Five of the current series all began with their opening episodes in issue #1 - 3; only "Dragonball Z" takes up mid-story, presumably on the assumption that most readers will be familiar enough with the ongoing anime teleseries to be able to jump right in. I came to the party clueless about that series, and after wending through the first three sets of manga installments, I remain so. (Looks like American comics publishers don't have a monopoly on opaque extended mythologies.) But the rest of the mag's series have their moments of pleasure.
Three issues in, the most intriguing series have to be Eiichiro Oda's "One Piece," Yoshihiro Takahashi's "Yu Yu Hakusho" and Kazuki Taqkahashi's "Yu-Gi-Oh." The first is a pirate story, featuring a rubberized kid hero who wants to become King of the Pirates; second concerns a high school delinquent who is nearly killed and wanders the land of limbo, trying to redeem himself so he can be brought back to life; third features a game-playing school kid who turns into an ironic dispenser of justice. First series is goofy and adventure-filled; second has a nice overlay of melancholy; the third wound up reminding me of DC's infamous Spectre comics from the seventies (when writer Michael Fleischer was chopping gangsters in twain with giant magical scissors and the like). The mag's rated "Teen" (for violence, presumably), but I'm betting that the pre-teen middle school crowd also provides core readership. Its covers are so busy most parents are probably gonna miss that box with the "Teen" advisory, anyway.
Manga have some visual conventions that are strange to neophyte American readers (nose bleeds to signify sexual excitement?), while most of the Shonen Jump artists feel no need to adhere to the niceties of "realistic" graphic art. Their cartoonish characters shrink or grow as the situation requires - while their facial features can be serious one moment, literally blank or exaggerated the next. For young readers, in particular, I'm betting that's a part of their charm. By overemphasizing ersatz photo-realism as the primary means of telling a genre story, mainstream American comics publishers have largely turned their backs on an audience that just wants their comics to be comics. . .
Article comments
1 - Brittany
um. mr Takahashi Can you animate two new characters I made up and put them in the show ?
2 - zain gaziani
i really don't have any comments whatsoever.But my goal is to be just like Eiichiro Oda and for that i will be needing his e-mail address.So please can you give his e-mail address?????
-FROM,
JAZZ RAJA
3 - Lorraine
If possible, can I know Kazuki's email?
4 - Thundercat
To Brittany and Larraine..
I'm not Takahashi.....
But I have to tell you that what you ask
is impossible.
Brittany, he already has enough characters to deal with.
Takahshi only worked on the comic.
He dosen't actually do any of the animation on the show except for doing some character design concepts.
He has already moved on to other projects.
Plus I'm betting that the characters you made up are "Mary Sue" or "Gary Stue" types.
Mary Sue/Gary Stue character(s) are fan made characters that fall in love with one of the original characters from the show/comic. In return the original character(s) fall in love with the Mary Sue/Gary Stue.
No offense,but most fans aren't very fond of that. If you plan on doing a fan fic or a fan art, please try NOT to do that because you might get flamed.
As for his e-mail, Larraine
Hon you need to realize that kind of info will never be released with out his permission. He needs his privecy.
5 - sarah
I woul like takahashi's email address because I need to ask him if he can make this card called the devil's chain so that I can control one of my cards called three blue eyes three connetion.
and i heard that he can only make and send it to me also im willling to pay him to make this card.
6 - Sarah
if your going to answer me then send an email to Chobits_chi_200514@yahoo.com
7 - Victor Plenty
Sometimes I have to wonder if people's browsers are getting redirected to blogcritics.org from some other domain, like maybe findcelebrityemailaddresses.com or something.
8 - sarah
I'm being serious about the whole card thing because yesterday was my 15th birthday and I have 150 dollars.
9 - Victor Plenty
Suddenly it all makes sense!
10 - sarah
your an ass, nevermind
11 - DrPat
Any thoughts on where the "bloody nose" convention comes from?
12 - SFC SKI
You mean this isn't a fan club?
13 - Victor Plenty
If you learn you can't get celebrity email addresses here, I guess being called an "ass" is a small price to pay for my efforts to serve the public interest.
I hope the rest of your birthday efforts were more successful than the few moments you spent here, Sarah.
14 - errrr
what is toriyamas adress?
15 - errrr
u allll suck!