Swan: Volume 1 (Swan (Graphic Novels))

I couldn't have asked for a more pristine copy. Having only ever had access to the library's old worn copies, I was dazzled (and so was my roommate) by the graphics inside. This manga series is one of my favorite, but you can't find it in book stores. I was nervous about buying them on amazon, but you have calmed those fears. Thanks!!!

CMX have done an excellent job of printing and presenting this volume of the famous ballet manga, the first of 21. Their translation's not bad, either. However, I do wish someone had thought to follow Del Rey's lead and provide a short explanatory introduction, otherwise "Swan's" primary audience (mainly girls from 10/11 up) are likely stumble on a few puzzling elements.Many of these arise from the fact that this title began publication almost 30 years ago - it ran in a Japanese girls' manga anthology from 1976 to 1981. Thus, Russian dancers come from the Soviet Union, whose main cities are still Moscow and Leningrad, rather than Moscow and St Petersburg. Then-famous real-life characters introduced into the story (Margot Fonteyn, Georges Balanchine) are less likely to be well-known; and so on. But the main difficulty lies in the style. Not so much the graphic elements of random flowers, stars, floating feathers etc - these are still with us, after all, and even appreciated. Not even those incredible 70s fashions - girls wearing knickerbockers, knee-high boots, huge floppy caps! guys in enormous cable-knit sweaters! everyone wearing at least three layered tops! No, at least in the early volumes it's the all-pervading melodrama, typical of shoujo manga at the time but now much toned down. Two girls caught talking in class weep and tremble before their teacher's anger. The simplest announcement creates shock-waves of tension among the students. Lots of fun if you want to wallow in the sheer emotion and angst of it all; perhaps harder to understand if you're used to the modern style.Nevertheless, there's a lot for anyone to enjoy here. At the time Ariyoshi wrote, ballet was still regarded as an exotic foreign import in Japan, appealing to a minority audience and with no official support. "Swan", superb entertainment though it is, thus has a didactic function as well: the author wants her audience as well as her characters to understand the foundations of this art. Ballet steps mentioned in the text are then described in footnotes; whenever her characters watch a performance, Ariyoshi includes information on when it was created, where performed and who first danced the main roles. Thanks to her superb illustrations - which only get better as the story goes on - this is no dry instructive exercise: she builds up a real sense of the history, traditions and dynamism of both classic and (later in the series) modern ballet.The first volume, as always, acts as an introduction to the entire long story to come. Our heroine, Masumi, has studied at a small amateur ballet school in the rural northern island of Hokkaido. Through a series of coincidences and amazing good luck, she's accepted into an elite group of students being trained in Tokyo by no less elite foreign teachers, including the handsome and enigmatic Russian, Sergiev. Masumi has natural talent and a passion for dance. However, the weaknesses in her early training may prove fatal to her chances of going further - just as her friendships with the other students (male and female) have begun to nurture her ambition to become a real dancer herself. Over the next 20 volumes, as Masumi becomes a young woman, she also has to balance her friendships and eventual loves against an ever more demanding career...Despite the reservations at the beginning of this review, "Swan" truly is one of *the* classic girls' manga, with even better storytelling and graphic art to come. Nostalgic fun for adults, and perfect for the young ballet fanatic in your life!