What are some good artbooks (ones that are heavy on art and low on writing) and where did you get them? I don't have any, but I'm thinking of purchasing one or two. Ugetsu Hakua's (Bakuten) Works Flamboyant looks really nice.
Are there artbooks in Kinokuniya, last time I was there I didn't check, but it's the closest Japanese book store to me.
These review sites might be helpful:
http://www.jingoro.demon.co.uk/frame.htm
http://artbooks.asgard.gen.nz
http://www.jpqueen.com mostly sells second-hand books, but they're usually in excellent condition. I've bought quite a few things from there.
JOJO A GOGO
There are lots of artbooks at Kinokuniya. Expect to pay premium prices--if you compare the yen price to the dollar price, it's a joke even if you account for the fact that it's imported. Plus they may or may not let you flip through it.
For that matter, non-Japanese chains like Borders are starting to carry some artbooks, but only a handful. Check in the manga section.
It would be difficult to recommend artbooks to you unless we had a better idea of what styles you like.
it's all about book-off
>>4
I visited the Kinokuniya in NYC and did not see any good anime artbooks. The only artbooks they had an abundance of were actual art artbooks. I think I browsed the shelves pretty thoroughly. Ohh well. Guess I saved myself some money.
I really like Range Murata's Robot, that's what interested me in anime artbooks. I'm not especially interested in series-specific artbooks (of course, I wouldn't rule them out) as much as I am interested in the work of anime artists.
The only place that has the Flamboyant book in stock is Animebooks.com. The first print run came out around June but it was sold out everywhere. For some reason, the publisher didn't reprint it again... I'm looking for Ugetsu Hakua's Red Frame doujinshi. Anyone have any idea where I can find it?
Your better off making a Japanese penpal and asking them to ship artbooks to you, after paying them respectively. Or bring a bunch of books back if you ever plan on visiting an East-Asian country.
TIP: try to avoid the mainland because they're not so keen about selling manga in major bookstores.
I have a Haruhiko Mikimoto Illustrations book I got at a clearance sale in a local comic shop. Lots of paintings and color illustrations from Gunbuster, Macross, Gundam, and various anime, manga, novels and games. It also has a step by step view of his progress in making a painting. The small amount of text is even in english.
I also got Macross Perfect Memory and Macross Design Works at a convention for a great price. Those are more of a mix of lineart, sketches and paintings with a lot of text throughout so it's better if you're a fan of the series.
I found Range Murata's Robot 2 for C$31. Shrink-wrapped so I can't flip through it. Should I buy?
I bought last year Trinity Blood artbook and the pictures (or should I say paintings) are really awesome. The artist is really experienced but I don't remember his name. It costed about 12€ and was worth it. There is text only on the first "page" where is writed all the information of the artbook. Really beautiful.
Enjoying this one very much so far, moreso than the anime. What are other's opinions on it? Also, how many volumes total are there in Japan?
It's being put out by infinity studios, what seems to be one of the newer translation companies. Anyway, they really went all out on the first volume. It's got glossy pages, the color ones are color instead of grayscale and it even has the cover on a dust jacket like Japanese editions! It makes me wonder if it's a sustainable format when the price is about the same as other manga. From what I've read so far it's as funny as the anime and the translation doesn't suck.
They have an 80 page sample here, but a programming oversight means you have to read the pages in reverse order. http://www.infinitystudios.com/popup_interior.php?pID=202
bleh, wrong link
http://www.infinitystudios.com/read.php
Not so much an oversight in light of the korean works (which appear in proper order)
They do admit to it in a thread on the online serialization section of their forums. On a side note, said section allows unregistered posts. That's another plus for them in my book. :3
No nin nin .It's Ni Nin ga Shi.
Who else has read this and thought that this is a funny combination of four handsome guys and one creepy girl? I bought it when I first saw it.
Another endless comedy serie in the style of Ranma 1/2 - two jokes wil be repeated ad infinitum until everyone's really, really sick of them. You'd bether stop now before you find youself stuck with twenty issues of the same old joke.
>But now I've been looking for English scans and can't find any, damnit!
Uh? I'm pretty shure it was released at least in three languages already and you're still looking for scans?
you should expect something like that from the people that brought us "Gay sex that has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuals at all".
The first few books were hilarious.. The later books lost their humour, and it turned into a more dramatic romantic relationship. The art's definitely evolved throughout the series; I love the art style..
I don't really like the art style, but the first few were pretty amusing. :)
Of course shes creepy, shes a knock off of the Japanese Myth Hanako-chan or more recently, Ringu's Sadako
If you think thats freaky for shoujo, i'd love to see your reaction to shounen manga ( °Д°)//
I doubt you've grasped the consept of the story if your relating it to Ranma 1/2. Because i definately don't see how a twisted arranged marriage between a guy who turns into a girl and a girl who's too thick headed relates to a story about a girl who loves horror and 4 bishounen who try to turn her into a lady so they get free rent. I hate to say it, but that deserves a smack...
（ ・∀・） | | ｶﾞｯ
> It's a shoujo comedy/romance. Of course it's going to lose some of it's humor. Like how GTO turned more serious at the end and lost some of its ridiculous humor.
Are you saying GTO is a shoujo comedy/romance?
>>11
No, GTO is a shounen action/comedy... i'm just relating the similarity of humor loss
That was a pretty bad rhetoric technique you used there, then.
Mahoujin GuruGuru ... In other words, it's name is Magical Circle.
what
I was just curious if anyone has any opinions on which companies in the U.S. usually do the best job translating manga into English.
Shirow Miwa? The mangaka for Dogs?
Which title did they do?
Masamune Shirow.
>>3 you're pretty hardcore, in a way.
because i read Miwa's works?
dark horse still insists on printing the manga in the WORNG order -- and thus constantly creating confusing translations (imo)
buy translated manga in america is like voting in a presidential election within the last decade ie no "none of the above" on the ballot...
>>7
don't they only do that for blade of the immortal? in that case, they rearrange the panels in left-to-right order by the request of the author himself.
Western text is written left-to-right, and thus our comics are written left-to-right. It makes things easier to read. Printing manga right-to-left is mainly a cost-cutting measure, dressed up as being "more authentic".
It is more authentic because flipping the art reverses all the left and right-ness of objects like hands and driving positions in cars.
To its credit, Dark Horse has started doing some unflipped releases like the AMG reissues.
Vertical Inc. is definitely the best.
Doesn't mean it's not a blatant cost-cutting measure above and beyond anything else.
I shudder to think how Dark Horse is going to butcher the excellent editing work in AMG with the reissues.
Are most recent manga and doujinshi created digitally nowadays (2005), or are the majority still being done with traditional materials?
I'm just curious.
Does anyone have an example that's not a shitty webcomic
>>6
Wow, way too miss the point. Whatever your opinion may be on the art of this particular comic, it should be clear to anyone that the lineart is clean, smooth and thin, even though it was drawn with a tablet.
Tablet drawings looking sketchy and having thick lines are often a case of the artist not being used to the feeling of a plastic stylus on a plastic surface and/or the scale, no, scales you need to work at with a tablet is different from paper.
>>7
Actually, I could tell it was drawn with a tablet. It is not sketchy nor thick-lined, but it is rather stiff.
>>8
...define 'stiff'.
The only thing I can think of what could be considered stiff art is 'stiff' in terms of poses and such. But that has more to do with the artist's skill than it does with it being drawn with a tablet. In fact, I don't see how in any way drawing with a tablet would make you draw less dynamic poses.
Therefore, can someone post something drawn with a tablet that is not stiff?
I really would like to see japanese artists, not western.
>>10
How about Falcoon?
http://falcoon.hp.infoseek.co.jp/gallery2.htm
good link >>12
Well i can't suggest any manga that i know of thats done with tablets... (although i'm guessing Gantz is...) you can always check out PortalGraphics and their OC art (not that idiotic tv show)
Why did you bump a half-year-old thread if you have nothing to say?
While browsing for manga online, I think I noticed that the Europeans (ie: France and Germany) get a lot more manga than the Americans. Is this true?
For example, One Piece Vol. 36 has already been released in Germany, Vol. 28 in France, while American readers are still waiting for Vol. 8 (Comes out in October). 20th Century Boys and Monster have been released on a regular basis in France. Okama's (an artist that I've recently taken an interest in) manga Cat's World has been released in France, which makes me think that France will possibly see his new manga collaboration with Hideyuki Kurata (creator of R.O.D) "Cloth Road".
Can someone familiar with all of this comment? Does anyone in the US who speaks German or French import manga from Europe?
Japanese paint chat.come hare
http://www.takamin.com/oekakichat/user/oekakichat3.php?userid=221132
Gosh, there's an English version of 2ch!!!! This is so funny!!! Anyway, I agree we don't get enough manga in the U.K. (not sure about the rest of Europe but I guess it's the same). What a pity we don't have something like Kinokuniya here. However, there's BK1 and you can basically get all sorts of stuff from them at a relatively cheap price.
>>26
Bring your friends!
Do you ever get manga re-translated to use British colloquialisms?
>(not sure about the rest of Europe but I guess it's the same)
The only complaint Germans voice regularly is that Carlsen and the other big continental French publishers are pushing Shoujo too much and that we do not get enough Shounen/Seinen.
>>29
Sounds like North America.
Does Europe get all the shitty "Original Manga" and Korean crap as well?
Yeah, France is number two biggest manga market
We have plenty of manga at stores, it's kinda odd that America read less manga than France
American doesn't read book.
>>32
Sad fact. Americans are more interested in animu :'(
I'm french and yeah France is the second largest country editing mangas. But concerning anime lol you can dream. Even tough they get licenced pretty fast, it takes years before you can put your hands on a DVD. And a big problem concerning anime editing is the packaging... You can even find some that look like they were maid with paint... orz. But it also depends on the editor. For example French Collectors edition are damn good.
Right, I've read what DarkHorse has churned out and I'm really not willing to wait for next 20 years or so until they have managed to drudge thru the entire storyline.
So, I'm asking if there's anyone in here that has read the whole thing and is willing to spill the beans on how the story ends?
The entire series has been released by Darkhorse; I think that it's 5 volumes in total, most bookstores don't have it but you can ask them to order the remaining volumes for you. I've only read the first manga so I can't help you with the remainder of the story, sorry.
"Me & the Devil Blues is Akira Hiramoto's take on the life of the famous bluesman, Robert Johnson. Rather than make a strict manga biography, Hiramoto takes all the larger-than-life legends about Johnson's life (i.e. meeting the Devil at a crossroads and selling his soul to make great music) and blows them up, adding his own details to the story until it becomes magical. Good times."
This manga fucking rules. Everything from the art to the story is top notch stuff.
Then ask publishers in your country to get the translation right.
I found a fan translation of this manga a while ago, and I was suprised to find out that it has been licensed in the US. Has anyone else read it? I'm currently on the fourth volume, and I've really liked it so far.
Oh, it's by Kotegawa Yua. She always tries to adresses social problems, but always ends in mediocre.