Roving Thoughts archives

Link: Kumi Kaoru's fascinating analysis of Miyazaki's Nausicaa manga

"At First, I Wanted to be a Manga-ka": Analyzing the Nausicaa Manga by Kumi Kaoru part 1 and the continuation part 2 is a translation of Kaoru Kumi's fascinating visual and technical analysis of Hayao Miyazaki Nausicaa manga. Kaoru Kumi starts her analysis this way:

As soon as the serialization of Nausicaa began, manga lovers began to praise it highly. It seems like the two things you heard the most about it were “it’s quite cinematic” and “its style is dense and hard to read.” [...]

Putting that aside, what exactly does “cinematic” mean, anyway? [...]

She goes on to provide an explanation for what cinematic means in the context of a manga (drawing evidence from how films connect shots to other shots), give examples from other manga, and then analyze how Nausicaa itself does this. The result is a fascinating breakdown of how the manga works so well and genuinely feels cinematic, with a side discussion of how the same things would have to be presented in anime form in order to work well. In the process she mentions some fascinating details of manga, such as how the production process for commercial manga (with work split between the manga-ka themselves and assistants) influences how panels have to be composed, and how a fast or slow publication pace changes what sort of art can be in a manga.

This is just a taste and an inadequate summary. If this sort of thing is at all to your interest, read the whole thing. If I'm any guide, be prepared to set aside some time, because it completely absorbed me for the duration.

(Via Ogiue Maniax's 10th anniversary post, itself via Author.)

It officially is 'sleigh beggy' in The Ancient Magus' Bride

In The Ancient Magus' Bride, the protagonist, Chise Hatori, is a special kind of mage, and for a long time there's been some confusion over what English language term should be used for what she is. Specifically, there's been confusion and disagreement over whether she is a 'sleigh beggy' (the official Seven Seas manga version) or a 'slay vega'. Last year I wrote an entry about this, after Crunchyroll translated the term as 'slay vega' in the first episode of the OVA, partly because my personal preference is for 'slay vega'.

Since then, two things have happened. First, Crunchyroll is airing The Ancient Magus' Bride TV series, and in the TV series Chise is a 'sleigh beggy'. More importantly, we now have official confirmation from the mangaka:

@drewtnguyen: @EzoYamazaki00 HELLO! QUESTION! First, thank you for the signature at CRX! Second, how did you come up with the name スレイ・ベガ? Thanks!

@EzoYamazaki00: Hello！Thank you for coming. It is words of the Isle of Man.The words hint at a fairy or a fairy and a human child.

(Via @hikaslap. It's relevant to know that a 'sleigh beggy' is a relatively obscure type of faerie from the Isle of Man (see eg here or here, and also the discussion here).)

This pretty much settles any debate over the official English term for what Chise is. Crunchyroll has changed its translation (although its subtitles for the first OVA episode still use 'slay vega') and Kore Yamazaki herself has given us an unambiguous answer. The Seven Seas manga translation was faithful to the mangaka's intentions, wonky explanation and all.

(I do wonder how the Crunchyroll 'slay vega' translation for the first OVA episode came about (and if anyone got yelled at over it), but we'll probably never hear that story.)

I still stand by my view that it's an unfortunate choice, but it probably doesn't matter very much, especially for the TV series. Although 'sleigh beggy' does have a meaning, most people are going to read it as a weird arbitrary combination of words, just like they would have read 'slay vega'. Arguably it has less meaning that 'slay vega', because people would probably read implications into the 'slay' part of that.

(This is part of @appropriant's 12 Days of Anime for 2017.)