Oh, the crazy. Not only did I tackle National Novel Writing Month, but then I discovered that a local theater was playing a chunk of Studio Ghibli movies (each for only a couple days), and how often does that happen? So I made it work. Somehow.
b Whisper of the Heart: Oh, Country Roads. I love it when someone just gets obsessed with a song and uses it in some other medium. This one is STs favorite, I think, and I really loved it, too. It was nice to see it all in it's inspiring, romantic, and awkward glory. I like how it's kind of open-ended. I mean, you hope they'll keep their promise and stuff, but you don't really know. I like how the kids inspire each other. And the Baron is pretty great, as was that clock. I like how there's always a family in the background and some normal family troubles to ground the fantasy elements. I got kind of choked up.
b Only Yesterday: This one had some odd animation. There was something off about the main character's face when she smiled; it was just a little creepy. I had some trouble following the time jumps, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the flashback family was the older girl's past. It was late, and that probably made things seem more confusing. Anyway, what an odd duck this film was. It was one of the most Japanese Ghibli films, I think, grounded with almost ruthless firmness in history and nature. Maybe this is why Disney never released it here? I can't tell you how much I wanted to slap those horrible, petty, spiteful older sisters when they spiked her chance to finally do something she was good at. Dividing fractions. Sigh. I learned quite a bit about all sorts of things that will never help me win on Jeopardy. : )
Monday, December 31, 2012
Quotes of awesome December 2012, part 4
Bamboo Dong on Hellsing Ultimate: "His speech to his men was so ridiculous, that the DVD and Blu-Rays include a karaoke version of his speech. Yeah, that's right. You can bust out your best fake German accent and speak-along to his rant about sickly soft children and kriegs."
Sean Gaffney on NGE 13: "Neon Genesis Evangelion is (digitally) day/date with Japan! And out only a week later in print! This is truly amazing, and big kudos to Viz for pulling it off. Best of all, this is the version with the happy ending! … OK, I lie, it’s not. It’s still depressing. But hey, maybe Shinji is more proactive? The manga’s been good at that."
Melinda Beasi: ". . . it almost feels at this point as if those years weren’t missing at all. Older versions of Rin, Daikichi, Kouki, and even absent mom Masako are rich with history, and it seems clear that even if we were not privy to their offscreen years, those years absolutely happened in Unita’s imagination."
Jason Thompson on Suppli: "the true uniqueness of Suppli is the way it captures the lives of white-collar people in their 20s and 30s; I've never seen a manga so full of office gossip and back pain and late nights, or where two people have sex and then immediately have to get out of bed afterwards and work remotely on their laptops.. . . Sometimes, true love is just touching fingers at sunrise after you're both totally exhausted…from staying all night in the office doing Keynote presentations. All that stuff you think you know about Japanese business manga, like hostess bars and expense accounts and wine tasting, is so totally '80s. This is an office manga for the recession."
Carlo Santos on The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel 1: "The surprisingly high body count is also part of the story's appeal—this is dark fantasy with emphasis on the dark, a tale of blood and betrayal that doesn't pull punches for sensitive readers or miraculously resurrect characters for future use later."
Jean-Karlo on Gunsmith Cats: 'Sonoda isn't afraid of toeing the line between "tasteful nudity" and"needless cheesecake", either.'
Sean Gaffney on NGE 13: "Neon Genesis Evangelion is (digitally) day/date with Japan! And out only a week later in print! This is truly amazing, and big kudos to Viz for pulling it off. Best of all, this is the version with the happy ending! … OK, I lie, it’s not. It’s still depressing. But hey, maybe Shinji is more proactive? The manga’s been good at that."
Melinda Beasi: ". . . it almost feels at this point as if those years weren’t missing at all. Older versions of Rin, Daikichi, Kouki, and even absent mom Masako are rich with history, and it seems clear that even if we were not privy to their offscreen years, those years absolutely happened in Unita’s imagination."
Jason Thompson on Suppli: "the true uniqueness of Suppli is the way it captures the lives of white-collar people in their 20s and 30s; I've never seen a manga so full of office gossip and back pain and late nights, or where two people have sex and then immediately have to get out of bed afterwards and work remotely on their laptops.. . . Sometimes, true love is just touching fingers at sunrise after you're both totally exhausted…from staying all night in the office doing Keynote presentations. All that stuff you think you know about Japanese business manga, like hostess bars and expense accounts and wine tasting, is so totally '80s. This is an office manga for the recession."
Carlo Santos on The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel 1: "The surprisingly high body count is also part of the story's appeal—this is dark fantasy with emphasis on the dark, a tale of blood and betrayal that doesn't pull punches for sensitive readers or miraculously resurrect characters for future use later."
Jean-Karlo on Gunsmith Cats: 'Sonoda isn't afraid of toeing the line between "tasteful nudity" and"needless cheesecake", either.'
Super Awesome Studio Ghibli Marathon, Part 3
Oh, the crazy. Not only did I tackle National Novel Writing Month, but then I discovered that a local theater was playing a chunk of Studio Ghibli movies (each for only a couple days), and how often does that happen? So I made it work. Somehow.
b Kiki's Delivery Service: This was another one I had seen and forgotten most of the details of. It has been a long time since I saw this one. I found it more confusing this time, but that may have been the exhaustion catching up to me. I liked the nice couple she stayed with a lot, and I loved the warm feeling of the movie overall. This didn't make the dangerous bits any less heart-pounding, which is for the good, I think.
b The Cat Returns: This one was in English for some strange reason. And they played it before Whisper of the Heart (it's a sort of "sequal" to Whisper" but not really.) This one was pretty trippy, so I suspect it's supposed to be for the younger kids. But even Totoro had Japanese showings, so I'm baffled about that. There's this girl, and she saves a cat, but he's a prince of the cat world, so the cat king tries to reward her, and things just get very strange. It's okay because the baron (and I like his character design much better in this version) saves the day, true love conquers some, physics are mocked wonderfully, and everybody lives happily ever after, including the disagreeable, surly bouncer cat.
b Kiki's Delivery Service: This was another one I had seen and forgotten most of the details of. It has been a long time since I saw this one. I found it more confusing this time, but that may have been the exhaustion catching up to me. I liked the nice couple she stayed with a lot, and I loved the warm feeling of the movie overall. This didn't make the dangerous bits any less heart-pounding, which is for the good, I think.
b The Cat Returns: This one was in English for some strange reason. And they played it before Whisper of the Heart (it's a sort of "sequal" to Whisper" but not really.) This one was pretty trippy, so I suspect it's supposed to be for the younger kids. But even Totoro had Japanese showings, so I'm baffled about that. There's this girl, and she saves a cat, but he's a prince of the cat world, so the cat king tries to reward her, and things just get very strange. It's okay because the baron (and I like his character design much better in this version) saves the day, true love conquers some, physics are mocked wonderfully, and everybody lives happily ever after, including the disagreeable, surly bouncer cat.
Quotes December 2012, part 3
Bamboo Dong: "I don't usually go out of my way to make my To Watch lists season-appropriate, but as it turned out, everything I watched this week was filled with blood, guts, and lots of gore. Lots of limb-tearing too. I always imagined that it'd be relatively hard to physically tear someone's limb off, what with connective tissue and what not, but I guess people just really need to put their heart into it."
Sean Gaffney on Pastel: "Pastel is *still running* in Japan, with Volume 33 due out in November. Given it is, at heart, an ecchi harem manga bout a weak male lead, the various busty girls who fall for him, and their series of misunderstandings, the mind reels. I didn’t get very far into Pastel, but I know it has fans who enjoyed its slice-of-life, sometimes sweet story, so hope they enjoy seeing it go on. And on."
Katherine Dacey on Strobe Edge: "she’s less successful at expressing those ideas in a distinctive voice; Ninako is so utterly lacking in personality that everything she thinks and says sounds like a lyric from a Selena Gomez song."
Jessi on JoJo's Bizarre Adventures: "I'm going to come right out and say it; this series isn't the type of thing that one enjoys seriously. It's not "good" in the sense that its writing is anything worth mentioning or its animation is especially appealing, but it's entertaining in that its inherent badness wraps all the way around the quality spectrum and ends up being fun to watch, especially if there are some like-minded folks around willing to laugh and joke about huge men with weird hairstyles striking strange poses and having family names that would set a classic rock fan's heart afire (Speedwagon *snicker*). It's goofy yet it tries ever-so-hard to be serious and I can't get enough of it."
Sara K: "The drama also makes clear that in a society where saving face is more important than stopping abuse, abuse will flourish."
Michelle Smith on Stepping on Roses: "I knew going in that Stepping on Roses wasn’t going to be a masterpiece, but ye gods, is it ever dumb!. . . Being dumb doesn’t preclude Stepping on Roses from occasionally being entertaining."
Super Awesome Studio Ghibli Marathon, Part 2
Oh, the crazy. Not only did I tackle National Novel Writing Month, but then I discovered that a local theater was playing a chunk of Studio Ghibli movies (each for only a couple days), and how often does that happen? So I made it work. Somehow.
b Castle in the Sky: This was grand and magical and lovely on the big screen. I had seen it before but forgotten all the specifics (seriously all of them). I just knew there was flying and adventure and that I would adore it on a huge screen. And I did.
b Porco Rosso: This was another one I had seen and forgotten most of the details of. I just knew it had flying and would likely be gorgeous on a movie screen. And it was. This one is kind of non-standard, too, in that the protagonist is a middle aged man. We gather these tantalizing bits of backstory (he was an ace pilot in WWI who left the air force because he hates fascism, he's watched a lot of camrades die, he thinks he doesn't deserve to be loved and that anyone he loves will die or be hurt), but they are just bits you pick up when you meet someone and get to know them a little, not the focus of anything. Mostly it's flying and air piracy and brawling and rousing adventure and romance on the Mediterranean.
b My Neighbor Totoro: Animation and style a bit dated? Yes. Does it matter? No! I loved seeing this one in a theater with actual children who actually liked it. They were Japanese children since I didn't go to a subtitled show, but still. That scene in the rain with the umbrellas was awesomely loud! Warm, weird fuzzies abounded. A good time was had by all. Really a marvelous film, so I'm glad I was able to see if larger than life.
b Castle in the Sky: This was grand and magical and lovely on the big screen. I had seen it before but forgotten all the specifics (seriously all of them). I just knew there was flying and adventure and that I would adore it on a huge screen. And I did.
b Porco Rosso: This was another one I had seen and forgotten most of the details of. I just knew it had flying and would likely be gorgeous on a movie screen. And it was. This one is kind of non-standard, too, in that the protagonist is a middle aged man. We gather these tantalizing bits of backstory (he was an ace pilot in WWI who left the air force because he hates fascism, he's watched a lot of camrades die, he thinks he doesn't deserve to be loved and that anyone he loves will die or be hurt), but they are just bits you pick up when you meet someone and get to know them a little, not the focus of anything. Mostly it's flying and air piracy and brawling and rousing adventure and romance on the Mediterranean.
b My Neighbor Totoro: Animation and style a bit dated? Yes. Does it matter? No! I loved seeing this one in a theater with actual children who actually liked it. They were Japanese children since I didn't go to a subtitled show, but still. That scene in the rain with the umbrellas was awesomely loud! Warm, weird fuzzies abounded. A good time was had by all. Really a marvelous film, so I'm glad I was able to see if larger than life.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Quotes of awesome December 2012, part 2
Bamboo Dong on Freezing: "On the upside, for those who think that Freezing has just Too Much Plot and not enough boobies, there are six whole bite-sized OVAs who are almost entirely devoted to naked girls and titties."
Sean Gaffney on Loveless: "Given the cover, however, which features what seems to be an abused catboy being aggressively fondled by an unseen party, I’m going to guess that Loveless falls into ‘it may not be BL, but its fans sure are’. You know, like Naruto."
Connie on Skip Beat: "Skip Beat is my favorite right now. Period. Every volume brings me great joy. I will gush for approximately 500 more words about this volume. You should be prepared for that."
Katherine Dacey on Strobe Edge: "One of the most maddening aspects of shojo manga is that it can take 100 or 200 pages for a character to realize what she’s feeling, and another 200 or 300 before she actually tells someone; only the British period drama wrings more tension from its characters’ inability to say what they’re thinking."
Melinda Beasi on Loveless: "And speaking of Kouga’s proclivities… wow there is a lot going on here. There’s so much going on, in fact, that it comes close to being a train wreck, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that there is no train wreck I love more than a Yun Kouga train wreck."
"Kouga doesn’t write standard characters. Everyone in Loveless is kind of a weirdo, in the same way as most actual people are weirdos. They have layers of sometimes-contradictory issues, little idiosyncrasies, both attractive and unattractive flaws—and these are all a real part of the story."
Sean Gaffney on Loveless: "Given the cover, however, which features what seems to be an abused catboy being aggressively fondled by an unseen party, I’m going to guess that Loveless falls into ‘it may not be BL, but its fans sure are’. You know, like Naruto."
Connie on Skip Beat: "Skip Beat is my favorite right now. Period. Every volume brings me great joy. I will gush for approximately 500 more words about this volume. You should be prepared for that."
Katherine Dacey on Strobe Edge: "One of the most maddening aspects of shojo manga is that it can take 100 or 200 pages for a character to realize what she’s feeling, and another 200 or 300 before she actually tells someone; only the British period drama wrings more tension from its characters’ inability to say what they’re thinking."
Melinda Beasi on Loveless: "And speaking of Kouga’s proclivities… wow there is a lot going on here. There’s so much going on, in fact, that it comes close to being a train wreck, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that there is no train wreck I love more than a Yun Kouga train wreck."
"Kouga doesn’t write standard characters. Everyone in Loveless is kind of a weirdo, in the same way as most actual people are weirdos. They have layers of sometimes-contradictory issues, little idiosyncrasies, both attractive and unattractive flaws—and these are all a real part of the story."
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Super Awesome Studio Ghibli Marathon, Part 1
Oh, the crazy. Not only did I tackle National Novel Writing Month, but then I discovered that a local theater was playing a chunk of Studio Ghibli movies (each for only a couple days), and how often does that happen? So I made it work. Somehow.
b Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: I hadn't seen this yet because I was going to buy it, you know, someday. It's true that the manga has much more depth because it has more room to cover ground, but the movie holds together just fine. Oh, so lovely. It's "dated," but the watercolor feeling is kind of perfect.
b Pom Poko: What a thoroughly depressing movie. It has its moments, and it has plenty of time to have those moments in. Man vs. nature. (SPOILER: Nature loses.) On the way, there are plenty of totally Japanese folklore things that would make American parents have strokes. Most of these things have to do with the tanuki and their magical shapeshifting (especially of a particular body part that most Americans don't even want their kids to know about even if they possess it). The ending tries to be hopeful, but it just left me feeling tired and sad. I still have no idea why Disney released this one, but I don't care why. I think I'm just glad they didn't play it in English. My favorite part of the movie was definitely the comment someone (looking a bit shell-shocked) made while exiting the theater: "Well, that movie had balls."
b My Neighbors the Yamadas: So, if there is one movie in this series that is NOT like the others visually, it's this one. It's a movie based on a manga series (and I suspect it's a 4-koma series) about this wacky, sort of whimsical, quirky, normal everyday family composed of a mom, dad, older brother, younger sister, and grandma. The animation style is unique and simplified and varied. I cannot gush enough about the sound design, which was amazing and fascinating. Also, there is a ton of poetry in this movie, and it's unexpected and perfect.
b Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: I hadn't seen this yet because I was going to buy it, you know, someday. It's true that the manga has much more depth because it has more room to cover ground, but the movie holds together just fine. Oh, so lovely. It's "dated," but the watercolor feeling is kind of perfect.
b Pom Poko: What a thoroughly depressing movie. It has its moments, and it has plenty of time to have those moments in. Man vs. nature. (SPOILER: Nature loses.) On the way, there are plenty of totally Japanese folklore things that would make American parents have strokes. Most of these things have to do with the tanuki and their magical shapeshifting (especially of a particular body part that most Americans don't even want their kids to know about even if they possess it). The ending tries to be hopeful, but it just left me feeling tired and sad. I still have no idea why Disney released this one, but I don't care why. I think I'm just glad they didn't play it in English. My favorite part of the movie was definitely the comment someone (looking a bit shell-shocked) made while exiting the theater: "Well, that movie had balls."
b My Neighbors the Yamadas: So, if there is one movie in this series that is NOT like the others visually, it's this one. It's a movie based on a manga series (and I suspect it's a 4-koma series) about this wacky, sort of whimsical, quirky, normal everyday family composed of a mom, dad, older brother, younger sister, and grandma. The animation style is unique and simplified and varied. I cannot gush enough about the sound design, which was amazing and fascinating. Also, there is a ton of poetry in this movie, and it's unexpected and perfect.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Quotes December 2012, part 1
Connie on 5 Centimeters per Second: "It doesn’t share the overly sappy or idealistic version of romance one finds in shoujo, nor the more sexualized and/or also idealistic version one might find in shounen or seinen."
Sean Gaffney on the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic panel at NYCC: "Hasbro gets premises and outlines to approve, and notes they do listen to the audience – though they will not be crossing over with Transformers."
Bamboo Dong on Freezing: "While I was mostly accepting of the fanservice in Freezing, there were a few scenes that I thought really could have tried harder. "
Lianne Sentar on Vampire Knight: "Don’t believe everything the media tells you – some teenage girls have sex, but lots are just interested in sex in theory. They want boys, and they want sex, but not actually. That’s exactly what Vampire Knight gives them – boys, and sex, but not actually."
Katherine Dacey on Vampire Knight: "Vampire Knight — like a lot of literature for teenagers — offers thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls a safe outlet for imagining what adult relationships are like, minus the mundane stuff comes after the forbidden sexy biting: arguing about dirty dishes, paying the mortgage, attending parent-teacher conferences."
Karen Peck on Canon: "The names crack me up, too. “Rod” just doesn’t sound… menacing. Rod and Glenn sound like they’d be assistant managers at an Office Depot, not powerful vampires."
"I think it’s a little hypocritical of a vampire to wear turtlenecks anyway."
Sean Gaffney on the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic panel at NYCC: "Hasbro gets premises and outlines to approve, and notes they do listen to the audience – though they will not be crossing over with Transformers."
Bamboo Dong on Freezing: "While I was mostly accepting of the fanservice in Freezing, there were a few scenes that I thought really could have tried harder. "
Lianne Sentar on Vampire Knight: "Don’t believe everything the media tells you – some teenage girls have sex, but lots are just interested in sex in theory. They want boys, and they want sex, but not actually. That’s exactly what Vampire Knight gives them – boys, and sex, but not actually."
Katherine Dacey on Vampire Knight: "Vampire Knight — like a lot of literature for teenagers — offers thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls a safe outlet for imagining what adult relationships are like, minus the mundane stuff comes after the forbidden sexy biting: arguing about dirty dishes, paying the mortgage, attending parent-teacher conferences."
Karen Peck on Canon: "The names crack me up, too. “Rod” just doesn’t sound… menacing. Rod and Glenn sound like they’d be assistant managers at an Office Depot, not powerful vampires."
"I think it’s a little hypocritical of a vampire to wear turtlenecks anyway."
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
What I read in September : Digest Version, part 3 of 3
I am interested in finding out what she does with these characters after all these years.
b Library Wars 8:
Phew. We find out who's pulling strings and what Iku's fate is. Iku figures out who her prince is, and it's traumatic. For everyone. Other folks experience trauma, as well, and side characters continue getting some screen time of their own. Lots of folks complain about the relationship between Iku and Dojo, but I rather enjoy it. Now that its fundamental nature has changed, I wonder what's coming next . . .
b Saturn Apartments 5: Things keep moving slowly, but I feel like they're inching towards destruction. Specifically, I fear for Mitsu. Covering for someone else gets him hurt, and helping others continues to be his modus operandi. I always worry for the innocent characters when intrigue swirls around because they don't really know how to protect themselves. In realistic stories, they tend to get hurt.
b Shinobi Life 5:
This is another license I hope someone rescues because this series was way more fun than it really had any right to be. Lots of twists, and the most recent one is the best.
b Yotsuba 11: Yotsuba!!! Oh, the good-natured jolt of energy that is Yotsuba. A new volume always makes me smile, and I try really hard to make it last. I tell myself, "Only one chapter a day!" very sternly, but then I am lucky if I can make it last for two days. For some reason, Yotsuba reminds me of the 3-year-old I know right now. They even both have a stuffed animal with a totally weird name. Delightful!
b Library Wars 8:
Phew. We find out who's pulling strings and what Iku's fate is. Iku figures out who her prince is, and it's traumatic. For everyone. Other folks experience trauma, as well, and side characters continue getting some screen time of their own. Lots of folks complain about the relationship between Iku and Dojo, but I rather enjoy it. Now that its fundamental nature has changed, I wonder what's coming next . . . b Saturn Apartments 5: Things keep moving slowly, but I feel like they're inching towards destruction. Specifically, I fear for Mitsu. Covering for someone else gets him hurt, and helping others continues to be his modus operandi. I always worry for the innocent characters when intrigue swirls around because they don't really know how to protect themselves. In realistic stories, they tend to get hurt.
b Shinobi Life 5:
This is another license I hope someone rescues because this series was way more fun than it really had any right to be. Lots of twists, and the most recent one is the best."No one knows anything at first. We aren't born knowing how to do things. But when you really want to do something, you keep practicing and failing until you acquire the skill you need. There's no shame in not knowing how to do something. The thing that's embarrassing is not devoting yourself to reaching a goal."b Wild Adapter 4-5: Volume 4 is where we meet Anna and learn a bit about Kubota's past and what kind of person he is/was. Volume 5 is still my favorite, as it covers the missing year between volumes 1 and 2 through the eyes of the neighbor kid who helps them connect.
b Yotsuba 11: Yotsuba!!! Oh, the good-natured jolt of energy that is Yotsuba. A new volume always makes me smile, and I try really hard to make it last. I tell myself, "Only one chapter a day!" very sternly, but then I am lucky if I can make it last for two days. For some reason, Yotsuba reminds me of the 3-year-old I know right now. They even both have a stuffed animal with a totally weird name. Delightful!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Quotes November 2012, part 4
Sean Gaffney on a new license rescue: "I was pleased to see Gakuen Prince, as I wonder just how low it can go after the first three volumes."
Connie on Black Bird: "I know this is pretty much Shoujo Manga 101, and I can’t really blame Black Bird for the fact that I’m becoming a cranky old woman, but man. It can still be headache-inducing."
Bamboo Dong on Freezing: "Freezing is the kind of show that you buy online, not at Best Buy, because no one wants to walk up to the counter with a boxset featuring a girl with her clothes exploding off her tits."
Jason Thompson on Junko Mizuno: "THE MAIN CHARACTER OF LITTLE FLUFFY GIGOLO PELU IS AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC TESTICLE. (Or maybe ovary.) And you thought the love interest in Ceres: Celestial Legend was Freudian. "
Lynzee Lamb: "Zetsu, like a lot of entries on this list, has an unfortunate past rooted in science experiments, clones, and death that a little psychotherapy could help. It might help squash his off-putting habit of consuming dead human corpses as well. Maybe venison would be a viable alternative?"
Lori Henderson on Blood Alone: "This is a great title for readers who want more from their vampires than just killing things or moping."
Connie on Black Bird: "I know this is pretty much Shoujo Manga 101, and I can’t really blame Black Bird for the fact that I’m becoming a cranky old woman, but man. It can still be headache-inducing."
Bamboo Dong on Freezing: "Freezing is the kind of show that you buy online, not at Best Buy, because no one wants to walk up to the counter with a boxset featuring a girl with her clothes exploding off her tits."
Jason Thompson on Junko Mizuno: "THE MAIN CHARACTER OF LITTLE FLUFFY GIGOLO PELU IS AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC TESTICLE. (Or maybe ovary.) And you thought the love interest in Ceres: Celestial Legend was Freudian. "
Lynzee Lamb: "Zetsu, like a lot of entries on this list, has an unfortunate past rooted in science experiments, clones, and death that a little psychotherapy could help. It might help squash his off-putting habit of consuming dead human corpses as well. Maybe venison would be a viable alternative?"
Lori Henderson on Blood Alone: "This is a great title for readers who want more from their vampires than just killing things or moping."
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
What I read in September : Digest Version, part 2 of 3
My Heavenly Hockey Club and Yozakura Quartet rescued! And Vinland Saga licensed. Woohoo!
b Good Luck, Yukikaze:
This is the kind of sci-fi I cut my teeth on, only bleaker. I really like this kind of internal quandry, talky sci-fi that kind of kicks me in the head and makes me think about it later. It's a book of short stories again (more or less), and it can get tiring when read in large quantities. It's also not something I read right before I go to bed. Please, Viz, please publish the last collection. Pretty please? I kind of need to know what happens after the anime and this book.
b Gunslinger Girl Omnibus 11-12:
What price/cost revenge, Jean and Jose? And what will you do if/once you get it? What was it that Jean lost that made him the single-minded, moral sinkhole we all love to hate. Flashbacks. Sacrifices. Justice. Holy cow. We're coming to the end, everything is converging, and I foresee a lot of people having to make important philosophical decisions under extreme stress. I also foresee a lot of people dying horribly and a need for many tissues. Is the next set the end? Because my heart can't take much more of this . . .
b Ikigami 1: Wow. Yes, very like a punch to the gut. I wonder what I would classify this as? Could it be called dystopian sci-fi? I'm not really sure. Anyway, in an attempt to make people value their lives more, future Japan has created this program where all children get injected with capsules when they start school, and people are randomly chosen to die when those capsules explode (when the people are between 18 and 24). The world is building nicely as we follow a new person who gets to deliver the messages to the soon-to-be-deceased 24 hours before their deaths. This volume definitely earns its M rating not just for the adult theme of the whole thing. Yikes. Your mileage will vary with the stories, but over the individuals stories is this creeping horror about the sheer injust justice of this whole idea. Dear God, please let this never happen anywhere. I would like to believe that people would realize that, expecially in America, this would not significantly alter people's behaviors. Maybe this could work in Japan but I just can't see anyone making the argument for it working in the USA. In fact, I don't think it could work anywhere because people are people, and some people waste their lives and do bad things because they want to, and knowing they might only have 18 years to do so would likely not make them better people. Anyway, intriguing idea. I definitely want to read more. I wish my library had it, so I could read it in small doses since I'm not good with lots of creeping dread all at once.
b Kieli 7 As the Deep Ravine's Wind Howls: Okay, that last volume was pretty outstanding. This one was pretty decent, too. The haunted house was super creepy, and now poor Harvey is in even worse shape. The Corporal's not doing so hot, either. We're spiraling in, though, and the father of a certain friend of Kieli's makes an appearance. I think the next volume is coming in the spring, when I will be able to read it in the sun, as I have to do with all horror novels I attempt.
b Good Luck, Yukikaze:
This is the kind of sci-fi I cut my teeth on, only bleaker. I really like this kind of internal quandry, talky sci-fi that kind of kicks me in the head and makes me think about it later. It's a book of short stories again (more or less), and it can get tiring when read in large quantities. It's also not something I read right before I go to bed. Please, Viz, please publish the last collection. Pretty please? I kind of need to know what happens after the anime and this book.b Gunslinger Girl Omnibus 11-12:
What price/cost revenge, Jean and Jose? And what will you do if/once you get it? What was it that Jean lost that made him the single-minded, moral sinkhole we all love to hate. Flashbacks. Sacrifices. Justice. Holy cow. We're coming to the end, everything is converging, and I foresee a lot of people having to make important philosophical decisions under extreme stress. I also foresee a lot of people dying horribly and a need for many tissues. Is the next set the end? Because my heart can't take much more of this . . ."What business do you have with me, sergeant? I want a clear and concise explanation."b House of Five Leaves 8: Oh, I quite loved this ending. I recall lots of bloggers not liking this ending? Or maybe it was the anime ending people didn't like? Anyway, I'm glad I waited to finish the whole manga series before watching the anime. Now I can maybe not get the two confused. There were some real surprises at the wire here, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. I think everyone (who had any) got to keep their integrity, but it didn't feel cheap or forced. Very nice. I look forward to marathon re-reading this series one day soon.
"A clear explanation, sir?"
"Yes. As clear as the blue sicilian sky. Love at first site, sir!! Oof!!"
"Quit following me around. I have no interest in women."
"Really? Does that mean you're a homosexual, sir?"
"No, it does not. It means that I do not devote my attention or affection to other people."
(ME: Yeah, Jean. I guess you haven't really changed much . . .)
b Ikigami 1: Wow. Yes, very like a punch to the gut. I wonder what I would classify this as? Could it be called dystopian sci-fi? I'm not really sure. Anyway, in an attempt to make people value their lives more, future Japan has created this program where all children get injected with capsules when they start school, and people are randomly chosen to die when those capsules explode (when the people are between 18 and 24). The world is building nicely as we follow a new person who gets to deliver the messages to the soon-to-be-deceased 24 hours before their deaths. This volume definitely earns its M rating not just for the adult theme of the whole thing. Yikes. Your mileage will vary with the stories, but over the individuals stories is this creeping horror about the sheer injust justice of this whole idea. Dear God, please let this never happen anywhere. I would like to believe that people would realize that, expecially in America, this would not significantly alter people's behaviors. Maybe this could work in Japan but I just can't see anyone making the argument for it working in the USA. In fact, I don't think it could work anywhere because people are people, and some people waste their lives and do bad things because they want to, and knowing they might only have 18 years to do so would likely not make them better people. Anyway, intriguing idea. I definitely want to read more. I wish my library had it, so I could read it in small doses since I'm not good with lots of creeping dread all at once.
b Kieli 7 As the Deep Ravine's Wind Howls: Okay, that last volume was pretty outstanding. This one was pretty decent, too. The haunted house was super creepy, and now poor Harvey is in even worse shape. The Corporal's not doing so hot, either. We're spiraling in, though, and the father of a certain friend of Kieli's makes an appearance. I think the next volume is coming in the spring, when I will be able to read it in the sun, as I have to do with all horror novels I attempt.
Even if I can't make it to the final stop with him, please let me ride with him for as many moments as I can . . .
I don't mind killing a person or two if it's for you.
Could she really become someone who could protect the people she loved on her own, without relying on anyone else without hurting anyone alse? Somehow she thought that might be way, way beyond her.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Quotes of November 2012, Part 3
Connie on Barbara: "The first two chapters are about this problem, which is apparently that Mikura can’t tell the difference between non-humans and humans, falls in love, and has torrid sexual affairs with dogs and mannequins."
Sean Gaffney on Moyoco Anno: "She moved away from shoujo as it felt too unrealistic and no one really made mistakes or screwed up. Josei gives you more leeway in that regard. Ed noted her characters tended to dress fashionably, but Anno noted that’s because they cared about it. If she had a slob she’d dress them as a slob."
Katherine Dacey on Cross Manage: "For a series whose plot hinges on an accidental groping, Cross Manage is better than it has any right to be."
Bamboo on new rules for streaming reviews at ANN: "Those titles that are dropped will also have longer reviews, so I can properly explain why I feel justified in never watching another second ever again."
Jason Thompson on Junko Mizuno: ". . . but the stories are an affectionate homage to the 36-year-long Tora-san film series, about an eternal wanderer encountering sentiment and sadness, and of course drug overdoses and vomiting space hippos and flaming death."
Brian Hanson on teenaged anime heroes: "Hideaki Anno, mad genius that he is, wanted to tell a different kind of giant robot/giant monster story, one that included pain, loneliness, sorrow, and guilt, alongside the usual superheroics. And I, personally, can think of no other time in my life where I wasn't as lonely, in pain, felt sorrow, and wracked with guilt than when I was a 14-year old mopey teenager. That angry, confused time in our lives where our emotions outpace our intelligence, where every feeling and thought contains the entire universe. There's no more ripe fruit for hypersensitive angst than being a teenager, no sirree. Plus: Giant robots and monsters!"
Sean Gaffney on Moyoco Anno: "She moved away from shoujo as it felt too unrealistic and no one really made mistakes or screwed up. Josei gives you more leeway in that regard. Ed noted her characters tended to dress fashionably, but Anno noted that’s because they cared about it. If she had a slob she’d dress them as a slob."
Katherine Dacey on Cross Manage: "For a series whose plot hinges on an accidental groping, Cross Manage is better than it has any right to be."
Bamboo on new rules for streaming reviews at ANN: "Those titles that are dropped will also have longer reviews, so I can properly explain why I feel justified in never watching another second ever again."
Jason Thompson on Junko Mizuno: ". . . but the stories are an affectionate homage to the 36-year-long Tora-san film series, about an eternal wanderer encountering sentiment and sadness, and of course drug overdoses and vomiting space hippos and flaming death."
Brian Hanson on teenaged anime heroes: "Hideaki Anno, mad genius that he is, wanted to tell a different kind of giant robot/giant monster story, one that included pain, loneliness, sorrow, and guilt, alongside the usual superheroics. And I, personally, can think of no other time in my life where I wasn't as lonely, in pain, felt sorrow, and wracked with guilt than when I was a 14-year old mopey teenager. That angry, confused time in our lives where our emotions outpace our intelligence, where every feeling and thought contains the entire universe. There's no more ripe fruit for hypersensitive angst than being a teenager, no sirree. Plus: Giant robots and monsters!"
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
What I read in September : Digest Version, part 1 of 3
Sometimes you just need some ridiculous feel good shonen anime to get you through the surgery research. Just keep believing, Viewtiful Joe!
b 20th Century Boys 22:
Music will save the world! We're coming down to the wire. Everyone is gathered on safe ground. But is it really safe? If not, can the 20th Century Boys make it safe in time? Keep reading . . .
b Blue Exorcist 2-6: I like this series a lot. It is excellent to read while exercising. I think my favorite twist is the one that indicates that the one most likely to end up fighting on the enemy's side might not be the twin you'd expect. This is good, solid stuff, and I hope our heroes reconcile with each other for real. It's kind of hard watching them tiptoe around each other and play fooly games in their heads. I wasn't as surprised by the big reversal as I would have been if I hadn't read some reviews, but I was still pleased that they got it out of the way briskly and moved on to the fallout so quickly. Frankly, I prefer watching them work things out to waiting in tension as they grew closer and closer and then found out. This way is better; less lying/deception. It's also harder because they don't have the bonds they might have if they'd known each other longer.
b 20th Century Boys 22:
Music will save the world! We're coming down to the wire. Everyone is gathered on safe ground. But is it really safe? If not, can the 20th Century Boys make it safe in time? Keep reading . . .b Blue Exorcist 2-6: I like this series a lot. It is excellent to read while exercising. I think my favorite twist is the one that indicates that the one most likely to end up fighting on the enemy's side might not be the twin you'd expect. This is good, solid stuff, and I hope our heroes reconcile with each other for real. It's kind of hard watching them tiptoe around each other and play fooly games in their heads. I wasn't as surprised by the big reversal as I would have been if I hadn't read some reviews, but I was still pleased that they got it out of the way briskly and moved on to the fallout so quickly. Frankly, I prefer watching them work things out to waiting in tension as they grew closer and closer and then found out. This way is better; less lying/deception. It's also harder because they don't have the bonds they might have if they'd known each other longer.
"Do you promise to be true to me in sickness and in health, to love me, to honor me, and help me until death do us part?"b Bunny Drop 6: Oh, Rin. Oh, Kouki. Oh, everybody loses in the romantic relationships game in this volume. Relationships are complicated, and I was pleased to see that a certain amount of import was given to non-romantic relationships. Parent-child, childhood friend, single parent with other single parent, peer friendships, etc.
". . ."
"I may now chew the bride's lips off."
---
"While demons are pleasure-seekers who can only destroy, humans are weak because they walk the middle path. So which will it be for you?"
---
"I hate her! She's talented but just goofs around! She isn't serious! It makes serious people look stupid!"
"Don't be so uptight. People may look frivolous on the outside but still be thoughtful on the inside."
"Well, I'm not going out with Kouki now and don't plan to in the future.. . . But he's someone important to me. If something were to happen, I'd protect him."b Chi's Sweet Home 9: More Chi being adorable! (Shock.) Chi is grounded, but she escapes and tries living the life of a wild cat for a bit with her friend Cocchi. She fails and ends up falling asleep on the road. Short attention span theater. And then, an unexpected twist!
---
"I worry about him because he's such an idiot."
"Yeah. But Kouki always worries about you, too."
"Yeah. Is that weird, even though we're not going out?"
"No, I actually think it's a good thing. But when both of you find good matches, it probably can't stay the same."
"Yeah."
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Quotes November 2012, part 2
Connie on Swallowing the Earth: "I may be one of the few people that appreciated that work for the absurd and supremely sublime crazy it pumped out, so I was thrilled to get another taste."
est em on influences to her art: "I think that’s an effect of having watched Western films since forever. People who read a lot of manga draw manga-like manga, people who read novels, I think they probably draw things that have a lot of monologues or dialogue. My biggest influence is the Western films I’ve been going to see since junior high school, mostly American films, but also French films, Italian films, Russian films."
Katherine Dacey on Barabara: "Like most of Osamu Tezuka’s mature fiction of the 1970s, it’s equally fascinating and infuriating, with passages of sublime beauty and passages of sheer, WTF?! ridiculousness."
Sean Gaffney on titles beloved by bloggers: "They also have a new Case Closed and the penultimate volume (did I really use penultimate twice in one post?) of Kekkaishi, which is beloved by bloggers (and hence has mediocre sales, the usual fate of titles beloved by bloggers)."
Jason Thompson on Flowers & Bees: "In Moyoco Anno's manga, you don't wish that you were the main character; you thank God that you're not the main character.. . . This is a very unique love-com manga, but there is one way that Komatsu is like other love-com manga protagonists: he's such a dork that almost any reader will be grateful they're not like him."
Ben Applegate on Barbara: "(Tezuka himself would never condone violence and misogynism of the kind depicted in the book, and simply because it's in there doesn't imply any kind of moral judgment one way or the other.)"
est em on influences to her art: "I think that’s an effect of having watched Western films since forever. People who read a lot of manga draw manga-like manga, people who read novels, I think they probably draw things that have a lot of monologues or dialogue. My biggest influence is the Western films I’ve been going to see since junior high school, mostly American films, but also French films, Italian films, Russian films."
Katherine Dacey on Barabara: "Like most of Osamu Tezuka’s mature fiction of the 1970s, it’s equally fascinating and infuriating, with passages of sublime beauty and passages of sheer, WTF?! ridiculousness."
Sean Gaffney on titles beloved by bloggers: "They also have a new Case Closed and the penultimate volume (did I really use penultimate twice in one post?) of Kekkaishi, which is beloved by bloggers (and hence has mediocre sales, the usual fate of titles beloved by bloggers)."
Jason Thompson on Flowers & Bees: "In Moyoco Anno's manga, you don't wish that you were the main character; you thank God that you're not the main character.. . . This is a very unique love-com manga, but there is one way that Komatsu is like other love-com manga protagonists: he's such a dork that almost any reader will be grateful they're not like him."
Ben Applegate on Barbara: "(Tezuka himself would never condone violence and misogynism of the kind depicted in the book, and simply because it's in there doesn't imply any kind of moral judgment one way or the other.)"
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Why I love Rasetsu
- This comedy-horror-romance grows from quirky-character-filled sitcom to seriously touching romance-comedy-horror.
- It's sort of coming of age for Rasetsu as she grows from someone who desperately wants a boyfriend literally to save her life to a centered and strong young woman who wants to save herself with the help of her friends and those she loves.
- It's also kind of a late coming-of-age story for Yako as he grows from a very closed person content with being miserable for the rest of his life into a more honest and confident young man willing to actually try living and helping people.
- If you like love triangle shenanigans, they're here, and they don't really feel forced because you can see why people might be attracted to Rasetsu and why she might be attracted to them.
- Even the secondary characters really mean something and have their moments.
There are also some truly creepy images as some of these restless spirits are just definitely things you wouldn't want to meet in the dark. - The character-based comedy is pretty good, too, and the characters are all older than standard shojo (late teens, twenties, thirties).
- I love the twists, the episodic bits, and the overarching stories. It's good stuff.
- I cry in the last volume every time.
- And is it just me, or do certain panels feature characters who bear a super-strong resemblance to Setona Mizushiro's? I mean scary similar faces and eyes every so often.
- High reread value, too.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Quotes November 2012, part 1
Connie on The Tyrant Falls in Love: "Souichi’s emotional moments are a thing of angry, completely affectionless beauty. They are what they are, though, and it makes Morinaga happy."
Katherine Dacey on A Devil and Her Love Song: "Tomori nails her characters’ body language and their fitful conversations, which unfold not in eloquent declarations but incomplete sentences, painful silences, and sudden bursts of honesty. I don’t know about you, but that’s how I remember high school, as a time when I had flashes of insight and bravery, but a lot more moments of cringe-inducing stupidity, cowardice, or tongue-tied helplessness."
Jessi on Sword Art Online: "That kind of material is bad enough when it's actually expected, but when the series could operate perfectly well on its own merits yet chooses to indulge in something cheap, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
Lissa Pattillo on The Tyrant Falls in Love: "The relationship between Morinaga and Tatsumi continues to crawl forward at an entertainingly agonizing pace."
Joseph Luster on Humanity Has Declined: "What they find inside is a virtual maze of mass-production, a suicidal bread loaf and, ultimately, cluckin' cooked chickens with some lofty, sinister aspirations."
Carl Kimlinger on Texhnolyze: "Texhnolyze is possibly the least enjoyable series ever. Not in a bad way.. . . Watching Texhnolyze is akin to being beaten with a gloom hammer for eight hours."
Katherine Dacey on A Devil and Her Love Song: "Tomori nails her characters’ body language and their fitful conversations, which unfold not in eloquent declarations but incomplete sentences, painful silences, and sudden bursts of honesty. I don’t know about you, but that’s how I remember high school, as a time when I had flashes of insight and bravery, but a lot more moments of cringe-inducing stupidity, cowardice, or tongue-tied helplessness."
Jessi on Sword Art Online: "That kind of material is bad enough when it's actually expected, but when the series could operate perfectly well on its own merits yet chooses to indulge in something cheap, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
Lissa Pattillo on The Tyrant Falls in Love: "The relationship between Morinaga and Tatsumi continues to crawl forward at an entertainingly agonizing pace."
Joseph Luster on Humanity Has Declined: "What they find inside is a virtual maze of mass-production, a suicidal bread loaf and, ultimately, cluckin' cooked chickens with some lofty, sinister aspirations."
Carl Kimlinger on Texhnolyze: "Texhnolyze is possibly the least enjoyable series ever. Not in a bad way.. . . Watching Texhnolyze is akin to being beaten with a gloom hammer for eight hours."
Sunday, October 28, 2012
What I watched in August: Digest Version, Part 2 of 2
b Gungrave: I think this probably qualifies as MANime. At least until it falls apart at the end. Actually, maybe that's part of the MANime madness? Nah, I blame that part all on the video game. The bits around that are pretty good, though. Lots of violence, so it's not for the weak of stomach. If you really want a deep and intricate plot, it's probably not the one you want to choose. If you want a nice buddy story gone terribly, horribly wrong with lots of action and mayhem and bullets and tears and some really silly names, well, this is an excellent choice.
"Bind your opponent with invisible irons. That's the true way to use power."b Hetalia: Some people (and some governments) maybe take this show/manga too seriously. I mean, any country that actually sanctions another because of a gag comedy that makes fun of all the countries is probably . . . (And they didn't even see the American dub which amps up the offensiveness even more with a cheerful smile and a rude gesture.) In the commentary, they talked about their desire to offend everyone because they don't believe in singling countries out. I would say they have achieved success at this equal-opportunity policy. And frequently hilariousness.
---
"Whatever made me think living was so important?"
---
"A place for people with dreams like you who can still look toward the future with hope."
---
"I love the taste of despair!"
"I say we hit Italy first because they can't drive and are usually drunk!"b Moribito: Am I seriously getting misty-eyed just from hearing that tune play over the menu? Yes, yes I am. Because this show is THAT good.
---
"Their killer technique is profiting from the sidelines." (France)
---
"Waving this white flag is really tiring!" (Italy)
---
"I'll definitely (probably) quit it." (can't remember)
Someday, I will cosplay Balsa. I will need to be able to use my hands and arms enough to do some serious weight-lifting before then. So maybe I will not ever cosplay Balsa, but I would if I had better muscle definition on my arms. Anyway, have I mentioned that I love this show? Because I do. It has action, drama, mystery, fantasy, a dash of romance, amazing animation, good music, a decent plot, and Tanda. Who really needs a hug. Just because. I cry at the end every time. I want to read more of the novels SOOOOOO BAAAAAAAD. Oh, please, Viz, please. PLEASE!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Quotes October 2012, part IV
Connie on A Devil and Her Love Song: "But I can’t get over how much I love this series! It’s really quite different from your usual shoujo manga, depressing and uplifting at the same time."
Rachael in How to Be a Fan of Problematic Things which you should go read (R-rated language in that article, FYI):
Paul Thomas Chapman on Char's Counterattack: "One of the things that attracted me to anime in the first place was its essential foreignness, its ability to weave a narrative that operated outside of what I traditionally encountered in Western animation."
Sean Gaffney on The Earl and the Fairy: "I’m afraid that Edgar and Lydia are not helping their causes when it comes to making me not want to strangle them."
Rachael in How to Be a Fan of Problematic Things which you should go read (R-rated language in that article, FYI):
"Liking problematic things doesn’t make you an asshole. In fact, you can like really problematic things and still be not only a good person, but a good social justice activist (TM)! After all, most texts have some problematic elements in them, because they’re produced by humans, who are well-known to be imperfect."There were some bits in this article I wasn't sure I agreed with, but it sure was thought-provoking. (Several of my friends have found themselves giving certain works another try and liking them after I explained what I liked about them, so that experience in particular rang true.)
...
"Especially do not ever suggest that people not take media “so seriously”, or argue that it’s “just” a tv show. The narratives that we surround ourselves with can subtly, subconsciously influence how we think about ourselves and others. That’s why creating imaginary fantasy and sci fi worlds that have more equal societies can be a powerful thing for marginalised people, who mainstream media rarely acknowledges as heroes."
...
"As fans, sometimes we need to remember that the things we like don’t define our worth as people. So there’s no need to defend them from every single criticism or pretend they are perfect. Really loving something means seeing it as it really is, not as you wish it were. You can still be a good fan while acknowledging the problematic elements of the things you love. In fact, that’s the only way to be a good fan of problematic things. "
Paul Thomas Chapman on Char's Counterattack: "One of the things that attracted me to anime in the first place was its essential foreignness, its ability to weave a narrative that operated outside of what I traditionally encountered in Western animation."
Sean Gaffney on The Earl and the Fairy: "I’m afraid that Edgar and Lydia are not helping their causes when it comes to making me not want to strangle them."
Sunday, October 21, 2012
What I watched in August: Digest Version, Part 1 of 2
b Broken Blade: Oh, that opening is stuck in my head until the next time I watch the Guin Saga closer. (Keep those amazing theme songs for dramatic fantasy/sci-fi mecha coming, folks! ; ) I liked this the second time through, too, but I was still frustrated by the dangling threads that those who read Japanese will get to see resolved in the manga, which I think is still being published. There is certainly closure to some things, but the things I was most interested in were not among them. Again, it was nice to see adults have most of the starring roles. It brings some different things to the table.
b Guin Saga: Thank goodness this isn't even close to as graphic as the novels. Unfortunately, it's totally watered down, instead. (I'm mostly okay with that since my stomach couldn't handle such horrific violence in a visual medium.) Actually, it's kind of like an anime Cliff's notes. Holy cow! They tried to cram something like 40 volumes worth of the novels into 26 episodes. Something had to give, and that something was details. Those details were pretty important for character development, so the end result is you get to go further in the adventure, but you care less. Or maybe that only applies if you read the novels and know what you're missing. I would like some folks who enjoy fantasy to give it a try and let me know their reaction, so I can see if it holds together better for people who haven't read the novels. Not that I'm really, really complaining because since it doesn't look like any more of the novels will see print in English, it was sort of nice to find out what happened down the road, right? Then again, I may be lying to myself because I've never liked Cliff's Notes or abridged versions because they tend to take out all the really important words in trade for a clearer/cleaner plot. Not that the novels need help since their plots are pretty straightforward . . .
The dub for the first half was pretty serviceable, though I wasn't too fond of Istavan's voice for some reason I couldn't pin down even though I usually like David Matranga's work, and then . . .?!?! WTH?! The dub for the second half is increasingly awful. It got selected for worst dub on Anime News Network, but I thought that was for the songs. (Which were pretty bad in English. Just leave 'em in Japanese, guys; it's okay.) What bothered me more is that it's like they stopped caring! They started adding all these ad-libs and going for comedy readings (this approach worked in Wedding Peach because it wasn't straight drama and was pretty ridiculous). This ill-considered and executed humor served to destroy any integrity remaining in this 100% serious dramatic action fantasy. So many of the shows Sentai releases don't have dubs, so it seems inexcusable to spend the money to produce one that's so sub-par. Usually I don't take this kind of thing personally, but I'm a tad offended. The next time through, I'll watch it all in Japanese, and maybe I won't have this bitter taste in my mouth. And I will probably listen to/watch the ending theme song every time again. : )
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Quotes October 2012, part 3
est em on her work: "But I really like drawing men. When I was in junior high, high school, I loved Michelangelo, and there was a period where I copied him obsessively. I just adored the human body that he drew. I really love drawing the male body, the muscles. Simply in terms of the lines, there’s a tremendous amount that interests me. And also, the fact that you don’t have to protect yourself makes things really easy for me. With female protagonists, you really have to put in a lot for the psychological portrayal. Monologues, what the character is thinking at that time, you really need that stuff for josei manga. It’s a world where feelings need to be made clear, and drawing it is a good bit of work."
Connie on Black Butler: "As a necessary act of good faith to the crown after his last disastrous mission (where Ciel wound up roasting children alive) . . ."
Jessi on Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero: "Within the first five minutes of this series, the main character steals the bras and panties of several battle-maids who have been sent to capture him. This really sets the tone for the remainder of the episode."
Katherine Dacey on A Devil and Her Love Song: "Ayu’s subsequent behavior, however, points to one of the series’ weaknesses: characters have epiphanies with whiplash-inducing frequency. (Saul would never have made it to Damascus if he fell off his donkey as many times as Maria’s classmates do.)"
JRB on not simple: "Ian is indeed very passive; the protagonist-victims in these stories usually are, since the point of the exercise is essentially to watch them suffer and and thereby experience Aristotelian “pity and terror”. (This is a type of story that has gone out of fashion in the West; nowadays we feel uncomfortable with pity and those who suffer beautifully and prefer stories where victims rise up and murder their oppressors.) Not Simple is shorter and more, well, simple than some of the more celebrated examples, but I think it ends up successful in being a feel-bad book."
Jason Thompson at JRB: "Call me someone who was an adolescent in ’90s America, but I prefer my suffering protagonists to be more aware & present in their own emo, masturbatory (self-)torment."
Connie on Black Butler: "As a necessary act of good faith to the crown after his last disastrous mission (where Ciel wound up roasting children alive) . . ."
Jessi on Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero: "Within the first five minutes of this series, the main character steals the bras and panties of several battle-maids who have been sent to capture him. This really sets the tone for the remainder of the episode."
Katherine Dacey on A Devil and Her Love Song: "Ayu’s subsequent behavior, however, points to one of the series’ weaknesses: characters have epiphanies with whiplash-inducing frequency. (Saul would never have made it to Damascus if he fell off his donkey as many times as Maria’s classmates do.)"
JRB on not simple: "Ian is indeed very passive; the protagonist-victims in these stories usually are, since the point of the exercise is essentially to watch them suffer and and thereby experience Aristotelian “pity and terror”. (This is a type of story that has gone out of fashion in the West; nowadays we feel uncomfortable with pity and those who suffer beautifully and prefer stories where victims rise up and murder their oppressors.) Not Simple is shorter and more, well, simple than some of the more celebrated examples, but I think it ends up successful in being a feel-bad book."
Jason Thompson at JRB: "Call me someone who was an adolescent in ’90s America, but I prefer my suffering protagonists to be more aware & present in their own emo, masturbatory (self-)torment."
Sunday, October 14, 2012
What I read in August: Digest Version, part 2 of 2
Is Goong cancelled?! NOOOOOOO!!! Yen, don't do this to me.
b 13th Boy 12:
Oh, our crazy anthropomorphic, fried-chicken loving cactus may have made the ultimate sacrifice, but that doesn't guarantee a happy ever after for the characters who remain. The characters stayed true to themselves, so I was pleased even as I wanted to kick some of them in the head. The happy ending was earned, and a bonus story shows that some of the other characters may be in for happy endings of their own. Except for the cactus. I cried about the cactus.b Blood+ Kowloon Nights:
Dark Horse, sometimes you really baffle me with the things that you publish. I mean, I'm a big fan of Hagi, and I was pretty curious about what he was doing when Saya slept, but this book didn't really add anything new to his character. Good thing he's a pretty good character anyway. b Dogs: Bullets and Carnage 6: No idea where I last left off this story in volume 5. It's been a long time. Pretty quickly, I don't care because we get some of that clear back-story for Heine, and it's about as brutal as I expected. Wow. Don't make deals with the devil in any of his incarnations, dude. Bad things happen. Now Giovanni makes more sense, too. This series is probably still more focused on style than substance, so it's good that the style it has is enough to keep me reading despite the sword-fights, bullets, and extreme carnage that earn this bad boy its M rating.
b Gon 6: In this volume, Gon helps out some baby birds, helps an ancient elephant make it to his final resting place of choice, and climbs a mountain in a howling blizzard just because it's there, and he's a badass little dinosaur who can do anything he sets his mind to. He does other things, and this wordless comic still amuses me to no end. Oh, Gon, I will be sad when you are over with the next volume, but I will re-read you.
b Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries 1:
This was really a lot of fun for the part of me that likes Sherlock Holmes mysteries and people bucking the class system. He was a street urchin who rose through the ranks to become a famous lawyer and then gave it up to become her butler. She's a woman of noble-birth with a penchant for writing mystery stories and solving real-life mysteries when she can get the chance. They both have ways of obtaining information to help solve cases that the other lacks. He loves her; she still sees him as an annoying childhood friend. It's all rather gruesome (the murder mystery) and delightful (the character interactions).b Sakura Hime
3-4: More bad things happen; some things are made clearer; other things are obscured. Character revelations are made, and they are more than a little horrifying. It reminds me a bit of the anime Strain where by the end I was pretty sure I sided with the folks who just wanted to blow all of humanity away. I am not totally on the side of the poor, beleaguered, butt-kicking non-humans, but I completely understand where their boss is coming from. Good thing Sakura is made of stern shojo stuff.b Toradora 4: Ah, the pool bits. Hilarious and horrifying in equal measures. We get some insight into the minds of boys during pool classes (and their own body-conscious worries). And I did find out what vale tudo is. You can, too, if you Google it.
b A Zoo in Winter by Jiro Taniguchi: Wow. There is something solid and quiet and calm about his art style in this that somehow prevents any of the drama from seeming like melodrama (even when it sort of is). They get away with lines that would induce eye-rolls because they are serious about this stuff, and they probably did talk like that, and it's all kind of fascinating. And then it just sort of . . .stops. It doesn't really end because that implies some sort of wrap-up of some kind. It just stopped, and I wanted to read more.
"Maybe this place is haunted because there's something mysterious that possesses people in places of creation." 66
"Doing what you love for work. Sounds idyllic!"
"They say you can't do this if you don't love it."
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Quotes October 2012, part 2
est em on her work: "I like the drama there, so I do relationships between men. It doesn’t matter if it’s love or not. That closeness, a closeness that’s not there with women, well, I guess it’s a kind of human relationship. And I really love that part."
Connie on Dawn of the Arcana: "He’s strangely calm. Such calmness, outside of shoujo manga, would make one suspect that Loki is merely biding his time until he murders Caesar." [I am not convinced that is not what he is doing.]
Jessi Silver on Gankutsuou: "Even The Count plays this game, and in fact he seems to play it with the sort of finesse that the others can only dream about. He toes a very thin line between charming the pants off of his acquaintances and scaring the life out of them, his coolly-calculated moves hiding behind a fine-but-convincing layer of sincerity."
Katherine Dacey on Library Wars 8: "Volume eight has almost made me into a convert, as it strikes a better balance between Ray Bradburian intrigue and shojo romance, introducing a subplot with a radical anti-censorship group and a possible court martial for Kasahara. What prevents it from being a slam dunk is Kasahara’s impenetrable cluelessness . . . "
Kristie on A Drunken Dream: "The age group of the manga magazines Hagio’s comics originally appeared in is interesting not because her stories deal with suicide, parental abuse, and intense self loathing. The shock isn’t in the plot of her comics, the shock is in how terribly effective these comics are. Because here is something that sometimes people forget: Suicide, parental abuse, and intense self loathing are not “rated R” themes. CONTENT isn’t the ideas found in a piece, it is the execution of the ideas found in a piece and Moto Hagio’s execution is as precise as a surgeon."
Paul Thomas Chapman on Char's Counterattack: "Now I’m older and wiser and quite a bit more cynical, and my experience with Gundam isn’t limited to a single bootleg tape borrowed from an equally enthusiastic friend. And I can still say that, despite years of experience, Char’s Counterattack still doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but damn does it still look cool."
Connie on Dawn of the Arcana: "He’s strangely calm. Such calmness, outside of shoujo manga, would make one suspect that Loki is merely biding his time until he murders Caesar." [I am not convinced that is not what he is doing.]
Jessi Silver on Gankutsuou: "Even The Count plays this game, and in fact he seems to play it with the sort of finesse that the others can only dream about. He toes a very thin line between charming the pants off of his acquaintances and scaring the life out of them, his coolly-calculated moves hiding behind a fine-but-convincing layer of sincerity."
Katherine Dacey on Library Wars 8: "Volume eight has almost made me into a convert, as it strikes a better balance between Ray Bradburian intrigue and shojo romance, introducing a subplot with a radical anti-censorship group and a possible court martial for Kasahara. What prevents it from being a slam dunk is Kasahara’s impenetrable cluelessness . . . "
Kristie on A Drunken Dream: "The age group of the manga magazines Hagio’s comics originally appeared in is interesting not because her stories deal with suicide, parental abuse, and intense self loathing. The shock isn’t in the plot of her comics, the shock is in how terribly effective these comics are. Because here is something that sometimes people forget: Suicide, parental abuse, and intense self loathing are not “rated R” themes. CONTENT isn’t the ideas found in a piece, it is the execution of the ideas found in a piece and Moto Hagio’s execution is as precise as a surgeon."
Paul Thomas Chapman on Char's Counterattack: "Now I’m older and wiser and quite a bit more cynical, and my experience with Gundam isn’t limited to a single bootleg tape borrowed from an equally enthusiastic friend. And I can still say that, despite years of experience, Char’s Counterattack still doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but damn does it still look cool."
Sunday, October 7, 2012
What I read in August: Digest Version, part 1 of 2
I find myself shocked and appalled by the fact that no one has made an FMA AMV of the Decemberists "The Shankill Butchers." Seriously, internet? You disappoint me.
b 20th Century Boys 21:
All the threads converging slowly, deliberately, perfect endings each time (not quite cliffhanger but definitely making you want to read to find out what happens next).b Alice in the Country of Hearts
omnibus 1-3 of 3: It's true that those who didn't read to the end of this series missed out on the part that pulled many of the foreshadowing threads throughout together finally. Dwaaaawwwww. Finding out what you do at the end sheds a new light on things and somewhat redeems what would otherwise have been a totally frilly, silly bit of reverse-harem comedy fluff.b Book Girl and the Wayfarer's Lamentation: I was quite surprised that this plot thread unravelled here. There are still quite a few books left; I thought this was the main conflict. I guess I was wrong. I hope the real main conflict feels organic and not tacked on because I really like these books and all their broken people and literary nerdiness.
b Dawn of the Arcana 5: Things get even more muddy in this volume, as everyone figures out the dastardly plot and then tries to stop another slaughter from happening. And Cain? Your life story has been unpleasant, but you're not helping yourself by lending yourself to more evil, as if that will erase the wrong done to you.
b Gimmick! 9:
And the finale! More passionate declarations, more makeup art madness, and some really touching reunions. Villains learn their lessons, mentors return from their globetrotting and make me laugh with their weird reasons for going on with special effects. Good stuff!"Why are you so mad? It's our job to make people believe things that aren't true! To make them believe lies."b Kaze Hikaru 20: As with every new volume, I was totally lost at the beginning, but it very quickly didn't matter at all because this series is so fantastically awesome. There are consequences for Kamiya's dressing up as a girl briefly a little bit ago, and in this volume, she's undercover in a dangerous way. No one really explains it to Hijikata, and things are pretty tense until the end, which wraps up kind of hilariously . . . I never thought I would be grateful for having watched the Shura no Toki MANime for this reason: because it made me look up Ryoma Sakamoto, I could really enjoy his bits in this shojo manga of awesome. Thanks, MANime.
"But with that power comes responsibility, Kazuki. We can never use it to deceive people."
"But millions of people believed my lie! I was just using the power of SFX that you taught me.!"
"You still don't get it! SFX should only be used for good!"
Do you really think your friend's death was your fault? We just do our jobs. What people do after seeing those images is entirely on them. Nobody made your friend enlist. If people are deceived by images, then they're fools. BE proud of your abilities, Kohei Nagase! The SFX you created fooled everyone. You defeated reality!"
"That's not why I got into this business."
"The process of creation is basically communicating something to others."
b Legal Drug
1-3: In honor of CLAMP re-starting this series, I read it again. I see the seeds of xxxHolic here in the move towards more solid black and white and the vignettes and mysteries and mysterious store owner and awkward relationship between the two protagonists. They better fill in the missing pieces of background in this one, is all I can say. Reading it again just made me more curious . . . One of my favorite quotes about this series came from my co-worker at the bookstore who took one look at the marijauan leaf logo and said, "I don't think this is actually a legal drug."
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Quotes October 2012, Part I
Melinda Beasi: "I’d read a lot of shounen manga and a lot of fairly uplifting shoujo, and one of the things that nearly always happens in those series, is that characters we initially perceive as villains will turn around and become very sympathetic characters, by way of backstory or some other kind of revelation later on. The message driven home by that trope is that understanding is the key to learning to love someone, or perhaps that anyone can be granted salvation (of a sort) by way of understanding. These series are careful to always give us something to latch on to—to help us understand even the most seemingly depraved characters before the end."
Connie on the Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese: "They’re both flawed, and their flaws keep them from growing closer."
Arwen Spicer on Banana Fish: "I’ve heard him called a Mary Sue, yet I disagree–because, although he’s a bit of a superhero, he carries deep psychological scars that fit coherently with his experiences and contribute to the self-marring of his life and relationships. He is not perfect or even a “pretty sufferer” in Mary Sue fashion. He is a brilliant but damaged young man who will carry some form of that dysfunctionality for life. Thus, he wins my suspension of disbelief for his magic, and he wins my sympathy."
Sean Gaffney: "Now admittedly the three series have flaws. Library Wars doesn’t have enough war for some people; Otomen continues to be a BL series with no BL; and Oresama Teacher is written by Izumi Tsubaki, who is the ‘oooooh, shiny thing!’ of Beat authors. This does not make the series less awesome."
Jessi Silver on reviewing anime first episodes: "Despite arguments to the contrary, I cannot name a series that I've seen which has a terrible opening episode and which has somehow improved itself sufficiently to crawl back into my good-graces."
TV Tropes on Zoids CC: "Zoids. The first series (Chaotic Century) in particular. The entire script is so laughably bad it's amazing that everyone keeps a straight face. (Van and Raven's exchange in episode 33 is a personal favorite example) But that's the reason it works. The whole universe speaks in narm and once you get used to it you realize that it's the language of the universe and it's a much more entertaining universe as a result. "
Connie on the Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese: "They’re both flawed, and their flaws keep them from growing closer."
Arwen Spicer on Banana Fish: "I’ve heard him called a Mary Sue, yet I disagree–because, although he’s a bit of a superhero, he carries deep psychological scars that fit coherently with his experiences and contribute to the self-marring of his life and relationships. He is not perfect or even a “pretty sufferer” in Mary Sue fashion. He is a brilliant but damaged young man who will carry some form of that dysfunctionality for life. Thus, he wins my suspension of disbelief for his magic, and he wins my sympathy."
Sean Gaffney: "Now admittedly the three series have flaws. Library Wars doesn’t have enough war for some people; Otomen continues to be a BL series with no BL; and Oresama Teacher is written by Izumi Tsubaki, who is the ‘oooooh, shiny thing!’ of Beat authors. This does not make the series less awesome."
Jessi Silver on reviewing anime first episodes: "Despite arguments to the contrary, I cannot name a series that I've seen which has a terrible opening episode and which has somehow improved itself sufficiently to crawl back into my good-graces."
TV Tropes on Zoids CC: "Zoids. The first series (Chaotic Century) in particular. The entire script is so laughably bad it's amazing that everyone keeps a straight face. (Van and Raven's exchange in episode 33 is a personal favorite example) But that's the reason it works. The whole universe speaks in narm and once you get used to it you realize that it's the language of the universe and it's a much more entertaining universe as a result. "
Sunday, September 30, 2012
What I watched in July: Digest Version
TRSI licensed Rose of Versailles. Sentai licensed Mawaru Penguindrum. Signs of the Apocalypse? Excellent!
b Best Student Council: My initial thought was, "What is with the puppet?" I was having puppet flashbacks to Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Eventually, I realized, "This is just the kind of show where someone walks around with a puppet all the time; just deal with it or stop watching. "You're with the Best Student Council now. You shouldn't be hanging around with a no-good puppet like me." The puppet does end up being more than just a gag, but you have to put up with all the general wacky hijinks until then. Your call. This one was a lot of fun to watch/listen to in the background while doing other things. I don't know if I would have liked it as much if I had to concentrate hard on every minute of it.
b Cosmo Warrior Zero: Oh, Leiji Matsumoto and your MANime. It's ridiculous, and I really like it. Lest you think I'm talking about a comedy, Zero is actually supposed to be a manly space drama, I think, and it does take itself pretty seriously most of the time. There are some moments where you'll have to just abandon your brain, but it's a fun ride. Except for the bits about genocide, which aren't fun at all.
b Tatami Galaxy: How good are you with crazy? If you don't mind the out-there art, the bonkers premise, and the wild execution, you might appreciate this one. By the last episode, you feel like the ending is earned, gosh darn it, even if it doesn't, you know, totally make perfect sense. This is the story of a loser guy who goes to college and keeps falling in with the wrong crowd and then calling do-over and trying different choices to see if his life turns out more the way he wanted it to be.
b Windy Tales: If you can deal with the sketchy animation and you don't hate slice of life and aren't completely against a bit of magical realism, you might enjoy this odd-looking little show that peripherally deals with some people and cats who can control the wind but mostly just deals with life and growing up.
b Young Animator Training Project: This series of shorts by different young creators is kind of fascinating, especially if you like random things and short stories and variety in your anime viewing. The result vary in quality, but that sort of adds to its charm for me.
b Best Student Council: My initial thought was, "What is with the puppet?" I was having puppet flashbacks to Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Eventually, I realized, "This is just the kind of show where someone walks around with a puppet all the time; just deal with it or stop watching. "You're with the Best Student Council now. You shouldn't be hanging around with a no-good puppet like me." The puppet does end up being more than just a gag, but you have to put up with all the general wacky hijinks until then. Your call. This one was a lot of fun to watch/listen to in the background while doing other things. I don't know if I would have liked it as much if I had to concentrate hard on every minute of it.
b Cosmo Warrior Zero: Oh, Leiji Matsumoto and your MANime. It's ridiculous, and I really like it. Lest you think I'm talking about a comedy, Zero is actually supposed to be a manly space drama, I think, and it does take itself pretty seriously most of the time. There are some moments where you'll have to just abandon your brain, but it's a fun ride. Except for the bits about genocide, which aren't fun at all.
What about the survivors? There's a whole world that needs you out there.. . . You're not the only one who lost a family.b Mariaholic: Your mileage will very wildly. If you can't stand bullying, especially when it seems completely misogynistic, then you shouldn't even try this one. If you have a fairly thick skin about these things where your comedy is concerned, and you are a longtime anime fan who is knowledgeable about jpop culture, you might have an enjoyable time. You will, of course, be offended sometimes because that's part of what this show is all about, but you might also be amused.
---
We have to do this. That's the only way to mourn for the people who have died in the war.
---
Poor fool. Why do you have to blame it all on yourself?
b Tatami Galaxy: How good are you with crazy? If you don't mind the out-there art, the bonkers premise, and the wild execution, you might appreciate this one. By the last episode, you feel like the ending is earned, gosh darn it, even if it doesn't, you know, totally make perfect sense. This is the story of a loser guy who goes to college and keeps falling in with the wrong crowd and then calling do-over and trying different choices to see if his life turns out more the way he wanted it to be.
b Windy Tales: If you can deal with the sketchy animation and you don't hate slice of life and aren't completely against a bit of magical realism, you might enjoy this odd-looking little show that peripherally deals with some people and cats who can control the wind but mostly just deals with life and growing up.
b Young Animator Training Project: This series of shorts by different young creators is kind of fascinating, especially if you like random things and short stories and variety in your anime viewing. The result vary in quality, but that sort of adds to its charm for me.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Quotes of Awesome September 2012, part 4
Brain vs. Book interview with est em:
Jason Thompson on Path of the Assassin:
e: "But when I’m writing a story, whether it’s two men, two women, or even a man and a woman, it’s better if I’m not really there. It’s better that way. I’m just looking.Melinda on Tokyo Babylon: "that lesson being that it’s ultimately selfish and perhaps even hurtful to devalue and thoughtlessly sacrifice oneself for the sake of others."
B: The more distance there is, the better.
e: Yes. When there’s distance, I can really draw something interesting. I like drawing worlds I don’t know."
Jason Thompson on Path of the Assassin:
"It takes a lot of guts for a manga publisher to release a title in which both the main characters are completely bald."
. . .
"After learning technique by watching Hanzo, Motonobu marries the devious Lady Tsukiyama, but as a running plot point, he is unable to satiate her sexual appetites, leading to the greatest manga chapter title ever, "Chapter 4: Oppressive Night of Ass.""
. . .
"Path of the Assassin is a manga that's difficult to get into, but rewarding if you like long oldschool manga: I think I've written enough for you to figure out if this is your cup of ribald historical-ninja-melodrama tea or the kind of manga you wouldn't piss on if it were on fire."
. . .
"Anyway, I know how this manga, the story of the ninja who founded the Tokugawa Era, really ends. It ends a few hundred years later when the main character of Lone Wolf and Cub kills everyone."
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Some thoughts on Afterschool Charisma 2-5
"Most of the people in the world aren't clones. Nobody knows what their destiny is." v. 4
Well, yes. Wow. I'll try to do this without spoilers. The story of a boy who is the son of a scientist and his trials and tribulations in a school full of clones of famous historical figures gets serious. There is a lot of stuff happening here, much of it disturbing. Such brutality and wrong-headed insistence on biology as destiny right next to greed and politics and all manner of evils large and small. It can be jarring right next to the silliness of teenagers being teenagers.
"I guess this proves that just because we're clones doesn't mean we're geniuses!"
"I agree!"
"It's all our originals' faults!"
"Yeah!!"
"Way to bond over stupidity."
I am afraid of these flashbacks because I really don't want to see how a bunch of nice clones turned into the bitter and desperate (and desperately weird) people they were in the present. And also, how could they do that?! Some of them were probably trying to protect in their own ways, but others of them were just twisted and bitter and jealous.
There were a couple of moments where I wondered, "Is this a Japanese thing?" (Example, situation in 4 that ends with the line "You can't take someone's life over a thing like this" on page 145 and several bits in volume 5 that have me wondering, "Why do you lend yourself to this?!" I tend to assume in these situations that there is some cultural thing I am missing.)
Sometimes the series is a bit clumsy with how it handles things, but the bits with Shiro and his "dad" growing up were stunningly nuanced, especially the more you find out. And the complex, older body-guard guy Kuroe is still a favorite. I am more curious than ever about who he really is in light of recent events, but, as many critics have pointed out, sometimes you can't tell if the characters are supposed to resemble each other or if the artist just isn't always very good at drawing different faces.
This may be a series with high re-read value (and would definitely be if everything was as strong as the bits with Shiro and his dad), but it may turn too action/adventure-y with new twists and reveals becoming more important than long-term plotting and nuance. In other words, it will be a "what happens next" kind of series rather than a "how do I need to go back and look again and reinterpret the past in light of this new information" kind of series.
Sometimes it gets all bogged down and confusing (the whole Kai flashback thing being a pretty good example because WTH). I really want them to have chosen the name Kai because it is a homonym to the Greek letter Chi written X and often used to mean a variable.
In conclusion, the pacing and tone are sometimes uneven, but I reserved the next volume at my library as soon as I finished 5.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Quotes of awesome September 2012, part 3
Jason Thompson on Flower of Life:
Michelle Smith on Tokyo Babylon: "Of course, another theme that begins (I think) in Tokyo Babylon and proceeds to permeate CLAMP’s other works is the idea of “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” Seishiro loses his eye to protect Subaru, and then suddenly eyes are lost or swapping all over the place."
Sean Gaffney: "Bunny Drop 6 is out for what will I’m sure be a smaller but just as dedicated audience of fans who didn’t drop it cold after Volume 5."
Melinda Beasi on Nana: "She’s relevant to my life. Not the life I maybe wish I had, but my actual life."
"Most school manga have love triangles, but Flower of Life is the only manga I've read that has a "friend triangle"."Brain vs. Book in an interview with artist/author est em:
. . .
"Meanwhile, Harutaro's father is the world's toughest-looking chicken-sexer. ("Yeah, I examine baby chicks to determine whether they're male or female--that's my job. Japan leads the world in this skill of chicken-sexing…this skill is worthy of national pride!")"
. . .
"Will Sumiko turn out to be the only girl who can stand Maijima? Thankfully, no. She's got much too much self-esteem."
Brain: I find your work to be very different from the standard fare, more nuanced and less focused on the sexual aspects of relationships.
est em: Yes, that’s not really the important part.
Michelle Smith on Tokyo Babylon: "Of course, another theme that begins (I think) in Tokyo Babylon and proceeds to permeate CLAMP’s other works is the idea of “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” Seishiro loses his eye to protect Subaru, and then suddenly eyes are lost or swapping all over the place."
Sean Gaffney: "Bunny Drop 6 is out for what will I’m sure be a smaller but just as dedicated audience of fans who didn’t drop it cold after Volume 5."
Melinda Beasi on Nana: "She’s relevant to my life. Not the life I maybe wish I had, but my actual life."
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
What I read in July: Digest Version, Part 2 of 2
Lest you wonder at the sad number of things I read this month, I also read something like 6 novels, which is where my time went.
b Haunted House: He's a normal guy who just wants to be normal, but his family is full of morbid, weird, Gothic-obsessed freaks. This is not good for his love life, especially since he can't quite get his life together enough to move out. The ending is supposed to be sweet and such, but mostly I still just want to smack them around. If he wants so badly to be normal, just leave him alone in his own boring company. I suspect my reaction to this book has more to do with my inherent dislike of pranks and jokes that involve tormenting and lying to people. The book itself has fun art and is somewhat novel with its way of not repeating itself exactly in every chapter. (The ways his family is weird are always slightly different in the details.)
"This money is the fruit of Sabato's blood, sweat, and tears, and god help me, that makes me want to spend it on stupid things."
b Kindaichi Case Files
3-4: More cheesy, mystery-solving shonen greatness as slacker Kindaichi solves mysteries and doesn't get the girl. Death TV was pretty out there, and Smoke & Mirrors was a way out there and kind of awesome history mystery.
b Olympos: What a gorgeous book. What did they use for the cover to give it that lovely sheen? Anyway, reviews have been mixed on this one. I found it interesting, but I was glad that the author pointed out how much she made up to save me the trouble of tracking down the myths this one touched on. Since I didn't expect it to be straight myth anyway (and since I've forgotten most of what I ever knew about these myths), I was just fine. Lots of musing and a kind of bittersweet ending.
b Pandora Hearts 11: Don't keep doing this to me, PH. My heart can't take it. And neither can my brain. All these hints and nuances that I forget from one book to the next, requiring me to go back and read the several volumes preceding each new volume. I really need to read them all from the beginning, but the series is growing large enough to make that troublesome. The best thing to do would be to wait until the series is finished and then read them in a marathon. As this would require a lot of self-control, I will call it unlikely and reserve some time in my schedule each time a new volume comes out.
"No, you fool!! It is!! A duty!! I should fulfill as your friend! Why you! Stupid Xerx!!" Ah, friendship.
b Ratman 4:
I haven't actually seen Tiger and Bunny yet, but I'm thinking there are some similarities to this story and Mystery Men. I am so bummed that this series never got finished over here. It's a hoot. A short kid obsessed with heroes (in a world like the one in Mystery Men where heroes exist and compete for corporate sponsorships and fame) ends up falling in with a group that seems pretty much like stereotypical villains. But who are the heroes and who are really the villains? I really want to know! Things were just getting good here! Sigh.
b Wandering Son 1-2: I think the reason I like this series is because it doesn't feel gimmicky and agenda'd. It just feels like a story about characters who grow increasingly familiar and more complex the more you get to know them (kind of like real people). It has a gentle air even though it's not like everything always goes right or anything. And the essays/editor reflections are way more informative than the average. I'm hooked.
b Haunted House: He's a normal guy who just wants to be normal, but his family is full of morbid, weird, Gothic-obsessed freaks. This is not good for his love life, especially since he can't quite get his life together enough to move out. The ending is supposed to be sweet and such, but mostly I still just want to smack them around. If he wants so badly to be normal, just leave him alone in his own boring company. I suspect my reaction to this book has more to do with my inherent dislike of pranks and jokes that involve tormenting and lying to people. The book itself has fun art and is somewhat novel with its way of not repeating itself exactly in every chapter. (The ways his family is weird are always slightly different in the details.)
"This money is the fruit of Sabato's blood, sweat, and tears, and god help me, that makes me want to spend it on stupid things."
b Kindaichi Case Files
3-4: More cheesy, mystery-solving shonen greatness as slacker Kindaichi solves mysteries and doesn't get the girl. Death TV was pretty out there, and Smoke & Mirrors was a way out there and kind of awesome history mystery.b Olympos: What a gorgeous book. What did they use for the cover to give it that lovely sheen? Anyway, reviews have been mixed on this one. I found it interesting, but I was glad that the author pointed out how much she made up to save me the trouble of tracking down the myths this one touched on. Since I didn't expect it to be straight myth anyway (and since I've forgotten most of what I ever knew about these myths), I was just fine. Lots of musing and a kind of bittersweet ending.
b Pandora Hearts 11: Don't keep doing this to me, PH. My heart can't take it. And neither can my brain. All these hints and nuances that I forget from one book to the next, requiring me to go back and read the several volumes preceding each new volume. I really need to read them all from the beginning, but the series is growing large enough to make that troublesome. The best thing to do would be to wait until the series is finished and then read them in a marathon. As this would require a lot of self-control, I will call it unlikely and reserve some time in my schedule each time a new volume comes out.
"No, you fool!! It is!! A duty!! I should fulfill as your friend! Why you! Stupid Xerx!!" Ah, friendship.
b Ratman 4:
I haven't actually seen Tiger and Bunny yet, but I'm thinking there are some similarities to this story and Mystery Men. I am so bummed that this series never got finished over here. It's a hoot. A short kid obsessed with heroes (in a world like the one in Mystery Men where heroes exist and compete for corporate sponsorships and fame) ends up falling in with a group that seems pretty much like stereotypical villains. But who are the heroes and who are really the villains? I really want to know! Things were just getting good here! Sigh.b Wandering Son 1-2: I think the reason I like this series is because it doesn't feel gimmicky and agenda'd. It just feels like a story about characters who grow increasingly familiar and more complex the more you get to know them (kind of like real people). It has a gentle air even though it's not like everything always goes right or anything. And the essays/editor reflections are way more informative than the average. I'm hooked.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
