For Day 2 in Japan, we decided to take it easy–only a few train stops away from our home of Saitama (seen above, in the daytime, this time) to Ikebukuro. Ikebukuro is a lovely little mini-city within Tokyo, most notable for… shopping. It features several huge malls, most notably the Sunshine City complex, and the flagship store of Japan’s largest chain of anime and manga stores, ANIMATE, is in Ikebukuro.

In Japan there are plenty of ways to get around, including the public rail (JR) which are above ground trains, and the private above-ground trains and the Tokyo subway system (below ground). All of these trains operate using the same perfect tap-card, meaning you never have to fumble with different tickets, tokens, or fares. Your tap-card (a credit card with a chip in it that can be read without being swiped) also works at lots of vending machines and convenience stores. Toronto could learn a thing or two (note: this will be a theme).

Please continue reading after the cut:

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Did you know there’s a typhoon coming? And that a typhoon is actually a hurricane? And that on our way home from Ikebukuro, the trains were not only late (shocking!) they were stopped altogether? And that none of my friends can remember such a thing happening? I do! I know all of this. Now. Tomorrow’s plans may be off. Luckily, I took 519 photos today, so I’ll have something to post when we can’t leave the house tomorrow morning…

Anyway, I’m exhausted from walking for like 14 hours and then the ordeal of getting home with no train. No big posts right now. When I wake up tomorrow though, I’ll post the first half of the day (at least). Until then, you can wonder what the HELL I am about to eat in this photo.

- Christopher

I’m in Japan. Above you can see Saitama just north of Tokyo, where we’re staying for much of our trip. It’s very hot and very humid here, but sitting here under some lovely A/C and looking back over today’s photos? It’s damned lovely. Also? I’M IN JAPAN. Everything is wonderful so far.

I’ve been up for 28 hours, so after arriving at Narita and taking the train through Tokyo everything is awesome. Variety stores. A mall. Bookstores, arcades, all of it. It’s absolutely amazing and I’m very tired and don’t have much to add. So! Here’s some more pictures (after the cut).

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It occurs to me, having read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, that describing something as a “comic book industry” 50 or 60 years ago would have been… you know, an industry that was behaving foolishly on a consistent basis. McCloud used “comic book talk” to have one character berate another for talking nonsense. McCloud sought to elevate the discourse by changing the name, but some days “comic book industry” seems pretty apt.

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Here’s a story about my day yesterday:

Today’s a holiday here in Toronto (Labour Day! Spell it with a U), so everything is closed. Yesterday I was rushing out to do some shopping and so I hit a department store that purported to carry the kinds of things I needed to go on my trip to Japan… It had a pharmacy area, luggage section, electronics, that sort of thing. I found the selection really disappointing. The pharmacy didn’t have the insoles for my shoes (I would have liked to be ‘gellin’ at this point), they only had women’s sizes of what I wanted, and one lone “athletic” insole for the guys. I was in a rush, so I picked it up, but it was disappointing. In the luggage section, they didn’t seem to carry shoulder bags at all, despite having lots of other luggage, backpacks, and the like. Down in electronics they did have a couple of cheap watches, which was nice enough… The employees we talked to in the electronics section didn’t really know the product/layout either, as when we asked them where their watches were, they pointed to a display cabinet and said “they’re all right there”. We tripped on another display cabinet about 5 minutes later that had cheaper items, and closer to what we needed, that the salesperson seemingly didn’t know (or care) about. It was really annoying.
I’m disappointed in the department store overall though, because they had one and a half of the three things I needed, and even then, that half a thing could have been a full point if they had just paid attention to their stocking levels and the other point is tainted because of unknowledgable, unhelpful service. As a customer, I feel really inconvenienced, and I don’t have a positive impression of that establishment now, and I have a vested interest in them getting their act together because they’re near my house.

Now I’ve told you about it.

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This all sounds reasonable, right? I mean, boring maybe, but reasonable. I had a mediocre and disappointing shopping experience, and I left really unhappy. I’m talking about it here. If that’s the case, then why, when someone does the same thing within the comics industry and talking about a comic book store, does the freak-parade start-up, ready to defend someone’s right to run a shitty business? Look at some this response in particular:

“What snobbery!!! This guy can rant all he wants, but he has no right to force a retailer to carry anything — or really to be upset about it. If a retailer in any industry only wants to sell certain products, and he can do so successfully, why should he stock something he doesn’t want to sell? The shop is (I assume ) thriving by selling products it wants to sell.” - Some anonymous coward.

Well of course! I mean, just visit the comic book store in question’s website! Totally looks like a thriving, well-run establishment to me. That’s totally the ASSUMPTION that I would make, if it came down to Eric Reynolds (20+ years in the comics industry ) versus a store owner that didn’t know Fantagraphics or Drawn & Quarterly still published comics, that store is obviously thriving. And knowledgable too, apparently. Just like I wouldn’t expect a store with a luggage department to have the luggage I was looking for, or the SHOE INSOLE DISPLAY to have only one shoe insole for men amongst 30+ for women, or for the employees to know about their product, I think it’s fucking snobbish to expect a comic book store to carry comic books I want to buy, or to at least know about comic books.

It’d be easy to pick on the forum for this discussion, or mention that Heidi could’ve shaped the discussion a lot better or a lot earlier so as to not give ground to the anonymous-coward type comments, but really? Stockholm Syndrome. As mentioned yesterday. Not only should we just be content with what we have, and deal with things illegally if that’s what it takes, but even commenting that things could or should be changed is considered snobbery, or that the speaker is simply ignorant (a lot of the comments assume that Eric is ignorant of how retail works too, which… is stupid.)

I wish I had an “up” thing to end this one on, but I don’t. It’s really frustrating all around. Tom characterized my last post as throwing elbows, but to be completely honest it’s just to get a little elbow-room; a spot at the table, to pipe up. Ah well. This is my last comment on industry matters for the next few weeks. I will be in Japan soon, and blogging about ridiculous Japanese things. It’ll be great, and I’ll come back refreshed and revitalised and ready to take on the world. Or something.
- Christopher

So I was reading Journalista yesterday and Dirk made a comment that kind of set me off about manga… Not because anything he said was so heinous that it got my blood boiling, but more that it showed a kind of Stockholm Syndrome-esque behaviour that I think is becoming really problematic amongst comic fans. Here we go:

Guardian blogger Ned Beauman discusses the difficulties that the current wave of English-language manga translations pose for newcomers:

The particular problem with manga, though, is that there’s no way to know if we’re really getting the best of the medium. Manga comics constitute 40% of the books published in Japan, so of course only a tiny fraction will ever be translated — and at the moment, that tends to be the best-selling titles, especially the ones beloved by American teenage girls, who are the main market in the English-speaking world. (Manga aimed at teenage girls is called “shoujo”, and manga aimed at teenage boys is called “shonen”.) I’ve got nothing against American teenage girls, but what if the Japanese were forced to judge western cinema on the basis of nothing but Ashton Kutcher films?

Of course, it helps if a writer introducing the subject to his readership has a good understanding of available works himself. Let’s grant that manga offerings in the U.K. are even more limited than here in the States; still, may I recommend that Beauman take a look at the works available from the collaboration between British publisher Fanfare and Spain’s Ponent Mon? Likewise, readers interested in seeing what the Anglo translation houses haven’t touch yet might want to have a look at this guide to scanlations. There’a actually quite a lot out there beyond the usual books for teenagers. (Link via Kevin Melrose.)

(Just so we’re all clear, that goes Dirk, Ned, Dirk).

Dirk’s response is, essentially, “Hey, there are these guys doing low-print run books with poor bookstore distro! And there’s lots of completely illegal material out there! Shucks, there’s tons of manga out there besides Naruto!”

When did we as passionate, intelligent consumers decide to simply take what was given to us? Don’t get me wrong, I like the books by Fanfare/Ponent-Mon a great deal, I think I own better than 3/4 of them. But they aren’t the end-all and be all of manga for grown-ups (particularly not while their print-runs stay small and their bookstore distribution remains… the way it is). I don’t think that it’s a failing on the Guardian blogger’s part for him to go see what manga is all about and then lament that the books that he could find on store shelves is not for him… because they aren’t. There’s no denying that Naruto or Hot Gimmick are not exceptionally drawn, well-told stories in their respective genres… but their respective genres are TEEN FICTION.

And then the suggestion that a guy who wants to go and buy a book–and use his column to tell you what books to buy–should instead go to the internet and download work illegally? WTF? I thought Dirk worked for The Comics Journal, one of the last bastions of writers angry about creator rights and responsibilities… The fact that people steal things and the results are generally good doesn’t immediately absolve you of sending people out to steal… Or mocking those who don’t do the same. Perhaps instead of linking a scanlations site, Dirk could have done some actual work and recommended a book or two by name… Maybe done some actual good for an in-print book that fit the blogger’s criteria.

Why is “Oh, there’s not enough manga for adults, better go to the internet” a legitimate sentiment anyway? Why isn’t any energy being invested in asking/demanding more manga for adults, or better still, showing some support for the material that’s already out there? Why does Shannon Gaerity have to hold the torch alone so much of the time? How much of the time do you spend reading books aimed at your age group, versus reading the ones for children and teenagers?

I think the answer is just laziness, rather than any specific dark intentions, but I could be wrong.

I also want to go back and look at the blogger’s original post too, because there’s something else there:

“My two favourites from Simon and Schuster’s new catalogue are Naruto and Hot Gimmick.”

That’s an interesting new quote, referring to Viz’s output as defined by their bookstore distributor’s catalogue. It makes you wonder how much effort is being put into the grown-up manga, doesn’t it? Was anything with a target-audience above 16 even listed or provided to this reviewer in the first place? I have a lot of friends at Viz who, I’m hoping, don’t get too upset at what I’m saying here, but I honestly don’t think the editorial staff’s love of works like Phoenix, Nausicaa, Uzumaki, et al., really translates to the marketting department, let alone through the marketting department. I mean sure, you can put out something like InuBaka, Crazy For Dogs! and that piece of crap will sell itself, making it look a lot stronger on the bottom line. But the Tezuka stuff, the Miyazaki, the creepy horror, the undefinable books (but the ones that are clearly excellent)… those get much lower orders than their crystal-clear and wide-eyed companions. They don’t get the same push, they don’t get a comperable one. Licensing is licensing and Guardian blogger Ned is right, we’re only getting a tiny fraction of what’s available in Japan, but the playing field isn’t empty, either. I think that any of us who love the manga that we do–the challenging, classic, artful stuff–we need to put a lot more effort in. Because the result if we don’t? Hotlinks to scanlation guides. Who the fuck needs that?

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All of the above is one of the big reasons I’ve been pushing the forthcoming release of Taiyo Matsumoto’s TEKKON KINKREET so hard: it’s incredibly important to have this one, perfect collection of material sell well and enter the public consciousness, because it’ll kick open the doors to similar material. I gave a long, rambling telephone interview on the book last week that should be appearing close to the book’s release at the end of September. I hope that any of you writing about manga for adults will pick up a copy (except Johanna: you will not be able to deal with the violence) and talk about it. I just re-read the new book again last night and it’s godaamned incredible, just like I remembered.

I also know that, on this title, Viz has really, really done an outstanding job of promoting the availability of the graphic novel. Tying it into the animated film’s release, making lots of press copies available, talking it up, hell, being willing to work with me is a big deal as far as I’m concerned. They made this the most attractive package they could (you will be amazed when you’re holding it in your hand), they have inserts in the DVD (which should be very big, I think) and as far as I know it’s going to be well positioned in many book and comic stores. On this one I think it all came together, and I hope the results are there for them (and for the rest of us too!).

Oh, and I think I’m allowed to share this good news: All of Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix and all of Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind will be coming back into print in the next few weeks, ending the long drought of missing volumes and sad faces. So, in all of this angry questioning, at least there’s some good news for fans of manga for grown-ups, eh?

- Christopher
Thanks to Kevin Melrose for the original link.