Thursday, April 19, 2007

New series from CROMARTIE's Eiji Nonaka

At Kinokuniya last week, I picked up the first volume of Cromartie High School creator Eiji Nonaka's newest series, Mirai Chounaikai (未来町内会) - best translated as Future Neighborhood Association.



As I'd said before, I think Cromartie High School was probably the best comic to be published in English in 2005, and ADV is already more than halfway through releasing the series (I think it's 17 volumes in total). Quick pat on the back to them, ADV is using the original Japanese covers and each volume looks really kick ass.

While Cromartie is still totally rad, it's cool to know that Nonaka has already moved on to a new comedy series, and it's being serialized in マガメガ. For more info, you can check out their Mirai Chounaikai page for a preview of the first few pages of the manga.

The series revolves around a neighborhood association in the year 2076. No really, I'm serious. At first, it's literally PAGES and PAGES of neighbors sitting around tables having zoning discussions and stuff. But in a way, the initial setup and scope of this comic already makes it pretty damn experimental and weird, for a comedy manga.

It looks like as the story goes on, Nonaka introduces weirder and weirder neighbors and committee issues, like these intense mutant warriors that look like something out of Mai, The Psychic Girl or Dragonball. The basic format, with repeating scenarios, running parodies and a growing cast of odd characters, should feel pretty familiar to Cromartie fans. Here are a few shots from the comic:



He's basically saying: "Well, this means that offically, as of today... Papa has been named Committee Chair of the Mirai-cho Neighborhood Association!"


Lots and lots and lots of this.


A ROBOT! ...but is it the same one?


I'll need to take some time to get through the comic, but it seems even more absurd than Cromartie in its banality and plot conceits. I wonder if ADV is gonna license and release this one too?

PS: Later today we have some Alternative Press Expo news to post... Evan and I have been working all week on a new booklet for this weekend!

5 comments:

C.M.B. said...

off topic, but I wanted to bring this to your attention:

I found a blog called http://robotsneversleep.blogspot.com/

from there I found that viz is re-releasing all the Black & White volumes in one large book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1421518678/ref=reg_hu-wl_item-added/102-8612793-0055310

I've been trying to track down the first book of this for a year now. I bought what I thought was all three on ebay, but was actually two issues of #2 and one of #3.

Finally I will be able to read this!

Ryan said...

Hey Clint :)

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I had heard about this a little bit ago in an interview with Viz's VP of publishing. Evan & I saw the Japanese all-in-one volume at Kinokuniya in SF, and were like, Whaaaaaaaaa?

This summer/fall is gonna be really awesome, as the anime is getting a limited release in june/july and then the one-volume comes out on 9/11.

I read parts of this series originally when it was serialized in Pulp, and filled in the gaps by borrowing the 3 books from Evan (dude has a lot of mid-90s manga!), but I will definitely buy this one-volume book to have my own pristine copy. Can't wait!!

-Ryan

ps: want one of our APE booklets? I'll post details tomorrow so keep an eye out :)

Jim Reichert said...

Also off topic, but I wanted to let you guys know that we'll be screening Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth on Friday at Stanford. Here's the link:
http://www.japan1960.blogspot.com.

Adrienne says hi.

C.M.B. said...

oooh, i'll keep my eye out for tomorrow's post.

Anonymous said...

Lol, theres cromarties dude that flames people on the net, right above. Tanaka-kun, get a life HAAHAHA before Fujimoto randomly punches you out on the street. Btw, the new series looks hilarious. Lots of sitting around the table? Sounds perfect, from Nonaka Eiji ^-^