Baseball manga
I don't speak Japanese.
I never pretended to be able to read Japanese. I've picked up the random Japanese baseball card over the years. I've had several early Sadaharu Oh cards and I've had Ichiro cards from Japan. Never learned to read the backs of the cards. I have a hard enough time with English. I really do not need to add anything else.
I know baseball is very popular in Japan. I know Manga, or Japanese comics are big here as well as Japan. I got the idea one day that, hey! I bet there are some Japanese comics about baseball! Sounds reasonable, right? Well not really.
First off, the total number of U.S. comics about baseball equal somewhere just above zero. The total number of Japanese comics about baseball that are translated into English and exported to the U.S. equal exactly zero.
Not all is lost. Apparently there are some great baseball comics in Japan. Problem for me is that A. they are in Japanese, B. they are in Japan and 3. they are hard to find even there. Well, now it's a challenge. I can't stop. I have to learn the Japanese word for comics about baseball. I gotta learn who drew this stuff and finally who the hell sells this stuff and can read my emails and take my money.
Well, I found a few. Again, I couldn't read Japanese if it meant saving the universe but I found the books to be an interesting "read". I was interested in seeing how baseball action is played out through the sequential art. I was a little surprised to find the stories weren't all about baseball. I was also somewhat surprised by the amount of apparent violence depicted in the comics. I'm sure it would all make much more sense if I could read Japanese.
I never pretended to be able to read Japanese. I've picked up the random Japanese baseball card over the years. I've had several early Sadaharu Oh cards and I've had Ichiro cards from Japan. Never learned to read the backs of the cards. I have a hard enough time with English. I really do not need to add anything else.
I know baseball is very popular in Japan. I know Manga, or Japanese comics are big here as well as Japan. I got the idea one day that, hey! I bet there are some Japanese comics about baseball! Sounds reasonable, right? Well not really.
First off, the total number of U.S. comics about baseball equal somewhere just above zero. The total number of Japanese comics about baseball that are translated into English and exported to the U.S. equal exactly zero.
Perfect.
Not all is lost. Apparently there are some great baseball comics in Japan. Problem for me is that A. they are in Japanese, B. they are in Japan and 3. they are hard to find even there. Well, now it's a challenge. I can't stop. I have to learn the Japanese word for comics about baseball. I gotta learn who drew this stuff and finally who the hell sells this stuff and can read my emails and take my money.
Well, I found a few. Again, I couldn't read Japanese if it meant saving the universe but I found the books to be an interesting "read". I was interested in seeing how baseball action is played out through the sequential art. I was a little surprised to find the stories weren't all about baseball. I was also somewhat surprised by the amount of apparent violence depicted in the comics. I'm sure it would all make much more sense if I could read Japanese.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home