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Manga Preview: Moyasimon

January 11, 2009 by Renee Claire

Like, oh, everyone, I’m thrilled that Del Rey licensed Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture. Winner of the Kodansha Best General Manga award for 2008, the manga also spawned a brilliant anime series, available piecemeal on YouTube. Most American fans familiar with the series discovered it through the 12 episode anime (which covers the first four tankoubon).

moyasimon bacteria
Image/manga by Masayuki Ishikawa.

Moyasimon centers on Tadayasu Sawaki, an agricultural university freshman who can see and talk with bacteria. To him, however, the bacteria resemble a cross between microbe plushies and Princess Mononoke‘s tree sprites. They’re adorable, and like the manga itself, marry the technical with the irreverent.

It’s that marriage, between scientific curiosity and mischief, that distinguishes Moyasimon from other seinen or edu-manga series. It’s a peculiarly childlike approach, and therefore designed to appeal to anyone with an inner child, preferably one seeking the gross, bizarre, and extraordinary.

In the first chapter, for example, we see human-size radishes and unearth a dead seal. We watch Sawaki’s professor suck a sea bird’s fermented guts out of its rear (a delicacy known as kiviak). Later story lines include various cutely rendered infections, all conveyed through Masayuki Ishikawa’s distinctive art. The characters are first-rate, too: unusual, flawed, and funny. UPDATE: Kate Dacey has an excellent full review here.

Del Rey will the release the first English volume November 24th. For more info, check out these related posts at Riuva, Japanese Book Reviews & Kids Web Japan.

Filed Under: Manga

Book Suggestion for 8-Year-Olds Who Like Gross Things

December 23, 2008 by Renee Claire

Chewy Gooey Rumble PlopAnother last-minute gift recommendation: Chewy, Gooey, Rumble, Plop. My cousin Jamie is into “gross stuff” at the moment, so a pop-up book on the digestive system seemed appropriate. This one features a 3-D tongue with a realistic sticky texture, plus action tabs of people burping, vomiting, or using the restroom.

It also features fascinating trivia, for example, did you know that poop is 10% dead bacteria? Or that the reason your mouth waters before you vomit is to protect your tooth enamel from stomach acid?

At the same time, the book provides a structured, linear view of digestion, all in language that’s understandable and yet not dumbed down. Highly recommended; I only hope Jamie likes it as much as I do.

Filed Under: Books, Kid Stuff

Gift Guide for 13-Year-Old Brothers Who Won’t Read

December 16, 2008 by Renee Claire

To my mother’s disappointment, my little brother doesn’t like to read. Or rather, he likes to read, but he’d prefer to do almost anything else: play video games, watch television, “hang out,” eat, sleep, etc. So what’s he getting for Christmas?

Books, of course*:

Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

Spies Revealed

Spies Revealed, by Clive Gifford

Vintage Choose Your Own Adventure Books

Choose Your Own Adventure series: I chose Through the Black Hole #97 & The Deadly Shadow #46. They’ve got updated versions in stores, but the classic ones have better illustrations & writing.

Books by John Bellairs

John Bellairs novels: Again, I bought these used. Newer versions lack the Edward Gorey illustrations (check out the full gallery).

Read ’em or weep, little bro.

Other books he’ll get eventually: The Lightning Thief, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, & The Graveyard Book. We’ve also had success with the Demonata & Cirque Du Freak series, plus S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.

*and a few video games

Filed Under: Books, Festivus, Kid Stuff

Living Books

August 31, 2008 by Renee Claire

bookslive2

Animal Index Cards by Hiroshi Sasagawa. Not yet available in the U.S., but Japanese residents can buy them here. First seen at lost.net.au/vic.

I remember reading a chapter of Urusei Yatsura (scan below the fold) where literary creatures burst out of books and flood a library. These two products, both by Japanese designers & featured on countless blogs, give the same sense of text transformed into flesh.

Also, since there’s no telling when or if the index cards will be available stateside, you can make your own. Use this stencil necklace tutorial as a starting point.

bookslive

The Story Behind the Bookmark, by Yuko Tokuda & Yumiko Komiya, $16.00 each at Greener Grass Design. First seen at PingMag.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Books, Design, Manga

Reading List: 12/07/07

December 7, 2007 by Renee Claire

Reading List

Some recent reads. All the title links take you to excerpts or detailed reviews, so be sure to click through:

  • The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: A foodie Eat, Pray, Love, written by a journalist turned Cordon Bleu student. I loved the recipes, cooking advice, and classroom anecdotes (the school sounds terrifying), but could’ve done without the romantic stuff.
  • Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster: A must-read for consumers, this book details how luxury businesses emphasize marketing over product quality to maximize profits. Dana Thomas also throws in juicy anecdotes about people like Miuccia Prada and Bernard Arnault.
  • Freaks and Geeks: We’ve only seen the first six twelve episodes, but wow. Absolutely brilliant, painful, funny, and true.
  • Misquoting Jesus: Solidly written, occasionally dense book on the way early scribes changed the Bible. I gave this to Mom for her birthday, so haven’t read it through (she did, though, and loved it). Sample bit: John 8:3-11 (“Let the one who is without sin among you cast the first stone”) was not in the original gospel.
  • The Bugle: Funny Guardian podcast featuring John Oliver (The Daily Show) and Andy Zaltzman.
  • Mario Unclogged: Short videos of Mario Batali talking about things like restaurant playlists, how to sauce pasta, and his tiff with Marco Pierre White.

Filed Under: Books, Film + TV, Television

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