More Banana Fish Discussion

Yay!  Part three of the lovely dissection of one of my favorite manga series continues!  It's fun to read several very different people geeking out about the same series in a semi-organized fashion.  I'm a sucker for coherent discussions.  Anyway, here was one of my favorite comments from the discussion.

"MICHELLE: I definitely got the sense that Ash was trying to protect Eiji’s innocence as well as Eiji himself. And I actually thought it was rather mature of Eiji to agree to absent himself from the fray. Too often, unqualified characters insist on tagging along with the hero and get into trouble and we are asked to have sympathy for their plight while the hero has to take time out of what he was trying to accomplish to save their incompetent butts. It’s a wise character who knows his limits and doesn’t even attempt to get into that situation."

Preach it, sister.  If I have to watch one more idiot dragging down the protagonist . . .  Well, I don't care if it's a boy or a girl: it's annoying, and if certain action works were more realistic, it would be frequently lethal, and then we wouldn't have to watch the dead weight/eye candy drag our action further away from reality.  I don't really know where I was going with that, but I don't think I got there.  Anyway, it is a sign of maturity to let wiser heads rule (especially if you don't want your head to roll).  Also, very Japanese.  Kind of subtle, that . . .  Stay in the car, Chuck. (To be fair, Chuck is supposed to be a comedy.  Most of the action works I'm referring to, whatever they are, are not.)

I am still holding strong in my pledge not to have a Banana Fish marathon at least until after I've finished moving stuff around in the apartment and getting some more books I'm being paid to read read, darn it.  And I will definitely not think about how this would be the most actually possible American live-action-TV-series-adaptations of a manga ever.  Self-control is a virtue.  Really.  Sob.

So, what series can you think of where you just wanted to sneak up behind and stab the idiot sidekick dragging down the protagonist?

A Little Air Bending about Avatar before the movie comes out

So, the (Avatar) The Last Airbender movie is coming out in a week, and we're a tad excited.  More than a tad.  We are ecstatic but trying to keep our deisre for an awesome movie from creating impossible expectations.  We talked a little bit about it and thought we'd share our geeking out here with you.  We love you that much.

TMIA: I'm going to take this opportunity to grouse that this movie should have been the one that got to be called Avatar, and the other one should have had to change its name.

ST: Indeed. I'm not one to impugn James Cameron's character, but what a jerk. His movie could have been called any of a dozen names, but no, he had to insist on Avatar. But Avatar was already a TV show called "Avatar" when he started making his movie. But he has the "Intellectual Property Rights" to the name because he registered for it as a movie name first. What a jerk. I just hope the Avatar movie blows the Avatar movie out of the water...

TMIA: I hope so too, though I think it unlikely. (I think I'm glad book titles can't be copyrighted.) Then again, family-friendly can surprise the box office out of left field sometimes. (Crossing fingers.) Have you seen much of the promo stuff? What is your gut reaction to what you know or have seen or read about the movie so far?

ST: Well, I'm sure the action will be very cool, but some things I've read about the movie have disturbed me. For one, they're changing the way they pronounce Aang's name to make it more "accurate." I don't think it can be inaccurate if that's the way the series creators wanted it pronounced. Also, Shamalan (totally spelled that COMPLETELY wrong) said he took a lot of the humor out because there wasn't time for it. Sorry, but the point of the series is that it's HILARIOUS first, an action show second. And what purpose will Sokka serve if they take a lot of the humor out? He's the guy with the boomerang and the sense of humor. If you take the humor away, he's just the guy with the boomerang.

TMIA: Yeah, I'm a tad worried about Sokka, too. The director said he's a more grounded character from the beginning. I have no idea what that means, but apparently it means he's very useful. Useful is nice, but we need Sokka's goofiness to balance out the seriousness. (It was one of the genius things the orignal creators built in, all of these characters and set-ups that balanced each other out.) And we need that progression from comic relief character to maturing and responsible tactical genius because without it, how will his character change and grow? Apparently, the director also wanted to axe Oppa and Momo, but his kids basically told him NO. Way to go, kids.

ST: I was SO WORRIED about that. I kept searching the previews in vain for Appa and Momo (they are really important characters, as they are Aang's only living link to the Airbenders), but when I went to Iron Man, I FINALLY saw Appa briefly in one of the previews. Yay for the director's kids!

TMIA: What do you think about the "controversy" around the director changing the ethnicities of the characters?

ST: I'm not really bothered by the ethnicity changes. Aang always looked white anyways; Sokka and Katara's actors could stand to get a tan, but I never understood why they were so dark in the cartoon if they lived on the South Pole, which is not noted for its sunny weather. I miss the fact that it appears that Iroh is not a jolly fat man. He looks much more serious and worse, skinny, in the previews. How can we relate to a skinny Iroh? I'm not sure we can, especially if he's not a FUNNY skinny Iroh. But I still have high hopes for the movie.

TMIA: I guess I thought Aang was middle Asian. I thought the darker skin tones of Sokka and Katara's tribe was supposed to indicate that they were similar to the Inuit tribes. Also, Iroh's skinny? What in the world? They couldn't just pad him out at the beginning and then, I dunno, follow the story and then let him be skinny at the end?! I'm trying to keep my expectations low, but I really do wish this movie turns out to be great. And that Aang's actor's voice doesn't start to change before the filming is done . . .

Are you a fan of Aang and friends?  Are you going to see the movie in the theaters?  You should.  Hope to see you there.

Uncomfortable conversation of the month: January

     TMIA: Did you want me to send Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden?

     ST: Is that the boob one?

     Yes.  Yes,  I guess there is a lot of nudity.

     A lot of nudity?  It's like every page!  I brought a volume in to read during a study hall, and I opened it up, and there were boobs.  I thought I must have picked a bad page, so I tried another and another, and it was all boobs.  I had to give up before some junior higher came up with a question and ended up with more questions.

     I guess that particular character doesn't like wearing shirts.  No matter what gender he is at the moment.  She.  Whatever.  So, do you want it?

     Sure, I'll read that.. . .  I wouldn't be surprised if the page numbers were boobs.

     Snort.