312 – 6 Year Anniversary Guest Gaiden 7 – Translating and Publishing Doujinshi with On Takahashi

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312 – 6 Year Anniversary Guest Gaiden 7 – Translating and Publishing Doujinshi with On Takahashi

We’ve reach another milestone in Manga Machinations with our 6 year anniversary! We’re celebrating by interviewing On Takahashi, CEO of Irodori Comics and translator for game localization group Warlocs! On shares his childhood experiences learning Japanese through manga and anime, talks about his job working as a lecturer at a Japanese university, recounts his tough work schedule translating high profile video games, and stresses the importance of crediting localization staff. He breaks down the process of publishing doujinshi, informs us about the Japanese politics that will effect manga piracy, discusses the complicated issues of problematic content, and much more! Also, tune in after the outro for a bonus Death Stranding discussion by On and Darforx8!

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Meshi ni Shimashou

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Meshi ni Shimashou

A manga about a manga assistant who cooks experimental meals for a manga artist who is perpetually behind schedule.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

I’ve always seen this manga in Evening Magazine but only skimmed through it. It wasn’t until we did our Kasane Retrospective did I learn this series was inspired by Doumu Kobayashi working as Daruma Matsuura‘s assistant! Suddenly jokes about the manga artist falling asleep with their mouth open painted a picture of Kobayashi catching Matsuura dozing off! The thought of Kobayashi farming ideas from his experiences cooking for Matsuura got me to reread this manga and search for potential behind-the-scenes events that could have happened!

As far as a food manga goes this book has two unique qualities. First, the recipes for the meals are often experiments so they don’t always yield a delicious dish. Second, the series features lots of surreal humor that removes it from reality. At one point, the Roomba becomes sentient and an ongoing character. So besides searching for insight into Matsuura’s work place, I also enjoyed the unique food and wacky comedy.

~dakazu

Mentsuyu Hitorimeshi

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Mentsuyu Hitorimeshi

A food manga about an office lady who is too lazy to prepare food properly and instead uses mentsuyu or noodle sauce for easy to cook and delicious meals.

This manga seems like it would be perfect for my food loving sensibilities but I really disliked how it was a 4 panel layout comic. 4 panels are good for comedy but really limit you from having any dynamic shots of the delicious meals. A shame because Mizuki Setoguchi‘s concept of doing a food manga with only mentsuyu recipes was pretty unique. Close but no cigar for me.

~dakazu

Renai Sanjigen Debut ~Sanjudai Otaku Mangaka, Kekkon e no Michi.~

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Renai Sanjigen Debut – Sanjudai Otaku Mangaka, Kekkon e no Michi.~

Manga artist Ayami Kazama‘s chronicle of her journey from shy girl to lonesome adult otaku to finally getting married.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

After Morgana talked about I Don’t Know How to Give Birth! I found that Ayami Kazama had a few other non-fiction books that preceded that one. This one is the first in her series of autobiographical tales and it’s quite impressive she was willing to share so much of her embarrassing past. During Elementary school she would cry when confronted by boys because she thought everything she read in romantic shoujo manga was real. She spent her early adult life being obsessed with shipping fictional characters. Even when she started dating she had no concept of how to interact with others. It’s seems self deprecating but I really liked how she would be recapping all this to her editor who would jump in and point out everything absurd.

As Kazama reached the age of 30 she began a romance with a manga artist who she would go on to marry. I was extremely disappointed that her husband turned out to be Azure Konno who created Koe de Oshigoto!, a manga about forcing high school students to voice hentai dating simulators, which I despise. While I’m glad Kazama found someone who she found love with despite all her eccentricities, I really didn’t like that it was Konno. And unfortunately I found this out after I already bought the next book Totsuidemo Otaku desu. so I guess I’ll have to keep reading about them for now.

~dakazu

Tokyo Toy BoxES

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Tokyo Toy BoxES

A manga about a genius fighting game player who’s been kicked off her team and ends up being scouted by a private school that is starting an e-sports curriculum.

So apparently this is a sequel series to Tokyo Toy Box which was about game development. Since I’m unfamiliar with Tokyo Toy Box I can’t comment on any connection between these two but I recognized the creator Ume from some of their other manga like STEVES or Nangoku Tom Sawyer. The story here is that Ren Azumino is an excellent player but she deals with prejudice for being a girl. The setup is simple and it addresses the issues with sexism in professional gaming but since this manga is relatively new, I’ll have to keep reading more to see if it handles these issues with some tact. But so far I’m enjoying this manga and I’ll probably look into reading Tokyo Toy Box as well.

~dakazu

Versus Earth – War Hammer

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Versus Earth – War Hammer

The sequel series to Versus Earth.

We’ve discussed this on a recent episode.

I was equally surprised and excited to learn that Kazutomo Ichitomo took it upon himself to draw the continuation of Versus Earth with Versus Earth – War Hammer. He originally started posting new chapters over on Pixiv until he was able to self publish them through Denpa Bato. Since Ichitomo was just the writer of Versus Earth there is an obvious change in art style here. I don’t think Ichitomo does a bad job but I miss the shonen action style of Yoshihiko Watanabe.

So I was all ready to read the ending of this series when I found out Versus Earth – War Hammer is also unfinished! It’s been on hiatus since 2017 when Ichitomo got busy with other projects. At this point I doubt I’ll ever get to read the end of Versus Earth. Maybe somethings were never meant to be.

~dakazu

Sake no Hosomichi

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Sake no Hosomichi

A manga about an everyday salary man who loves drinking and eating.

I was initially drawn to Roswell Hosoki‘s simplistic art style when I picked up this series. I didn’t know Hosoki has been drawing Sake no Hosomichi since 1996 and that it’s still on going. Each chapter is super short story and focuses on either food or alcohol or some aspect of both. You can tell Hosoki loves to partake in both himself and that enthusiasm spills over into these stories. Hosoki has made a career out of drawing many different seinen series about food and drink. They’re all enjoyable to read and also full of great recipe tips as well. Love this book!

~dakazu

Air Gear

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Air Gear

A manga about a teenager who begins his journey to become the best Air Trek rider and become a Storm Rider and reach the pinnacle at Trophaeum Tower.

I went back and started reading this series and boy does it not hold up. Oh!great‘s art work is so detailed it borders on excessive sometimes. Dramatic poses are filled to the brim with background effects that are so impressive to read. But this shonen battle manga by Oh!great is equally filled with excessive fan service. Oh!great started as a hentai artist and it shows. I’m not opposed to T&A but when the first chapter of this manga has implied sexual assault I just disengage from the story content.

Air Gear just has an aggressive tone within the characters and the story and that combined with the beautiful but blinding art work does not make for an enjoyable experience. I’m pretty sure I ended feeling this way when I read through this manga the first time. This type of manga worked well for the early 2000’s but I’ve moved past any interest I had with Oh!great‘s titles.

~dakazu

311 – One Shot 29 – Buffalo 5 Girls

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311 – One Shot 29 – Buffalo 5 Girls

This week Seamus revisits Yuichi Yokoyama with World Map Room and Iceland, Morgana picked up Magician A on a whim, and dakazu talks about the bittersweet Caterpillar Girl and Bad Texter Boy! Then we dive into the world of sex workers and outlaws with Buffalo 5 Girls! This unfinished series by Moyoco Anno raises many questions like “Who did the coloring?” and “How was the story going to end?” for the hosts!!!

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Devil’s Line

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Devil’s Line

A manga where vampires known as devils blend in among the human population. A young woman begins a dangerous relationship with a half-devil secret agent who is attracted to her.

We’ve discussed this manga on an older episode.

I would hear about this manga a lot while it was serialized but I never got around to reading it until we did for the podcast. Turns out, I really enjoyed this mostly generic vampire drama. Ryo Hanada isn’t the most talented artist so sometimes the action happening wasn’t that clear on the page. Also the story was heavy with government conspiracies so I had to read it the English editions from Kodansha to fully parse the story. While Darfox and Seamus didn’t enjoy this title, anyone like Morgana who likes reading about emo vampires will surely enjoy this manga.

~dakazu