Comments on: Manga Mondays with Kethylia 11/5

By: Manga Drawing » Late breaking news

Manga Drawing » Late breaking news — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:16:32 +0000

[...] Manga Mondays With Kethylia 11/5 Comic Book Resources [...]

By: Comics Should Be Good! » Some Reviews of the Top 100 Comics of the Year

Comics Should Be Good! » Some Reviews of the Top 100 Comics of the Year — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:21:39 +0000

[...] as Apollo’s song, about the same size (both in paper dimensions and length) and unflipped. Kethylia didn’t like it much. I thought it WORKED, at least, both as a unified story and an [...]

By: Eric HG

Eric HG — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:50:00 +0000

I do have to say what worries me in this and Ode to H much more--and is something you still see in manga nowadays is the "Raped woman falls in love with her rapist" plot--but I can get past them by chalking it up to the era--but it would make me hesitant to give either book as a gift to a teenager....

(I mean even General Hospital has stopped using such arcane plots...)

By: Eric HG

Eric HG — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:16:13 +0000

I appreciate the review and that it personally didn't appeal to you but I don't think Viz passed on MW because they didn't think it was quality and it was some sort of cast off for Vertical to pick up. I think it plays into verticals' desire to translate classic manga that other studios simply wouldn't touch--for various reasons (personally I'm hoping for more Takemiya--though I can just see the responses if they attempt a shonen ai classic liek Kaze to Kino--and ultimately PLEASE give us some classic or modern Moto Hagio...) Anyway, as a gay, 27 year old male, MW didn't offend me. I suppose because I looked at it in the context it was written. While I do think Yuki is mor eor less meant to be shown as gay, unlike what someone said here, and ya the bisexual evil stereotype is a common one... I dunno. I can look past it and even, I hate to say, kinda enjoy that aspect for what it was. The power of the work as a whole (even if ti's not one of Tezuka's life changing mangas the way I felt Ode to K was) wins out... for me. But, I respect your opinion--

By: Pedro BouÃ§a

Pedro BouÃ§a — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:43:55 +0000

Here is some well-written negative criticism of MW:
http://blog.newsarama.com/2007/12/10/fringe-benefits-mw/

Hunter (Pedro BouÃ§a)

By: Doug Atkinson

Doug Atkinson — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:56:05 +0000

It seems odd to me that $25 for a 582-page hardcover is presented as "top dollar." The price seems right in line to me; the average manga paperback is around 200 pages for $10, so you're getting 2 1/2 average manga for the price of...2 1/2 average manga, plus it's hardcover, not paperback. (It's also in line with what you'd pay for a regular hardcover novel, even those with fewer pages.) Regular manga releases don't "almost invariably" contain color pages, either; it depends on the series and the publisher (and some of the publishers who do use them charge more, like Del Rey). If the series was originally printed with color pages, they may not even be available in color any more; Japanese collections generally don't include them, and the original anthologies don't get saved in any great quantity.

By: Pedro BouÃ§a

Pedro BouÃ§a — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:18:01 +0000

Funny to see Tezuka's art described as "retro". He started working on the 1940s, for dog's sake! MW's is about as "modern" as his artwork can get! And very few manga artists criticized Japan's militarism (past and present) as much as Tezuka. That man survived aerial bombings! He KNEW the dangers of militarism by first-hand experience, thank you very much. Best, Hunter (Pedro BouÃ§a)

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:58:19 +0000

Half-baked and off-the-cuff, you say?

By: joffe

joffe — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:43:30 +0000

"wah wah wah I don't like comics that challenge me! how dare this manga from 70's JAPAN be anything other than a love letter to modern feminism. I refuse to look under the surface of anything I read" Christ. Don't misunderstand me, I'm the LAST person to ever cry "PC" at anyone. I don't think you're being overly sensitive, I think you're just being an extremely lazy reader. Its obvious you do lack imagination, because every metaphor and symbol in the book apparently went WAY over your head. Yuki isn't even gay, how could you have missed that? MW isn't my favorite of Tezuka's work by any means, but it deserves better than your knee jerk reactions. Do you have any context at all for what Japan was like at the time? Heck, do you even know anything about Japan period? And what was wrong with Ode to Kirohito? Nevermind, I just looked at your review. Apparently Viz can do no wrong while Vertical will just publish anything. Are you for real? It seems your "thing" is missing the point and looking to get offended by how another culture viewed sexuality several decades ago.

By: Lynxara

Lynxara — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:26:29 +0000

I also have to say, seeing such a work given such a low score based on purely superficial concerns like the gender ratio, the packaging, and the tone of the story is irritating. It would be like calling Preacher a terrible book because Arseface is ugly, the protagonist does bad things, and it's full of gratuitously gross violence. There's no arguing taste, but a review that is subjective to that degree is fairly useless to most people, especially readers of American comics.

By: KB

KB — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:12:24 +0000

I've got MW coming to me in my DCBS order and I saw Tezuka's exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco so while I have read the book yet, I have to say I'm shocked at the extremely negative review. kethylia's credibility with me at the moment is pretty much as low as her score for the book. I hope to prove her wrong but will be happy to admit if she's right...