Seven Seas Pubwatch: June 2022

Manga News Pubwatch
Carrie McClain

June is is just about over and Pride Month is about to make its exit! Hopefully, this month was less discourse of certain authority figures at Pride Marches in the ongoing conversation of how unsafe these places can be with them attending and more emphasis on the survival of queer, transitioning and trans folks in today’s world that is still affected by a global pandemic. I hope your pride month was less of these authority figures anywhere and everywhere and all the nice things you deserve on this dying planet! Seven Seas has served up a great wave of LGBTQIA content this month from memoirs to several romances that nearly any manga reader will adore. We’ve got an update on the union news for Seven Seas and a bit more of some recent and very serious blunders in the wrap up. Jump in, and take a seat as we get into it!

For Those Who Dare to Enjoy Gap Moe Romances:

Series: The Muscle Girl Next Door
Story & Art by: Amesuke Ano
Translation: Miki Z
Lettering: Lys Blakeslee
Release Date: 2022/06/21

The internet continues to remind us that yes, there’s a collective lot of us that love muscular women! I love that the first words on the very first page are “The girl next door is… RIPPED”. Heralded as “a boy-meets-ripped-girl love story”, this manga is about university student Daria’s crush on Ruby, his gentle giant neighbor. Daria, a skinny guy who dreams of being manly and cool puts on a tough face facade is seriously crushing on Daria the buff woman of his dreams. He thinks her muscles are just so beautiful and always seems to be rescued by her around the neighborhood like the time she protected him from a falling flower pot from a window above. Daria who is shy at heart under the cool guy front he puts up is a big softie who just wants to get to know the girl of his dreams more and I am loving what I’ve read so far! For those folks who love a good gap moe romance with a big rom-com vibes, this may be a fun read with lots of heart (and muscles)!

For Readers of Memoirs:

Until I Meet My Husband (Essay Novel)
Translation: Molly Lee
Interior Layout & Design: Clay Gardner
Story & Art by: Ryousuke Nanasaki
Release Date: 2022/06/21

Series: Until I Meet My Husband (Manga)
Story & Art by: Ryousuke Nanasaki Yoshi Tsukizuki
Release Date: 2022/06/21

I’m a big fan of memoirs and autobiographical work done in the realm of comics so when I heard the story of gay activist Ryousuke Nanasaki, I knew I wanted to know more. Nanasaki who married his husband in 2016 in the first religiously recognized same-sex wedding in Japanese history now has both a memoir in book form and manga form available from Seven Seas. At nearly 300 pages, the memoir is a collected book of essays detailing Nanasaki’s journey to his extraordinary marriage and all pit stops of finding his community along the way. The manga adaptation appears to adapt several of those short stories of the memoirs coming in just barely over 200 pages. This is such a certainly good look for folks who want to read more memoirs and read more about LGBT activists around the world–I’m totally in both boats!

For the Yuri Lovers:

The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This Vol. 1
Story & Art by: Takashi Ikeda
Translation: Anh Kiet Ngo
Lettering: Rina Mapa
Release Date: 2022/06/07

I was deprived of much yuri when I first started reading manga and now there’s a greater abundance of it, thankfully! While most of the yuri manga that were my gateway series and introduction to the genre leaned more towards younger protagonists…I can happily report that there are more older woman flavored Yuri out there and The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This looks right up my alley! BIG slice of life energy met me when I started reading this first volume about two “about two adult women in the creative industries and their shared romantic life in their apartment”.

The older of the two is 32-year-old Sakuma Ellie a more established professional who is a script writer and the younger is twenty-two-year-old rookie voice actress Inuzuka Wako. I don’t know what I adore most: this couple’s adorable banter (like picking up patties off the ground when someone’s at the door) or the timely commentary on their professions (the small window to break into the business for voice actresses, how hard it is for women to be recognized and respected in the anime industry and more). This book totally has me looking for more and now I’ll be sure to check the mangka’s previous work, Whispered Words! just to read more yuri!

For Manga That Explores Gender and Identity:

Series: X-Gender
Story & Art by: Asuka Miyazaki
Release Date: 2022/06/14
Translation: Kathryn Henzler
Adaptation: Cae Hawksmoor
Lettering: Vanessa Satone

In recent years, we have been blessed with more and more manga centering LGBTQIA+ folks and their experiences. It wasn’t that long ago when I read manga, these folks were only a character that was a bit of a joke or endlessly bullied for some plot. Reading about this mangka’s awakening to learning more about themselves and gender is a treat as it is from the creator not as a teen but at age 33!! I’m here for stories about late bloomers and also autobiographical works in manga: Asuka is neither a woman nor a man—they’re X-gender (a non-binary identity)—and they’ve realized they like women! This manga follows them from heartbreak to gearing up to move on out of spite at first to a wonderful and hilarious journey of fun times and terrible times to figuring life as they know it, out!  The narrative follows  Asuka’s feelings about their body, their relationships, and their experiences all in a medium we love: manga!

WRAP UP

I THINK I TURNED MY CHILDHOOD FRIEND INTO A GIRL is a newer manga title from Seven Seas Entertainment that has been the topic of controversy as a localization choice has apparently changed a BL Story of a more femme male character to one incorrectly being centered as a trans character, thus changing the entire story.  This is…troubling, especially during Pride Month where we’re at least supposed to be celebrating LGBTQIA+ stories. Discourse online is running the gauntlet from trying to keep translators from being dismissed so fast, recognizing that in the industry people are due to make mistakes, recognition of the lower pay and working conditions of many translators, and also even acknowledging that everyone has bias when reading.

This is so unfortunate and just bad to see as it has opened up a can of worms of other Seven Seas readers and fans taking to Twitter at least to acknowledge other manga, many of them from the same publisher that have had glaring examples of a translation being off. I believe we are all on the same page of wanting our manga and related comics carefully and lovingly translated, adapted, and brought to us in the same spirit and tone the original creator started. In wanting industry changes for people who help bring manga to our bookshelves, so many of us readers and consumers are questioning not just the quality of work but what qualifications one needs for such a role when it comes to translation and adapting newer work. Erasure is not the way though, and I’m always here for accountability.

Update on the union news: Wow…so after the United Workers of Seven Seas publicly moved forward with their union, their employer has hired the firm Ogletree Deakins known for union-busting and some rather unsavory and eye-opening union-related situations in recent years. Perhaps most notably Amazon, Lyft, and fighting union organizing at Trump-owned companies to quash the growing labor movement happening, now the firm has also continued with being hired by the management for two stores for New Seasons Market.

It’s safe to say as someone who has just started to pay attention to this particular firm in recent years that understanding our relationship to work and collective power is always connected to others in places big and small. Here’s a short piece that can bring you up to speed about the union’s latest efforts on the J-List Blog here. WHEW. There’s a lot going on and the sea is a rocky place but I love manga and I’ll keep reporting for now!

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Carrie McClain

Carrie McClain

Carrie McClain is a Southern Californian native who navigates the world as writer, editor and media scholar who firmly believes that we can and we should critique the media we consume. The X-Men were some of her first best friends. She is forever chasing the nostalgic high of attending school book fairs. As a retired magical girl, you can usually find her buried under a pile of Josei manga.
mcclain.y.carrie@gmail.com
https://carriemcclain.carrd.co/
Carrie McClain

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