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ewein2412I think I may have mentioned here before that Sara has made herself business cards with the title "Manga Librarian." The Manga Library has been seriously upgraded for the new year by the addition of a wad of ancient Bodleian Library book order forms, which inspired the Librarian to produce her first Newsletter (so she could introduce the forms)…. which led in turn to a trip to B0rders in Dundee (we have a B0rders in Dundee!), which led to
XXXXD XD XD XD
Yes, I know it's been done before. This series is actually CALLED "Manga Shakespeare." The School Marm Purist in me wants to disapprove [this is not Shakespeare: this is not manga] , but the Richard Plantagenet Fangirl (we share the same birthday) is just going …. YESSSSS.
The thing is, Shakespeare and manga were made for each other. Really. Ghosts, twins, fairies, swords, poison, incest, secret loves, lost princes and princesses, shameless borrowings from all other available literature and media, utter disregard for a remotely accurate historical and/or cultural setting, and OMG we haven't even GOT to the girls disguised as boys disguised as girls.
And somebody seems to think it's educational. Here's the BBC's take on it; here it is listed as an appropriate supplement to the National Literacy Trust's National Reading Campaign, for pete's sake. These guys clearly haven't spent much time checking out the artists' blog. Laertes/Hamlet! an interesting pairing that you'd have thought might have occurred to me before, given the infinite number of times I (and another) fought that battle with broken broomsticks in my back garden. bwahahahahaha
So what has the Library got? Hamlet, Richard III and Romeo and Juliet, which is all that was available in B0rders. And now I will break my usual moratorium on book reviews (I'm so bloody opinionated) because, really, you should all go out and buy (or lend) Manga Shakespeare to all the ten-year-olds you know.
The Hamlet is not great. The text suffers from the necessity of having been cut too severely, and it brings home to me what a difficult story it is. The setting in 2107 is truly gratuitous (unfortunately I can't refer directly to any of these books because they're all on loan at the moment). HOWEVER, the up-side is that the Manga Librarian is now asking questions like: "So, Mummy, why do you think the queen drinks the poisoned wine? Do you think she doesn't know it's poisoned and she's just thirsty, or do you think she THINKS it's poisoned and she wants to protect her son, or do you think she KNOWS it's poisoned and she wants to give Hamlet a reason to kill the king? And if she KNOWS it's poisoned, why doesn't she just say so? Do you think she wants to kill herself?"
phew.
The Richard III works really well--the setting is traditional, and it sort of does lip service to Blade of the Immortal, I'd say (the assassins all look like Magatsu… though the young Edward V does bear a passing resemblance to another Edward, particularly when he's glowering at Richard: "I fear no uncles dead.")
But the Romeo and Juliet is just--MWAH. I love it. Framed, obviously, as battling yakuza families in modern Tokyo. It works so well. This is how well it works: I sat there last night WEEPING through about the last fifty pages. I don't think I quite took on board, before, how much of the tragedy Romeo brings on himself--nevermind his difficult love affair (and nevermind how utterly FICKLE he is in the beginning, something I always forget)--the real spiral dive is when he kills Tybalt.
So there you have it. Sara has gone off to school for the past two days with something like fifteen books and DVDs in her schoolbag for distribution. She's now soliciting reviews for the newsletter. Yesterday while I was sitting in the cafeteria at the swimming pool, while Mark had his swimming lesson, one of the boys from Sara's class sat down next to me and told me how excited he was about the Manga Library…. all his plans for which books he's going to borrow, and how he hopes the Librarian will give him a place on her staff.
Her class is the only one in the school that reads manga, apart from a knock-on effect in Mark's class (Mark is the Library's official Cleaner).
oh, man, this post is out of control. I keep meaning to write about Venice.
----------------------------
Appendix A
The newsletter!
Dear Member,
This is January 2008 newsletter on the Manga Library. From now on, if you are a member of the Manga Library, every month you will receive a newsletter, unless you tell me you don’t want one. Also, if you want to help the environment, you can tell me to send you this by email.
NEW MANGAS THIS MONTH
If you are a fan of Fruits Basket and have been waiting for the Volume 18 to come to the library, you are in luck. I am sorry we didn’t manage to get it in November, but at the end of December. If you are eager to read it, then either talk to me, or to ****, who also has it. We have also just got two new mangas called +Anima, about some half human, half animal things, and Emma, about a Victorian maid. If you wish to read them talk to me and I will give the one you want to read to you. Since they are some new series to the Manga Library, there may be a waiting list for it so you might have to wait a little while. I had a great find in a book store recently. We now have a small range of Shakespeare plays, including Hamlet, Richard III, and Romeo and Juliet, in manga form! And look forward to March when Fruits Basket 19 comes out!
NEW SYSTEMS
I have decided to get rid of the read one book to earn three mangas system, and to introduce a new system, where you will fill in a form so I can keep track of who is reading what. It might not work out well, and if it doesn’t I’ll get rid of that.
THE BOOKS AND DVDS
The library seemed to be forgotten for the past few months, so here are all the books we have currently got:
1-18.Fruits Basket 1-7.Tokyo Mew Mew (End of series) 1.+Anima 1-3.Oh my Goddess! 1-3 .Shakespeare plays 1-6.Cardcaptor Sakura (End of series) 1-2. Tokyo Mew Mew A La Mode (End of series) 1.Emma 1-6.Cardcaptor Sakura Master of the Clow (End of series) 1-14.Fullmetal Alchemist (With volume 13 missing) 1-13.Tsubasa 1-2.Pita-Ten 1-6.Land of the Blind-folded - 9.Guru Guru Pon-Chan (End of Series) 1-2.Penguin Revolution 1-2.Sgt Frog
Also, we had a huge range of manga DVDs, here are their names:
Fruits Basket 1-4 Fullmetal Alchemist 1-11 Spirited Away The Cat Returns Porco Rosso My Neighbour Totoro My Neighbours the Yamadas The Little Norse Prince Grave of the Fireflies
Thank you for reading this newsletter.
From
Sara G4tland
Manga Librarian
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:08 pm (UTC)I took a costume design course in undergrad, and the final project was to design a contemporary Hamlet. I set it in a yakuza family. XD It really worked - the strict business/family hierarchy and roles that define and trap people are similar.
Plus, y'know, Ophelia in a schoolgirls' uniform becoming progressively more disheveled, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in black suits with sunglasses. XD
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:14 pm (UTC)Juliet first turns up in a schoolgirl's uniform, too--though it's Tybalt in the black suit. Romeo is a rock star. heee
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:21 pm (UTC)The only thing that is missing is hearing the text, which can help a lot too (provided the actor is doing their job right). But how interesting! I will look into this. I have just recently been getting into graphic novels!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:25 pm (UTC)I've seen other graphic novel adaptations of Shakespeare, but none that I've liked as much as I like these--and you've just made me realize it's because the artwork is usually very second rate.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:34 pm (UTC)Graphic novels = American comics
Manga = Japanese and Korean comics, as well as American and other nations' comics that are using styles and storytelling elements inspired by the Japanese and Korean comics.
You'll find more stuff aimed at girls and women in the manga section, and fewer superheroes, with a wide variety of genres from school stories to romance to SF. The graphic novels section will be mostly superheroes and a bit of horror, with, if your Borders has a good graphic novel buyer, a small selection of indie comics that can cover any genre and art style.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:41 pm (UTC)Graphic novels cover just about anything else in comic book format that isn't a standard magazine-type comic book--ranging from illustrated classics to hardbound collections of DC or Marvel series to original stories by highly talented artists and writers to Tintin.
Sticking my neck out (and I'm not an expert), I'd say that the two categories are aimed at different audiences, though there's a lot more crossover than there used to be. Graphic novels, I think, have traditionally attracted older sci-fi readers. Manga is a recent teen thing. Again, sticking my neck out, I'd say that the first manga that turned up in the Western mainstream got shelved with graphic novels, until it began to spawn its own section.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 05:35 pm (UTC)i went through a phase in 5th (?) grade where all i did was read r.l. stine books. my dad grew so fed up with it that he bought me pretty much the entire folger shakespeare library collection in paperback and told me to read that instead. and i did, and fell in love. of course, at the time my main reaction was limited to "ooooh pretty words i don't understand" - i wish the manga shakespeare had existed then!
that newsletter is awesome, by the way. what does sara think of the emma manga? i've been curious about it for a while now, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
*necessary spoilers for Emma*
Date: 2008-01-16 05:39 pm (UTC)They're tasteful, she's quoting Shakespeare's Storm, but nevertheless she will from then on be shown in her full glory at morning toilette. It goes with her wild and impetuous character.
Re: *necessary spoilers for Emma*
Date: 2008-01-16 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 05:42 pm (UTC)I don't draw, just read it. My bro is a huge fan. He has this library of manga stuff that I catch up on everytime I go home. But that's like once every two years or so. The last time I read manga was in 2006.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 05:47 pm (UTC)Re: *necessary spoilers for Emma*
Date: 2008-01-16 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 06:27 pm (UTC)Yay.
Re: *necessary spoilers for Emma*
Date: 2008-01-16 06:58 pm (UTC)Actually I think it's one of the most well-done mature relationships I've ever seen in manga, BUT I wasn't sure how you thought about nudity regarding the age of your daughter
lj user octopeingenue posted some relevant scans so you can judge for yourself
http://octopedingenue.livejournal.com/489536.html#cutid1
Re: *necessary spoilers for Emma*
Date: 2008-01-16 07:17 pm (UTC)"PERTH MUM DIRTY COMIC SHAME!!!"
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 07:41 pm (UTC)Re: *necessary spoilers for Emma*
Date: 2008-01-16 07:49 pm (UTC)I think it's well worth it.
((off-topic: Fighting my way through the angst part of The Winter Prince. I really love what you did with the myth, especially Ginevra and the whole setting in a Roman villa, though I find Arthur somewhat unlikeable for his lack of sensitivity toward Medraut. I browsed ahead and now know I have to be in a calm mood to read that part otherwise I'll end up in tears.))
Addendum
Date: 2008-01-16 08:10 pm (UTC)Would give you a better standing with the parents, though.
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/greatgraphicnovelsforteens/08ggnt10.cfm
Re: Addendum
Date: 2008-01-16 08:22 pm (UTC)I would say that none of my other books are as psychologically harrowing as The Winter Prince. And it doesn't end badly. Best wishes for the intense journey ahead, though!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-27 11:24 pm (UTC)Thanks for the loan of Manga Romeo and Juliet, passed on through Adam. A whole new taste sensation for me...! So far so good though.
Anne
http://annedroid-annedroid.blogspot.com
no subject
Date: 2008-02-17 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 11:18 pm (UTC)(and in spite of my criticism, I walked around in a little happy cloud for two days after I found it, humming to myself: "Manga Hamlet! Manga Hamlet!" Wish I could draw like you.)
keep up the good work--we'll be first in line every time a new volume appears.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-23 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-23 11:41 pm (UTC)Again, I'm so happy that you liked them. It makes all the hard work so worth it.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-23 11:43 pm (UTC)We did have to butcher poor Hamlet a lot. Believe me, I'm a Hamlet fiend as well, so it hurt to have to do it. However, we wanted to provide a platform into the full play, so it was a case of needs must. :(
Thanks again - the support is very appreciated!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-27 04:31 pm (UTC)