12 May 2013

Some Thoughts About Good Manga 7

My apologies to those who look forward to these segments, but it took me almost 4 months to get in the right mood of doing another Some Thoughts post, thanks to in no small part to the above-pictured Italian cartoonist Manuele Fior. In 2010, he released a comic that's since won quite a few awards and the approval of another comics-blogger I like, so I decided to give it a go as well.
The work I'm talking about is Cinquemila Chilometri al Secondo (5000km per second), a story about a love that's not meant to be and told through minimalistic dialogue and a few timeskips to show how each partner has moved on or not. For any anime fan, both that title and synopsis should sound familiar to you, because just about everybody gushed about Shinkai Makoto's 5cm per second back when it came out in 2007. And there's a reason behind that because Fior's work was apparently inspired by it (don't quote me on this though, as I haven't been able to find a concrete source for it). Now I'm not ashamed to admit that I HATED that movie and I'll regret seeing it until the day I die. I certainly understand why others liked it and I know what Shinkai tried to do with that movie. It's just that it failed to arouse any emotions out of me outside of disappointment. However, after reading 5000km per second, I'm a little less angry about 5cm per second because Fior showed me what the same concept would be like with prettier, more mature, and just plain better execution.
Before I can talk about why I think 5000km per second is better, let me first concisely state why I disliked Shinkai's movie first. The least interesting element (the romance) is given priority and carried by dull characters while the most interesting element (learning to move on) is given little focus and poorly wrapped-up with a half-assed montage. It's no wonder then I liked 5000km per second because it does the exact opposite of this. The actual romance isn't told at all! In fact, it's only through snippets of conversation taken place after the lovers have broken up that we the reader even realize that they had hooked up in the past. The vast majority of the story actually focuses on the challenge of moving on from the perspective of both partners, as opposed to 5cm/second's singular perspective. [Spoilers ahead]At first, the characters try to abandon their emotional history behind and move to different countries, one going North to Norway while the other goes South to Egypt. As time passes, they meet new people and start families of their own. But no matter how many years pass by, neither can really forget the moments they've shared and they realize that to leave is easy. To return is difficult. Manuele Fior skillfully tells us that we and the human experience aren't discrete, and to make a clean break is a futile endeavour. Our identities and relationships are continuous, and to deny it will lead to emotional unfulfillment in life... Or at least, that's my interpretation of 5000km/second.
As for the art, it's all-around gorgeous. Suffused with distinct ambience of each locale, these watercolour paintings are lovely to look at and their slightly amorphous outlines, the lack of clear black-boundaries unlike so many comics, complement the theme beautifully. In any case, I'd highly recommend this comic whether or not you liked 5cm per second. Although it's not currently available in English, Fantagraphics Books is scheduled to release the English version early January of next year (according to amazon).

15 comments:

  1. Wow, you can read Italian too?

    Anyway, this series where you discuss lesser-known manga and comics is awesome.

    Speaking of which, can you link a few other comics-blogger you like?

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  2. Nope, just fortunate enough to find a Korean copy that I can read. Some people might recall that I translated Matsumoto Taiyou's ZERO using the Korean version.

    I don't really follow any comics-blog other than the one, and he's a non-English blogger that's been inactive for awhile, so I don't think posting his site will help you too much.

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  3. If you're open to reading Western comics as well as manga, I'd like to recommend Enrique Fernandez's works. I don't know about his current project, Brigada, but 'Contes de l'ere du Cobra' and especially 'L'isle sans sourire' are excellently written and beautifully drawn: http://enriquefernandez.deviantart.com/art/Cobra-test-313152443

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  4. Hey Hox, I was wondering if you'd be interested in doing some of other Hiroaki Samura's works:

    http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=55909

    This one for example, the first volume is out but hasn't been scanslated. He also started a new series in Manga Erotics F, I can probably provide you with raws for the first chapter (and 2nd when it comes out).

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    1. Sorry, I prefer not to do ongoing series if possible. Plus, I already have my hands full at the moment with Zero, Joe, and Sangokushi.

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    2. Sure, sounds fair, and I can't even guarantee raws past the 2nd chapter. Erotics F comes out every two months.

      Just fyi, the series I linked will be slow, since it's published in Kodansha's Nemesis which is a quarterly magazine, so you got plenty of time in case you decide to change your mind. I think it took 2 years for the first volume to come out, so I guess another 2 for the 2nd volume.

      Thanks for all the good work!

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  5. Thanks for brining this up. I love 5 Centimetres per Second so I will definitely pick this up when it comes out here.

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  6. "Now I'm not ashamed to admit that I HATED that movie and I'll regret seeing it until the day I die."

    This is an absurd overreaction. You can see what the film was trying to achieve and think it failed, okay. But regret seeing it for the rest of your life? You regret being treated to an hour of gorgeous artwork and music, if nothing else? That's asinine, and I suspect disingenuous.

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    1. It's actually not. If anything, the pretty backgrounds make it even more disappointing that it was tied to a dull story.

      It's the same as when people react far more negatively to a mediocre product with a huge marketing campaign and big-name staff behind it than an equally mediocre product, but with no hype whatsoever around it. It's that feeling of wasted potential that causes such a gap in popular reception.

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  7. I read the comic in spanish, and while i didn't dislike 5 Centimetres per Second, i agree that 5000km per second is infinitely better.

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  8. This is pretty late, but did you read the manga? They pretty much went into detail and talked more about the non romance aspect of the story in comparison to the movie. It's like an extended movie pretty much, maybe it would be somewhat interesting to you, I don't know.

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  9. I will sadly never get to read this comic do the English publication being canceled

    http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/5-000-kilometers-per-second-5.html?vmcchk=1

    The translator died Fantagraphics is a small company so they have had trouble replacing him.

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    1. Damn, that's quite a blow... It's sad that there's no real equivalent underground fanbase among English-speakers for non-Japanese comics. All the more reason to learn French, I guess, since you can get the best of both worlds.

      I kind of wish I hadn't ditched French back in high-school, though that was what led me to picking up Japanese instead so I can't complain much either.

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    2. If any of those interested can read German, the book is already published in that language, along with another 4 -5 books from the same author.

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    ReplyDelete