Manga Friday: Sex Yet Again
Where I live – darkest New Jersey – it’s been cold and snowy and cold (did I mention the cold?) for the past week, causing us all to huddle closer for warmth. Add to that the season of closeness and love towards all…and the minds of some of us turn towards more earthy pursuits, such as those examined in the three books this week.
Object of Desire
By Tomoko Noguchi
Luv Luv/Aurora, December 2008, $10.95
Object of Desire comes from the redikomi side – it’s a collection of manga stories by a woman for an audience of women, and all about young women (they seem to be highschoolers, from internal evidence) in their first, or very early affairs of love and sex. There are six stories here, each somewhere from twenty-four to forty-something pages – so they’re of roughly equal weight, unlike the similar manga collections that have one long story and one or two much shorter ones.
(The publisher’s description obscures this, focusing only on the title story – perhaps the old truism in prose publishing that a novel always outsells a book of short fiction is also true of manga?)
“Object of Desire” is narrated by an attractive young woman – so attractive, in fact, that young men routinely date her once or twice and lie outrageously just to have sex with her. (There’s a pretty casual hook-up culture going on here, obviously.) She doesn’t mind, exactly – sex is nice – but she does wish there was some way to find a “nice guy.” But then a boy with a different, blunter approach comes along, and a relationship – unconventional, perhaps, but certainly longer-lasting blossoms.
A century ago today, December 26, 1908– ironically enough, Boxing Day in many countries– Jack Johnson beat Tommy Burns to become both the heavyweight champion of the world, and the most notorious black man on the planet.
Judge Gary Allen Feess handed Warner Bros. a legal lump of coal on Christmas Eve, as he issued a brief ruling indicating 20th-Century Fox has the distribution rights to Watchmen, according to 
Beginning Monday, while everyone is home from school, kids can catch up on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. While new episodes return in 2009, the ten aired on Cartoon Network will be available at both StarWars.com and CartoonNetwork.com. Supervising director Dave Filoni provides commentary. 
Clearly inspired by Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Marvel is releasing a hardcover graphic novel, Wolverine. The press note says, “That’s right Bub, Marvel is proud to unveil Todd Nauck’s cover to Wolverine, an all-new hardcover graphic novel presenting the history of Wolverine’s life from his days as wimpy kid to just how he became one of Marvel’s deadliest heroes. In stores this April, experience the most unique look ever inside the mind of everyone’s favorite Canadian in Wolverine!”
In today’s edition of 
Warner Premier provided us with four new images from March 3’s Wonder Woman animated feature. Wonder Woman will also be available OnDemand and Pay-Per-View as well as available for download day and date, March 3.
Diablo Cody’s Jennifer’s Body, has been given a September 18, 2009 release date by Fox Atomic. The movie, directed by Jason Reitman (Juno), stars Megan Fox (Transformers), Amanda Seyfried (Mama Mia), Adam Brody (The OC), and J.K. Simmons (Spider-Man).
