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krpalmerIt was a bit of a surprise to learn the “anime about making anime” Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! had in fact been adapted from a manga by Sumito Oowara. (Still, I have read a novel also addressing that subject, perhaps just a little less “light” than most of the prose fiction translated from Japanese I’ve got through of late.) With the anime’s last episode offering a sense the adventures of its eclectic trio of high school student creators would continue, seeing news the manga had been licensed raised thoughts of where to see those further works. However, that news was passed along with added complaints the manga had been licensed by Dark Horse Comics. Accusations flew that the company (the most notable one I know of that publishes manga in English as one part of its line rather than its apparent focus) dawdles too much getting its manga out, then lets those releases trail off to nothing when it’s clear the fickle public has moved on to something else. I guess I did remember how I’d bought three volumes of Emanon from Dark Horse in rapid succession for that to not be followed by anything else (although, in returning to the last pages of the third volume, I did find in the afterword not a casual promise of a fourth volume now obviously unfulfilled, but a more tentative comment about that volume not having been included in the original license deal). Still, it did seem not buying the first instalment of this new series out of indignation would only help fulfil the dire prophecies. Regardless of how many others had moved on to something else in the two and a half anime seasons since the show had streamed, I managed to pick up the manga.
The first pages of the manga had been included in Otaku USA’s regular “turn the magazine upside down and ‘read backwards’” centre insert, which might at least be seen as a small attempt to promote the new title. There, I’d noticed the lead-in to everything was a bit quicker and less involved than in the anime’s first episode, although once I had the actual manga volume and I’d read through it I did come across the moment where world-building director Asakusa had watched “Future Boy Conan” in her youth and got hooked, just as there had been flashbacks to earlier in the lives of animator Mizusaki and producer Kanamori later on in the anime. Reading on, however, did give a sense of the backgrounds being less filled in than in animation, and it was obvious enough “motion” was missing, although there a bit of an attempt at flipbook frames in the scene where Mizusaki and Asakusa try to get a windmill turning. I’ve often supposed the advantage of manga over anime is its character drawings can be more appealing given they don’t have to be drawn as many times by many more hands, but here the essential simplicity of the character designs (however much it might allow for back-patting comments about “escaping some of the fixed conventions and easy accusations aimed at ‘anime and manga-style’”) might make that feeling hard to find. The real advantage of the manga might be Asakusa’s elaborate descriptions of her designs are easier to take in with retouched text than with masses of subtitles thrown up on screen (or not, depending on who’s putting in the effort or not). There are even some tricks with lettering, and the character voices do seem to work in text (although I did notice one moment where there’s an obvious reference back to one of the many long-quoted bits of “The Simpsons.”)
There was at least a promise of another volume at the back of this one (along with an ample afterword), and looking online that volume is actually scheduled, although that schedule may have slipped already. A second volume seems likely to not get beyond the anime either, but I’ve at least got my own next chance to try and encourage more to be printed.
The first pages of the manga had been included in Otaku USA’s regular “turn the magazine upside down and ‘read backwards’” centre insert, which might at least be seen as a small attempt to promote the new title. There, I’d noticed the lead-in to everything was a bit quicker and less involved than in the anime’s first episode, although once I had the actual manga volume and I’d read through it I did come across the moment where world-building director Asakusa had watched “Future Boy Conan” in her youth and got hooked, just as there had been flashbacks to earlier in the lives of animator Mizusaki and producer Kanamori later on in the anime. Reading on, however, did give a sense of the backgrounds being less filled in than in animation, and it was obvious enough “motion” was missing, although there a bit of an attempt at flipbook frames in the scene where Mizusaki and Asakusa try to get a windmill turning. I’ve often supposed the advantage of manga over anime is its character drawings can be more appealing given they don’t have to be drawn as many times by many more hands, but here the essential simplicity of the character designs (however much it might allow for back-patting comments about “escaping some of the fixed conventions and easy accusations aimed at ‘anime and manga-style’”) might make that feeling hard to find. The real advantage of the manga might be Asakusa’s elaborate descriptions of her designs are easier to take in with retouched text than with masses of subtitles thrown up on screen (or not, depending on who’s putting in the effort or not). There are even some tricks with lettering, and the character voices do seem to work in text (although I did notice one moment where there’s an obvious reference back to one of the many long-quoted bits of “The Simpsons.”)
There was at least a promise of another volume at the back of this one (along with an ample afterword), and looking online that volume is actually scheduled, although that schedule may have slipped already. A second volume seems likely to not get beyond the anime either, but I’ve at least got my own next chance to try and encourage more to be printed.