LAND OF THE LUSTROUS - Review of the first volume

Comes to Italy thanks to J-POP Land of the Lustrous, the manga that inspired the CGI animated adaptation available on VVVVID. Here is our review of the first volume!

If you have followed the world of Italian manga publishing for more than a few years, it is likely that you remember the loss of the rights to the works of Kodansha by J-POP Manga in 2016, following which the publication of numerous series was interrupted and, in the best of cases, it resumed and continued thanks to other houses. However, the collaboration between the Italian publisher and the Japanese giant resumed in September 2019, when the highly successful shonen manga The Quintessential Quintuplets was announced in our country. Two months later, during the typical conference of the Lucca Comics & Games 2019, J-POP revealed the acquisition of a couple of new licenses from the Kodansha title park, among which that of a manga up to that moment immediately stood out. ignored by other Italian publishers: Land of the Lustrous. Arrived on the shelves of Italian bookstores and comic shops on May 27, 2020, here is our review of the first volume.

Land of the Lustrous, translation of the original title Houseki no Kuni (宝石 の 国), is a seinen manga written and illustrated by the author Haruko Ichikawa on the pages of Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine, home to numerous masterpieces and successful works of Japanese comics (such as The Immortal or Vinland Saga). Serialized starting from October 2012 and still in progress, collected in 10 volumes, Land of the Lustrous saw its popularity increase in the autumn of 2017 thanks to the animated adaptation produced by the Orange studio, one of the pioneers of the use of CGI in animated productions for the television medium, to which we also owe the excellent BEASTARS. Made precisely in three-dimensional graphics, still considered among the best examples of application of this technique in the sector, the Land of the Lustrous anime aired from October to December 2017 for a total of 12 episodes and has had a great success in the community of fans. In our country it was licensed in simulcast by Dynit and is available in legal and free streaming on the VVVVID platform.

Land of the Lustrous is a manga for which I would not hesitate to use the overused term "original" if I had to sum it up in one word. Even its genre is difficult to classify, as it is a successful mix of fantasy and science fiction with a splash of combat worthy of a battle shonen. The story is set in a mysterious land surrounded by the sea where asexual anthropomorphic gems live under the guidance of a Sensei. He, the only human-appearing being, teaches them how to lead a righteous and productive existence by assigning each one a specific task, based on its characteristics and innate abilities, so that it contributes to the well-being of the community. Such gems live under constant threat from the Moon Hunters, disturbing creatures who aim to take them for their own purposes. The protagonist Phosphophyllite, for friends Phos, is a gem with aqua green hair who, due to his awkwardness and his extreme fragility, is the victim of the constant teasing of his companions. One day, Phos receives a special assignment from the Master that will bring about a turning point in his life.

The first thing that catches the eye, since the undersigned has also adhered to this convention in the lines you are reading, is the use of the masculine by the Italian translator to refer to the various gems presented throughout the volume. This decision can be unsettling and at times strange, given the undoubtedly female features of the characters (except for the Master), a feeling even more accentuated in the anime where each of them is voiced by a woman, but is in line with the the author's desire to emphasize the absence of the sexual component in the appearance and characterization of the gems. Once this particular artistic choice has been metabolized, the debut volume of Land of the Lustrous presents us with the first handful of characters that will accompany the misadventures of the unfortunate and misunderstood protagonist.

White Clouds - Review

Let's go back among the pages of BAO Publishing's Aiken series with a new manga by Hisae Iwaoka, author of Fiori di Biscotto and Dosei Mansion

White Clouds (“Shiroi Kumo” し ろ い く も) is the first work of Hisae Iwaoka and consists of a collection of short stories, for a total of 14 chapters, born within a matter that can only be defined as dreamlike. In fact, some of these stories contain elements of children's dreams or nightmares, others refer to experiences that each of us could be called to face in the course of his life: the disappearance of a schoolmate, the evolution of a relationship marital or the death of a loved one. Together with these glimpses of life, very particular events also take shape that tell of mole-men and personifications of flowers that, more often than not, leave a freedom of interpretation that is not always commensurate with the reader's abilities. What remains is a sense of wonder which, however, cannot be said to be entirely positive precisely because of the symbolism, which turns out to be really too cryptic. Furthermore, it is sometimes difficult for the reader to identify the fine line between dream and reality.

For the review of this work, unlike the others, we do not summarize any of the stories narrated because we would only end up badly summarizing the particular stories. We would like to preliminarily emphasize that the work you will approach is not simple and is anything but suitable for a young audience or novice with the world of Japanese comics, so much so that some of the stories need a rereading (or more of one) to be appreciated.

The style of the mangaka was already unmistakable in the "distant" 2004 (the year of publication of the work by the Shogakukan publishing house), with very round-headed characters immersed in large white spaces where backgrounds are often a minor outline. It is interesting how the use of nets is practically non-existent, apart from sometimes for some items of clothing. Furthermore, having already read Dosei Mansion, it is pleasantly noted that there has not been a change in style over the years, but only a refinement that only made it better.

HARUHI SUZUMIYA'S MELANCHY IS BACK WITH A NEW NOVEL AFTER 9 YEARS!

"Haruhi Suzumiya's Insight" will be released on November 25 in Japan

Yet, Haruhi, she moves. After more than 9 years, the new novel of the series of Haruhi Suzumiya's Melancholy has been announced, or Suzumiya Haruhi no Chokkan (Haruhi Suzumiya's Intuition), as always written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito.

The highly anticipated return will arrive on November 25th and will contain 3 stories, 2 of which have already been published on other occasions, namely: "Nana Fushigi Overtime" ("The Seven Extraordinary Wonders") short story that was published in The Sneaker Legend magazine in 2018 and "Atezuppo Numbers" ("Number of Conjectures") story published in the Noizi Ito artbook in 2013; the new story is called "Tsuruya-san no Chōsen" ("Tsuruya's Challenge"). The novel will contain 250 pages.

The series began in 2003 and can boast more than 20 million copies, the first light novel series ever to have reached 1 Million copies. There are two seasons of the animated series: one of 2006 and one of 2009, of 14 episodes each, but which must be seen in a specific order and not of output ... but in our tab you will find the correct order of episodes. There is a feature-length animated film, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, from 2010, as well as a non-canonical manga series and an alternate universe spinoff, The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato, which has had an animated transposition. Manga and novels are published by J-POP while the first season of the anime arrived in Italy unlike the second.

HER: REVIEW OF THE MANGA DYNIT

6 self-contained stories to understand what we know, what we understand, what is around us

I love girls who fall and face, then full of mud and with skinned knees get up on their own crying, to start running! I wrote these stories out of my love for women who struggle and struggle. To show how cute and tender they are and how impossible it is not to love them "
Her is a josei, a single volume by Tomoko Yamashita, famous author of the manga Boy's Love, published at home by Shodensha and published in Italy by Dynit for the Showcase series. Translated by Asuka Ozumi, available at a price of 16.90 for a volume of 165x240 mm.

The toxic superficiality that grips our throat is exhausting, forcing us to gobble up definitions, explanations, clichés and banalities without giving us the opportunity to react most of the time. When it comes to women it is always like this, everyone has their own idea, everyone knows how they are or worse still they rejoice in their not knowing; concepts that taken word for word may well have that glimmer of meaning but what bothers is the scorching depersonification, reducing everything to ideological schemes if not bar offenses. Her is a manga about women, about life, about fear and guess what ... about people.

 can not help but reiterate how the issues are within everyone's reach. Without going too far, I will show you what Her is. Let's start with Ide (the girl on the cover), a girl with a grim look and a perpetually pissed off attitude, a 25-year-old like many who would like to be loved but who has no idea what that means. An interesting story and like all highly introspective, although the ending is the most bizarre of all, leaving us with a feeling of estrangement that represents a unicum in the whole work; I leave it to you to judge whether it was a worthy conclusion or not. Immediately after we are with Onofusa, a 31-year-old hairdresser (just that of Ide), a woman who is afraid of the future, of the unknown. A handsome client boasts to her of his betrayals to his wife and it is a pleasure to experience Onofusa's reflections on the matter and to let ourselves be carried away by the rest of the story. It is a chapter that more than anything else is about respect and understanding what mistakes you should never make, even on your darkest day.


The third story is the one that in my view is the best: Kozue, a 16-year-old girl sees her certainties collapse when she discovers that her elderly neighbor is a lesbian; a story that enhances the classic adolescent themes but for this very reason simpler to propose and of greater impact, a chapter that can create a solid bridge even between several generations of readers. Let's quickly return to more mature themes: Nishiura is a 34-year-old woman and colleague of Ide, who at 15 discovered that her mother was cheating on her father but after nineteen years she still has many problems to overcome this trauma. A story that can be summed up in one sentence: “it is said that everything that happens to a woman, fortunes and misfortunes, comes from the mother”. The value of certain words can be subjective, but the intent to show us a path in search of something lost, something essential to be able to live with our heads held high, is undoubtedly successful.

KOTA - THE DOG THAT LIVES WITH US: THE ORDINARY EVERYDAY LIFE OF A BUFFO SHIBA INU - MANGA REVIEW

Takashi Murakami, author of The Dog Who Looks at the Stars, returns to delight us by telling the family life of the cute little dog Kota!

If you have been lucky enough to welcome a dog into your life, reading Takashi Murakami's words you will immediately understand the great meaning of the words “being together”. Deciding to dedicate yourself to a pet, a dog in particular, means on the one hand giving up a piece of one's life and time, and on the other, it means letting a large part of one's heart go in its direction. In this game of renunciations, however, a counterpart creeps in that seems to cancel every cons, since every sacrifice made for your dog will be repaid by him a thousand and a thousand more times, in each of the single days you will spend together. There is actually no real "sacrifice", instead there is a desire to be together, to grow and share every little part of one's life. There is an ordinary and daily desire to love immeasurably, there is the desire to "be together". Having a dog is also and above all sharing, and not in the mere sense of playing with space on beds or sofas, but in the deeper meaning of sharing soul and existence with each other.

kota

A few years ago, J-Pop Manga introduced us to Sensei Murakami thanks to the publication of the highly acclaimed The Dog Who Looks at the Stars; the mangaka returns today for the publisher with Kota - The dog who lives with us (Kota oide). While The Dog Who Looks at the Stars made little Happy the common thread that linked the lives of people and animals, in a successful mix of tenderness and drama, Kota is a relaxed set of small self-contained episodes that describe the family life of the funny Shiba. inu of the Murakami house. The mangaka describes daily life with Kota with shrewdness and irony, starting from the very first moments of their meeting, arriving at today, a moment in which Kota is in all respects an integral part of the family.

The walk, the bath, the kennel, the interactions with the human family, the need to carry out the poop in the perfect place, the joy of food, the odd obsessions and much more; the volume tells Kota in all her being, in every little and great joy or challenge of everyday life. Who has a dog will not be able to help but see himself in certain attitudes of the Murakami family, even the strangest ones (who, does not understand with pride, when his dog is ready to poop?), And it will be impossible not to find in some Kota's attitudes those of our four-legged friend, while enjoying the fact that we fortunately did without some oddities. Kota's stories show us how all dogs are similar but at the same time unique and special.

Having reached this point it might seem that Kota - The dog who lives with us, is a volume for the exclusive use and consumption of dog lovers or those who own a dog, but if it is true that seeing oneself again in the pages of the volume increases the pleasure of reading, it is also true that Murakami's simple and amusing narrative makes the work appreciated by anyone, even by those who do not have a dog or intend to have one. What is told is the daily life of an ordinary family that shares its existence with one more member, which, requiring care and attention different from those of humans, ensures that family dynamics, habits and rules, integrate. and adapt to this presence as particular as it is welcome that offers unique experiences. Therefore, if the “identification” factor is lacking, the sweet and cheerful story of Murakami can still interest and entertain a wider audience.

And in any case, animal lovers or not, how can you resist Kota's funny and tender nose?

As it was for The Dog Who Looks at the Stars, albeit in different ways, once again Takashi Murakami tells us about the life and experiences of people linked to a dog, expressing on each page the deep affection that is created between the latter and the his human family, through small gestures, through daily living and through a love so boundless that it cannot be explained in words.

 The trait of the mangaka is the same that we met in The Dog Looking at the Stars, sketched, a little caricatured, this time perhaps a little sweeter and softer in the characters, adapting perfectly to the serene and playful atmosphere of the story. Kota, a true star of the series, has a refined design, very tender and incredibly similar to its real counterpart, with the addition, however, of slightly less "canine" facial expressions that clearly highlight thoughts and feelings.

Kota - The dog who lives with us, was originally born as a work in 2 volumes but J-Pop Manga brings them together offering us a full-bodied single volume treated both in the interior and in the external graphics. The real photos of Kota, present at the beginning of the second Japanese volume, were inserted in the flaps of the dust jacket. The manga, in format 15