Your Lie in April

Your Lie in April (四月は君の嘘) is a 22 episode slice of life romance series based on the manga of the same name by Arakawa Naoshi.  The series aired on TV in Japan between the Fall of 2014 and Spring of 2015.

    Arima Kosei was a piano prodigy when he was younger.  He has since abandoned the world of recitals and competition following the death of his mother.  His guilt and regret regarding her death has caused him to develop psychological issues blocking his ability to play the piano.  Considering his life meaningless he accepts his fate and continues living with little purpose.  His childhood friend and neighbor, Tsubaki, is determined to return Kosei to a world of color and hope.  Tsubaki convinces Arima to come with her and their friend Watari to see a violin recital.  He arrives earlier than his friends and stumbles upon a girl who changes his world.  The girl is a violinist who is competing in the event and the main reason Tsubaki is dragging her friends with.  Tsubaki is working on hooking up Watari and the girl, Miyazano Kaori.  Kaori confided in Tusbaki that she was interested in Watari.  Kosei is the first one to see her though and his reawakened emotions stir with conflict.  Kaori hits it off with all 3 of them but is technically inclined towards Watari.  She plays with the attention she sense from Kosei and begins to refer to him as 'Friend A', using him as a companion and sounding board.  She pushes him though and forces him to accompany her at a piano/violin recital.  The more time they spend together preparing for the performance the more feelings Kosei develops.  But his status of friend of possible boyfriend holds him back and he struggles to understand the level of attention she is giving him.  Kaori forces him into the role of pianist once more but half way through the recital it breaks down as the old trauma's return.  The performance is a failure but surprisingly Kaori couldn't be happier.  She demands that Kosei continue with his efforts to return to his former glory so that they can play together again on a stage.

    Kosei must battle the demons that haunt him before he can meet Kaori's expectations.  She forces him out of his shell and he begins to find reason and focus to heal his wounds.  Old rivals welcome his return to the competition circuit.  At the same time Watari continues as normal with Kaori being his almost girlfriend.  This brings unneeded stress on Kosei and Tsubaki alike.  Tsubaki harbors deep and hidden feelings for her childhood friend but she wants to help him recover as much as possible.  As Kosei progresses with returning to the world of joy he knew the horrors of his mother continue to haunt him.  Those horrors and feelings of loss intensify when he discovers that Kaori is sick, possibly terminally ill.  Regrets, conflicts of emotion and a strong desire to shut out the world for fear of more pain impede Kosei's progress.  He has to figure out if he will ever be able to overcome his regrets, childhood traumas and the fear of deep loss once again.

    Story-wise Kimi Uso is drenched in self hate, self affirmation and self esteem issues.  The main characters are tragic hero's who would just as easily commit suicide than continue their existence.  At one point the phrase, 'Will you commit double suicide with me' is uttered.  Kosei had a horribly abusive childhood and then had to deal with that never being accounted for on top of parental abandonment following his mother’s death.  His father works overseas, by the way.  Kaori comes from a loving and caring family with the entire world in front of her, but is being held back by an unknown and debilitating illness.  Kosei is an empty shell who decides to try and live once he meets Kaori.  Kaori plays hard to get and teases him the entire time, swinging through moods and emotions with some alarming frequency.  The side characters, particularly Tusbaki grumble in the wings about everyone’s lack of ability to communicate freely.  Tsubaki herself enters a vanilla self destructive mode when she tries to deny her feelings for Kosei.  Her eventual acceptance brings a well done breakdown confession.  Watari...well he's not much more than a puppet that is offered up as a roadblock to the stories completion.  Other peripheral characters come and go, mostly staying and popping up from time to time to change direction of the Kosei's dialog, but don't really offer much more than that.  There are a few moments of over the top shonen style competition between Kosei and a few other piano students, but those theatrics flatten out when Kosei ultimately doesn't care about everyone else's level of competitiveness with him.  Over all it was a bland and predictable story that did deliver some merit worthy emotional moments.  There did end up being too many distractions that seemed to be filler more than anything, even if they were used to show the main characters mental development process.

    Art-wise parts of the character designs were bothersome.  Overbites and large glassy eyes.  The animation was smooth and vivid in its color pallet.  This series really utilized the current trend of erasing portions of characters glasses when restricting the viewer’s ability to see their eyes.  Particularly since Kosei wears glasses.  I want to figure out when this trend really started to take place but I can guess it has something to do with the social issues in Japan with eye contact.  (It's extremely rude to talk to someone in person when they can’t see your eyes)  One thing that stands out is the show tries to break the tension by reverting to some comical art styles.  The young children in the show are shown in absurd and comical ways as well.  Over all the artwork is stronger than the story.  Some of the CG is clunky, particularly when showing the piano being played by a variety of characters.  It was nowhere as smooth or accurate as that from Nodame Cantabile

    Regardless of its flaws I did enjoy my time with Kimi Uso and wouldn't mind reading the manga to see what was left out of the anime.  It ended in a way I enjoyed and was handled beautifully.  It’s not full of fan service, the characters body types are realistic, if their hair isn't.  Little things like that make it more enjoyable.  There are plenty of segments of the story that could have been cut out and seemed to do little more than serve as filler and cheap plot tricks.  The parts dealing with Kosei, Kaori and Tsubaki's feelings for each other are the meat of the show and the best parts.  With its flaws this is still a good series in the ever growing romance anime list.  Worth the time.  This however, is not relatable to the highly enjoyable Nodame Cantabile.

  The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll in North America and is being distributed by Aniplex.  The manga is being released by Kodansha in North America.

Parasyte -the maxim-

Parasyte -the maxim- (寄生獣 セイの格率) is a 24 episode seinen action/horror anime based on the manga Parasyte by Iwaaki Hitoshi.  The series aired on TV in Japan from Fall 2014 until Spring of 2015.

  One night, creatures of unknown origin spread across the world.  These parasites devour the heads of their human host, morph to mimic the host, and use their body for mobility and life support.  One parasite failed in its attempt to devour its targets head, instead devouring the lower half of its right arm.  That human, Izumi Shinichi, discovers his unique problem and through the parasites coxing decides that the best course of action is cooperation.  In order to better understand his strange bedfellow, Shinichi dubs it Migi, which is the Japanese word for right.  Migi, ambivalent and alien with regards to human thought patterns, accepts the title and uses the tenuous relationship to better understand the world around it and it’s self.  Soon Migi is forcing Shinichi to approach other parasites in order to better understand himself and them.  Unfortunately his kind tends to not be receptive to discovery and almost immediately they have to fight the ones they come across.  The parasites are able to mold and manipulate their bodies in amazing ways.  They have heightened senses and incredibly amplified reflexes.  In their encounters with other parasites, Shinichi can do little nmore than stand in horror/amazement as Migi does what he can to protect himself and his host.  The battles tend to be life or death and Shinichi has to come to terms with the idea of participating in exterminating another life form. 

    The parasites primarily feed on humans, so Shinichi sees them as an evil that must be purged.  Migi, who is not human, counters Shinichi's human-centric reasoning as it being the natural order of things.  The series underlies the concept of human superiority and its special place in the world.  Are humans more important than other animals?  If not, then why is it wrong for the parasites to feed on them as humans do other 'lower' animals?  Migi and Shinichi's existence is a precarious one.  For fear of an unwelcomed outcome they have to keep their partnership hidden.  Due to the parasites ability to sense each other they find themselves continuously battling for their lives.  Soon they encounter parasites that have been able to move beyond base animal impulses.  A cabal seems to be working together to protect their existence and maintain their feeding habits.  Shinichi, with Migi, finds himself the lone person who understands the reality of the parasites and unwittingly becomes a protector of humanity.  Migi strives to understand what reasons may exist behind his kind’s existence while Shinichi is faced with altering his perception of morality and purpose.

  Generally I am not a fan of seinen monster horror titles that tend to mostly be about the ultra violence and gore with little in the way of thoughtful plot or interesting story development.  I have a long standing history of distaste with such seminal titles as Guyver and Genocyber.  I decided to give this series a fair shake and wait out the first 5 episodes.  I am glad I did, because the events of episode 5 and 6 really turned me into a fan of the show.  There is more to this show than death and destruction.  Almost immediately it brings up the idea of objective morality and the perception of human exceptionalism when compared with everything else in the anime kingdom.  It does at times get preachy in regards to this, referencing the parasites as a way to cull human over population to help restore the balance of nature.  That's not to say there aren't some pretty exciting and graphic fights though.  The parasites prefer to battle with elongated tentacles tipped and edged with blades, slicing and chopping at whim, leaving bloody dismembered corpses everywhere.  The initial broadcast, of course, was edited to a degree to meet Japanese broadcast standards.  I expect the DVD releases to be more graphic. 

  Shinichi is kind of a wet noodle hero.  He starts out as a timid book worm that eventually has to harden his heart towards the terror he witnesses and participates in.  Through everything he has to deal with he still end's up being wishy-washy.  Not only does he have to face the horrors by himself, the only one he can talk do about this is Migi, who offers little in the way of compassion and instead retorts with razor sharp rationality.  The progression of the story and Shinichi's personality is the definitive loss of innocence narrative..  It can also be used as a metaphor regarding the general peace and tranquility for Japan it's self.  A nation mostly isolated from the horrors and misery of many other parts of the world.  As stated earlier, the dialog between some of the characters can get a bit preachy, sometimes bordering on environmental zealotry.  Don't try to let it distract you too much from enjoying the show though.  Instead ponder the ideas Migi presents about the reality of humanities place in the animal kingdom and the justifications we fabricate to make ourselves feel better for the destruction we sow.

  The series sadly ended after 24 episodes.  It ended well though, even though for a minute it seemed like it was going to end in legendary fashion.  Unfortunately there was very little in the way of answers for the main deeply rooted questions.  Who are the parasites, where did they come from and for what purpose, if any?  Instead the story wraps up rather tidily and we move on.  I did enjoy it, surprisingly more than I ever would have imagined and recommend it.  Perhaps I should read the manga which spans 7 tankoubon.

  The show was simulcast on Crunchyroll and Right Stuf has acquired the distribution rights to it, so we should see disc releases in North America in the near future, which I'm sure will come with English dub variant as well.  Part one of a two part live action movie series came out last year in Japan as well.  The North American version of the manga is currently being released by Tokyopop.

Patema Inverted

Patema Inverted (サカサマのパテマ) is a sci-fi movie by Yoshiura Yasuhiro.  It was originally released in theaters in Japan in 2013 following the beginning portion of the film being released as 4 ONA's in 2012.

    Patema lives in a city build underground, where the inhabitants do not see the surface of their planet and scavenge the labrinthine tunnels and corridors for supplies.  Yet, for a group of long time underground dwellers they remain optimistic and healthy.  Patema dreams of the outside world, due in large part to a man she is very close to named Lagos.  Lagos would go on trips into forbidden regions of their underground warren and bring back gifts, images and stories of the surface world.  Patema decides to see that world for herself after Lagos has been missing for a few years.  Her guardians warn her of the dangers of following in her footsteps, trying to scare her with tales of batmen who walk on the ceiling and kidnap anyone they see.  She then encounters one of them and in her terror falls off of a catwalk into the abyss.  Much to her surprise and terror the hole she fell into leads to the surface world she has dreamed about.  Yet for unknown reasons her gravity is reversed from this world and the open blue sky holds nothing but a terror of oblivion and death.  She clings to a chain-link fence, faced with a fall into the nothingness of the sky, and is saved by a bewildered boy named Age who helps her to safety inside a nearby store room.  He wonders at her terror of the sky, not understanding the feeling of having nothing to stand on, as she clings to the top of the door jam peering into the blue depths.  Age promises that he will get her back to her people, the inverted, as he calls them.  Age lives in a totalitarian and technologically advanced city that preaches about people long ago who's gravity inverted being sinners punished for their crimes and were thrown into the sky.  The leader of the city discovers Patema's existence and does everything he can to destroy her and her people.

    I really enjoyed this movie.  It was fresh, inventive and well paced.  The concept while not original is well done and entertaining.  Not a lot of peripheral story is explained in the movie which clocks in at just over 90 minutes.  But you get a great picture of the motivations and personalities of all of the major characters so that's not a detriment.  Half of the fun of the story is to figure out what world is the correct one and who is right.  The other half is to see if our protagonists will overcome their adversity.  This is a classic anti-authority story that is easily recognizable.  English lit majors can pick all sorts of literary symbolism out of this story and not be disappointed with its by the book story telling.  This is an enjoyable, well done and engrossing film that is for all audiences.  Once again Yoshiura brings humanism to the generally sterile worlds of cyberpunk sci-fi.  This one is a bit more fantasy than cyberpunk though and has more action than any of his other stories.  He focuses less on human interactions as the main point of the story.  This proves he can make a blockbuster style feature film and should be doing more work of this scale.  My one complaint would be the character designs, they were a bit bland and not of the life like style that Yoshiura has gone with previously.    Maybe I enjoyed it as much as I did because it had some of the same feeling to it as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time did.

The film is available in North America on BluRay and DVD in both subtitled and dubbed format.

My Japanese Husband STILL Thinks I'm Crazy

My Japanese Husband [STILL] Thinks I'm Crazy is a self published comic by expatriate and Tokyo resident Grace Buchele Mineta who runs the website http://howibecametexan.com/.  The book was made available for download via Amazon February 16th, 2015 and Grace was very kind to give me a preview copy to write a review for.

 
    The book is part comic strip, part glossary and all about the things that happen to Grace in her everyday life that stand out to her.  Things such as the differences in celebrating New Years in Japan vs. America to the history of Valentine’s Day in Japan and having to adjust to waiting until March 14th for return gifts of love from her husband.  The concept of having to spend month’s worth of time living with her in-laws if/when she becomes pregnant, following Japanese tradition or the way she avoids conversations with people she doesn't want to deal with by pretending to be Russian and the stereotypical questions she faces on a daily basis due to her status of exotic foreigner.  Most of the panels are humorous, tender and silly.  At times more serious tones creep in as she works to deal with depression issues and concerns about her success and worth.  Her husband, Ryosuke, is presented as her rock of support and indifference.  He does his best to maintain a carefree, go with the flow attitude, stressing to just enjoy life as it comes and things will work themselves out. 

    This was a quick and enjoyable read; the book is around 180 pages in length.  It is a nice look at life in Japan as a foreigner balanced with easy to digest explanations of terms that the reader may not be familiar with.  The artwork is simplistic and reminds me a little of the style used by Brian Lee O'Malley, the author of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.  Initially I was off put with the breaks in the comic panels by paragraphs explaining terms and settings but the information was easy to digest and explained things in a fashion that should work well for those not familiar with Japan.  This was a great break from the world of slice of life manga and anime, seeing a true to life perspective on Japan by an American.  I think this could make a great serialized 4koma manga, but I wonder if the author would be willing to put up with the insane work load that is demanded of professional manga-ka.  I could see this having some success in serialized manga format though as a foreigners perspective on Japan is an incredibly rare thing in Japan and that alone may propel it to popularity.  Instead, or for now, we can all enjoy her slightly leftfield commentary on the world around her through her 2 books and her web presence.  Now I have to pick up a copy of the original one to enjoy more mundane adventures of living life like a normal person in a foreign environment.
  
    I recommend this enjoyable read to anyone who wants to get a fresh and enjoyable perspective of what it's like to live as an American in Japan.  You can order a copy of the book for your self here on Amazon.

The Keep and Drop list for the Winter 2015 Anime being Watched

Its officially cut and release time for the brand new Winter shows.  Every last one of them has aired 5 episodes and after watching (almost all of them) to this point I can get a good idea of what will remain and what will be purged from my memory.  So here we go, in alphabetical order.

Aldnoah.Zero 2: With out a doubt the return of a favorite series from last year is sticking around.  The level of intrigue and Vers politics is kicking up and getting entertaining.  Cyber-Inaho proves to be even more bad ass than normal Inaho.  It's exciting to see the conclusion unfold.  Hopefully though, once this season ends we can have more stories dealing with this interesting world setting in the future.

Assassination Classroom: I gave it 3 episodes and realized that continuing it would be pointless.  This popular Shonen Jump series has nothing I am interested in, I just don't match that demographic and have not for a loooong time.  The artwork is not enjoyable either.

Death Parade: I was surprised how much I have enjoyed this one.  They keep this one-trick pony interesting and the episodes where they delve into the personalities of the 'staff' are more enjoyable than one would expect.  The animation is a bit weird at times, especially the canned CG scenes, but the writing is above what I expected.

Durarara x2 Shou: I absolutely loved the original DRRR and the second series has not disappointed.  The new characters they are introducing to the crowded list of personalities are enjoyable as the originals and the out of sync story telling makes the show even more enjoyable.

Koufuku Graffiti: I loved Sayanora Zetsubo-sensei and love cooking.  Sadly this show has little if nothing to offer anyone other then some oddly framed images of moe girls eating beautifully detailed food.  This one is being stricken from the list.

Rolling Girls: Once it got past the first two episodes that were set up for the rest of the story this show got more enjoyable.  Its like a cross between FLCL and I have no idea what else, but I've seen anime that feel similar to this one.  Its a fun romp outside of the realms of reality, even if its some what moe...

Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata:Technically only lasting 4 episodes for me as the first episode that aired was a lead in.  That was more than enough to confirm that this was another otaku galge fantasy anime with little to no worth.  There were entertaining moments when the characters started to break the 4th wall and lambast the tropes the show was spewing, but that wasn't enough to make me want to watch any more than i already suffered over.  When can we get back to not making anime specifically geared towards niche otaku groups?

Here are the other titles occupying my weekly viewing habits.

Magic Kaito: The spin off from Detective Conan about his sometimes rival magician thief.  This is a mainstay at my house and my kids beg to watch it as soon as its available each week.  I can take it or leave it, but I do enjoy watching it with them.

Parasyte: Again, another series that caught me off guard.  I'm generally not a fan of seinen horror anime (oddly I really enjoy seinen horror manga) and was about to cut this one in the Fall.  I am glad I didn't because each episode that passes makes the show even better.  I'm hoping it sticks around for more than 26 episodes.

Sanzoku no Musume Rojna: This simplistic but oddly well done CG rendition of a loved Scandinavian children's story is fun and enjoyable.  Its directed by Miyazaki Goro and animated in conjunction with Polygon, who did/do the amazing animation for Sidonia no Kishi.

Shirobako: This enjoyable and highly detailed series goes hand in hand with watching any other anime.  See the hellish world the people live in who make the things you enjoy.  How surreal is it for the people making this one?

You're Lie in April: This moody and escalatingly dramatic story of love and self worth is remaining enjoyable.  I have heard rumors the manga ends tragically...lets hope thats true!!

Pale Cocoon

Pale Cocoon (ペイル・コクーン) is a short sci-fi OAV by Yoshiura Yasushiro and was originally released in 2006. 

    Ura works in the archival restoration department and spends his days working with the colonies computer systems to restore fragments of lost data.  People have had to live in an underground colony following the destruction of the surface of Earth long ago.  Through his work on restoring the collected archival information Ura is searching for the truth in the past.  He feels that there is more to the world around him than he understands.  The number of people in the colony is slowly dwindling and Ura is concerned that humanity will be lost in a sea of apathy.  If nothing more he tries to help continue their existence through the archives.  A friend of his who works in a different division challenges his conceptions of the world around him, pushing him to the point of finding out the truth himself.

    It has been a long time since I had seen this anime and realizing the creator is the same one behind Eve no Jikan made me want to rewatch it.  This is a beautiful display of CG animation and focuses heavily on personal interaction, as his other works have.  The concepts and background in this series are entertaining and well done.  The story is simple.  Two people contemplate the history they know and the truth behind the reality around them.  In he end this was a well done and enjoyable sci-fi story that dealt with average people living in the future, instead of hero's and super beings.  We need more stories that do that.

    Unfortunately this OAV was never released on disc in North America, one of the victims of the industries retraction in the 00's.  It was available for a time on Crunchyroll but is no longer available.

American Anime and Manga Magazines

Since the mid 2000's print publications have seen dramatic circulation and advertising revenue loss.  Niche publications were not unaffected by this and the mid and late 00's saw the discontinuation of many magazines and specialty print publications.  Magazines devoted to the anime and manga subculture in America have never been a very large niche, unlike Japan, and they have felt that drop pretty dramatically.  That's not to say that Japan hasn't suffered its own print media decline, which it has.  A variety of factors have contributed to this decline, the main one being the rise of the internet and its use.  Another is a generational shift away from publication subscription.  After buying almost every single issue of the 4 year long publication Shojo Beat, for a ridiculous price, I wanted to take a look at some of the magazines devoted to anime and manga that have come and gone in North America.  Some of these I had personally read over the years, others I was only peripherally aware of.

Anime Insider by Wizard: Wizard Inc.'s foray into the increasingly popular world or anime and manga was published monthly between 2001 and 2009.  Wizard had built up an empire producing industry magazines for other aspects of nerd culture in America, most notably comic books, and decided to enter the already crowded market of the anime industry magazine world. It featured interviews with people in the industry, reviews and release information on products.  It also tapped into its convention network for reporting in the field.

Animerica by Viz: Animerica was Viz's original otaku magazine and followed in the footsteps of the Japanese Newtype magazine.  It was in publication from 1992 until 2005 and came out on a quarterly basis.  The magazine featured interviews, reviews, otaku culture and some manga imprints.  Eventually a manga anthology was spun off of the magazine titled Animerica Extra which was canceled in 2004.

Newtype USA by A. D. Vision: This was the attempt to Americanize the long running and immensely popular Newtype magazine.  The monthly publication was produced between 2002 and 2008.  Newtype was an anime/manga/otaku culture magazine, featuring articles, interviews and other tidbits of information about anything otaku related including some content directly translated from the Japanese counterpart.

Protoculture Addicts: This was the first professional anime industry magazine to be released in North America.  In began publication in 1987 based out of Canada as a Robotech fanzine and eventually grew to become a legitimate anime industry magazine, featuring articles, reviews, previews (sometimes well ahead of any North American release).  In 2005 it was purchased by Anime News Network, with the final issue being released in 2008.  Technically not dead it will probably never exist in a printed format ever again.

Pulp by Viz: The first manga magazine I really spent some time with, this was Viz's attempt to tap into the adult/ecchi market by publishing manga series' aimed at the seinen audience.  This manga anthology was published between 1997 and 2002 and featured such titles as Uzumaki, Black & White (Tekkon Kinkreet) and Dance Till Tomorrow.

Shojo Beat by Viz:  Shojo Beat was the first/only North American publication to solely target the female otaku.  The publication ran monthly between 2005 and 2009.  The magazine published manga aimed at teenage girls and young women such as NANA and Honey & Clover and featured lifestyle articles and interviews with industry people.

Shonen Jump by Viz: The American rendition of the immensely popular Shonen Jump, featuring all of the top shonen titles that were licensed at the time in America, such as Naruto and Dragon Ball Z.  The monthly magazine ran from 2002 until 2012 and had some incredibly high subscription numbers.  With all its popularity it’s somewhat surprising that this one isn't still around.  Viz decided to focus on a weekly digital subscription manga service instead.  It allows them more flexibility in getting the most up to date manga to the market as quickly as possible and can follow suit with the Japanese release schedule for Weekly Shonen Jump.

    More than just the nationwide decline in print publication subscription/revenue affected the anime/manga niche market.  The collapse of the anime licensing industry in general in America at the end of the 00's was a major contributor as well.  With companies such as Geneon/Pioneer and AD Vision going under large advertising vacuums showed up further crippling any revenue the magazines generated.  Where can the industry go from here?  Many of them are remaining viable through internet publication and subscription services.  The internet is what helped kill print media in the first place and small companies like those that exist are better suited for the limiting revenue streams from internet content.  These companies are much more capable of dealing with those cash flows than a larger organization that’s bound by a physical product and office(s).

    Another contributing factor would be America's comic release schedule with is monthly as opposed to weekly schedule like in Japan.  Instead of buying a large, low quality, anthologies American's are used to getting monthly high quality single issue editions of their favorite comics.  In the earlier days of manga distribution in North America comic book companies such as DC shifted the manga titles they decided to release to fit their schedules and styles.  When other companies started to license and distribute manga they went directly with doing so in the tankoubon format.   This habit has become the dominating way America's purchase manga and has been for quite some time, helping to shift the mentality away from single issues or frequent anthologies.   Even in Japan, while manga anthology sales are slipping, tankoubon sales appear to be holding steady or not loosing much ground.  Many Japanese publishers are doing simultaneous digital publication if not downright digital only.  The internet is the key to the survival of the manga industry; world wide.  People seem to be willing to support it as well.  It helps to greatly reduce overhead costs and eliminates any publication waste that you would have with a print product.  Releasing tankoubons for series that are long enough and sufficiently popular enough still remains a vital component and an industry must.  Internet publications also can help to get more unknown authors/artists into the public sphere of awareness.  But they can also lead to quicker turn around as well.  It will be interesting to see what the marketplace for manga will look like in 2020.

(my Shojo Beat haul)

Koe no Katachi

Koe no Katachi (聲の形) is a shonen drama by Oima Yoshitoka.  The manga was published between 2013 and 2014 in Weekly Shonen Magazine and has been collected into 7 tankoubon.

    Ishida Shoya is a kid who doesn't like being bored.  His continuous fight against boredom causes his single mother more stress than he can understand.  He convinces his two best friends to join the fight with him and when a troublesome transfer student shows up he sees a golden opportunity.  Nishimiya Shouko has transferred to Shoya's school to get away from bullying problems she had in her old school.  She didn't expect the level of abuse she would suffer at Shoya's hands, though, for nothing more than his own entertainment.  Nishimiya is deaf and Shoya at first doesn't believe it.  What begins as amusement quickly turns into abuse as the rest of the class supports his attacks.  Even their home room teacher mildly supports the harassment of what he considers a nuisance.  The fun changes after numerous expensive hearing aids are broken.  Nishimiya's mother demands restitution and an end to the harassment.  The class outs Shoya as the perpetrator and when he tries to spread the blame around the class turns on him.  The abuse becomes so much that Shoya directs all of his frustration and rage on Nishimiya.  He sees her as the root of all of his problems.  The way she fake's her smiles and ignores all of the hatred directed at her.  Shoya's attacks on Nishimiya escalate at the same rate the class attacks him.  Nishimiya tries to show him compassion, further frustrating and angering him.  When the final straw breaks the camel’s back Nishimiya and Shoya get into a physical altercation, Shoya is suspended and Nishimiya transfers out of school.  Alone and dejected Shoya closes himself off, rejecting everyone around him, trying to inoculate himself from their hatred.

    As senior in high school Shoya has only one thing on his mind, to atone for his sins and end his life.  He learns sign language and saves up all of his money to repay his mom for the hearing aids he destroyed years ago.  He learns that Nishimiya attends a sign language school in the afternoons.  He marks down his calendar for the confrontation day, quits his jobs and sells his belongings.  He confronts her to tell her he is sorry for everything he did to her and that he regrets how horrible of a person he has been.  He's hoping to reconcile his guilt within him before he ends it all.  He gets flustered when he tries to tell her the pain he has had to deal with, his selfish ideas, and asks her to be his friend so they can get to know each other more.  Taken in by the moment, she surprises him by agreeing to be his friend, destroying any idea he had of killing himself.  The person he has been fixated on for years throws his life into disorder again.  He has to evaluate his intentions for killing himself and confronting Nishimiya.  He has to deal with the horrible things he did to her and to others.  Has he really changed, can he change?  Is he a better person than he was when he was younger?  Can he really understand this girl who he has been obsessed with for much of his life?

    This was an amazingly well done manga that deals heavily with bullying, social pressure and self evaluation.  The main character and majority of the view point come from Shoya.  We see the world through his eyes.  Throughout the course of the story a small band of characters are introduced, mostly people who were in the same class as Shoya and Nishimiya in elementary school.  Partial backgrounds and motives for these characters are developed, but not to the extent of the two main characters.  Even Nishimiya is barely focused on with much of the internal dialogue coming from Shoya.  There was one issue taken from her point of view, aurally, which was well done.  It would have been nice though to have more in depth analysis of her personal space.  Most of what you gather from her thoughts and processes are taken through her interactions with others and the notebook(s) she uses to communicate with.  What would be welcomed is another run at this story from her point of view and reference.

    This manga is completely set in the realm of reality.  At one point Nishimiya's mother, who has her own demons that have affected her personality, gets in an all out brawl with one of the girls tormenting her daughter.  Suicide is an ever present theme in the manga as well.  The characters look at it as a way to no longer be a burden on those around them and to make up for their indiscretions.  One side thing I thought was interesting and speaks volumes about the current state of Japan was Shoya's older sister.  She barely makes a presence in the manga; you don't even get to see what her face looks like until the very end.  She is instrumental in fostering Shoya's boredom fighting drive, she herself pursuing the same goal.  While he jumps off of bridges she sleeps with as many guys as she can.  Her presence in the manga is through her young daughter though, whom Shoya and her mother care after in her absence.  The little girl, named Maria, is half Brazilian.  This speaks of the growing community of South American immigrants in Japan, somewhat earning bad reputations among the native Japanese as criminals and lowlifes.  Between both of her children and their recklessness you would think Shoya's mother is a worthless parent.  The opposite; she is quite strong and has done well by herself, to raise two kids the best she can, run the house and her own business.  She's just a bit overwhelmed with her situation and perhaps not the brightest person around, but she does the best she can.  Mrs. Nishimiya on the other hand is struggling with her responsibilities and has taken on the traditional father role in the family.  She works hard to provide for her daughters and is in complete control of their lives, feeling this is the best thing for their futures. 

    It's nice to see a well done series that deals with some very important issues in Japan.  It's a breath of fresh air to see a character with a legitimate handicap instead of some moe eye patch wearing empty archetype.  There is an improving but still poor reality for people with disabilities in Japan.  It speaks volumes that the artist worked with the Japanese Federation of the Deaf as he produced the manga.  There is no fanservice and no shonen romance convention in this story.  No wishy-washy dialogue about whether or not so and so likes so and so.  No arcs where misinterpretations are construed and pointless arguments flare up.  I don't recall Shoya once uttering that he has anything like love for Nishimiya.  You can tell through his actions, though, that he grows to care about her, but he even struggles with that care being for selfish reasons.  The manga seems to have been just about the right length, really being split into roughly 2 story arcs.  Many people will be upset with the ending but if you pay attention I think you can figure out what’s going to happen to everyone.  This story focuses on the importance of communicating with more than just your words and how doing so will help you understand yourself and those around you.  Well worth the read.

    This series is currently available on Crunchyroll Manga.  The first tankoubon, under the name A Silent Voice, will be available in North America in May of 2015 by Kodansha.  There is a movie in production but no word on when it will be released and what it will cover.  I am assuming it will be live action and be a condensed rehash of the series.