An Introduction to Vomics
I’d like to bring your attention to vomics, a new format that was ‘introduced’ by Shueisha last year. No, vomic isn’t a portmanteau of ‘vomit’ and ‘comic’… it’s ‘voice’ and ‘comic’. Basically, it’s a glorified drama CD - the only difference is that you get manga still images to go along with the seiyuu’s voices (+ the occasional dreadful BGM).
Vomics are restricted to manga series that run in magazines published by Shueisha, but of course the company has a pretty extensive catalogue including all the Jump titles, although none of the series from Shonen Jump have made it to vomic form yet. Each of the vomics so far have had limited runs of a month or so, covering the first few chapters of the manga to serve as introductions to the series (with a handy ‘Click here to buy’ button on the page).
Anyway, I first gained an interest in vomics after learning that R.O.D. writer Kurata Hideyuki & illustrator Okama’s Cloth Road was going to get er… vomicified/vomified? Mainly because Ito Shizuka voices the lead female character Jennifer, but also because the premise (technology + clothes = battles) sounded stupidly intriguing. The manga runs in Ultra Jump, also currently running Tenjo Tenge, Bastard!! and Steel Ball Run (part of the JoJo’s series).
There’s a whole bunch of other manga that have gotten the vomic treatment so far, but none of them have been made into anime as of yet. I used to read a whole lot of shoujo manga so Akuma de Soro is familiar to me but everything else…>_> I guess I’m just completely out of the loop these days.
I’ve been listening/watching to some of the vomics on and off over the past few months and the ones that have appealed to me most so far are both shojo manga - Aida Natsumi’s Switch Girl (pic above), which reminds me of KareKano with its dual/fake personality lead characters and Tomori Miyoshi’s Akuma to Love Song (below), which has a very unshoujo-like female protagonist (i.e. she’s a bit of a naughty girl, as the title suggests). I particularly like the latter because Kuwashima Houko & Suzuki Tatsuhisa voice the leads (you get to hear Houko singing Amazing Grace somehwere in the vomic :D). Oh, and there’s always a short cast chat either at the beginning or ending of the vomic too, if you’re into that kind of thing.
The full list of vomics so far, with links to each individual page + cast info (click the numbered buttons in the ON AIR box to ‘watch’ them):
Cloth Road by Kurata Hideyuki & okama (Ultra Jump)
-Abe Atsushi (Fergus) & Ito Shizuka (Jennifer)
Ice Age by Monden Akiko (Chorus)
-Takahashi Hiroki (Eiji/Age), Kamiya Hiroshi (Masaki)
Switch Girl by Aida Natsumi (Margaret)
-Asakawa Yuu (Tamiya Nika), Midorikawa Hikaru (Kamiyama Arata)
Steel Ball Run by Araki Hirohiko (Ultra Jump)
-Mizushima Takahiro (Johnny Joestar)
Rockin’ Heaven by Sakai Mayu (Ribon)
-Shitaya Noriko (Konishi Sawa), Sakurai Takahiro (Matsuyuki Ran)
Shinigami Kansakan Raido by Watanabe Kabuto (Super Jump)
-Ohtsuka Akio (Raidou Akira)
Hetakoi by Nakano Junko (Young Jump)
-Shimono Hiro (Komai Shizuka), Nabatame Hitomi (Shinohara Ruka)
Kizudarake no Jinsei by Saruwatari Tetsuya (Business Jump)
-Koyama Rikiya (Nagai Jinsei), Katou Emiri (Enjouji Ayumi)
Akuma de Sourou by Mitsuba Takanashi (Betsuma)
-Ono Ryoko (Saito Kayano), Suzuki Tatsuhisa (Edogawa Takeru)
Akuma to Love Song by Tomori Miyoshi (Margaret)
-Kuwashima Houko (Kawai Maria), Suzuki Tatsuhisa (Kanda Yusuke)
CRASH! by Fujiwara Yuka (Ribon)
-Nakahara Mai (Shiraboshi Hana), Taniyama Kisho (Kurose Kiri)
Seinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso by Kaitani Shinobu (Business Jump)
-Asano Masumi (Odagiri Kyoko), Onosaka Masaya (Taniguchi Ichiro)
Kingdom by Hara Yasuhisa (Young Jump)
-Suzuki Chihiro (Shin), Paku Romi (Eisei)
Ashita Dorobou by Hokazono Masaya & Betten Court (Young Jump)
-Sakaguchi Daisuke (Miyasako Kyoichi), Kanda Akemi (Tendo Ashita)
Give them a shot, if only just to hear some of your favourite voices. And hey, it may be a good opportunity to brush up on your Japanese since the dialogue almost always matches the kanji and kana onscreen.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Sounds interesting. Although I wonder how far they’ll be able to take the concept, or how sustainable it’ll be, just for the thought of it.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:39 am
You know, I am kind of surprised it has taken them this long to come up with something like this.
I would totally buy some vomics (Houko singing :wub:)
June 6th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Great find! I can’t read japanese at all so this is a pretty good way to get into new raw manga that groups haven’t scanlated yet.
June 7th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
What a horrible name lol- vomic xD I think something like “vomix” would sound better, since it’s a mix of voice and comics.
(ok I’m a retard)
I want Houko-ness xD