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 Briareos takes the Metro too! C: Shirow / Seshinsha / Editions Glenat |
4th - 6th March 2000 - Had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Paris, France. Mainly doing sightseeing and all the tourisy stuff on a tight budget (there's not much you can spend as a student). First thing I noticed was that there are a lot of Japanese tourists there, and I envy their spending-power (^_^). Seen the Tower Eiffel, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and whatever else... but all the while, I am keeping an eye out for Shirow on the streets of Paris. Its probably a mistake that I didn't at least ask some French Shirow fans for some tips and guides before the trip, but it was kinda planned in a hurry. Anyway, here's a short take on my manga and Shirow experience over the weekend. Forgive the typo of French names and terms. Its hard to get those symbols from this English keyboard. |
| Day One ~ Saturday, 4th March 2000 |
First stop of the day was the Champs-Elysees, main shopping street in Paris. It was great to see a giant poster of Jill Valentine from Capcom's Resident Evil 3 outside the Virgin Megastore building. Also saw a poster for the Princess Mononoke anime at one of the cinemas. Mainstream stuff, so its not very surprising to see them. Not much of anything else for the rest of the morning and afternoon where manga is concerned.
On the way down to the Notre-Dame Cathedral from Pont Neuf, the streets were lined with the 'bouquinistes'- the famous sellers of prints old and new and where rare and curious books can also be found. Rare and curious books... could there be Shirow? And indeed there was. I caught a glimpse (the keen senses of a Shirow fan ^_^) of a French edition Orion among the stacks of books at one of the stalls, and I knew my French Francs will be gone soon. ^_^ Rummaging through, I picked up another 2 volumes of Appleseed (that's all the Shirow there), Riot #1 by Satoshi Shiki, and Vaelber Saga #2 by Nobuteru Yuki. They cost approximately 50 Fr. each, and they are hardcover editions (published by Glenat, which I would later find out, have a very nice selection of manga titles). Not exactly in mint condition, but slightly cheaper than the price in French comic shops. These books are heavy, and imagine lugging them along everywhere! But nonetheless, I'm a happy fan. Looks like Sensei Shirow's works can be found on the streets of Paris and that concept is very cool.
Around sunset, the next stop is the Eiffel Tower. On the way, I passed by the Japanese Cultural Center (Palais de Tokyo?) and was really tempted to go in for a look. However, timing is critical because it would be too dark to get decent photos of the tower soon. So, I had to give the Japanese center a pass. Wonder if I missed anything good here... Ended the day totally exhausted, but contented with the bunch of French edition Shirows.
| Day Two ~ Sunday, 5th March 2000 |
Non-manga day. Just general sightseeing and lots of walking around. If you like art and statues, definitely visit the Louvre Museum. Lots of famous works there. The Mona Lisa, Raphael's paintings, Ruben's works, the Nike of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo... an amazing collection! And its free entry on Sunday while I was there too! ^_^
| Day Three ~ Monday, 6th March 2000 |
Only half a day to spend in Paris before going back to England, and the only thing left to do is to look at one of the most popular shopping place there- the Galleries Lafayette. I don't really have much interest in this, so decided to take a walk. Just about 5 minutes from the Galleries, I stumbled upon a comics shop. Can't really remember the name of the shop, but spent quite a long time browsing there. Manga seems to be a prominent genre in French comics shop. Aside from the staple Shirow titles, also saw 2 copies of Dark Horse's recent Shirow Cybergirls Portfolio on sale. Its not hard to find Sensei Shirow's works in Paris, so that is a good thing to know. However, by then, this manga - Shirow fan is already feeling the painful pinch of a tight budget and therefore could only stare longingly...
By afternoon, its time to get back to England, and feeling glad to finally be able to put those heavy mangas down somewhere (my shoulders hurt from the weight!). A great experience and overall a nice trip.
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Although there's much to say about the mainstream attractions in Paris, I'll keep my comments and opinions strictly on manga-related stuff. The comics shop I visited had a very nice selection of manga. Generally, most of the mangas follows the original Japanese size and format and even paper quality (again forgot to note the publisher). The price is reasonable, about 42 Fr. per book. Among the interesting titles they have were Bastard!! (Kazushi Hagiwara), City Hunter and F. Compo (Tsukasa Hojo), Seraphic Feather (Hiroyuki Utatane / Yo Morimoto - coming in SP's Super Manga Blast! Thank goodness...), Rurounin Kenshin (Nobuhiro Watsuki) to mention a few. And as I mentioned earlier, the Editions Glenat hardcover carries some pretty good titles as well- all of Sensei Shirow's works, Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, Haruhiko Mikimoto's Macross 7: Trash, etc. Price is about 78 Fr. each. In conclusion, it looks like the French have a better selection of manga than English-literate fans and it seems to be a very popular genre too. The cover designs and touch ups looks reasonable, and most importantly, they don't leave out bits and sections of a manga and retains its original content as the Japanese editions. Thumbs up! That's the way it should be! ^_^
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P/s: If there are any French Shirow fans out there who would like to contribute a Shirow / manga resource or shopping guide in France, feel free to contact me and I'll put it up. Thanks.