overviews of the manga highlighted in each chapter. These are a real database animal addition, and rather charming (they’re written by a genuine used bookshop owner).

This book, with its bibliomanic characters, reminds me a bit of some of the gentler stories in Read or dream, the Read or die manga-spin-off about the three Paper Sisters. That series also had a nostalgic love for books and book-centric plots (a library that appears only once every ten years; a lost book containing a love-note), though it also had a great deal of silliness (the sisters foil an alien invasion).

Still, thank you, Viz, for bringing it over. Now translate Sarusuberi, please.

Undine Nakiami

by dm00

Watch Xam'd now.

Late update: memes from the Megatokyo Anime Grand Prix, where Nakiami was (sadly) defeated, due to too little familiarity with her series (and the rallying cry became “Watch Xam’d now!”), and where Akari was in a match-up at the time of this posting.