Forum - View topicJason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Reiko the Zombie Shop
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ABCBTom
 Posts: 183 |
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As Reiko's most vocal long-suffering fan, this just makes my week.
Plus, a mention of Franken Fran, another series I'd love to see brought over. All I can say is thank you, and keep up the great work. |
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CrownKlown
 Posts: 1762 |
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Has the Jason never heard of Ghost Sweeper Mikami. He say he cant think of anything this reminds him of yet, that was the first thing that came to mind. Hell they even have the same name. Mikami's first name is reiko. They have the same personality, they are of similar genre, horror action comedy, the twin sister in zombie girl sounds really similar to mikami rival Emi. Honestly the main difference is in their abilities and the amount of violence in zombie girl, but these two mangas have a lot of similarities to not at least mention GSM which im pretty sure came out first.
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I'm about halfway through volume 3, and I really like this. I became interested because of the Dark Horse interview on the ANNcast, and the guy (Goombas?) sounded pretty entusiastic about it. Then, couple weeks later, Rightstuf is having their Christmas Sale and had all 6 volumes for $33, so I jumped on it. I was turned off about how it wont be finished, but it wouldn't bug me since I can finish other ways I feel the need to. Now that I know it ends on a cliffhanger, I could probably go either way, since I don't dislike those kind of endings.
You mentioned how it's silly, and it certainly is, but I also think it's pretty funny. Like, I find it funny how Reiko has this tough time taking down Saki, and when she finally does, Saki becomes a loyal dog willing to lose a limb for the sake of her master. That's so funny in a such an ironic way. I think it's Reiko's calm demeanor that makes the comedy. Shit's going down all around her, and she's giving it the ol' "Awwwwwwwwww shit" look. Of course, it is pretty gross as well. While it's funny how Saki becomes Reiko's pet, she was a pretty twisted individual (as shown in the screenshot you used). It was kind of like reading the anime version of Higurashi (I haven't read the manga): Its not scary, but it makes your face scrunch in many different ways. It hasn't gotten old for me yet because they're still doing different things, but I can see how it starts to seem repetitive. Anyways, I don't read this article too often because I don't read manga, but this was really nice. Now I just hope the ending of volume 6 isn't a killer, since I hate reading scans. It's not a moral thing, it's an I hate reading manga on my computer-thing.
Ugh. That part was probably the most disturbing. |
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1336 |
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It always bothers me when the pentagram symbol is constantly used and represented as a Satanist symbol in any kind of fiction. Anyone who knows their real history would understand that it's a Pagan symbol that represents a part of their nature-worshipping, but the Christian church interpreted all nature-worshipping as satanistic so that people would fear it and convert to the church, and it's that interpretation that's unfortunately endured over the generations in public consciousness.
Pterosaurs are actually classified as 'winged reptiles' and are not part of the Dinosaur family. Just one teeny-tiny bit of a technicality! |
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gothung
 Posts: 70 |
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I'm glad Reiko's getting a review, it's definitely a bit more obscure than the more well known guro manga. The only thing that I noticed, and it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the review or any of the comments so far, is that Dark Horse actually CENSORED Reiko for her trip overseas. I know, because I have a few volumes of the Dark Horse version as well as seen the original Japanese volumes and was able to do a comparison. From the few volumes I had, I saw that it was mainly covering up nudity, but once I realized what Dark Horse was doing, I immediately stopped buying the Dark Horse manga.
How could they mess with the art like that? It's not the reduced nudity that really bothers me, but the fact that Dark Horse ALTERED the art, and I was no longer seeing the manga as the mangaka intended. I haven't seen any of the Dark Horse versions of Gantz or Berserk yet, but I cringe at the thought of if they did similar censoring on those titles. Sorry, I got distracted a bit, I just wanted to say that I saw the review mention that Reiko is a bit cheesecake, and I wanted to point out that the original versions were even more cheesecake. |
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ABCBTom
Posts: 183 |
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That's one of Reiko's unique problems: I've been unable to find any scans of it. I imported all of the Japanese tankoubon (which are now out of print) for moral "cover" for reading the scans, and I've yet to find any. Reiko ends on a cliffhanger, and remains there for all who do not speak Japanese. Gombos said in the podcast that if enough people buy it, there's always a chance Reiko could come back to life, so I encourage others to check it out. |
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster
Posts: 357 Location: San Francisco |
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Well, yeah, it's not just the pentagram; most Satanist imagery is co-opted Pagan imagery, since really, Paganism *WAS* Satanism to early Christians. -_- Just take a bunch of pagan rituals and fertility symbols and animals like goats and make them EVIL (and make a few others 'good', like Santa Claus), and that is the imagery of Satanism for the past 1000+ years. The two religions have generally been antagonistic to one another all the way back to the beginning... and by now, Satanism has spun off into its own religion(s) separate from Paganism but using the same originally-Pagan imagery in its own Christian-influenced context (but anyway, now I'm getting into a bigger off-topic argument)... so it's unavoidable, I think. This reminds me of how some Jews are offended when six-pointed stars/Stars of David are used as generic 'magical' imagery (a practice which also originated in Christian mysticism in the Middle Ages)... in fact, I think a bunch of six-pointed stars in "Muhyo & Roji" were later censored by Shueisha and turned into some generic symbol. Last edited by ptolemy18 on Thu May 05, 2011 12:47 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster
Posts: 357 Location: San Francisco |
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Are you serious?!? Can you put up comparison scans?! I had no idea, I'm angry I didn't realize it before! |
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster
Posts: 357 Location: San Francisco |
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Of course I know Ghost Sweeper Mikami! (Although only through the anime, not the original manga. -_-; ) Yes, the basic idea is pretty much the same, and the heroines' personalities are the same, but the art and the mood in Reiko is so different I didn't think of the comparison till you mentioned it. Ghost Sweeper Mikami is more or less a light supernatural comedy (at least what I've seen of it) and Reiko, although it's still a comedy, is a Mature Readers gorefest. So they're similar, but I wouldn't say that Reiko is obviously influenced by Mikami, beyond the general outline of "money-hungry female lead" and "girl with occult powers." |
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Gombos
Posts: 7 |
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Hello there, folks! I am glad so many people like this manga; I not only did the acquisitions for this, but translated the book as well! It is, indeed, censored. As you know, at Dark Horse, we have policy of "Not Censoring Shit, unless..." We generally try to stray away from the "Unless," part, too! The scene in question (I don't have my copies nearby) I tend to remember fairly well. A young woman is topless, being eviscerated and then force-fed her entrails. Talking to the creator, I got an e-mail stating, "I know that American manga sells better if there isn't shrink-wrap on it, so please do what you need to do to not necessitate shrink-wrap." Naturally, being America, it wasn't the fact that a person was being fed their own small intestine, but rather, the fact that there were nipples showing. That's right: The artist told our FX/Retouch person here to make sure that the blood that spurted forth from her massive disembowelment should cover her nipples. We did this begrudgingly, but at the artist's behest, and putting the artist first is tantamount to our operations here at Dark Horse. I am glad so many people enjoy this manga. I hope at some point we start this thing up again, but for the meantime, we'll just to have to wait. Edited for TL;DR: You are seeing the manga as the manga-ka intended, and no, GANTZ and BERSERK haven't been touched. I can look through the volumes and find the exact instances in REIKO later, but it makes me too sad to know that my Reiko sits in a state of torpor. PS: Jason: If you're DMing stuff in Portland, I expect a seat at your table. Last edited by Gombos on Thu May 05, 2011 3:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ABCBTom
Posts: 183 |
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I'm checking my Japanese tankoubon and looking at my Dark Horse editions, and I don't see any difference from the Japanese and American material. Is it possible that there are two Japanese versions, one that's more censored, or one he went back and added extra nudity to? I'm not seeing any difference in the Japanese editions I ordered. |
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ptolemy18
Manga Reviewer/Creator/Taster
Posts: 357 Location: San Francisco |
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Thanks for commenting and explaining, Michael! It's great to hear from you, and I love your translation for the book. I'll be in Portland for Kumoricon, so maybe I'll see you then? |
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Gombos
Posts: 7 |
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Yeah, I sure hope so! It makes me happy to see Jason reviewing this gem here, and I am glad that so many people like this — and I know that it disappointed a lot of people when we had to stop the run short. Again, I am hoping that it is something we can remedy at some point (be it print, or digitally). Reiko's so tongue-in-cheek — I enjoyed the discourse about the Pentagram, but I think you needn't take Reiko that seriously (Gotta finish this post soon, The Road Warrior's coming on). In Reiko terms, if Megadeth rocks hard then Gigadeth goes to 11. |
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Being fed your own intestines,ok. Nipples, gotta keep'em covered. Yep, that's America, alright! |
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eyeresist
 Posts: 995 Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney) |
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Fix needed - "such as Kazuo Umezu, Hideshi Hino and later Kazuo Umezu,"
I picked up the first vol of this cheap and loved it. First of all there is the old-school EC Comics-style grue (and phony moralism). Second, and the review didn't make this clear, Reiko is basically a sociopath, a female Dexter, which is refreshing. I also enjoyed the appallingness of the child killer, and the decapitation "ending". I also always enjoy the Japanese way of not quite getting the resonance of Western religious symbols, which we of course take for granted. That full page of Reiko looking sexy while invoking the power of Satan would make a great T-shirt! I want to point out that the association of the pentagram with Satanism is quite recent and the result of ignorance. Pre 20th century, it was a Kabbalistic talisman to ward AGAINST evil. (The heavy metal "horns" handsign has been similarly misinterpreted.) In the second volume the manga became much more a generic shonen fighting series, and I didn't bother to investigate later volumes. But horror fans should certainly check out vol 1, and keep reading if the fighting's their thing. I have no problem with mild art adjustment for the Western audience. Without it, it wouldn't be possible to get it on the shelves in the first place. And Reiko is still a hugely shocking read, even without extra nipples. P.S. I'm wondering if the Road Warrior reference was a translation equivalent for a Japanese show? |
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