New introductions.

[putrocca]

Hello, all. Now that the TezukaInEnglish.com forums are operational, I hope this will be an opportunity for Tezuka fans around the world to get to know each other. Since starting up the site about a year ago, I have received e-mails from dozens of Tezuka fans in many countries, including Canada, Spain, Italy, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and the US, and many of you have shared wonderful information with me, so I hope these forums will be a chance for you to share it with one another.

To introduce myself a bit, my name is Ada, and I am the site founder. Tezuka has been my favorite manga author ever since I read the two English volumes of Black Jack released by Viz about seven years ago. I've been lapping up Tezuka ever since, in English, Italian, French and Japanese, though I still can't read Japanese without help. Black Jack is still my favorite character, but I have done a lot of work studying Rock's various incarnations, and tracking the general development of Tezuka's character reincarnation system through Phoenix and other works. Tezuka is my favorite mangaka, but I also study the general history of 20th century manga and anime, as well as of manga/anime culture in the US and Japan, and I staff anime conventions and cosplay.

Once again, it's nice to meet you all, and I hope you will follow up by introducing yourselves.

[David]

greetings Ada and others,

Thanks so much for setting up your site and now the improved forum.

By way of introduction, I assist in operating a small non-profit
animal shelter and rescue program in Japan, I work on line selling the good stuff, and also teach just enough to be able to keep my visa.

and I'm very excited to be able to chat about one of life's best things.
Been a Tezuka fan for a long time, lots of favorites.

David

[putrocca]

Welcome, David.

I guess I didn't actually say anything about my non-Tezuka life in my introduction. I am a graduate student, studying history. I specialise in European Intellectual history, looking at the development of philosophy over time, but I also dabble in Japanese history a bit. I also teach.

[deadbeatpete]

Hello everyone. I'm Peter, a 25 year old guy from Rotherham, England. Been a big Tezuka fan for a few years now and lap up everything I can find by him in English. Don't know what else to say but I guess more details about me will come out as the forum grows and I post more. Anyway, it's good to have a place to meet other people with excellent taste.

[putrocca]

Nice to meet you, Peter. I'd wondered whether the site had any England-based users yet.

I've been wondering for a while, do you happen to know whether manga sales in England are more similar to US sales (ie. newer series sell best, mostly kids stuff) or more similar to French and Italian sales (good market for classics like Tezuka, and for mature series)? I've been investigating the differences in Otaku culture in different countries, but I know next to nothing about England in that regard. Does England have any large anime conventions?

[deadbeatpete]

Having never been to an anime or comic book convention I can't claim to be an expert in this regard. But considering 99.9% of the manga for sale in comic and book shops here is imported from US publishers I would say things are pretty similar to America. I'm not aware of any companies here printing manga in English that is not available in the US.

[strobe_z]

I guess I should introduce myself as well...

My name's Greg and I live in Canada (and spend a lot of time going back and forth to Korea).

I've been a Tezuka fan for the last few years and have been working on doing translations of his manga from Korean and French into English for the series which don't seem likely to be picked up by North American manga publishers. Strictly for the fans by the fans-type project.

I've posted my scanlations at http://tezuka-translated.com for anyone interested in checking them out.

I have a special place in my heart for Jungle Emperor Leo manga, but I got severely hooked by the Buddha series from Vertical. Phoenix is a close second.

[putrocca]

Glad to see you on the forums, Greg.

On the subject of British manga sales, can you tell me how the manga are usually arranged in bookstores? I know that in French bookstores they seem to segregate the manga into 3 sections: shoujo (girls), shounen (boys) and seinen (grownups). Astro Boy is usually shelved in shounen and other Tezuka in seinen. The seinen section is often very large and well-stocked. On the contrary, US stores never have a seinen section, since only a minority of publications are intended for older audiences and those aren't frequently stocked by bookstores becuase they don't sell well - you can find them in comic shops, but not bookstores. How do British bookstores usually organize their manga?

BTW, I'm sorry there haven't been any web updates this weekend. I meant to finish the Rock analytical essay this weekend but was unexpectedly sick for a couple days. I'm better now, but a bit behind on other work, so the essay will probably be delayed a couple weeks.

[deadbeatpete]

The bookstores I have been to usually just dump all the manga they stock (which is a pitifully small amount)on the bottom shelf next to the Sci Fi section! No attempt at organisation is made as far as I can see. Manga is clearly classed as "kids stuff" and not worthy of any effort being put into it. If you want to browse a wide range of manga you will have to go to a decent sized comics store and there aren't so many of those either. Luckily the one I go to (The Sheffield Space Centre) has a pretty large well organised section. I still have to order a lot of stuff online though.

Hope you are fully recovered soon!

[putrocca]

That kind of lack of organization you describe is about how US bookstores treated their manga 2 years ago. Since then they've noticed that manga is selling very well, so now they're stocking lots of it, but they still don't know how to organize it - it's just a big section of chaos instead of a small section of chaos. The only well-organized manga displays I've ever seen have been in France.

And I'm feeling better now, thanks. Now time to catch up on my work.

[cmoon]

Suppose I ought to jump in as well. I'm Chris, and have been hoping that a good Tezuka forum would pop up sooner or later. Been posting on the Astroboy forum as 'O2Destroyer', but there is far more to Tezuka than Astroboy! Like Strobe_Z, I think Jungle Emperor is among my favorite Tezuka works but am quick to admit that as a US reader, there's a world of Tezuka I have no exposure to.

As far as the more personal info--I teach full time and run a music label. It is really nice to wear two hats so to speak, since when one grows occupation grows tiresome, I can always focus on the other one.

[mippa]

Now it is my turn to introduce myself! My name is Melissa, aka "Mippa" or "Melchan," depending upon where you live. While my first brush with Japanese culture was through Unico, I was too young to realize its true origins. I have been into anime awarely for a little over ten years, and before moving to Japan I watched the new Jungle Emperor Leo feature film and rediscovered Tezuka.

Only recently have I become a devotee of his works, also because of Black Jack the TV series. I currently live in the greater Tokyo area, about fifteen minutes from Takadanobaba (which, FYI, is where Tezuka Productions is located). I am teaching English while gaining contacts, furthering my animation stuides, and slowly improving my Japanese skills.

I just visited the Tezuka museum over Golden Week this year, and I look forward to sharing all the memories I captured while there. I am now volunteering myself to Ada as the Tokyo correspondent, providing as much information about upcoming Tezuka events in the area.

As for me, I am a graduate from San Antonio, Texas, who majored in Communication with a Magazine Writing, PR, and Television concentration, with a special study in Animation. I am returning to Texas for two weeks in July to give a lecture on magical girl animation, and will return to Tokyo shortly thereafter. I also minored in Policital Science and Chinese. I am a Black Jack fanatic, and I absolutely adore him and Pinoco.

I look forward to sharing lots of information with you, and enjoying Tezuka together! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

[Canti]

Greetings, all. My real name is Rich, and I just graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. Currently I am waiting tables for a living, but I am saving money to go teach English in Japan this coming fall.

I have only been very recently introduced to Tezuka's works. My first encounter with his work was the new Astro Boy series that aired on television some time ago, though more recently my girlfriend has introduced me to Black Jack and I am loving it.

[Irina]

Greetings, everyone!

My name is Irina, and I actually helped Ada with the original building of this site, as well as writing some of the content (particularly many of the character profiles). My husband is also the site administrator.

I am a high-school Latin teacher by profession, but I adore learning languages, and am working on teaching myself Japanese. I am also a fluent reader and writer of French, and have read many of Tezuka's works which are available in French.

My first introduction to Tezuka was the Viz editions of Black Jack, which remains one of my favorites out of his works. My favorite Tezuka series is often the one I've experienced most recently, though the ones which come back again and again include Phoenix, Rainbow Parakeet, Princess Knight and Buddha. I will be cosplaying Sapphire at the upcoming Anime Boston.

In addition to languages and manga, I am an avid gamer (dice, video, card, board, strategy... just about everything except MMORPG). I have played the AstroBoy game for GBA, and an in-depth review is currently in progress.

Given the time of year, I'll probably post relatively infrequently at first, but, well, one of the advantages of teaching is the existence of summer break! Glad to meet you all!