Ramblin' Rosen

The other day I decided I needed to update my avatar on Anime on DVD, so I did a search for an avatar site. I found a few with avatars on them, but what I found that really exicted me was Anime Galleries dot Net. It doesn’t have any avatars on the site but instead has an archive of loads of images that can be cropped and edited in order to make avatars.

You don’t even have to know how to use a graphics program in order to make avatars with the images because the site has an Avatar Maker. With this tool, you can crop images to any size, resize the images themselves and can add effects like borders and text.

Even though I know how to use Photoshop and other programs, I still found it faster just to crop the bit I needed of the image into the size I wanted. Personally, I don’t think I’ll use the effects or text tools that much, as I’d rather do my own custom ones in Photoshop, but the cropping tool is really handy, and it’s good to see something that allows those who don’t know how to use Photoshop the ability to make their own custom avatars and banners.

Below you’ll see my latest avatar for AoD that I created using Anime Galleries dot Net’s Avatar Maker. Please don’t take it to use as your own avatar. Instead, go to the site and make your own—that’s much more fun anyway.

I have been wanting to read the manga version of Prétear: The New Legend of Snow White (mangaka: Kaori Naruse, creator: Junichi Satou) since I first watched the anime. (I’ve watched the Odex release, not the more recent release from ADV.) The anime is a great mahou shoujo series that I have enjoyed more each time I’ve watched it. It is short for the genre at only 13 episodes, but that length means that there are no filler episodes, something many longer magical girl series are guilty of having, and its story is both complete and well-paced.

So how does the manga compare with the anime? I think the anime was developed before the manga, and the manga seems more of a typical mahou shoujo series than the anime. This doesn’t mean it’s bad, but so far it seems to lack some of the depth and the interesting twists of the anime, and from what I’ve read comparing the two, some of my favourite plot elements are different or non-existent in the manga.

In the first volume of the manga, its basic premise is set up. Himeno’s father Kaoru has recently married the very rich Natsue. Before his remarriage, Kaoru was a poor formerly-successful writer, and he and Himeno had lived alone together since her mother died. Now Himeno’s life has completely changed—instead of living in a small apartment, she lives in a mansion. Her step-mother Natsue is overbearing and controlling, and she doesn’t get along with her two step-sisters, the snooty Mayune and the aloof Mawata.

One morning on the way to school, she meets the seven Leafe Knights, and she finds out she is destined to be the Prétear, a magical girl who can merge with each of the knights individually, who must fight the Princess of Disaster who is trying to destroy the world. Each knight has power over a different thing, and each form of the Prétear inherits that knight’s specific power.

Both the anime and manga are primarily a retelling of the fairy tale Snow White, with quite a bit of Cinderella thrown in for good measure, but the manga so far seems to be going for stronger references to the fairy tales, as the stepmother Natsue comes off much more ‘evil’ and malicious in the manga, whereas in the anime, she was more just spacey and didn’t pay enough attention to the protagonist, Himeno.

The presentation of the manga over all is good—the colour pages are reproduced in colour, the effects are left in Japanese and also translated on the page, and the translator has provided some good notes at the end. Only one minor translation decision really grates on me. Hayate, one of the Leafe Knights, accuses Himeno of being a kogal, a trendy Japanese girls’ and young womens’ subculture. It’s translated in the manga as ‘valley girl’, though the notes explain the original reference. Personally, since it had to be explained in the notes anyway, I’d have left it as ‘kogal’. Kogals are fairly well-known among anime and manga fans, plus valley girls haven’t been around since the 1980s and aren’t really the same thing as a kogal.

Overall, the Prétear manga is fun and enjoyable, and I plan to buy the rest of it as it comes out. The second volume comes out in August. For those who like the anime, the manga will probably be a good addition their collection, but for those who haven’t seen it yet, I recommend to watch the anime first and then read the manga if you are left wanting more.

Chrono Crusade 1 by Daisuke Moriyama is one of the first two books by ADV Manga that I have bought. (The other is Prétear 1 that I will be reviewing in another post.) Overall, I’d heard good things about their releases, and I am definitely impressed by the ones I’ve seen, and I won’t particularly worry if they license I title I like in the future. Some of the features I really like are that they translate the effects and leave in the original Japanese, and they have translator’s notes at the end. Also, the colour pages are reproduced in colour, at least in the first edition. Some fans are bothered by changing the spelling of Chrno to Chrono, but it really isn’t a big deal, especially as the licensor requested it, and it does not change the pronunciation—how would you pronounce ‘Chrno’ anyway?

Before reading this manga, I’d seen the first 7 or so episodes of the Chrono Crusade anime in digisubs, and I’d really enjoyed what I’d seen of it. I’d heard that the manga was even better, so I was very excited when I heard that it was licensed to be published in English. I’m not sure if I’d say the manga was better than the episodes of the anime I saw—in fact I felt it was very similar in feel to the anime, although it differs in some plot points—but it was definitely very enjoyable, and I plan to buy the next volume when it comes out in August.

The series takes place in an alternate history version of New York in the 1920s, an atypical setting for manga. As in the real-world version of NYC of that time, World War One has ended and the Great Depression has yet to start, but in this version, many demons have invaded and are causing lots of trouble. The two main characters are Sister Rosette Christopher, a nun and exorcist of the Magdalan Order, and Chrono, a demon who is bound in a contract to Rosette, the main details of which are revealed in this volume. Rosette’s unorthodox methods usually get the job done, but the damage incurred on the job often cause her to be in trouble with her superior Sister Kate.

Chrono Crusade 1 is loads of fun with hints at a bigger story to come in later volumes. It’s not the deepest series out there, but it is definitely one of the more entertaining ones. I can’t wait to read the next volumes, and I also look forward to the DVDs of the anime when they are released.

As I mentioned in my review of Tokyo Babylon 1, I recently purchased first volumes of various newly-published English manga translations. This post will cover the first volume of Tsubasa: RESEVoir CHRoNiCLE and xxxHolic, two of the three (or four if you count X) series by CLAMP currently running in Japan. I’m reviewing these two manga together for two reasons. First, they are both published by Del Rey, a new entry into the manga publishing field, though not a new publisher by any means. Second, these series both cross over with each other, with some of the same events happening in both manga but from different viewpoints.

These are two of the first four manga published by Del Rey, and if these two volumes are indicative of the way they plan to publish in the future, then they will quickly become one of my favourite manga publishers. Both books have been done exceptionally well, with lovely quality printing, translated sound effects beside the original Japanese, honourifics left in with a detailed explanation of them at the beginning of the book and extensive notes at the end on other related CLAMP works, primarily Cardcaptor Sakura. The colour pages have been printed twice—once in colour at the beginning and then again in black and white at the start of the main body of the manga. I assume this is done to make it easier to produce later versions without the pages in colour.

For those who have read or watched Cardcaptor Sakura, many of the characters of Tsubasa will be very familiar, as they include Sakura, Syaoran (the spelling used in this book) and Tomoyo. The versions of these characters are not, however, the same versions from CCS but are instead their equivalents in alternate worlds.

In this world, Sakura is the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, and Syaoran is her childhood friend, a commoner from another country who is in charge of an archaeological dig in Clow. After an act of sabotage by a mysterious figure that occurs at the dig, Sakura’s heart/memories have been spread across multiple words, and Syaoran must travel to the Space-Time Witch in order to be able to travel between the worlds to rescue all of her memories and save her life. Tsubasa also includes alternate versions of characters from other manga, including Chobits, Magic Knigths Rayearth and X, plus a quick cameo by Miyuki-chan.

xxxHolic makes it clear that the world(s) that both it and Tsubasa take place in include both these alternate versions of these familiar characters and their “original” versions, at least for the CSS characters. The main two characters in xxxHolic are Yûko Ichihara, the Space-Time witch mentioned before, and Watanuki Kimihiro, a seemingly ordinary teenager who sees spirits. He has been tricked into working for Yûko, as payment for her granting his wish to no longer see spirits, which she will grant after she feels he has worked enough to earn it.

Some people have criticised the artwork in xxxHolic because it is very different from previous CLAMP artwork. Other than the colour pages, the artwork is completely black and white with no shading or screentones. Personally, I love the artwork, partially because it is so distinctive, and I find it just as attractive as more typical CLAMP art. The artwork in Tsubasa is also lovely, though the character designs are much more angular than their CSS counterparts, and it is strange seeing Tomoyo with such different eyes, and I found her the least recognisable of the characters “borrowed” from other series.

Both Tsubasa and xxxHolic can be read on their own, but they are more enjoyable if they are read together. I think they’d still be enjoyable even without much familiarity with Cardcaptor Sakura, as both stories are very different from CSS. Of the two, so far Tsubasa is the more dramatic and xxxHolic the more comedic, but things could and probably will change in future volumes, knowing CLAMP’s love of twists and surprises. Both are highly recommended, and I’m waiting impatiently for the next volumes to come out this autumn.

Although I tell myself that I won’t start any new manga series until I finish or get caught up with at least one of the ones I’ve already started, I still find myself starting new ones fairly regularly. Recently I bought first volumes of five series that were released in the past month or so: Tokyo Babylon, xxxHolic and Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE by CLAMP and Chono Crusade by Daisuke Moriyama and Prétear created by Junichi Saitou. In this post, I will discuss Tokyo Babylon, and I will write about the others in future posts.

I have been wanting to read Tokyo Babylon for ages, so I was happy when I heard it was licenced, though a bit wary that it was TOKYOPOP who are notorious for the uneven nature of their books. Some are very good, while others are marred by innacurate translations, appalling rewrites and/or sloppy mistakes that could have been prevented by decent QA.

Fortunately Tokyo Babylon is one of their better-presented releases, thanks to its editor Jake Forbes who tends to be very aware of what manga fans want. As I don’t know Japanese, I can’t judge the translation, but all cultural refrences have been kept intact with notes to explain them given in the back. Also, names are written in Japanese order (family name first, given name second), and honourifics have been left in, with an explanation of the most common given in the introduction. Unlike most TOKYOPOP manga, sound effect have been translated, but unfortunately the translations are all in a glossary at the end instead of subtitled on the page itself. The print quality looks good overall, and the colour pages are done in colour, at least in the first printing.

I really enjoyed this book, although it was a bit more humourous than I’d expected from having seen the OVA and having read the first few volumes of X, its kind-of sequel. I’ve heard it becomes more serious and less episodic later on in the series, but volume one consists of three chapters, each telling a separate story.

The first chapter introduces the three main characters—Sumeragi Subaru, his twin sister Hokuto and their friend Sakurazuka Seishiro—as well as establishin Tokyo itself as a “character". Both Subaru and Seishiro are onmyouji (a type of Japanese Buddhist sorceror) but from rival families. Subaru is the current head of the Sumeragi family, and Seishiro is the heir to the Sakurazukamori family, although he currently works as a veterinarian. Seishiro and Subaru both seem to fancy each other, and Seishiro and Hokuto both enjoy teasing the more reserved Subaru about their sort-of relationship. Along with all this background, this chapter also contains two exorcisms performed by Subaru.

In the second chapter, Subaru performs an exorcism at Tokyo Tower, with assistance from Seishiro. Seishiro’s demonstration of his magical abilities bely his appearance as a mold-mannered vet who feigns indifference at his family heritage.

The third chapter continues to hint that Seishiro is much more than he seems. It contains numerous flashbacks, including how Subaru and Seishiro first met. Also, Subaru reminisces on a mysterious young man he met as a child and wonders if it possibly was Seishiro due to various reasons I won’t describe as not to spoil it.

I highly recommend Tokyo Babylon, especially for CLAMP fans. There’s a reason this manga is still popular over a decade after it was originally published in Japan, and it is good finally to be able to read it in English.

As any cat lover knows, cats can sleep in the funniest positions, and The Moggy Horde’s Silly Sleeping Pose Olympics is a page I discovered today that is set up to celebrate the suppleness of the slumbering feline form. I know I’ve seen cats of mine in similar positions at one time or another, and I’m going to see if I have any suitable pictures of Pussolini to enter into the Olympics. If one gets accepted, I’ll be sure to mention it here first.

After I went to this page, I noticed that it’s part of Christy Marx’s website, and I wondered why that name was so familiar to me. I finally placed it when I went to the page on her writing and realised she was the main creator behind the 80’s animated series Jem, which I’ve recently been rewatching for the first time in years on the DVD set that just came out. Jem was definitely one of the better cartoons of its time period and was in many ways an American mahou shoujo ("magical girl") show, though I doubt it was directly influenced by mahou shoujo anime, as it would have been relatively obscure at the time in the US, even among anime fans.

So now I have one more reason to admire Christy Marx—not only did she create one of the great cartoons of the 80’s, but she also loves cats. Let’s all give her one Truly Outrageous meow!