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Snack Monster: Honey Puffs

Above: Marukin 5-Pack Honey Puffs.

You may be seduced, as I was, by these bunnies' imploring eyes and coquettish posturing. The name "honey puffs" may conjure fond memories of certain breakfast cereals. And at least from a distance, these don't look too bad, do they?

But be not fooled. Apply pressure with your molars, and those little balls turn into sugary dust. Which means, if you inhale as you chew, you'll end up with sugar dust on your uvula & soft palate. Then it's gag city.

Even if you don't get dry-heave-inducing granules on your soft palate, though, honey puffs are bland--a little bit sweet and nothing else. Skip them, and save up for rice crackers, Yan-Yan or Hi-Chew.

Now With More Snack Monster

After months of silence, I'm going to be posting a bucket of snack posts, and I want to clarify: this isn't becoming a food blog. I'm just posting content for the upcoming Snack Monster Visual Guide (screencap below):

I will still be writing about manga, dramas, etc. Thanks for reading!

Recipe Redux: Beef & Vegetable Bibimbap

Redid the bibimbap from last time, this time with:

• 5 shiso leaves instead of lettuce
• one carrot, peeled & cut into matchsticks
• 14 oz thin sliced beef sirloin instead of 7 oz (also doubled the marinade)
• scallions on the beef
• extra rice
• gochujang instead of doubanjiang for the marinade (and it's a huuuuge difference--much spicier)

Delicious.

I sliced the vegetables & meat more thinly this time, even though it took forever (oh, for better knife skills and a sharper blade). The vegetables were still too long to blend in properly with the rice, though, so I'll tweak that next time (I'd recommend 1 1/2 inch long matchsticks or shorter).

Honestly, though, the best bits are the rice, beef, & gooey egg--if you want to save yourself a good 30 minutes of chopping, just stick with those, a few ribboned lettuce leaves, and a thinly sliced radish & scallions for garnish.

I Like Spice & Wolf's New Cover (And So Can You!)

I go away for a couple of minutes months, and I almost miss this:

Behold! The US cover for the Spice & Wolf light novel. 

And because I can never say it enough: Yen Press, I love you. Now if you can only get this shelved with the YA Fiction, we can be best friends 4ever.

As a long-time bookseller, I consider the light novel the bookstore kingdom's zorse (right): an odd hybrid with no ready-made place in the world. Certainly, light novels don't belong in the manga section, where they're currently shelved. Most manga browsers pick up a light novel, and realize OMG, words (meaning they can't read it in the 30 minutes before class starts). They then toss the book back on the shelf, where it will stay until that fateful day that we can return it to the publisher.

In contrast, the YA Fiction shelf seems like a much better fit. And, if I may...

Too many manga/anime fans consider buying optional, an infrequent way to "show support" & have something pretty for their bookshelves. Most regular book buyers, on the other hand, buy books so they can read them (how quaint). In addition, YA Fiction, particularly YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy, sells well and to a much, much larger demographic than manga. Yen Press' attempt to expand into that market (i.e. the book-buying one) is incredibly smart.

As for this particular cover, it's not bad. It doesn't do it for me personally (shadow boobs, headless torso), but it screams YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and thus hits the marketing nail on the head. For comparison:

At my store, City of Ashes is shelved in YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy; Santa Olivia is in regular Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

Right?

Of course, it's never that simple. Because (thanks to Katherine Dacey's excellent post) I've realized that some fans are outraged--outraged--that Yen Press has defiled this masterpiece with its Westernized porn!

Some representative comments from "Mike":

Really bad cover. Instead of manga fans, you’re bringing in Twilight fans and sleazy romance novel fans with this.

God forbid! I mean, it's not as if sleazy romance novel fans and Twilight fans buy books (lots and lots of books). Screw them.

Don’t say you’re “appealing to a wider audience” because you’re concerned that the novel won’t get the attention it deserves. You’re doing this to make more money. Anyone should be able to see that. 

I like how Mike (and others) separate the publisher's attempt at "appealing to a wider audience" from making money, i.e. sales. Hello, they are the same thing. And, as Yen Press is a for-profit business, they're always doing what they think will make them more money.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to make money, but there is if it’s at the expense of the product. Most fans of S&W would not want to have a book with this cover on their shelves. I certainly don’t.

I like, too, how he uses the spectre of "most fans of S&W," i.e. the people who've learned about the series through illegal fan translations, i.e. the very people who consider buying optional & would've ended up settling for their fan translations anyway (because, you know *shrug*, the recession...).

And honestly? While I get that a lot of manga fans hate Twilight, etc., the general stigma against manga/comics is oh-so-much-bigger. Mothers will buy their kids YA books with naked lady covers way before they'll let them read something packaged like this:

 

...although I do think it's pretty.

In short: Yen Press, get on with your bad self.

Twilight Manga Is Good for Comics. Also, Water Is Wet

Last week, EW.com reported that the Twilight series' will get a comic book adaptation, to be published by Yen Press (sample illustration above). Korean artist Young Kim will provide the art, and Twilight's author, Stephenie Meyer, is supposedly reviewing the comic panel by panel.

You can gauge general reactions by reading the comments on Entertainment Weekly's post; for manga/comics fan reactions, see the comments at MangaBlog, ANN, & The Beat. To boil it down: you've got excited Twilight fans, some comics fans who realize how great this is for Yen Press & manga/comics as a whole, some people moaning about Twilight's quality, its fans, & its role in the destruction of culture, and plenty of people bitching about the art based on 1 or 2 panels.

From a bookseller's perspective, though, this is pure BRILLIANT.

No matter how you feel about the series' artistic merits, Twilight sells. Women of all ages (not just teenagers) are addicted to it (Lucy Knisley's comic take is dead on). They buy Twilight from bookstores rather than online or the library, because they need those books right now. They pay for hardcovers because they can't wait for the paperbacks. They come to the register with a 40% off coupon, and upon discovering that said coupon has expired, will still buy the books at full price, because again, they need them. And they will smile at you while they do it. They scare me (kidding! I love you all).

More to the point, Twilight fans buy the books AND related merchandise. At my store & most others, Twilight books are not just shelved in the YA fiction. Instead, the series has its own table, stocked with all the books, plus the branded t-shirts, key chains, Edward lunch boxes & action figures, jewelry, and any other vampire series staff can stick there. We even sold Twilight perfume at one point (it was blood-red and overpriced).

That's why Twilight manga is such wonderful news for Yen Press, and consequently for comics. Unlike other manga publishers, Yen Press still offers high quality products for relatively low prices. It's also one of the few publishers still taking risks, like licensing manhwa & manhua, adopting orphaned licenses like Yotsuba&!, and putting out OEL titles (Nightschool, Maximum Ride, etc). Its presence is vital to the manga industry.

So if, as ICV2 noted, printing Twilight manga is the closest publishers can come to printing money, then even Twilight haters benefit. Money from Twilight manga will subsidize the Cat Paradises of the Yen Press catalog, and everybody wins.

Twilight manga is also good news for manga, specifically shojo manga, and more specifically Viz's Vampire Knight. Vampire Knight is already described as the manga version of Twilight; the series is a bestseller, too, so most bookstores have it in stock, making it easy to up-sell.

Whether or not other series or non-manga comics will benefit is less certain, but I think we'll see a nice ripple effect as women (and maybe a few guys) learn how effective the comics medium can be. It's ironic that a series cited for manga's declining sales in 2008 should become manga's white knight apparent, but there it is.

Even for those who hate Twilight (I confess, I read some book excerpts, saw the movie, then promptly gave up), the manga might be decent. Or at least, not terrible. Twilight's plot & audience always seemed very shojo (during the last Boys Over Flowers craze, it was described as the Twilight of Asia), and a comic adaptation lacks both descriptions of Edward ("porcelain god") and bad acting. We shall see.

Read more: Melinda Beasi's take at There It Is, Plain As Daylight; Johanna Carlson's take at Comics Worth Reading; Deb Aoki's take at manga.about.com; and an excellent roundtable on Twilight, SDCC, and gendered fandom snobbery at Robot 6.

Viz Ramps Up One Piece Releases, Or VizBig Edition, Plz?

At AX09, Viz announced that starting January 2010, it will release 5 volumes of One Piece a month, for 6 months. That's 30 new volumes, or $299.70 worth of manga, in half a year. Whoa.

Accompanying the push is a new dedicated website, onepiece.viz.com, with series info, sample chapters, and extras (TBA). Still up in the air is Funimation's One Piece simulcast, derailed earlier this year by (oh the irony) a dastardly pirate.

I have no idea how this will play out. Part of me is delighted that Viz & Funimation will step up their efforts to promote One Piece. I'll wax lyrical about One Piece later; here, I'll just say that it's brilliant. It deserves every bit of love thrown its way, even if that love is an ungainly flooding of the market.

On the other hand, Lori Henderson's reaction of "Are They Nuts?!" seems to be the general manga blogger response, and I wonder if I'm missing something. First, much of the antipathy seems based on an assumption that if Viz releases 5 titles a month, then readers must buy those titles that month or relatively soon afterward (like periodicals).

I don't get that. I can't imagine Viz expects fans to buy every volume as it comes out, especially with a marathon series like One Piece. Certainly, I hope Viz sees how different this One Piece push is from its previous Naruto drive. Naruto had a much bigger fan base to begin with, and Naruto fans seem more exclusively interested in Naruto (instead of manga in general). In contrast, One Piece's fan base needs building, and the series' current readers have more divided interests.

But I think Viz gets it. The shiny new website is fan-bait, and this push seems like an attempt to fight piracy by offering legal manga translations in step with Funimation's potential simulcast. I do wonder exactly how much fan base building Viz will have to do for the series; I can't get a handle on One Piece's relative popularity & sales. As an older series, it doesn't pop up much on manga blogs, and the bestseller charts are all Naruto, Bleach, and Vampire Knight.

At my store, where the manga section had been dwindling for years, though, One Piece still has decent shelf space. Specifically, we have 3 or 4 copies of volume 1 and 1 or 2 copies each of the rest. More impressively, we restock the One Piece volumes we sell. That's rare--most of the complete series you see on our shelves are bestsellers (Naruto, Bleach) or titles that no one wanted, and which will not be restocked (I'm thinking of the time someone purchased 9 volumes of Sensual Phrase, leaving a gaping hole and volume 7).

VizBig, Plz

The one thing I wish Viz had done differently? I wish it had released the remainder of One Piece as VizBig editions. I realize that's impossible, but still. Instead of 30 new releases, we'd have 10. Instead of a $300 commitment, it'd be a $200 one (a big plus for new readers intimidated by the series' length). It'd be less money, for a product that is both better and more welcoming for consumers.

The other issue is that Eiichiro Oda's art is incredibly dense, and harder to appreciate in the smaller format. That's why I'm personally holding out on buying my own copies of One Piece: I'd like to buy the VizBig versions should they ever become available. I've been going back and forth on this for months now: the series' length makes buying both the original size & the subsequent VizBig releases not only unattractive, but untenable. And yet, me not buying the original series makes the VizBig edition less likely. Dilemma!

Seriously, Viz: release 2 VizBig volumes a month instead of 5 regular volumes, and I am there. And because everyone says they'll buy things, even when they won't, I'd like to add the following guarantee:

I solemnly swear to buy the One Piece VizBig version the hour I know of its existence (or as soon as it becomes available for purchase), and furthermore to post proof of said purchase on this blog within the same hour, barring an act of God. For once, I'm as serious as death.

UPDATE:

As promised (even it's not VizBig). Please excuse the messy Picasa job.

UPDATE 2:

For good measure! And I will still buy the VizBig editions, should they come out.

Read more: Comics Worth Reading; Anime News Network; Deb Aoki's blog.

Image from cover of volume 1.

PKK Web Roundup: 06/26/09

ANIME

• Ouran High Host Club is a diamond in a pile of anime coal. It's also available subtitled, legally, for free on YouTube.

Tamaki bravely decides to drink commoner coffee.

MANGA

• TangognaT tells you where to get CMX manga for 37-40% off. I recommend Emma, Swan, Kiichi & the Magic Books, or Astral Project for starters.

• Manga to read: Dinosaur Hour, a manga that pairs science with the humorous notion that "the dinosaurs died out because they were just too stupid to live". Also, all of Deb Aoki's grown-up manga recommendations.

DRAMAS/TV

• Joo Ji Hoon (Goong, Antique) gets six months in jail for using ecstasy & ketamine.

• Korean girl group SNSD ("Gee") has a new reality show called Hello Baby, where the group babysits a 9-month-old child for a day. I'd love to see a similar show with a boy band (not necessarily Korean--I wouldn't mind seeing the Jonas Brothers change poopy diapers & get barfed on) and a higher ratio of babies.

Super Junior's Eunhyuk & Leeteuk showed us how much fun such a show might be when Alex tricked them into babysitting the quadruplets (part 1 & part 2). In fact SuJu members would be perfect, as they are many & hilarious. Pretty please, television gods?

Imagine the cuteness!

• Dangermousie found subtitles for 2003's Punch, which starred Shin Mina & Joo Jin Mo. It's a classic drama fronted by two popular stars, so I'm glad somebody made a subtitled version (*frowns in SBS' general direction*).

I've got more links to share & discuss (DMP's Web-A-Thon program, manga on eReaders vs the iPhone, impressions of the first 2 episodes of Partner, etc.), but first--bed! 

Snack Monster: Glico Harumachi Ichigo

For $2.69, I added a box of Glico's Harumachi Ichigo (Strawberry Chocolate) to my latest Asian Food Grocer order. What I got was a tasty blend of white chocolate, crispy wheat bits, and dried strawberries.

There's not much online about Harumachi Ichigo, so I don't have a lot to offer aside from my own opinion & photos. Here's a photo of the nutritional info, though; J-List says each treat is 25% real strawberry, and the box does list "dried strawberry" high on the ingredient list. The strawberry flavor is pleasant, too, and not overly artificial.

Isn't it pretty? Each box has about 15 candies, each individually wrapped.

And, here are the candies themselves. They consist of dense white chocolate flecked with dried strawberry on top, followed a layer of crispy wheat cereal (think Rice Krispies), and then a pink layer of (I believe) tinted white chocolate, possibly with some artificial strawberry flavor. 

Here's a tighter close-up of the different textures. For me, that layer of crisp cereal makes Harumachi Ichigo work. While the white chocolate is firm & not overly sweet, and the strawberry flavor convincing, the cereal changes the candy's mouthfeel, adding welcome heft & crunch, as well as a respite from the top layer's creamy sweetness. Highly recommended.

On Manga Fan Entitlement, or I Feel Old

At work, a guy in his late teens asked me if I could recommend any young adult books with ninja protagonists. I told him, no, sadly, but I did know of some ninja manga he might enjoy. As I geared up to recommend Nabari no Ou, he waved me off, saying, "Oh, me & my friends get that stuff online for free."

ARRRRGGH.

Some people have no problem subsisting exclusively on pirated manga, and I don't get it.

Although I'm a bookseller, I like scanlations. They're the main reason I got back into manga after dropping it for 10 years. They changed my attitude from "please let me hate this series" (and thus save myself countless hours & dollars) to "please let this be good." I discovered two of my favorite series, Eyeshield 21 & Skip Beat!, solely because of scanlations. And selfishly, I'd rather customers read books online than come in and damage our merchandise (I'm looking at you, girl who keeps breaking the spine of our Azumanga Daioh Omnibus *shakes fist*).

BUT, I also buy manga. I try to buy 5 to 10 volumes of manga a month, mostly series I've already read or previewed online. If I can afford it, I buy new. And I'm not swimming in cash--in fact, as a writer & bookseller, quite the opposite.

I buy because I like having legal, physical copies of the work I love. I like supporting the companies taking financial risks to bring translated manga to the U.S. I like supporting artists who make the work I admire (however minuscule the support might be after everyone gets their cut). Money talks; it determines what gets translated or made. Artists used to have patrons; now they have us, the rabble. For that reason, I'll never sneer at people who actually pay for x (manga, music, movies, etc).

So when people come up to me & admit that they read but never pay for manga, without a trace of shame, I can't believe it. Like the ninja lover. Or the hardcore Naruto fan I know who's never bought any Naruto books or DVDs. Or the (supremely talented) manga-style graphic novelist who of all people should know better. I just want to grab them by the shoulders & go:

Buy some friggin' manga (then get off my lawn).

PKK Web Roundup: 06/12/09

I'm still working on longer posts, and getting distracted by shiny objects and food. Some links in the meantime (apologies for the Twitter overlap):

 MANGA

• Interesting article on the Chinese manga industry & government censorship (via @PreCur/Precocious Curmudgeon)

• Right Stuf has a 33% off sale on all Yen Press titles. Yen Press is one of my favorite manga imprints for its consistently high quality content & production values; for advice on what to buy, see There It Is, Plain as Daylight.

• Manga I want to read (links to reviews): Detroit Metal City (one, two, three, movie poster at right), Fire Investigator Nanase (one, two), and Nabari no Ou (one, two).

• I linked to it in my last post, but in case you missed it: John Jakala provides incontrovertible proof of Tokyopop's quality drop.

DRAMAS

• Lee Dong-wook's character in upcoming drama Partner is apparently arrogant & a little slutty (right). Which means now I MUST SEE IT.

• Another must-see: Dramabeans loved the first episode of Triple, the new ice-skating drama by Coffee Prince PD Lee Yoon-jung.

• Finally, Right Stuf has a rare 35% off sale on YA Entertainment's K-drama box sets. You can preview some series at Dramafever or Crunchyroll; I also recommend Hotelier, My Girl, Damo, & Sandglass.

ALSO

• Kate Dacey has described my idea of bookseller/buyer heaven: a real New England bookstore with a) tons of books, some out-of-print, all for 20-80% off and b) no coffee shop or overstuffed chairs. I want to work there *sniff*.