Solanin covers the same post-college years as Honey & Clover II that I sometimes get nostalgic for (I call them the “adulthood isn’t really gonna be so bad after all” years). It’s the time when you’re unburdened of the responsibility of school, and the current burdens of work-life don’t seem so bad yet. Doesn’t take long for that to change. But I digress.

Solanin is an empowering, uplifting story that makes following your dreams seem like a realistic and manageable proposition. A small chunk of your dream is still your dream, after all. It’s a feel-good story with lovably flawed characters, and a live performance scene that really makes you feel like you’re in a club watching a band give it their all (which, let’s face it, many bands don’t always do).

But there is a moment. it’s the moment when drummer Billy decides that playing a show is the right thing to do. It’s a mixed bag because he’s also come to the realization that he’s done. The “dream” is over, he’s become that guy who gave up on it. And his only choice left is to reclaim that tiny slice.

This moment haunts me. Dead serious. As a musician, I’ve never planned for huge success — in fact, the types of music I’ve played have never enjoyed widespread notoriety at all — but I always hoped I could get some albums out on real labels, travel around in a van playing music, and hopefully meet some people in other places who’d heard me and were into the same kinds of things. I still don’t know if I’ve given up on that. But that one page of Solanin made me realize that I was Billy too.

I suppose if I lived in a manga it’d be easy to claim that slice of a dream, but my band (who play the most accessible, potentially-successful music I’ve ever done) lives the reality of the situation weekly. We’re no longer the bums that Solanin’s characters are, and jobs, spouses, children, and other commitments threaten at every turn to strike even that small chump-change dream down. But in those moments, I suppose I can always think of Meiko, Katou, and Billy living their moment.

Sometime before the advent of translucent cels photographed in a sequence to give the illusion of motion, some folks in a country not far from anime’s homeland invented a revolutionary device that allowed stories to be told, stored, and possibly fansubbed.

It was called paper.

Somewhere along the line, young humans lost their desire to get their entertainment from the material, which I’m told was somehow plant-based. The flashy picture-box holds more sway these days. But in Japan, and the West, there remains a paper-style form of enjoyment that’s still popular with the kids.

I’ve never been a big comics or manga fan myself. I like the stuff, but three volumes into Battle Royale I realized I could have owned the DVD of the movie with the money they cost, and it’s physically impossible to watch a whole DVD film in the 8 minutes it takes to read a manga volume.

And the serial magazines that we get in the US pale in comparison to the choices the Japanese have. But now, we finally have something reasonable.

Yen+ is, unsurprisingly, from US manga publisher Yen Press. It’s a giant hunk of that paper stuff that will surprise you if you’re used to the tiny-sized tankoubon that we usually get over here. The pages are big, there are a metric shit-ton of them, and they’re printed on paper that’s a good deal better than Japan’s newprint issues.

The magazine is split in the middle: Read it from back cover right-to-left until you reach the center, and you get unflipped Japanese titles. Do the opposite, and you’re reading American and Korean comics. Which you enjoy best is up to you, because the titles are really varied and most are pretty good.

Readers on the fansub tip will recognize most Japanese titles right away, especially the cover piece, Atsushi Ohkubo’s Soul Eater. The American side’s cover is graced by the inaugural issue of suspense author James Patterson’s entry to the manga world, Maximum Ride. This is a big post for a big volume, so check out the review after the jump. There might be minor spoilers, but these are all first chapters.

What’s in it

Soul Eater. No surprises for the TV watcher here, except maybe the heightened fanservice. Still, it’s a great parody of long-running action series like Bleach and Naruto, with a big heart, good humor, and fun art style.

Nabari No Ou. Yes, gay overtones. Yes, the trademark filler in a JC Staff action show. But I’m still watching the series, about a super-apathetic schoolboy who gains enough magic power to rule the world and is subsequently pursued by rival ninja factions. And the manga looks just as good. Nabari’s tone is really unique, with everything being filtered through a layer of goofiness that keeps it entertaining.

Sumomomo Momomo. The series had Aya Hirano, but didn’t look like anything special, typical lovecom stuff. I didn’t find this first chapter particularly funny, and the girl was a bit young-looking for the really overt fanservice, but we’ll see.

Bamboo Blade. In TV form, it was one of Kabitzin’s favorites. Soul Eater would probably be my favorite part of the volume if it was new to me, but I’ve seen the anime and I think Bamboo Blade is going to take that title for issue one. It’s well-drawn, but more importantly, it’s really funny. Yeah, it’s about sports, but gags like the broke teacher eating Cup Noodles “salt flavor” are too good.

Higurashi: When They Cry. I get to be new to this since I haven’t seen the series (though it was actually released here, too). Looks like it’s going to shape up to be a mystery-thriller centering on a small town hiding murderous secrets. I have high hopes. So far it’s H2O without the suck.

What’s in the other side

Maximum Ride. I can’t recall if I’ve ever read a James Patterson novel or not, I tend to avoid anything that appears on the New York Times bestseller list so I can imagine I’m better than everyone else. So far it’s about some kids hiding out in the woods because they have wings and will be experimented on if they go back to society. Sure, why not. I can’t judge yet; this chapter’s full of action but still seems like setup. The first couple pages are in color, which is a nice touch.

Nightschool. Kind of resembles Vampire Knight if that wasn’t a romance? I don’t know. I hate vampires, and the million supposedly non-vampire variations on them. In principle they’re ok, but the stories invariably suck.

Pig Bride. Since he was 8, Si-Joon Lee has had a dream that he married a (probably-)hideous girl in a pig mask who would come on the day of his 16th birthday to consummate. And what happens on his 16th birthday? Perhaps it was not a dream. Well, you could see it coming, but it’s really just setup, and it was done well. Though heavily influenced by manga, the Korean artists here tend to be a little more baroque in style than their minimalist Japanese counterparts, and this is a prime example. Decent humor as well, and on the whole, execution is top-notch. I look forward to less-than-typical romantic comedy that it doesn’t look like Sumomomo Momomo is going to deliver.

Sarasah. Imagine if, in the first chapter of Itazura Na Kiss, Naoki pushed Kotoko down the stairs and killed her. That’s about what we’re looking at. Naoki doesn’t seem so bad now… The art is kind of gross, but I can get over that much more easily in a manga than in animation.

One Fine Day. Do you think anthropomorphizing pets as nekomimi girls is cute or fun? Me neither.

Jack Frost. My clear pick for the left-to-right side of the mag based on chapter one. Jinho Ko gives us stylish art, heaps of fanservice, a lot of laughs, a mysterious story, and most importantly, buckets of gore. This first chapter takes the shock of Shakugan No Shana’s “You’re already dead” opening, and steps it back to the moment of the killing, making for a brutal and intriguing start.

Should you get it?

Fuck yes! I will gladly go pick up the new one when it arrives, based on Jack Frost and Bamboo Blade alone, but almost everything else in here looks like it’s going to be entertaining as well. At $8.99 US, it seems like a lot, but it’s less than a tankoubon and feels like you’re getting more because you get to read so many titles.

I hope it’s a sign of things to come — Japan gets tons of these types of mags, but admittedly the quality level of Yen+ is quite a bit higher.