[Belated] Manga Recommendation Monday: Daisuke Igarashi’s Kaijuu no Kodomo/Children of the Sea

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Even though this past summer hasn’t exactly been the most fun for me, I still like to think of it as a time to have fun and be on a break. From the first summer that ended my first year of school well over 20 years ago (which I honestly don’t even remember), I learned much like most other kids that summer was playtime – road trips, seeing more tropical places, that was what summer was all about.  Which brings me to this week’s manga recommendation – Kaijuu no Kodomo, or as it’s known by few here, Children of the Sea. It’s a somewhat haunting story about a young Japanese girl named Ruka who meets two mysterious boys, Sora and Umi, while she is spending her summer vacation with her marine biologist father.

Ruka has never really gotten along with anyone her age before. She actually feels most comfortable while she is swimming in the ocean. This is initially what draws Ruka to Umi and Sora, the two boys that are staying with her father’s friend from his job at the aquarium, an extensively tattooed foreigner named Jim. After her frustration of other people while playing a [world] football game gets her kicked out of yet another recreational activity, Ruka begins to spend more time wandering around the nearby beach and aquarium when she meets Umi. They quickly bond and become fast friends despite Umi’s inexperience with people and Sora’s staunch distrust of anyone that isn’t Umi or Jim. While swimming in the ocean one day, they all notice a whale shark emitting the same stars that Ruka saw around the fish when she was a child. This along with the knowledge that Umi and Sora spent most of their earlier years being raised by dugongs (the real-life inspiration of the homophonic pokemon, Dewgong) proves this to be the beginning of an adventurous and enchanting summer for Ruka, and this does prove itself to be the case.

Personally, what drew me to this series and made me want to pick it up and read it was the artwork. In many series, you will find that the cover art will generally look a bit prettier than it does in the manga. Shonen Jump titles are a perfect example of this. However, the same intricate art that is seen on the cover is the same art that lines every page of this manga. Every time I read this, Daisuke’s tropical art style makes me feel as though I am on the beach or swimming in the ocean right along with Ruka, Umi, and Sora. Despite the fact that it feels and looks somewhat like a kids’ tale, the depth of the story will most likely go far above the head of most youth. Despite the unfamiliarity of the name , it is still relatively easy to find this series. I have spotted them at my local Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million! Not only that but if you’re one of those that is insistent on reading your manga for free online, Viz hosts free translations of this series on their site. Your average, run-of-the-mill anime or manga fan most likely wouldn’t give a story like this a second glance. There isn’t very much in the way of humor, the art is too odd to produce a definitive pretty-boy, and there isn’t very much in the way of action. However, to the fans of more cryptic series such as Haibane Renmei, Jing: King of Bandits, Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World, Last Exile, Mushi-Shi, or Wolf’s Rain, this is a series that you will most likely enjoy.

[Belated] Movie Recommendation Monday: Cannonball!

It shouldn’t be a big secret to most that I absolutely LOVE a good auto race. Especially when it takes place on actual streets/roads, and not on tracks. It also helps if the cars are street-legal as opposed to [NASCAR-type] stock or F-1s that you’re not allowed to drive off the track. Also, I’m a huge fan of taking road trips. This may be because I used to take them all the time with my mother growing up and got used to the peacefulness of the open road.  Unfortunately, these are still just pipe dreams at this point in my life as despite having a lifelong interest in cars, I’ve never once had the chance to own one. However, my attraction in this area has never waned and I have become a fan of a number of automobile-based TV series and movies, including The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Speed Racer (live-action movie), The Fast and the Furious, Wacky Races, Initial D (live-action movie), and even the solar car race movie, Race the Sun.  What really caught my attention, though was when USA Network  aired a reality show called Cannonball Run 2001. In it, multiple teams of 3 people competed in a cross-country automotive race with no rules as to the conduct of how it was done. I became extremely engrossed in the show – it was finally a chance to fulfill a goal that I’d had (I was still a virgin and didn’t have a license then).

Since the name of the show was Cannonball Run 2001, I had a hunch that this probably wasn’t the first time that there had been a Cannonball Run. Since it was a show that year, I wrongly assumed that I had missed a previous season (I wasn’t then, nor am I currently too hip to reality shows), so that I could participate in a future season. However, this was not the case. What I found out was even more amazing – the Cannonball Run had been a very real (albeit ILLEGAL) race back in the 70s. Despite the fact that the race itself was kept under wraps, it still gained a level of fame. In fact, a number of movies were made about it. The most famous of these are the Cannonball Run movie series starring Burt Reynolds, the late Dom DeLuise, and a number of other celebrities of the era. While I’m a fan of Cannonball Run II, I would have to say my personal favorite of the Cannonball Run-based movies would be the first: Cannonball!

Unlike the more famous Cannonball Run movie series, Cannonball! is a more serious take on the race starring the late David Carradine. He plays a freshly paroled racer named “Cannonball” Coy Buckman who gets talked into competing in a trans-American race despite his wishes by his brother (Dick Miller or “Murray” from the Gremlins movies) because he owes the mob. Luckily, Coy happens to be dating his parole officer, played by Veronica Hamel, so she ends up coming along without too much of a fight. While it is serious, there are some comedic elements of the film – mainly among the other contestants. There’s a family man who takes a plane to NY & spends most of the race in a hotel room with his bimbo girlfriend, a girl-crazy black guy who was hired to transport a rich man’s limo to NY, a trio of girls that use their sexuality to get ahead any chance they get, and Coy’s rival – a vicious racer who is being sponsored by a country singer and his mother. There are other contestants, such as David’s [real-life] half-brother, Robert, whom most of us might remember as Lewis from the Revenge of the Nerds series (and the younger generation may know him as Sam McGuire – Lizzie’s dad from Disney’s Lizzie McGuire) but those are the more amusing ones. What we find out though, is that Coy’s brother is so desperate for Coy to win that he is sabotaging everyone that shows a hint of beating him. Unfortunately for Coy, though, most of his brother’s sabotaging efforts end up being wasted on him.

All in all, I find it to be a pretty enjoyable movie. Whenever I notice that it is coming on premium movie channels, I would watch it every chance I could get. It’s got drama, action, comedy, and most importantly, for any automotive fan, lots and lots of car scenes, whether the cars are exploding, racing, crashing, there’s even a chase scene near the end. Even though new race movies keep coming out (like Speed Racer and Fast and the Furious), this will always have a small place in terms of interest. Honestly, I believe this is because of the fact that it was based on a real race and therefore I maintain the hope that one day it may start up again and I may have an opportunity to race across the nation.

[VERY Belated] Manga Recommendation Monday: Captain Tsubasa/Whistle!

With the passing of the world championship of the world's most popular sport, I would like to put a spotlight on two manga series that share the joy of world football...as well as put a Japanese spin on them.  First off is the original anime and manga world football classic: Captain Tsubasa. Captain Tsubasa is a classic Shonen Jump title from the 80s that follows young Tsubasa Oozora through [the Japanese equivalent of] elementary and middle school as he yearns to one day lead Japan to winning the FIFA World Cup.

Much like most sports titles, like Kinnikuman, Eyeshield 21, and The Prince of Tennis, or even live action titles, like Shaolin Soccer, Angels in the Outfield, and The Waterboy, Captain Tsubasa is a fairly exaggerated series as it's full of super powers and special moves. However, this should not detract from the principal story at hand which is that of friendship and the willpower of not giving up your dreams, much like many other shounen titles. Despite the original series ending in 1988, it has resurfaced a number of times over the years with "World Youth," "Road to 2002" (which actually follows a friend of Tsubasa's - Kojiro Hyuga), and "Golden-23." Each story starts up at a later point chronologically in Tsubasa's life and follows his world travels from Japan to Brazil and finally to his professional career in the Spain futbol league. Unfortunately, while the original anime was shown in the United States under the title Flash Kicker, this legendary manga has not seemed to have found its way to these shores.

Next is a series that I'm somewhat biased about seeing as how it's my 3rd favorite manga of all time.  Whistle! is also a title that comes from the world-famous manga publisher Shonen Jump about the popular sport of [world] football. Once again, like its earlier counterpart, it follows a young middle school-aged boy, this time named Sho Kazamatsuri, who wishes to become a professional [world] football player. However, this is is where the similarities end. The main difference between these is in how the story is presented.


In most shounen, there is usually some element of fantasy or disbelief.  This is more often shown with the presence of some sort of unbelievable "special skill" or a "special move." Whistle! does not do this. Whistle!'s story is very much like an anime/manga version of stories like Rocky or Rudy, which while very unlikely, are completely possible to actually see happen in the real world. From start to end, Whistle! runs about 27 volumes (or 216 chapters), all of which take place during Sho's Junior High years.