Words of Truth and Wisdom Special Feature: So You Want To Be A Translator
Written by Alethea and Athena Nibley

Athena and I started up a web community once to give advice to people aspiring to be translators. One of the things we did in that community was type up a little guide based on our own experience getting into manga translation, for people who would like to go into the same career but don't know how. Since Manga Life is all about manga, we thought it would be appropriate to post it again here. The first step, of course, is to learn Japanese (or...
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The World of Narue v1
Reviewed by David Rasmussen

Setting: It's raining, and an average-looking guy is standing in front of an apartment complex looking over a wee little dog pondering whether or not to give him (or her) shelter from the rain. Suddenly a strange female comes up behind him and screams "IT'S A TRAP!", promptly proceeding to bludgeon the dog into a bloody mess with a baseball bat before telling the guy that the "dog" is a "dangerous altered space organism." This nightmare of the ASPCA...
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The Complete Guide To Manga
Reviewed by Barb Lien-Cooper

Back when I was reading more comics than manga, my husband and I had a copy of The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide. It was essential, informative reading that was well worth the money. You could go back to it again and again for reference. I've often wished that the same sort of book would appear on the manga scene since, as manga fans know, there are a lot of manga titles out there. Some sound appallingly similar to each other (e.g. Mobile Fighter...
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Honey and Clover v2
Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane

I'll start by confessing that I haven't read vol. 1 of Honey and Clover, although not for lack of trying--it's turned out to be surprisingly hard to lay hands on a copy through my usual avenues. I have seen the entire anime, however, and if vol. 2 is anything to go by, the anime version was a very faithful adaptation. I certainly didn't feel at a loss when I opened the book and jumped right in. Honey and Clover captures moments in the ordinary lives...
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Tail of the Moon v11
Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane

Usagi is the granddaughter of the leader of a prestigious ninja village, but she's such a klutz that she's never made it out of the kiddie class. Frustrated with Usagi's lack of progress, her great-grandfather sends her to marry Lord Hanzo and have lots of ninja babies. But the lord has no interest in her or her childbearing potential! During their search for Mamezo, a downpour forces Usagi and Hanzo to take shelter inside a cave. Though the storm...
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The King of Fighters Art Book
Reviewed by Park Cooper

DrMaster sent me the King of Fighters Art Book. And thus it is now appropriate for me to review it, so that you may have an outside opinion as to if you should buy it or not. I'm leaning toward the idea that if you think you want to buy such a thing, you probably should buy this one. I'm uncertain, however, why you think you want to. What might be cool, in my opinion, would be the King of Fighters Art POSTER Book, in which it would be easy to pull...
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Words of Truth and Wisdom: Japanese in Practice OR Say Again?
Written by Alethea and Athena Nibley

Hey, everybody! I know it's only been the normal two weeks since our last column, but it feels like it's been ages. See, Athena and I just got back from our first trip ever to Japan. Hm, come to think of it, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to admit that we had never been there before. It's the truth so I guess there's no point in hiding it, but I wonder if it seems wrong that someone be translating manga if they've never even been to Japan. ...
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Mission Statement
Written by Park Cooper

Yesterday a MangaLife staffer contacted me. She's working on an article about a comic and why she feels that certain cultural things about it were not done with enough attention to detail on the part of the creators. However, the work in question isn't a manga, so she asked my advice about how to fit it into our site. It was natural that she'd ask me, since having this thing she's working on on MangaLife was my idea in the first place. I started...
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High School Girls v9
Reviewed by Barb Lien-Cooper

My husband read this manga first. I could tell he was sort of charmed with it, but he asked me to review it instead of him. Puzzled, I asked him why I should review it instead of him and he sort of hemmed and hawed, then said something like, 'It would be better if it came from you." So I read it and was actually quite charmed by the unpretentious and sometimes quite funny little volume. It's been sitting around the house, eating at my conscience...
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My Sassy Girl v4
Reviewed by David Rasmussen

When it comes to humor in manhwa I guess you have to consider the target audience. Actually when it comes to humor anywhere in comics (with any genre) it's the audience you're aiming for that sets the humor. This must be the gross humor audience, since it got such a poor score from me. From presently-non-functioning, out-of-business ComicsOne (whose only "heir" since collapse seems to be DrMaster, which absorbed part of its lineup before ComicsOne's...
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Monster v14
Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane

Tenma's long journey for justice, Johan and Nina's search for identity--all roads converge on the mysterious "Red Rose Mansion." Is Nina prepared to confront the dark memories this cursed house will awaken in her subconscious? If Tenma gets there in time, will he find a clue that will help him save the life of his ex-fiancée Eva? Or will Johan, as always, remain several steps ahead of everyone? As the back cover blurb suggests, Monster is building...
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Shaolin Soccer v1
Reviewed by David Rasmussen

The movie version may star Stephen Chow, but this is cooler. Young Shaolin Kung Fu adept Sing is taking his final test to leave the temple grounds and travel the world, yet despite the perils that face his departure, he seems fixated on this whole "bringing the word of Shaolin Kung Fu to the masses thing (though the giant stone door at the end of his "test" does silence his thinking for at least three hours). He's strong, incredibly powerful in the...
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