Comic Report: why do I own untranslated manga?

For any readers not in the know, “manga” is pretty much Japanese for comic book, but fans in the West like to use that word to describe Japanese comics and comics done in the perceived Japanese style. It’s not superior in my opinion; it just means it comes from a different culture. The week I originally planned to review these was the week that the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, and since I’m both getting rid of them and hoping someone can point me to a place where I can find out how much they are worth I didn’t feel right doing it then. Now, however, I am prepared to go through my untranslated (also referred to as “raw” from what I can tell) manga.

Why did I buy comics in a language I can’t understand? A combination of enough money and space alongside naiveté (I actually thought I could translate them myself for fun, unaware at the time that Japan uses a different grammar system than we do) or occasionally not knowing that they weren’t in English, the curse of poor solicits when ordering. I also have a bunch of Spider-Man manga that’s untranslated, but for some reason I want to hold on to those. The ones seen above, however, are fair game.

Advertisement

Toy Report: Ronin Warrior Cye

Ronin Warriors was an American adaptation of the Japanese animated series (or “anime”) Samurai Troopers, with surprisingly little editing. It’s a great show in either translation, and my favorite character was Cye of the Torrent. (Granted, it’s mostly because he had a cool accent, wore blue–my favorite color–and I’m a bit of a water baby–for a guy who can’t swim. Also, his symbol (although I believe this was one that was mistranslated) was “trust”, which speaks to me personally, but you don’t need my baggage.) So I really wanted the figure when it came out. I do like me some armored heroes, and the whole series is about a group of guys who can summon magical battle armor to battle with. (Even the villains could summon armor.) The story behind the armor is different and makes for a great story and I highly recommend this show. This is why I wanted the action figure and Big Lots had a whole bunch that they were able to find and sell for clearance.

I can see now why they didn’t sell.