Real 2
Posted: April 14, 2009 Filed under: Real 11 Comments »There’s a few things going on in this volume, but Kiyohiko’s backstory was of the most interest to me. Knowing how the sad story would turn out had a rather depressing effect on the whole thing, especially when it took him so long to figure out that he loved running and was naturally gifted at it. Seeing him play in the wheelchair basketball game and getting the other players fired up about it while the one teammate was trying to drag him down was a nice bit of story too, and it explains some of what was going on in the early parts of volume 3.
The other big part of this volume was watching the playoff game for Takahashi and Nomiya’s old high school team. Nomiya is there to see it, and he’s quite emotional since he sees what the team has become without him, and seems to wish more than anything that he could be down on the floor helping them out. Their loss in the playoffs seems to take a toll on him. This scene also informs another in volume three, where Nomiya goes to see Takahashi and talks to him about what would have happened if they had been playing, and it also lets you know the difference between how much Takahashi tried at the things he saw as important and how much Nomiya tried at them (Nomiya practiced way more than anyone else on the team, judging by the flashbacks in this volume). Nomiya’s putdown next volume thus makes a lot more sense.
But yes, obviously this is not a series you can read out of order. I liked what I read of volume three, but it was a much better read after the first two. The story is quite dense, and the three characters lives are now sort of woven together, so that the events lead in and out over time. It’s quite amazingly crafted.
And that’s not to mention the art, or how well these editions are put together. Everything about Real is superior. I love it.
[...] Shoujo Manga Page) Greg McElhatton on Oishinbo: A la carte: Sake (Read About Comics) Connie on vol. 2 of Real (Slightly Biased Manga) Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Sasamekikoto (Okazu) Tangognat on Solanin [...]
So, if I had to choose between Real, Pluto, and 20th Century Boys, which one would you recommend I pick? I ask because I probably will be able to only get one of the three in the near future, though in the long run I’ll probably try all of them.
You know, I think the best of the three is 20th Century Boys. It’s laying some really heavy and interesting groundwork in the first couple volumes. But it’s also probably the one that would benefit most from waiting. It would definitely be much better in big chunks.
Real would probably be the best one to pick up right away. There’s already some really satisfying story segments, and at this point, I like the characters in this series best. I had to think about it, because it’s still a little weird that I like a series about basketball so much, but basketball is secondary to all the other stuff that’s going on.
I do love Pluto, and what it has going on with the characters has been really great so far, and I like the mystery, but… compared to the other two, it’s not quite as addictive. Plus it’s only 8 volumes total, so if you have to wait, you could wait and read them all at once.
Wow, that’s a tough question! I haven’t read Real yet, but I think Connie’s answer is probably right, even though I *love* 20th Century Boys and Pluto. I do believe one should read at least through vol. 3 of Astro Boy to truly appreciate the latter, as well.
I probably will pick Real. I was also leaning it toward it because I’ve never read anything by Inoue, whears I have read about half of Monster. However, I just came back from a local sale where manga (in Japanese) was being sold for $2.10/volume, and that exhausted my manga budget for the next two months.
What did you pick up on sale?
First of all, this was a HUGE collection. It easily had over 7000 different volumes, even on the day I went. Everything was on sale. I don’t think I’ve ever before been in a room with so much manga in it.
One thing which was missing was Riyoko Ikeda. I actually ran into another Rose of Versailles fan (from Puerto Rico, of all places), and we commiserated together about the fact that we wouldn’t be able to add to our collections. My theory is that a Riyoko Ikeda fan had already cleaned out the collection on a previous day, because I cannot imagine such a complete collection of manga missing her.
My biggest purchase was 42 volumes of Glass Mask. The other buyers (who were all fans of 70s shojo) applauded my daring, both in price and willingness to carry all 42 volumes back home by myself.
The only other thing I got was a lot of Yumi Tamura (mostly 7Seeds). Though I’ve carried heavier loads over much longer distances, there was a limit. I could have made a second trip … but I knew that would have been extremely unhealthy for my budget. I think getting almost all of Glass Mask for less than $100 was a sufficient accomplishment.
Wow, that’s a lot of Glass Mask. I don’t think I would have been able to contain myself in that situation. I probably would have walked out with a metric ton of stuff and been very happy.
Was it a private collection, like an estate sale? It sounds like it was a pretty huge affair.
I’m sure the laws of physics would have contained you. Though if you had the foresight to bring a shopping cart with you…
It was a going-out of business sale. You can find out more by googling “manga cafe mika”.
In retrospect, I think they could have made it work, but they made a few major mistakes
1) For English-language manga, I can only think of one way they could have effectively competed with the public library, and based on seeing their collection, they didn’t use that strategy.
2) They should have just charged a flat day rate. Knowing that the cost goes up as the clock ticks would have killed a lot of the pleasure, for me at least. Any marginal costs associated with people who stay for more than an hour could have been recovered in drink/snack sales.
3) Poor location. This is the least of the problems, since they were in Japantown, but they were located in the touristy part. That means many of the people passing by were tourists. If they had located in the less-touristy part, they would have been more visible to the Japanese-American community. The rent would have (probably) been lower too. I find it telling that at a sale of mostly Japanese language books, not a single customer (while I was there) was of Japanese descent.
Ultimately, I suspect the problem is that they were too closely modeled on the manga cafes in Japan, and didn’t try to adjust it to work in a different country. Even Japanese-Americans are usually at least as American as they are Japanese.
Wow, it’s pretty cool that the manga cafe was even there. It’s a shame they couldn’t stay in business for even a full year, and it sounds like they had a lot of impressive stuff going on, at least in the first few months. But holy crap, how much was the hourly rate? One site says it was $5-$6? I can read about one book an hour, and I could usually buy my own copy for that price. Less, really, if the book was in Japanese. But, wow, they did have a lot of manga there. That’s pretty incredible.
Just out of curiosity, how good is the selection of English-language manga at your library? The largest branch of the library here had a pretty pathetic collection last time I checked, with only a few up-to-date Shonen Jump series and a handful of random volumes of bizarre things. I think the selection improves if you use the ILL system, but I don’t know how many people (especially kids) would think to use that if they came in looking for something.
I also think that the hourly rate was too high, but a lower hourly rate might not worked either. That’s why I think they should have just chosen a different payment model, such as a flat rate, or even a monthly subscription. Of course, if the demand wasn’t there, no business model would have worked.
My local branch library has a decent, if somewhat random, manga collection. However, the combined selection of all branches is mighty indeed, and many kids do know how to make book requests. If you’re really curious, at http://csul.iii.com/ you can search the catalogs of most public libraries in Northern California.