Emma: About the Series
From the Publisher, CMX:
Meticulously researched and beautifully rendered, EMMA is a beloved, award-winning series that was adapted into an acclaimed anime series in Japan. In Victorian-era England, a young girl is rescued from a life of destitution and raised to become a proper British maid. Emma meets William, the eldest son of a wealthy family, and immediately falls in love with him. William shares her feelings, but the strict rules of their society prevent their relationship from ever coming out in the open. Traditional class distinctions and rich, historical details provide the backdrop for this appealing romance.
Emma is a 10 volume manga series by Kaoru Mori, who also wrote the similar one-volume Shirley manga (also licensed by CMX) and the currently ongoing Otoyomegatari. Emma was published in Japan by Enterbrain, which first serialized the story from Jan. 2002 to May 2006 in the monthly Comic Beam (described on Wikipedia as a seinen manga collection, that is to say, one who’s target audience is usually young men, aged 18-20, though the unknown Wikipedia author also states “Its small but loyal readership is regarded as consisting largely of a hard core of otaku, art students, and manga-literate hipsters.” Comic Beam was also home to Bambi and Her Pink Gun, Desert Punk, King of Thorn, and Junko Mizuno’s Fancy Gigolo Peru.)
Emma is a bit unusual for manga, not in it’s attention to historical detail, but that the historical details have nothing to do with Japan: Mori clearly loves her source material, and tries very much to place the reader in 1895 London. Though Emma is not the source for the Japanese fascination with maids, Mori’s eye for details (and appealing characters) have inspired at least one Emma-themed maid cafe, which may no longer be open, and for those who must: You can buy both her maid uniform and Emma’s distinctive glasses at the official Enterbrain Emma site.
Emma was also adapted into a 24-episode anime series [split over 2 seasons, in 2005 and 2007] by Studio Pierrot and TBS, which has been licensed for the US by Nozomi Entertainment.
For the purposes of the MMF, as noted in the call for participation, I’ll be happy to link to (or host on this site) reviews and views about Emma the manga, Emma the anime, or Shirley — Kaoru Mori’s other maid story, set in Edwardian rather than Victorian England.
I’m going to try to also post a daily diary, as I reread the first seven volumes, one a day, with an eighth day for Shirley and Emma vols. 8-9, and a final post Sunday next for volume ten and the series conclusion. (If you’d like me to include your reviews of the individual volumes — perhaps even some you’ve previously written — on the ‘appropriate’ day, just drop that in your message when you email me the link)
Please bookmark http://www.rocketbomber.com/mmf, which serves as the hub (and archive) of all links, and watch my homepage for the new Emma links as they come in.
Submissions, links to articles you’d like included, and any questions should be emailed to matt [at] rocketbomber [dot] com — or you can reach me (at odd hours) on Twitter @ProfessorBlind.
Even if you are just a reader: Thank You for joining us in the Manga Moveable Feast!
