Rocket Bomber - Manga Moveable Feast

Katherine Dacey, aka The Manga Critic submits the first review of Shirley, Kaoru Mori’s other maid manga:

“At first glance, Shirley looks like a practice run for Emma, a collection of pleasant, straightforward maid stories featuring prototype versions of William, Eleanor, and Emma. A closer examination, however, reveals that Shirley is, in fact, a series of detailed character sketches exploring the relationships between three maids and their respective employers.

…

CMX obviously licensed Shirley with an eye towards pleasing Emma fans, yet Shirley also works on its own terms; if anything, folks reluctant to commit to a ten-volume series, or who roll their eyes at the prospect of a manga-fied Forsythe Saga, may find this lovely, understated collection more to their liking than the melodramatic saga of William and Emma’s forbidden romance. Highly recommended.”

My own copy of Shirley has yet to arrive (but should be here before the weekend)… I know at least a couple of other reviewers were considering this one-shot as well. I think as a special-feature-within-a-feature we’ll have “Shirley Saturday” as part of the Emma MMF.

Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links

David Welsh at The Manga Curmudgeon reposts a review originally published as one of his Flipped columns at The Comics Reporter (April 3, 2008).

“Devotees of public television should feel right at home with the Upstairs, Downstairs romance that unfolds.

…

One of the marvels of Mori’s work is that she manages to convey this without lapsing into anything resembling a social studies lesson. Her finest moments are silent and subdued, as when Emma allows herself a bashful smile as examines a gift from her suitor. At the same time, she can deliver the kind of gossipy banter that feels authentic. The complex class conflicts emerge in the below-stairs chatter among servants and pointed observations of the wealthy.”

Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links

Khursten Santos of Otaku Champloo shares with us some odds & ends with Emma, her reflections on the series:

“It honestly surprised me because as much as the entire manga is lined with images of Victorian England, at that time, I was really more caught by the story of Emma and William. Of course, back then, I was fresh from following the monthlies and like a sparkly-eyed teenager, I was rooting for the romance to work. My mind was full of William and Emma’s love affair that I answered, ‘There’s really more to Emma than its history.’”

Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links

Emma, vol. 3
Writer & Artist: Kaoru Mori
Published by: CMX

192 (180) pages.
Original Language: Japanese
Orientation: Right to Left
Vintage: 2003. US edition Mar. 2007.
Translation & Adaptation: Sheldon Drzka
Lettering: Janice Chiang
Design: Larry Berry
Editor: Jim Chadwick

Publisher’s Rating: Teen Plus, for “Suggestive Situations”
isbn 9781401211349

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Premise: We follow our maid, Emma, and her gentleman into a wider world: It’s still a BBC/Masterpiece Theater-style historical drama, but wanders much further afield than a one-time London romance story…

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Review:

So first, let me say if all you’re doing is reading my posts and admiring the scans, you have no idea how nice it is to have CMX’s books actually to hand: these are not glossy covers but rather a matte finish, slightly textured stock that when combined with the muted palette (and of course, the historical details) makes each book not only look but feel different from all the other manga on your shelf. Kudos, CMX.

And now, into volume three.

Hm. So.

Granted, volume two was such a grinder — not an emotional rollercoaster in the way so many would interpret the term, but there was quite a bit of drama there, and reveals of character, and some (William, I’m looking at you) acting just a shade outside of character…

OK. So, William loves Emma, and was willing to put it all on the line, and actually did for all of half a page before his father shut him down. —but that was last volume.

In vol. three, we see William trying desperately to forget Emma; not only throwing himself into the family business but also, in a full reversal, accepting any and all social invitations London society sees fit to throw his way. He puts on a brave front. Fortunately, Hakim is there to call him on it:

Emma, for her part, meant to all but retire to her childhood home (…since she had nowhere else to go) but fate and circumstance instead lands her with a new employer. Now, various translators will tell you this new family is named Molders, or Mölders — and if I’d been in charge we’d have gone with Mulder — but CMX renders it “Meredith”, which isn’t exactly all that German, now is it? [*sigh*] But Meredith it is: The Meredith household, where both family and at least half the staff originate from Germany, is a shade more cosmopolitan than Mrs. Stownar’s three-story brownstone. Emma might be easily lost, but it seems Kelly Stownar taught Emma a shade more than just cooking and cleaning:

A maid who can read French (no matter how haltingly) is certain to garner some attention, and Emma’s new employer is quick to assign her to other tasks less typical of the ‘help’ — the last chapter of the book shows Emma accompaning Mrs. Meredith as personal maid while visiting the neighbors for tea. (Seems a common enough duty, but the neighbor in question, Mrs. Trollop, is… odd.)

At any rate, Emma adapts to the work quickly enough, but what is new to her is working as part of a staff. Being Kelly Stownar’s sole maid and surrogate daughter is one thing, but working as part of a household is something entirely different.

The key chapter in this volume is Chapter 19, “Night of the Full Moon”. Soon after Emma’s employment, the staff is given a night off (on the occasion of the Meredith’s youngest Elsa’s birthday) — and more to the point they are given a half-day off the following day.

Paaar-Tay! Get your Victorian Groove on!

It’s a servants’ ball, so Emma finally has a chance to socialize with others of her class — but being Emma, she… doesn’t. She’s a wallflower. She volunteers to help clean up, while the other help enjoys the rare holiday. She meets the equally stand-offish and taciturn Hans — the tall, dark, handsome & hunky Hans for those of you waiting for the next complication to the romantic storyline — and while nothing happens (this is still Emma: A Victorian Romance) the two spend quality time together, um, washing dishes. Emma also has a cup of tea… I mean Rum. It looked like tea and was served in a teacup but only because they ran out of glasses…

One cuppa of that is all it takes. That, and the chance sighting of the full moon through a window is enough to remind Emma of one magical night (also under a full moon) at the Crystal Palace…

Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links

Rob McMonigal of Panel Patter has three links to get the ball rolling this evening:

Emma vol. 1

“Those with weak hearts should pause for a moment before I reveal that this is a shojo manga that doesn’t feature girls in a Japanese high school! The setting is in fact late Victorian-era London, with a meticulously researched setting by Anglophile Mori. Emma, the title character is a commoner straight out of a Henry James novel, working as a maid for an elderly widow. When the widow’s former student returns for a visit, romantic sparks fly—but can the class barrier be broken?”

Excellent intro to the series, Rob. And the choice quotes continue: Emma vol. 2

“I also appreciate that, while growing the cast, Mori does not forget anyone. William’s friend is back, with some strong language for Emma, serving as the outsider who cannot understand English conventions. A throwaway character like a friend of Mrs Stownar, Al, ends up with the potential to affect so much of the story, and even gets to be the means of a flashback. Even William’s family, odious as they are for being stuffy upper class jerks, as fleshed out enough for the reader to appreciate their presence. “

And from his take on Emma vol. 3

“As much as I enjoyed the start of the series, I’m really looking forward to the complex dynamics Mori set up for both the servants (who seem to have their own dysfunctions within a smoothly operating household) and the wealthy family they work for. Plus, the fact that she did not completely abandon her original creations says there’s a lot to look forward to over the course of the series.”

These were previously posted May-August 2009, but are quite timely since the Daily Diary is [almost] up to Volume 3.
Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links

Johanna Draper Carlson of Comics/Manga Worth Reading submitted the first of of least two (and what is shaping up to be three) Emma links for the MMF — her review of the ‘main run’ of Emma, vols. 1-7:

“The book is a wonderful portrayal of what it might have been like to live in another place and time… and isn’t that the magic of comics of any kind? Showing us someone else’s experience in detail, even if fictional?

…

The first two books were less about what happened and more about the exploration of another society and the kind of people who found themselves within it. Later books continue to build the full cast, and secrets cause relationships to change quickly.

…

Anyone who’s read Emma can’t help be affected by the struggles of the two leads to accomplish something so simple: being in love.”

Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links

Emma, vol. 2
Writer & Artist: Kaoru Mori
Published by: CMX

200 (190) pages.
Original Language: Japanese
Orientation: Right to Left
Vintage: 2003. US edition Dec. 2006.
Translation & Adaptation: Sheldon Drzka
Lettering: Janice Chiang
Design: Larry Berry
Editor: Jim Chadwick

Publisher’s Rating: Teen Plus, for “Suggestive Situations”
isbn 978-1401211332

##

Premise: A comic that reads almost like a BBC/Masterpiece Theater historical drama — a young Victorian gentleman (wealthy, but not aristocratic) falls for an almost-perfect maid, who also falls for him in her own shy, halting way, but since the two are British and this is Victorian England, nothing really juicy happens.

##

Review:

After watching the anime [which stretches the first volume (and the first chapter of this volume) to fill almost the whole of it’s first season] I’d forgotten how quickly the series turns dark.

Chapter 8, the opener here, is marvellous. Not only is there the actual first date between William and Emma — with a least a kiss shared (it’s hawt; Emma takes off her glasses) and you can infer as much as you want but only a kiss is depicted — but oh, what a date: The Crystal Palace! The flora, fauna, artefacts and spoils that only a global empire can collect, and all the architectural and historical detail an obsessive manga-ka can muster… I want to scan and post all of it.

Instead, I’ll just tease you with a single panel.

More introductions in this volume as well; it turns out William has a number of siblings not previously revealed, and they all manage to come home at about the same time the plot takes a turn away from easy romance.

[I also just really like that panel, don’t mind me]

Without spoiling too much, Emma faces a major change in her circumstances, and this means also that her relationship with William, already ephemeral and possible in it’s own way only so long as the two (and the select few around them) were able to delude themselves, must also come to an end.

A lot of drama builds around that. Emma comes to terms much more quickly, perhaps, though she also has to deal with grief and the prospect of being truly alone. It’s hard to pick just one chapter from this volume as most important, since each chapter piles it on, upping the stakes and expanding on the commentary on the differences between Victorian classes. Instead of picking the easy one (chapter 13) I’m going to pick two and juxtapose them:

In chapter 11, “Eleanor at the Banquet”, William concedes in part to his father’s wishes and escorts young Eleanor, his prospective fiancée, to a society dinner party. Eleanor is obviously smitten, and Mori takes pains (and about 17 pages) to show that the two actually do share some chemistry; if it weren’t for a chance meeting with a certain maid, this would be an entirely different romance story, quite suitable for a number of Harlequin romance pulps. Still, Eleanor is a débutante to high society, and her ‘troubles’ and ‘travails’ are merely cute.

In chapter 13, “Farewell Emma (Part II)”, William receives the tragic story of Emma’s childhood, second-hand, related to him by Al — a neighborhood handyman and an old friend of Kelly Stowner, Emma’s employer — and the glitz and excess of the banquet is starkly contrasted by the prospects an unwanted orphan faced in Dickensian London. This is a less-than-subtle jab at the world William comes from, and the banquet he so recently attended. The chapter also serves as an interlude in a long series of missed meetings: for the last half of the book, William and Emma attempt to meet each other, but never make the connection. Emma’s self-doubt slowly crystalized into a resolve to leave London, and abandon William; in parallel William’s search for Emma escalates into an almost frantic, breathless pursuit.

The cliff-hanger this volume is William just missing Emma as her train leaves King’s Cross Station. (with an excuse for more architecture, and a really nice two-page spread.)

[go ahead, compare Mori’s art to historical photographs and illos. Dare you.]

Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links

Through the week and into next weekend, I’ll be re-reading a volume every night, and attempting to post my reflections on each book the following morning — but given my odd work schedule (retail, and the store’s open morning noon and night) it may not always work out… exactly daily.

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Emma, vol. 1
Writer & Artist: Kaoru Mori
Published by: CMX

192 (181) pages.
Original Language: Japanese
Orientation: Right to Left
Vintage: 2002. US edition Sep. 2006.
Translation & Adaptation: Sheldon Drzka
Lettering: Janice Chiang
Design: Larry Berry
Editor: Jim Chadwick

Publisher’s Rating: Teen Plus, for “Suggestive Situations”
isbn 978-1401211325

##

Premise: A comic that reads almost like a BBC/Masterpiece Theater historical drama — a young Victorian gentleman (wealthy, but not aristocratic) falls for an almost-perfect maid, who also falls for him in her own shy, halting way, but since the two are British and this is Victorian England, nothing really juicy happens.

##

Review:

To put it into Hollywood movie terms, the two leads “meet cute” in chapter 1: William comes to visit his old governess, Mrs. Stownar, but pauses at the door long enough before knocking (he’s a tad embarassed; it seems he hasn’t bothered to visit for some time) such than Stownar’s maid, Emma, in a rush to run some errand opens the heavy front door full in his face.

Chapter one is a good intro to the relationship that drives the series: we have two good looking leads who obviously like each other (they even manage a date of sorts by pg. 27, sharing a conversation while walking in the park) but this is England in the 1890s (or later? the toy biplane on pg. 31 is an anachronism — after I’m done re-reading the whole series I’ll see if I can’t sleuth out the year) so they can’t just pop off to the local Love Hotel and do what is obvious.

Following chapters slowly introduce the other main characters (and flesh out those already introduced) and include what would seem to be the two main complications to William/Emma: William’s friend, Hakim, a foreign born Prince, and William’s fiancée Eleanor. [oops. Spoiler! …but it comes as just as much of a shock to William, and is the cliff hanger which ends this volume.]

For my money, the most telling chapter is chapter 4, “The Love Letters”. It shows first, that William is obviously smitten with Emma, but also that he is not the only one: she is known even by the local shopgirls as a local beauty, she’s a topic of discussion at the local gentlemen’s club, receives stacks of love letters (incl. one from the mail carrier that delivers them) — on two points there is general agreement, though: she’s quiet & shy, and she always says no.

Perhaps this is necessary, to build up Emma as some sort of paragon to make William’s pursuit (& Hakim’s for that matter) excusable, given the class differences. It also serves as a sort of second introduction, for William has only just met Emma, and sure, they spent a pleasant afternoon together, but his obvious discomfort in how other people talk about Emma as both woman and topic of rumours — not to mention how many other men would court her — makes her seem an unobtainable object even though she is obviously also a person, and one who responds to him in the oddly Victorian manner.

From the outset, one of the two main conflicts is within William, as he must resolve what he feels for Emma, vs what is expected of him. The other conflict is of course external, as our two star-crossed lovers (thought the use of the term ‘lovers’ is a bit strong in this context) will always have to overcome the class divide between them.

##

I may make this all seem stern and dark and melodramatic: before I close the book on volume one, let me point out that the series has a light touch and a fair amount of humour. The slower story-telling pace allows us to gradually add details to each character, and in each chapter there are under-breath asides, bits of conversation, and included details (like the Victorian equivalent of porno mags) that add a fair bit of humour to the books, to say nothing of Hakim’s entourage and elephants.

Yes. Elephants.

The book is an invitation to a historical London you might never have seen before, particularly it’s common people, the working class that supports the thin upper crust. It’s the scenes set in the market streets, or at the pub, or in Emma’s small, plain room when she’s by herself and writing rejection letters, or combing her hair, or remembering when she first got her glasses — these are the compelling moments in the book.

[volume 2 posts late tonight]
Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links

Good Morning and Aloha: our first link of the day is from Wilma Jandoc of the Honolulu Star Bulletin

“The stereotypical uprightness and gentle virtue of the era as shown through the main characters give “Emma” a calm dignity that is often foreign in contemporary shoujo manga — there is no teen hyperactivity, no whirlwind of cliques and cat fights. Such gentility is made more vibrant by author Mori’s beautifully detailed artwork — from roadways to house interiors, from corsets to hairdos — and the inclusion of actual period items that show her passion for and extensive research into the Victorian age. In the face of this, we can’t help but hope that somehow, some way, it will work out for William and Emma.”

It’s an older article (Aug. ’08) but also includes a look at the first 12-ep. Emma anime box set released by Nozomi/Right Stuf

“The television version makes use of long stretches of silence and slow-moving animation at times — perhaps reflecting the many wordless scenes in the manga that rely only on well-placed people and items, detailed facial expressions and deliberate movements — but it never makes you impatient. Instead, it builds things slowly, allowing you to fully take in the beauty and pain of an impossible love.”

Click here for the archive of all Emma Manga Moveable Feast links