Saturday, January 31, 2015

Manga Meh-nia: The Waning Phases of My Manga Interest

The best way to summarize this week would be to use the comic-based term known as "The Parker Luck".  Those of you familiar with a certain Friendly-Neighborhood Web-Slinger know what that turn of phrase intends; it portrays a mixture of genuine good fortunes, but with MORE than a few setbacks to still leave one feeling like difficulties are just as natural to life as BREATHING.  Still, I can but learn from my mistakes, improve upon them, and move forward.  (And this is ALL just job-related discussion.  And really, it's not all THAT terrible, but as a whole, I spent more time admonishing myself on stupid mistakes than probably my supervisors would have even THOUGHT to do so.)  So, with my mind crammed with so many personal strategies to improve my performance, worries about how my performance would be even perceived in a review session, and wondering what my next main task would be, due to my main initial project being completed... there was a VAST stretch of time where I just didn't think of a topic for this blog.  Heck, I will admit today's topic was just pulled out of thin air for a spit-ball idea to write about!  But I figure it will still be a subject I can devote thoughts to... ironically on a subject I've NOT discussed at length as of yet... so it will weather the impromptu nature of its selection.  Hopefully if this proves to be a failed fluke of an idea, there's always tomorrow to attempt for something better.  Hmm... Oddly enough, this almost acts like a metaphor for my professional life in GENERAL!  As Sir Keanu would say, "Whoa...".

As a fan of comics, I... and I'm sure you as a reader... have had various "phases" of your reading life.  You stick with Marvel for a while, then maybe you focus on DC.  Or maybe you decide more "Indie" companies like Dark Horse, Image, Boom, Dynamic... etc., are more your speed for a chunk of time.  Maybe you're all about super-heroics, or more "adult" fantastic fare, or even semi-autobiographical slices of comic based life!  That's the wonderful thing about the medium I so love; for every phase of interest I have, comics will have that interest covered, so I can find my chosen "happy spot" for the time being.  There is, however, one particular style of comics... and anyone who INSISTS that today's topics are not just "comics", I outright tell them there are wrong, because even the Japanese would more likely share the same outlook... that I have a more "fickle" relationship with.  I can run VERY hot with it, at times, but for the majority of my life, this comic medium I tend to be rather cool and disinterested towards, and I wanted to talk about some of the books that have helped derail and frustrate my interest with the art form known as Manga.

In a VERY fast nutshell, the origins of Manga stem from the 19th century of Japan's history, and are STILL an immensely popular form of entertainment for EVERYONE.  The one key feature I will still give credit to Manga for is that it's a socially acceptable reading option for EVERY AGE RANGE.  Unlike these parts, you won't generally be looked at in an unusual fashion to be reading a comic in public in your mid-30's in the Japanese reading publics' eyes.  And Manga covers many genres just as we've begun expanding more towards in North American culture.  But Manga... in AMERICA... began gathering some minor interest in the mid to late 80's, but it just EXPLODED in the mid 90's.  Bragging about being part of the "Anime/Manga Explosion" period in the States is a very unusual thing to discuss, but I was there.  I devoted countless funds to buying translated manga volumes, purchasing VHS' and DVD's of various series, and even picking up various series' soundtracks.  Such was the height of my devotions, I even COSPLAYED for 3-4 conventions.  (Something I've YET to do for any "actual" comic convention.)  Before you ask, DO NOT ask for pictures of my cosplay efforts, since I've lost track of the original Kodak hard copies, and they were FAR from accurate portrayals.  Still, when I was in the midst of my love affair with the medium, the highs were oh-so-very high.  I can even remember how I was SO passionate about it, I pressed it towards a girlfriend I had at the time.  Pressed it HARD.  So much so that, after I was long gone from her life, she STILL had much more interest in Anime/Manga than she really honestly ever devoted to ME.  Oh well... c'est la vie. 

But I can still recall those certain series that chipped away at my interest, that exposed the chinks in my loyalty's armor, causing my Manga fandom to ebb away in rivulets of bloodied disinterest.  Now that I've given you the background/"origin story", let's talk about those books that served as a frustration, and essentially caused me to put emotional distance between myself and a comics medium I used to shake HEAVEN AND EARTH for...
GOLGO 13: Now before I begin, I should say that my INTEREST in Golgo 13 has not waned.  My actual "beef" with the title is that selections for it in the United States are FAR from complete.  I suppose it's "difficult" for companies to collect the complete chronicles of Duke Togo, who began life in 1968 under the creative direction of Takao Saito, but c'mon!  Viz has NOT done a great job portraying vast enough swathes of the history of a character that has been often compared to James Bond, Batman, and another Japanese creation, Solid Snake, for his "badness".  Not really a "spy", Duke's adventures follow this international man of contract killings all over the globe, even occasionally brushing paths with real-world figures.  (I remember stories that involved Saddam Hussein and Nelson Mandela.)  I still insist that if a company started giving "Golgo 13" an "Essential/Showcase" reprint treatment, with 500-some pages of content for a value price, I would start purchasing volumes like I had VAST stores of disposable income.  But the withholding of the full Togo "monty"... which none of the MULTITUDES of ladies he's encountered NEVER had to worry about... served as a frustrating barrier for this manga commitment.
NARUTO: Now we start getting towards the genuine sources of disinterest... All due credit to Masashi Kishimoto, who since 1997 has made a VERY healthy living with his 15-year run with the adventures of Naruto Uzumaki, in his quest to become the "Ultimate Ninja", and to overcome the stigmata of his demonic past, but man... This series sort of epitomized the feeling of "been there, done that" with Manga for me.  I realize this is "pot calling the kettle black", considering my love for superheroic comic material... which is VERY much a copy-and-paste, wash-rinse-repeat style of storytelling... but "Naruto" just hit all of the familiar spots for YEARS of Manga reading... and not really sparking anything spectacular for me.  Themes of unrequited love, acquiring strength and wisdom, overcoming personal darkness, and side-diversions with "QUIRKY SIDE CHARACTERS": all ear-marks have been checked.  And I think that with a medium that I found to be an earmark for truly "different" storytelling, the way that such perceived "generic" materials became MASSIVELY popular for State-side fans really did puzzle me.  I believe "Naruto", to this day, may have been my actual "last gasp" for sustained Manga interest, but even that wasn't strong enough to see me to the story's ultimate conclusion.
INUYASHA: This book was one of the pair to have REALLY started clearing my interest table for Manga, in general.  Remember the girlfriend I mentioned, earlier in this article?  As events turned in my life on that relationship front, we only just STARTED to invest time in this 1996 creation by the esteemed Rumiko Takahashi.  (I can recognize her contributions to the medium, but I fully admit... even when I was HEAD-DEEP in my interest with Manga/Anime, her creations never seemed to fully draw me in.  Not even the much-lauded "Ranma 1/2".)  The way I'd describe the story is a stereotypical role-playing game scenario; Kagome is a modern-era schoolgirl who travels back in time to roughly 16th century Japan, and encounters the man-dog-demon that is known as Inuyasha, and after she shatters a mystical jewel, the pair... along with more WACKY COMPANIONS... travel the land to collect the jewel pieces, and put down the demonic incursions into Japan due to the jewel shattering.  What I find personally humorous about how this series helped put to rest my initial wave of interest in Manga was a staple that I generally LIKE about American comics; the fact that while "Inuyasha" did EVENTUALLY have an ending, the series felt like it was just a NON-STOP narrative, and with characters acting as annoying to each other as Kagome and Inuyasha were, (Essentially their relationship boils down to irritation with each other... which OF COURSE leads to inevitable attraction), the journey felt more laborious than it honestly should have been.  But at least the seeds of interest in this series WERE cultivated.  They didn't result in a full bloom, but I did make the effort to try and reconcile why this series bothered me, before laying it and the medium to rest.  My last example, though...  Well...  I'll just "show and tell".
MARS: Oh boy... Since I REALLY remember very little about this series, which was started by Fuyumi Soryo, aside from it being a very "pretty" soap opera in Manga form, I'll tell you how it was first introduced to me.  This was during my "re-entry" period of community college, after I took a break from my studies, since one of my guidance counselors misled me on how many credits I initially needed to complete my degree.  One of my fellow students from a biology class noted how I was reading a Manga, one day, and we struck up a period-specific friendship.  (For historical record, it MAY have been a volume of the "Sorcerer Hunters" Manga.)  We talked often about what we enjoyed, and didn't enjoy, about certain series.  Then he suggested I try out a series called "Mars".  Note that I said HE recommended; even a mutual female friend between us was kind of puzzled that of all series I would be recommended from an average male Anime/Manga fan, THIS would be one of those recommendations.  When I first heard the title, I assumed it would at least be of a Science Fiction bent.  Even if it was a "Hard Sci-Fi" story, I've not explored much in that sphere of Japanese comic storytelling, so I was game.  Instead, my dim memories recall a story about parental loss, mysterious "attractive youths", and the pains of trying to find love.  If this story could crush the years-long love affair I had with Manga, and this is WHOLLY my feeling on the book, then I guess all I really needed was a "Soap Opera" to deliver a more fatal blow than any action-packed narrative.

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