readilbert

Shocking Pink Sky vol. 9 by AKISATO Wakuni Rated: Teens (to which I disagree) Publisher: Elex Media Komputindo, Indonesia

Background

MENOU Aoi pledged to be a great stewardess (or cabin attendant?) after Hanzo—her childhood love interest—said an ugly-looking girl cannot be a stewardess. She realized that pledge, but instead of being praised as great, she is often labeled as clumsy. She serves the Tokyo - New York leg with other 10 male cabin attendants who are good looking from head to toe. One of them, James, suspiciously has a face like Hanzo.

Summary

Flight 41 - Honeymoon New Caledonia

Rika (MENOU's former co-worker in another airlines called JIL) gave Aoi a pair of honeymoon tickets from for her and James. Unlucky for Aoi that her former "old maid" seniors in JIL are plotting plans to bully her when they saw her with James.

Flight 42 - Spring is Come*

Someone mysterious sends Aoi a teddy bear. James did not want to introduce Aoi to his parents, disappointed with the situation, she didn't realize the danger of keeping the teddy bear.

Last Flight - MAN's 21st Century

Packed with air turbulence, revelation, ex-girlfriend threat, murder on board, last wish, explosion, this is a perfect daytime soap drama materials condensed into two-chapters of the airline re-branding launch.

Review

A great ending for a crack series! What do you think unthinkable in the air crews life is put blatantly in this manga. In a way that somewhat undeniable addicting. It's not a surprise coming from the mangaka who brought us Sore demo Chikyuu wa mawatteru (Indonesian title: Bumi masih berputar, lit. The world still turns). Just name your pick of a bizzare thing, it's in here. Trust me.

I'd say: 4/5 stars.
Target readers: Adult, but the publisher publish it as for teens.

*Pea's note: I know you're all twitched when you saw that, but it's printed like that.

readilbert

Next month mark 17 years since Candy-candy was first published in Indonesia. 17 is also the legal age to obtain an ID card in Indonesia and get married. Considering that fact, an obvious thought crossed my mind: Have the market and its fan base matured with age itself? I am going to talk about that in this series of columns starting this week. I am not sure how many parts it will be (so far it's three), it'll depend on your attention span and my urge to write and be articulate. I am not a manga expert, so you are welcome to point my mistakes.

Part I: History

In 1990, Elex Media Komputindo published its first manga titled Candy-candy. Elex is a publishing company which was widely known as a computer book publisher. Of course, Elex was not the first publisher to try their hands on manga in Indonesia, but Elex is the most persistent and consistent publisher for this type of books. Someone must have foreseen the potential of a huge market in the coming future. But, I will cover that in Part II: Issues around publishing.

1990s – An Appealing Market

With the Candy-candy success, Elex focused on targeting the younger market, as Indonesians still perceived comics (including manga) are for children. During the period of 1990s, Elex began publishing more shojo titles about young boys and girls, and their epic lives like the Mari-chan ballet series, Pop Corn (Seito Shokun!) and Rose of Versailles. Meanwhile, the boys also enjoyed titles like Dragon Ball, Akira, Chinmi series (Hakkenden) and Natane. Doraemon was also published and its anime has been broadcast in Indonesia regularly since 1990.

The success of these titles from Elex seems to inspired interest for Gramedia, a publishing company that publishes magazines and comics exclusively under the imprint name M&C. M&C had experience with comics - Donald Duck and Hong Kong kung fu comics - and they launched their manga line with AKAISHI Michiyo titles, such as Setinggi Langit dan Bintang (lit. As High as the Sky and Stars, 天よりも星よりも, Ten yori mo Hoshi yori mo) and Alpen Rose.

You may say that the mid-90s was the starting point for the manga culture in Indonesia. Many titles popped out and were snatched up from the bookstores immediately. The price range was IDR 3000 - 3500 (then USD 1.20 - 1.40) with dust covers, thus Indonesia was considered to be one of the places where readers could get some of the lowest-priced manga in the world with great packaging and sometimes excellent translation quality.

The titles Elex and M&C published around this period were carefully selected. They choose titles which would captivate most of their target readers. By publishing more mainstream manga they were able to stay clear of visually harmful content (to avoid getting censored!). The mainstream manga selections helped in establishing a faithful fan base that would continue to support the industry during the upcoming economic crisis.

1998 - Economic Crisis and Price Dive

With the arrival of an economic crisis in 1998, the manga industry was also hit severely. Manga is no longer available with jacket to cut printing costs and the price range shot up to an average of 9000 IDR. It was hard to buy manga during this period. No one could foresee what was going to happen with the Indonesian rupiah value at the time as its value kept on depreciating against the US dollar. The lowest dip was 15000, and manga publishers released fewer titles during this period to accommodate the purchasing power of their consumers.

As of today, the price range for a manga is fixed at 12.000-15.000 (USD 1.29 - 1.61). Meanwhile manga magazines are priced around 20.000 to 22.000 (USD 2.15 - 2.35). You can buy them cheaper in some places like the newsstand or manga rental. Both Elex and M&C have delivery service in major cities where they have branch offices.

2000s – Steady Growth

Since 2000, manga has enjoyed great popularity which in turn helped push many other elements of Japanese culture to be imported here. Not to mention the increase of interest in taking Japanese courses and JLPT every year. I will write about these subcultures in the Part III: Indonesians and Manga Culture.

Around 2002, businesses bounced back and people got on with their lives. And as purchasing power increased, so did the number of titles published - from 10-30 titles to nearly 70 titles per month. And after an unsuccessful attempt at a manga magazine called Candy back in the 90s, Elex braced themselves and launched Nakayoshi Gress in September 2003.

Manga themes also caught up with those who were kids in the 90s, and in September 2005, Elex hit another milestone by launching Level, an adult imprint. Advertised heavily in anime and manga communities, adult manga fans welcomed titles that were previously considered impossible to be published in Indonesia.

The manga market in Indonesia is maturing and has never been better. Publishers are also making a lot of money despite the lack of proper advertising initiatives and problems like preferences over scanlation and pirated copies of manga. These problems will be discussed more detailed in the next part.

That's it for this week, I leave you wondering with Elex enthrallment over the month of September, I am still figuring out the mystery myself. See you next week!
—Pea Rea (reapea@gmail.com)

naniwa

Ninin ga Shinobuden - This item was originally to go on sale on 8/24/07, however, due to issues we had with our old overseas printshop we had to reprint & reschedule this title with our new North American printshop. This title will begin printing in late October and is expected to arrive towards the end of November 2007. We apologize to our customers in regards to this unexpected delay, but it is our sincerest wish to make available only the highest quality error-free graphic novels on the market.

-Infinity Studios

readilbert

Babysitter Gin! by YAMATO Waki Rated: Adult Publisher: Level Comics, Indonesia

Background

Since neither the series nor the manga-ka is known in US, I'd like to introduce the story.

SHIMOOCHIAI Gin is a nanny living in the body of a guy. Throughout the series, he insist that he is straight, only that he has this urge to make all the little angels (babies) of the world smile ever after by his tender care.

He idolized Mary Poppins, hence the name for his babysitting service is Shimoochiai Poppins Club. He has a sister named Mimiko who handles the administration.

All the stories are separate chapters that can be read independently. And chapters are called Baby.

Summary

Baby 13 - Angel's Fruit

An independent girl trying to cultivate a vast land left by her late mother alone. Meanwhile her new stepmother is trying hard to be her mother.

Baby 14 - Man's Rule

An Anego has back pain, so the Kodangumi hired Shimoochiai Poppins Club for the baby Sandaime while the Anego stays in the hospital.

Baby 15 - Angel's Smile

Gin is a fan of NOMURA Ichigo and had the good luck to babysit in the household, but he is not given the assignment to take care of Ichigo.

Baby 16 - A Little Big Journey

HONDA Riku told Gin that he wants to see his grandfather and take him on the train to the southernmost part of Japan.

Review

Warning: May contain spoiler.

The girl's character in Angel's Fruit reminds me of the attribute of another girl in a oneshot manga from the same manga-ka, but the whole story is different. Man's Rule was surprisingly funny because the focus is on the adult's childhood and not the baby. Again, the adult focus is still brought up in Angel's Smile, this time it brings out the obsessive parents who want their kids to be famous idols, common in Indonesia. A Little Big Journey touched me deeply, just like it touched Gin's heart.

Afterwords

YAMATO Waki-sensei still is best at surprising readers. She is popular among older manga readers in Indonesia, as a number of her works were published in 1990s. Most of the theme of her work are not related to one another. But they're filled with great stories that leave an impression in our hearts. I am sure you're going to enjoy this series if you like any of her stories. I hope the US readers will someday be able to read her work.

mangamaniac

The graphic novels stacks rebelled today, and several of them tipped over.  I don't know if it was due to Buu charging about the house, or the crushing weight of dust that finally scattered them about the floor.  As I tidied them up and moved the read piles into a box, I uncovered Crimson Spell.  I had purchased this at AX07, and completely forgot about it.  What a perfect time to read it!  I guess the piles need to be rearranged occasionally, so I am reminded of what's sitting, unread, in the library.

クリムゾン・スぺル Vol #1 by: やまねあやの

The Crimson Spell Vol 1 by: Ayano Yamane

Rated:  Mature

Price:  11.99

Kitty - BL - Fantasy/Romance

Review May Contain Spoilers

When demons attack his kingdom, young prince Bald is forced to take up the forbidden Crimson Sword.  The sword is cursed, and it turns its wielder into a terrible beast.  While it allows Bald to defeat the demons, he has no recollection of the battle, in which he also slaughtered innocent humans.  Now the kingdom's wizards have temporarily contained the beast, but Bald needs to journey south and beseech the wizard, Halvir, to break the curse.  Halvir is a mercenary sort, and he demands a high price for the prince's cure.  Will the cost prove too dear for Bald?

For a fun, fast-paced romp through a fantasy world, complete with drool-inducing demons and cute talking rabbit critters, grab a copy of Crimson Wind. 

Grade: B+

This review was written by Julie for the MangaCast. Please drop by the Manga Maniac Cafe and check out the menu.  There's always tasty reviews on display!

naniwa

YAOI FANS UNITE TO PICK BEST BL MANGA OF THE YEAR

YaoiSuki's Annual Awards Are Under Way, And Voting Is Open for User's Choice Award!

PORTLAND, ORE.
October 19th, 2007

-Yaoi news and review site YaoiSuki has announced their second annual Yaoi Awards as the lead-in to the site's extensive coverage of Yaoi Con in late October. This year's lofty awards include the "Read On Mute" award for bad dialogue, the "Most Unpronounceable Title" award, and the "Thank God It's Over" award, among other prizes of varying sincerity.

On October 19th, the site opened voting for the biggest award of the series: the User's Choice Award for Best BL Book. With eleven main contenders from such BL creators as Fumi Yoshinaga, Toko Kawai, and Ayano Yamane, it may be the hardest decision and BL fan has to make -- but readers can submit additional nominations, so it's a wide-open game!

Voting closes at 12pm Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, October 25th, with the final awards presented on Friday, October 26th.

About YaoiSuki: Established in February of 2006, YaoiSuki is one of the premiere English-language sites for yaoi and boys love. The site, run by Jen Parker and Jordan Marks, features reviews, news, contests, convention coverage, forums, and the YaoiWiki.