Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Emma
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zawa113
 Posts: 7360 |
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I've gotten to see the anime (both seasons, got them on DVD actually) for this and I just loved it! I especially like how very to the manga the characters look, but with color, differentiating is easy. Wish more people knew about the manga or at least the anime (if the manga were still easily accessible, I'd buy it too)
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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Emma was one of my absolute favorite anime, though I've sadly never read the manga. Bride's Story sounds fascinating, I didn't even know it'd been licensed... I'll have to check it out.
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lostinagoodbook
 Posts: 114 |
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I loved this manga. Sadly it is difficult to find all of the volumes since CMX is gone, but i thought it was well worth the effort. I love the Bronte's so this is right up my alley and it felt like watching a Merchant/Ivory film.
 Thanks for the article! Oh and thanks for the heads up about her new series!!
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DonQuigleone
 Posts: 154 Location: Dublin, Ireland |
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I read some of bride story online, and indeed it was very well written.
However I never saw the appeal of Emma, I mean, if I want to see Victorian stuff I can just watch one of the many (and there are a lot of them) novel adaptations produced by the BBC. For a Japanese audience Emma gives a window into an exotic period in history (for them) but for westerners? I don't see what it offers over what we produce ourselves. For instance there have been 10 adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and 5 of Emma (which i originally mistook this manga for), and that's just the tip. That said, if you're into Victorian romantic literature (which I'm not really), it may have more to offer. |
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Hellfish
Posts: 394 Location: Mexico |
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Emma is probably the title I miss the most from the defunct CMX (Damn you DC!!!!! *Shakefist*) I wish my local comic book shop had brought more copies of it as I wasn't able to get not even one -.-
I was going to say I couldn't wait to see Bride's Story to be licensed and then I saw that it was coming on may, cannot wait, this title will be in my subscripsion list with no doubt  While many could shy from hearing is a marriage between a woman in her early twenties and a boy of 12 is not explotative of it at all, unlike other "dificult" mangas it doesn't use the "fanservice cam" on the boy at all, and the marriage is very matter of fact and nothing else.
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mangaka-chan
 Posts: 283 |
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Emma is one of my favorite manga so I'm very glad you reviewed it here. I agree that the "love at first sight" romance between William and Emma was a little hard to believe at first, but by the end of the story you can't help but hope they'll live happily ever after together.
And as for The Bride's Story, I've been reading it in Chinese and I strongly encourage people to check it out. The art is drop dead gorgeous (seriously, if you think Emma's art is great, The Bride's Story will blow you away). I find myself staring at Amira in her wedding outfit or the wood cuts crafted by the village carpenter because the art work is so detailed, it's mind boggling. And while the age difference between the two main characters might turn off some readers, Mori presents their relationship in such an innocent, sincere way I can't help myself liking them as a couple. |
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Villette
 Posts: 18 Location: Seattle |
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I've been wanting to watch this anime for a while, and now I want to read the manga too.
...But I object to the comparison with the world of the Bronte sisters' novels... in their Victorian England, lonely mansions in the middle of nowhere, abused and neglected children, cruel treatment from wealthy employers, and insanity are more daily course than fancy balls and polite conversation. |
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Ingraman
Posts: 1084 |
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If the anime used a model train at some point, I'm not sure that it was in place of an airplane. She did get her plane design wrong because its features were too modern (maybe more 1920s-30s), but an aircraft (in general) was not an anachronism. When a few manga bloggers were reviewing the first volume of the manga long ago, some of them also felt that an airplane was very much out of place. I wrote a couple of replies to one of them including the following (yeah, I'm too tired to retype it all tonight, so I'm cutting/pasting after doing some Googling ^^; ) :
The specific URL showing the Crystal Palace scene with the aircraft is http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Prehistory/mid-19th_century/PH3G8.htm Thanks so much for the column devoted to Emma, and I've been looking forward to being able to buy Kaoru Mori's newest series, in English, for a long time (and it'll be a hardcover book, although Yen's Haruhi novel hardcovers are a bit lightweight in feel. I don't know how many more people would buy the Emma manga if it were reprinted, but it's a title that deserves to be rescued from the grip of DC Comics... <sigh> I quoted myself, and this reply still took too long to type up and edit and edit and edit and etc. I've previewed it more than a dozen times so far. It may not be perfect, but that's enough for tonight. ^^;;;;;; |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14897 |
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I hear a new Jane Eyre is in the offing!
(Heh, I just watched that episode where that reference came from.) I was one of those who pre-subscribed to RightStuf's DVD release. This should definitely be dubbed with British actors. Chip chip cheerio! Heh, A Bride's Story would be more controversial if the premise was the other way around.
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taster of pork
 Posts: 596 Location: My House |
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I haven't read the manga, but I really enjoyed both anime seasons. I don't think I've ever been so engrossed in a love story. I'll definitely check out A Bride's Story when it gets released.
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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That was one of my problems with the manga (which I do like a lot overall but have a few niggles with) - CMX's translation makes no attempt to make the characters sound English rather than American and no attempt to differentiate between upper and working class speech. Aside from language, Mori's treatment of the period is obviously borne of a genuine passion and it is evocative (despite more than a few anachronisms) but it's all surface detail - she doesn't appear to have any real understanding of the way Victorian society functioned or of the nuances of British culture. Moreover, Mori's Victorian England is sanitised to within an inch of its life. That might not come through to an American audience (let alone the original Japanese audience) but British readers - particularly if they have any interest in social history - might just come away feeling that this is very much a Disneyfied version of their past. Still, it is a beautiful story with, despite the slightly wooden character designs, some really elegant artwork and it's certainly well worth reading - I only wish the later volumes that I didn't get around to before CMX's demise were available cheaply enough for me to be able to justify picking them up. One day... |
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1529 Location: Sunny California |
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Aside from the lovely artwork and charming (if a bit unrealistic) characters, I really enjoy looking at Mori's pacing and panel layout. In many of the dramatic scenes, she pays careful attention of when to draw characters in the same panel (to show they are united) or in separate panels (to show their division). There are also a lot of great parallel scenes, etc. Where other artists, like Clamp or Moyoko Ano mutate, embellish, or erase frames, Mori does a lot within simple square and rectangle boxes. I'm not sure how many people pay attention to that kind of stuff, but after I've read a great story, I love going back to see how the writer assembled it. I get a kick out of what Mori does. It's impressive.
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Sunday Silence
 Posts: 2047 |
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A lot of stuff printed in media is "sanitized" to the point of absurdity. Do you expect the average layman to even care about the nuances of how much a miad was paid per day, or the heirarchy of maids (with a scullery maid being the lowest of the low). |
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Myaow
 Posts: 1068 |
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I don't know if I'd recommend Austen adaptations to people looking for good Victorian stories, considering that Jane Austen died before Queen Victoria was even born! If anyone is really searching for a Western TV series about the Victorian Era, though, the BBC's Middlemarch, North and South and Wives and Daughters were pretty good. |
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darcerin
Posts: 330 |
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While Victorian stories never appealed to me (grew up with an Australian mother who likes them), Emma has stolen my heart. It's quiet beautiful nature drew me right in and I couldn't resist reading the entire manga. I'm only sorry that I didn't buy them when I had the chance. The DVDs should be arriving on my doorstep this week.
As for "Bride's Story", I absolutely CANNOT wait for that to come out. I started reading it online, and am thrilled that Yen Press is releasing it. I really hope people pick it up and give it a chance. (Yen, can you release Emma too?) |
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