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wMay 23, 2010 | |
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A Review and Some Commentary I really enjoyed the first season of Spice & Wolf, and would recommend it. The anime is based on a series of light novels originally written in Japanese (and the English translations put out by Yen Press are pretty fantastic - and I often dislike translations of Japanese fiction). Although there will be a second season, the first season definitely has a sense of closure. I liked the characters, mood, and setting very much, and I recommend it! When I first saw advertisements for this series, I was afraid that it would be a little moe, but was glad to find that this was not the case. With the closing of DC Comics' CMX line (which mostly translated/distributed shoujo comics in the U.S.), there have been many intense blog posts (basically, DC never did much to promote CMX; they shut down their Minx line [also for teenage girls] in recent memory, etc). One intense post focuses on the supposed "detrimental effect" that distributing/reading scanlations has on the sales market of manga in the U.S. It's here, written by Erica Friedman (who writes a lot about yuri manga). In this post and many others, I sometimes find classist assumptions in the anime/manga fandom: basically, that "every manga you read is one that you did not buy," which I find highly presumptive. While I understand the principle that "voting with your dollar" certainly matters (hello, I work in an independent bookstore a few weekends per month), the idea that everyone has an equitable (or infinite) disposable income is ludicrous. I don't mind paying money for a quality product (see Del Rey's releases of xxxHolic and Tsubasa, or Viz's Signature Line releases of Pluto, 20th Century Boys, etc). But in many cases, the money you pay does not result in a quality product. Take the Sailor Moon manga I own - they are extremely valuable because they are out of print in the U.S., but the glue job was so shoddy that half of them are falling apart despite my militant care-taking. Take also Viz's questionable translation of Fumi Yoshinaga's Ooku - yeah, I'm still buying it, but I remain displeased with Viz's translation. Additionally, I'm probably not going to invest in Volume 1 of a 28-volume series without having read a bit, to make sure that I like where the story is going. This is about an intelligent use of my money. To think that I would drop $8-14 on a single volume (usually readable in one 2-hour sitting - usually much less) without having read it first? For me, at least (and I will go ahead and admit that I am pretty cheap), this isn't even a question. Of course I will sample it first. And if it's not readily available at my public library (which I do use quite liberally), then yes, you'd better believe that I will download and read scanlations. Even when I do buy manga, it is rarely at full-price - I go out of my way to scour used bookstores (and, full disclosure, even when I do buy them "new," I get an employee discount, so it's still not comparable to the average consumer). And this is the thought-process of me, who comes from a privileged economic background and is fortunate enough to have a job that allows me to easily provide for my own needs. Especially in the state of the current U.S. economy, most people do not have the money it takes to support a single series (especially if it comes out in rapid succession, like Naruto). Friedman goes so far as to condemn the scanlation/digital distribution of manga series not even available in English (i.e., those new in Japan, or which were never chosen for U.S. distribution). What exactly are we supposed to do? To suggest that everyone who wants to read a series not licensed in the U.S. has the leisure time to learn a foreign language (not to mention afford to buy all of the series on the Internet and have them shipped here) is nonsensical to me. I get that buying things is the optimal choice, and if you've ever been inside my apartment, you're aware that I am certainly trying my best. However, in some cases, people do not have a choice, and I think that it is elitist and classist (or occasionally both) to assume otherwise. Labels: anime: spice and wolf, class issues, economics, manga scribbled mystickeeper at 1:32 PM 
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wMay 12, 2010 | |
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About That For those who don't follow anime/manga news as it relates to the U.S., distribution companies have been tanking for the last couple of years. Geneon, Central Park Media, and ADV went out of business. It came to most people as a shock when the powerhouse TokyoPop slashed both its title list and its staff members. In the last couple of days, it's been reported that Go! Comi has let its website lapse and is out of business, and that Viz has had to cut its staff a lot, too. It sucked when Viz stopped putting out issues of Shojo Beat (containing manga written for women) and only ran Shonen Jump ("for boys") monthly. But budgets matter, and it was the first inkling. I didn't read a lot of stuff by Go! Comi, but I enjoyed their releases of Her Majesty's Dog and Cantarella. It's sad to me that these companies are going out of business, as it will ultimately limit the diversity of titles available in English. On the Internet, there seems like a lot of things are he-said, she-said. Many fans and commentators seem to blame the digital distribution of fan-made translations ("scanlations"), but I've never seen proof to support these claims. For example, I would never spend money on anime DVDs unless I had already seen the series first. I might buy a manga volume I've never read before, but only if I've heard a lot about it from other people who have. Etc. I'd like to be able to better support companies like Viz, Funimation, Right Stuf, Del Rey, and Yen Press. Other than making my own purchases (which to me is a very obvious way), maybe the best way to ensure that these companies can continue running and producing great products is to make more of our friends into people who consume in these two forms of media, rather than constantly pointing fingers.scribbled mystickeeper at 11:30 PM
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wMar 28, 2010 | |
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Sunday Points of Interest --Viz editor Pancha Diaz shares thoughts on Ooku, after it won the Tiptree Award. --A site with neat Sailor Moon fanart! [Yes, I am still on my Sailor Moon kick. Expect a post on Season R in the near future.] --Legally Blonde and How It is Awesome --30 Rock Meta! Which explains some of the complicated feelings I also have toward 30 Rock. (The conclusion being....I love Liz Lemon! Most of the time.) --Dear Manga, You are Broken. I'm not sure if I agree with *everything* here (for example, aren't manga prices in the U.S. similar to those in Japan? There is only so much that a publisher can do, although I agree that prices can be expensive. I am very grateful that the place I live has a pretty healthy used-book market that includes manga. At any rate, it is a pretty inclusive summary of issues in the world of manga publishing, whether you are an outsider to the fandom or not. I just made it through the first disc of Spice & Wolf from Netflix, which contains episodes 1-7. I didn't expect to like this series because I was afraid it would be a bit moe. However, it is so not. I love it so much! A merchant and a wolf-god of the harvest travel together in a European-ish world. It is about economics and Autumn and what it means for people to lose faith. Also, apples. I love the ending sequence. The lyrics are pretty non-sensical, but it makes me want to sing along: I want to dance with the peanut butterflies! For a more sensible preview, read Labels: anime, anime: sailor moon, anime: spice and wolf, fandom, manga, manga: ooku, manga: sailor moon, tv: 30 rock scribbled mystickeeper at 11:08 AM
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wOct 10, 2009 | |
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om nom nom Let me tell you guys about my book-haul on the way home last night. Not only did I find all of these books at Half-Price Books, but many of them were on clearance, being marked down EVEN FURTHER. --Claymore, vol. 1 - Norihiro Yagi [Knight-clad girls kick ass and take names!] --Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, vol. 10 - CLAMP --The Queen's Knight, vol. 6 - Kim Kang Won --Vampire Knight, vol. 3 - Matsuri Hino [Manga's answer to Twilight] --Vampire Knight, vol. 4 - Matsuri Hino --Pluto, vol. 3 - Naoki Urasawa x Osamu Tezuka --Buffy: Tales of the Slayer ["Righteous" is my favorite. Joss/Iambic Meter FTW!] --Redwall: The Graphic Novel [I didn't know a graphic novel existed! It's pretty well done. Have you guys read Brian Jacques Redwall? It and its first batch of sequels were some of my favorite books EVAR in middle school. Unfortunately, the dude (or, as I suspect, his ghost writers) keep churning out unfortunate derivations that NEVER END. Still, Redwall and Mossflower were gems, and I like this graphic novel adaptation.] --Angel: After the Fall, issues 5 and 6 --Buffy, Season 8, issues 6, 7, 9-13 --The Dispossessed - Ursula K. LeGuin [Currently reading this for Labels: comics, greed, ks, manga scribbled mystickeeper at 7:53 AM
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wOct 4, 2009 | |
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Ōoku, volume 1 Fumi Yoshinaga is famous for writing series like Antique Bakery, in which men in Japan create a French bakery and sell delicious pastries. Ōoku is a more serious piece, focusing on an alternate history in 18th century Japan. The series has won many awards in Japan, including the Japanese Sense of Gender Award. There are currently four volumes in Japan, and the series is on-going. In the United States, Ōoku is being published as part of the Viz Signature series, which means that the book is taller and wider than standard manga. It also has cover flaps and a few pages in color. The book is beautiful. Traditionally, the Ōoku was the part of Edo Castle where the shōgun's concubines and relatives stayed. In Yoshinaga's alternate history, 75% of Japanese men have been killed by the Redface Pox. Men and their seed are a scarce resource that women protect by making up the labor force themselves. They also make up the shogunate. Because of this, Yoshinaga's Ōoku is populated with men. This world in which gender roles are reversed mostly focuses on court life, as indicated by the title. I personally might have preferred it if the narrative focused on life beyond the palace where there are more women learning to cope with fewer men, but I am able to empathize with the characters. In each chapter, the plot continued to deliver dramatic and unexpected turns. I look forward to reading more, and I recommend this series to others. The main quibble that I have with this series is not the fault of the manga-ka, but the translators at Viz. The series takes place in 1716 Edo. Throughout the volume, characters are shown speaking in Early Modern English, or the same type used in Shakespeare, with thees and thous, etc. While it's clear that whoever translated the text was familiar with Forsooths and thines, I think that sometimes the translated text is ridden with errors, or at the very least not edited for an optimal flow. An example would be, "Such brazen shouting! Doth he think this is a soldiers' barracks, perhaps?" If this were actually written in Elizabethan time, wouldn't the phrase read, "Doth he think place a soldiers' barracks?" or maybe, "Doth he think this place to be a soldiers' barracks?" More often than not, it seems that words like doth, thee, and thou are simply inserted for their modern counterparts and the rest of the sentence is left unedited. The language is also combined with colloquialisms, or sharp shifts to modern English that often seem an uncomfortable mix: "Do not get so full of thyself!" [Even if this colloquialism were used, wouldn't it be, "Do not get so full of thine self!" ?] "Verily so. I got a good look earlier, and...." One character even employs the use of the curse, "Zounds!" which doesn't even make sense. "Zounds" was a shortening of the epithet, "God's wounds!" which makes sense in a predominantly Christian society. However, in 1716 Japan, Christians lived in hidden societies, and feared discovery because the punishment was death. I will confess that I don't know very much about the Japanese language, so maybe those on my FL can correct me if I'm wrong? I don't even know much about the mechanics of the English language, aside from reading it a lot. For some reason, throughout my years of schooling (including being an English major at a good university), I never learned how to diagram sentences. My sense of "wrongness" in writing is usually intuitive, so I could be quite wrong myself. Labels: a: yoshinaga fumi, manga, manga: josei, manga: ooku scribbled mystickeeper at 10:43 AM
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wOct 3, 2009 | |
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Saturday Morning Joys (aka: this is why I keep a part-time job!) Has anyone read any of the manga called Ooku, by Fumi Yoshinaga? We have volume one here at the bookstore, and it sounds interesting, based on the description: In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Red Pox has begun to prey on the country's men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen by seventy-five percent. Women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men, even that of the Shogun. The men, precious providers of life, are carefully protected. And the most beautiful of the men are sent to serve in the Shogun's Inner Chamber... WAIT, I just realized that this was the manga-ka who did Antique Bakery. SQUEEEEEE!! /Book report to follow. Labels: a: yoshinaga fumi, manga, manga: ooku, work scribbled mystickeeper at 10:50 AM
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wSep 27, 2009 | |
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Epic Review Post of Epicness My backlog of books is approaching the land of ridiculous, so I'm trying to weed through it before I have to move again next summer. I'm starting with all of my manga, because they go more quickly than everything else. I'm focusing on this to the point of almost ignoring my book clubs, so we'll see how it goes. Anyway, I thought my decisions about whether to keep or sell the manga would be an interesting way to do a review. Trigun, vol. 1-2; Trigun Maximum, vol. 1-4 by Yasuhiro Nightow - Just as good a time as the TV show, although the plot goes past the TV show, and is different. I'll be keeping these. Otogi Zoshi, vol. 1-2 by Narumi Seto - These serve as a prelude to the anime, which I thought was decent until everyone was reincarnated halfway-through. The manga was not nearly as good as the show, though. I'll be getting rid of these. Bird Kiss, vol. 1-2 by Eun Ah Park - Didn't like these! Will be pitching. Little Queen, vol. 1-2 by Yeon-Joo Kim - Loved these! The art is gorgeous! This series is one of many to have recently been discontinued by Tokyopop. Yesterday at work, I ordered volumes 3-8, which was scraping the bottom of the warehouse barrel in all six cases. At least I will get all of them, unlike Tramps Like Us, which has disappeared from warehouses. I will be stalked the used bookstores to get the ones I don't have.... The World Exists for Me, vol. 1-2 by Be-Pepas and Chiho Saito - From the creators of Revolutionary Girl Utena.....a retelling of a story related to Joan of Arc! This one was weird and a bit creepy, and I will not be keeping it. East Coast Rising, vol. 1 by Becky Cloonan - Ehhh, no. I like post-apocalyptic East Coast U.S.A. in comics better when it's DMZ by Brian Wood. I'll be selling it. Divalicious!, vol. 1 by T. Campbell and Amy Mebberson - I've been following Mebberson's work on the Internet for a long time, and like it a lot, but I pretty much loathed this. Will be selling it. Kare Kano, vol. 1-3 by Masami Tsuda - Yukino Miyazawa is perfect: she is beautiful, helpful and kind to everyone, and always has first place in school. However, her "I'm perfect!" persona is all an act for a greedy girl who lives off of praise. At home, she cackles to herself in her room about how she deceives everyone else. Until one day, when Soichiro Arima shows up, and his scores and perfection seem to rival her own. The two fall in love almost immediately, and are together by the end of the first volume. The rest of the series focuses on both their relationship and those of their friends. I am kind of ambivalent as to whether or not I'll keep the series/whether I like the series. I love Yukino, but I hate Arima. And yes, I've been warned that the end of the manga is TERRIBLE/HORRIBLE. I'll wait until I've read all of it to decide whether to keep my random volumes or not. I did find the first two volumes of the series on DVD a couple of weeks ago, for $3 each. So no matter how I end up feeling about the manga, I will try the anime as well. Random Story: This was the first non-magical school girl shojo manga I ever read (I only read the first two volumes at the time). I remember being angry, wondering when Yukino was going to transform into a cute outfit and fight evil, like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura. Since that time, I've discovered a deeper appreciation for reality-based shojo manga, :) Series I've read from the library lately: Her Majesty's Dog, vol. 1 by Mick Takeuchi - LOVE THIS! The protagonist reminds me of Sailor Mars. And....yeah. I have nothing to express except for incoherent love. Bound Beauty, vol. 1 by Mick Takeuchi - Didn't love this. It seems like it's one girl surrounded by bishounen who fight spirits in different ways. Annnnnd, I'm bored. Pluto, vol. 4 by Naoki Urasawa/Osamu Tezuka - Still love this series. I read the first three volumes of Astro Boy a while back for context. I still remain underwhelmed by Tezuka himself, but LOVE Urasawa times one billion. After School Nightmare, vol. 10 by Setona Mizushiro - The end was okay, but I liked the earlier volumes of this series a lot more. Kimi ni Todoke, vol. 1 by Karuho Shiina - A creepy girl who's always made fun of by others (she looks like the girl from The Ring) and has no social skills is impressed by an effervescent boy who's popular. By spening time with him, she undergoes a transformation that I find a lot more credible (and less creepy) than, say, The Wallflower. And it's because the protagonist's changes are not physical. Instead, she starts realizing that conversations with other people can go well if she actually expresses herself. I think that this is airing as an anime right now in Japan, and I would like to check it out! IN CONCLUSION: I am still very upset that the Shojo Beat magazine went under. :[ Labels: manga, manga: after school nightmare, manga: her majesty's dog, manga: kare kano, manga: kimi ni todoke, manga: shoujo, manga: trigun, manhwa, manhwa: little queen scribbled mystickeeper at 8:21 AM
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wAug 17, 2009 | |
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Linkspam Jim Doyle will not seek a third term. I think everyone who reads my blog is aware of my political leanings, despite the fact that people who are actually affiliated with my party refused to hire me because at one point, I was an unpaid intern for the other party. I'm pretty much over that (except that I still think those people are stupid), and I still don't regret what I did, because I've never been a fan of Doyle. I basically agree with everything in the RPW's press release. No matter how it relates to me, this gubernatorial race is going to be a shit show. A blogger calls for more manga by Ai Yazawa to be licensed in English, and I can't agree more! For anyone looking for the best Terminator fanvid ever, watch this one, which debuted at VividCon a couple of days ago. An interesting post about an East/West difference in expressing emotions through the face in comics. In manga, the eyes are used to express emotion, whereas in U.S. comics, it's the mouth. The article even points out the difference in emoticons used on the Internet, with American teenagers using :) and :( while Asian teenagers use ^_^ and ;_; In disturbing historical notes, a link via Badgerbag: Rosemary Kennedy's Lobotomy. If you don't believe the blog, check Wikipedia! That shit is for real. OMF, the *Hopefully the dub is good, and hopefully SciFi won't edit it down so they can insert 10 minutes of commercials per 30 minute programming slot, and I'm not 100% sure why the SciFi Channel chose Monster, as it is not actually science fiction, BUT I'LL TAKE IT. Labels: anime, comics, linkspam, manga, politics, wisconsin scribbled mystickeeper at 10:39 PM
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wMay 27, 2009 | |
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WisCon Panel Write-Up: Spontaneous Programming; Shonen Manga Go to the LiveJournal, because I refer to people by LJ and it's annoying to change the code. Labels: manga, manga: shounen, wiscon, wiscon 33 scribbled mystickeeper at 10:06 PM
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wMay 16, 2009 | |
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Pluto So, I read the first volume of Naoki Urasawa's Pluto manga. It's a retelling of one story arc of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy. I can't imagine how fun this would be if I had read the original Astro Boy.....the only reference I caught was the one to the underground doctor, Black Jack (another series by Tezuka). But even without catching all of the Tezuka references to the source work, this book was great! Viz really did a great job in making the size of the pages bigger, and including flaps on both the front and back covers. This post doesn't even tell you what the manga is about! I don't need to; just read it (I know, I fail at reccing things. Too bad!). I adore Urasawa's artwork. The only other series I've enjoyed by him was Monster (and technically, I watched the anime and have only read a few bits of the manga). I love that Urasawa's people look like people: something pretty rare in manga. Some people are ugly, some people aren't, but everyone looks like a solid person, and never impossibly thin. I've put volume 2 on hold at the library, as well as the first two volumes of 20th Century Boys. I'm not sure I'll be able to wait for everything to be released in the U.S. for me to finish reading them. Labels: a: tezuka osamu, a: urasawa naoki, manga, manga: pluto, manga: seinen scribbled mystickeeper at 11:52 AM
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wApr 29, 2009 | |
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RIFF/CAIN FOREVAH OMG I JUST FINISHED VOLUME 6!!! I hope to one day write coherently about the Cain/Godchild saga by Kaori Yuki. For now, this is what I have to say: OMG VICTORIAN ENGLAND! RUFFLES! LACE! BOWS! DOLLS! SADISTIC TURNS ON NURSERY RHYMES! BIBLICAL OVERTONES! INCEST! SECRET SOCIETIES! A COLLECTION OF POISONS IN GLASS JARS! A MANGA-KA'S ART STYLE THAT STARTS OUT OKAY AND MORPHS INTO HELLA AWESOME AMAZING! EARL CAIN AND HIS BUTLER RIFF! ONLY RIFF IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH THE SCARS ON HIS BACK! ONLY RIFF WILL EVER TRULY UNDERSTAND CAIN, THE MAN WHO CLAIMS TO HATE EVERYONE ELSE AND HAS BEEN CURSED TO NEVER BE LOVED! I keep reading this on the bus to/from work and it's really difficult to not throw my head back and cackle every time I turn the page. DO NOT SPOIL ME PAST VOLUME 6 OR I WILL END YOU. I want Riff/Cain icon, but I'm too afraid to look right now. Only two volumes to go and I am not spoiled yet!! Labels: a: yuki kaori, manga, manga: godchild, manga: shoujo scribbled mystickeeper at 5:55 PM
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wApr 19, 2009 | |
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Translucent, vol. 1-3 Shizuka is a 14-year-old girl who suffers from Translucent Syndrome. This means that at times, her body goes completely transparent. There is no known cause or cure for Translucent Syndrome, which is unfortunate, as it affects Shizuka's life daily. Shizuka longs to be normal, while many of her classmates are jealous of her condition without fully understanding it. People who are often the center of attention long to be able to fade away. Meanwhile, Shizuka is literally capable of fading away, but longs to become an actress when she grows up. She faces animosity about this choice: her father tries to dissuade her from it because of her unreliable body. Shizuka is often sweet and polite, so watching her struggle with being shunted aside by society is heartbreaking. "I just want to yell out....Look at me! I'm right here!" In addition to the classmates her own age, Shizuka befriends Keiko, an adult woman who also has Translucent Syndrome. I really liked Shizuka's ability to go and talk to Keiko about what it was like to be Translucent, when nobody else could fully understand what she was going to. There are some scenes that are simple, and heartbreaking. Such as when Keiko puts on a wedding dress and asks, "Well? How do I look?" Of course, there are a few things to dislike in this series. Shizuka's school nurse is a total creeper. At one point, she coerces Shizuka's love interest, Tadami, to walk in on Shizuka while she is undressed, and locks them in the room together. Shizkua is also coerced by her female friend to sneak into Tadami's house to steal back her misplaced journal. Of course, to do this translucently, Shizuka sneaks in while naked. These elements are pretty annoying in a series otherwise focused on telling an interesting story. They can probably be explained by the series' demographic, which is seinen. Unlike shoujo/shounen, which are aimed at the pre-teen and teenage populations, seinen is aimed at adult men. [Its female counterpart is josei, which accounts for titles like Honey & Clover and NANA]. If you're interested in the series but looking to avoid the annoying "Let's make awkward situations!" bits, I recommend the first volume. I thought it was the strongest with presenting a girl coping with a chronic disease, and minimal on the distracting bits. Overall, the series does a good job with exploring the ways people cope with and react to disabilities. One chapter focuses on one of Shizuka's best friend feeling guilty after thinking, "I'm glad I'm not Shizuka." While watching her favorite actress on TV, Shizuka becomes agonized, and thinks out loud, "Why me? Why am I translucent? Is this always going to depress me?" There are 5 total volumes in this series, and I'd like to read the final 2 some day, just to see what happens to Shizuka. They have not yet been released by Dark Horse in the U.S., due to issues with finding new translators. Labels: a: okamoto kazuhiro, ableism, bodies, disability, manga, manga: seinen scribbled mystickeeper at 9:59 AM
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wMar 16, 2009 | |
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I am only on my third volume of manga by Kaori Yuki, and I am already in love. BWAHAHAHA, this series just gets more heinous. I just got to the The embryo of the cursed bloodline rises to the heavens dripping blood and flapping its black wings line. THIS MANGA IS SO HEINOUS. LOL when Mary Weather hugs Cain in gladness, RIFF GETS HIS OWN BOX OF EMO LONGING. ON PAGE 12. ALSO PAGE 15, WHEN RIFF IS LITERALLY BUTTONING CAIN'S SHIRT. CAIN: I dreamed about my father...Mother and Aunt Augusta...They were trying to kill me...and Father said those cursed words. He had a whip in his hand like he used to.....You....took me by the hand and saved me. RIFF: I only wish to be near you and serve you. CAIN: Good...Be close to me as the air that I breathe. BWAHAHAHAAHA. THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO SAY. BWAHAHAHAHA. Labels: a: yuki kaori, manga, manga: cain saga, manga: shoujo scribbled mystickeeper at 10:17 AM
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wMar 9, 2009 | |
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Rather than many coherent posts, I make one fragmented one instead For those going for the Minimalist RaceFail experience.... I found sparkymonster's RaceFail, Silence, and Words quite valuable and link-rich. miriam-heddy's Where is your home? is intense and true. I don't think it's difficult to become informed about RaceFail. Also love tablesaw's O HAI RACEFAILZ: Notes on Reading an Internet Conflict. Does the wording of any of the WisCon panels make you cringe? I found one! Emphasis added by me. The freakish antics of true believers, the willful naivete of not-so-true-believers, and on the other side "Society Without God", the president of the United States acknowledging "non-believers", Darwin's 200th birthday, and the possible discovery of simple life on Mars. Are we finally going to shake off the institutionalized fears of our ancestors? What will we replace it with? Is "replacing it" even a valid point of discussion? :[ is what I have to say. I have yet to attend a WisCon panel about religion. I do not think that it would go....well....for me. I finished reading Tamora Pierce's Trickster's Choice and have Things to Say before I go on to the next book in the duology. Cut contains spoilers, but also thoughts on narrative choice and cultural appropriation. I think I really would have liked these books without the POV character of Aly. I love the court intrigue, the inability to trust everyone, even the trickster god. I really really love the Tudor-esque royal stuff going on. LOVE. It's what keeps me reading. Why couldn't Dove have been the POV character? Dove is so intelligent and so central to the plot - being the younger sister of Sarai, the woman who might become queen? What a great POV character! Alternatively, I would have loved a girl who actually was the servant Aly was pretending to be. If a Trickster god is picking someone for their potential/skills in eavesdropping and planning and stuff, I think a servant could have been a very workable a choice. The fact that Aly's constantly hiding her noble birth and true parentage seems unnecessary to me. Instead we get Aly, a white woman from a different country, who's captured as a slave, chosen by a god, and ends up being the honky who comes to sort out this mess of court-rule, entangled by race and centuries of in-fighting. To begin with, she arrives fully formed, with an arsenal of skills at her disposal. I really liked the Lioness Quartet and the Protector of the Small Quartet a lot more, because we get to see the protagonists working hard, sweating, learning, getting better, getting stronger. Aly's already learned everything from her father, and she does everything perfectly, especially in the first 150 pages or so. Also, maybe it was just me, but her thought process was spelled out almost ad nauseum. Judging people's character as related to court drama is cool, but EVERY TIME she got on a horse, Pierce reminded readers that she was pretending to be a bad rider so that she could play a role. I found Aly to be extremely conceited, and she kind of ruined the books for me. To me that's a flaw, but not really a self-acknowledged one. I think Kel was very self-aware of all her failings, but she also had a fear of heights that was pretty spelled out. Ditto to Alanna's issues with intimacy and trusting people. Anyway, I found her presence problematic for other reasons, too. The book is basically a version of What These People Need is a Honky, which is part of why I would have vastly preferred Dove or a raka [ie, person of color] servant as the POV character.
I started a Kingdom Hearts game, which means I'm now in the middle of Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII, and this game. I recognized something extremely familiar as soon as I heard I find a lot of the interface stuff super annoying, like the fact that I can't be moving my character while simultaneously controlling the camera angle. Also found myself longing for the ever-present Final Fantasy XII map. Maybe I should just play FFXII some more. I love it, but I remember last saving in a place where my characters were in a bit of a pickle. Hopefully I have another save point close to that one. Lots of people have blogged about Kaori Yuki manga before BUT I DID NOT BELIEVE THEM. I have now read 1.5 volumes of Cain Saga. OMG!!! Tortured soul Earl Cain Hargreaves lives in Victorian England. He keeps a collection of poisons handed down in his family for generations. He solves mysteries! He has a curse to never have anyone love him.....BUT HIS HOT BUTLER RIFF CARES FOR HIM AND HIS MAN-PAIN. I loved the sidebar in which Kaori Yuki was like, "Lots of people say they like Riff, and I think it's funny, because I don't get it." And I was like, OH YOU ARE SO SILLY, YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING, HAVING THOSE HOT MEN KEEP HOUSE TOGETHER. I am so excited to read more! Heinous Victorian gothic manga is apparently exactly what I need right now. Labels: a: pierce tamora, a: yuki kaori, manga, manga: cain saga, manga: shoujo, racefail 9000, wiscon 33 scribbled mystickeeper at 11:34 PM
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wFeb 14, 2009 | |
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Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days Angelic Days takes the characters and setting of Neon Genesis Evangelion and reimagines what would happen if nobody's parents were dead, and if nobody had any psychological problems. Frankly, given the nature of the original Evangelion, that is super disturbing. On the surface level, Angelic Days has a useless shoujo romance plot. Every character tires their hardest at everything, be it pulling weeds or washing dishes or doing any other mundane task that somehow benefits humanity at large every time it is performed. Also, everybody likes somebody else, and they all blushingly tell each other who they like, and everyone is mature and responsible and happy. Normally, I hate plots like these unless they are truly memorable and well-done (Land of the Blindfolded is the best I can think of, in this regard). But because it's Evangelion, it just made my skin crawl. Rei is out-going and likeable. Shinji and Asuka have a romantic relationship. Yui Ikari is alive and well. WTF probably sums up my reactions most succinctly. Labels: manga, manga: neon genesis evangelion angelic days scribbled mystickeeper at 2:14 PM
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wJan 9, 2009 | |
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Black Jack Black Jack is a manga series by "God of Manga" Osamu Tezuka. Black Jack is the titular character, an enigmatic and aloof doctor who practices without a license. Thus, he doesn't practice in a hospital, but instead rents himself out for exorbitant prices to perform highly complex and often improbable procedures. Basically, he is a bad-ass doctor. But don't let his gruff exterior fool you! He has a heart of gold, and often does what he can to help poor/nice people, over rich bastards. Black Jack is the most accessible Tezuka manga that I've read thus far. Tezuka uses a short story format for the series, usually aiming for 20-page stories. I don't really consider this a spoiler, because it occurs in the volume. Mostly, I don't want to cut it because it is SO HEINOUS that even people uninterested in manga maybe interested in the WTF factor. So, Black Jack falls in love with a woman, woman gets uterine cancer. Black Jack will operate on her.
I KNOW, WHAT? Later:
If a man told me I was no longer a woman because I had a hysterectomy, the last thing I would do is kiss him. IF ANYBODY LEAVES A COMMENT SAYING THAT YOU NEED WOMAN ORGANS TO BE A WOMAN, I WILL BE DISPLEASED. Labels: a: tezuka osamu, manga, manga: black jack, manga: shounen scribbled mystickeeper at 11:05 AM
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wDec 25, 2008 | |
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A few of the things I've read lately I think most people with even a slight pulse on the comics/anime industry have heard of the series Fullmetal Alchemist. If you haven't, check it out! A steampunk setting in which two brothers who have committed the ultimate sin set out to get their original bodies back. I have now read through volume 16, and hope to catch up to the current issue in the near future. But the reason I wanted to blog about the series is this! If you watched and loved the anime series, I highly recommend checking out the manga. While the series begin almost identically, the anime series diverged from the manga and made up its own ending, as the manga was still on-going. It wasn't a bad ending, as you might be able to tell, I quite liked the anime. BUT. THE MANGA IS SO GOOD, YOU GUYS! If you liked the anime and want to see Mustang & Co. in the Civil War with Ishbal?! ALL OF VOLUME 15 IS A FLASHBACK TO THAT SHIZ!! Additionally, Arakawa has some of the most hilarious omake pages at the end of each volume that I've ever seen. She'll take very dramatic and emotional parts that happened in that volume and make hilarious jokes. I think my favorite bonus story was Al as a baby, and Ed as a little kid, slapping him in the face right in front of their mom and then running away, like little kids do. Arakawa's previews for future volumes are also awe-inspiring and EPIC. In my search for shounen series that I like, Fullmetal Alchemist is the hands-down winner (although I feel like But mostly, what I love is that the series is tightly plotted, the characters are emotionally believable, and the story is endlessly intriguing. I've also read The New York Four by Brian Wood, illustrated by Ryan Kelly. A few of my friends rave endlessly about Brian Wood (and before you freak out, yes, I already have a lot of his other stuff on hold at the library). New York Four is basically a Western one-shot version of shoujo manga. It's all about people living in a city, and their relationships to one another. So....I didn't really see anything special about it. Sure, I liked it, but if you read this and loved it, I highly recommend Ai Yazawa's NANA. Likewise, shoujo manga fans might appreciate this rare example of a Western comic written for teenage girls. Labels: a: arakawa hiromu, a: kelly ryan, a: wood brian, comics, manga, manga: fullmetal alchemist, manga: shounen scribbled mystickeeper at 2:13 PM
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wDec 23, 2008 | |
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8,000,000 things make a post There are things I need to do, and am not doing! Apparently I'm going to be in the next Wiscon Chronicles book! The write-up I wrote about the YA Fantasy panel is going to be its own article, and Oyceter mentions me in her write-up of Bodies in Shoujo Manga (BEST PANEL EVAR). I'm pretty excited about this! But I need a bio. What do I put in a bio?! "Mystickeeper reads books and squees about them online." Has anybody read these Chronicles books? What do the bios look like? Additionally, I haven't watched a single DVD, haven't read anything except manga, and basically do nothing but play Final Fantasy XII. At least I'll be busy on Christmas Eve and Day, being with my family and stuff. Still, I feel like I should be a little more active, or a little more balanced. Curse addictive personalities! This is why I refuse to ever look at World of Warcraft, or even try drugs. I would be gone to the world. I am still frustrated in Final Fantasy XII! I spent most of the day being not frustrated, so I guess that's good. At a friend's suggestion, I went and did some hunts, going back to a Save I had with Larsa still in my party (an extra party member who uses his own potions?! WIN.). This was okay for about 4 hunts, but now I am too weak to do any more hunts! Grrrr.....I'm in some underground cave in the middle of the Dalmasca Westersand and it's kind of hilarious because I'm trying to get to the Mark I'm supposed to kill, but instead have to turn off my characters' Gambits and run like none other. GRRRRR. I want my characters to interact! Also, are there any nice guides to side quests online? I was using a walkthrough at GameFAQs, but I only refer to it if I encounter a particularly difficult enemy or complicated dungeon. But now I want to go get cool stuff to equip on my party (like that Gold Armlet that gets me double LP!). Oh yeah! I summoned Belias one time in battle and he got KO'ed. Is there a way to bring him back? The first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is on sale at both Best Buy and Amazon.com for $12.99. I think this will be the first thing I buy for myself with the money I receive for Christmas. I picked up a few volumes of the Lovely Complex manga at the library. I have watched the complete anime series, and wanted to see how the manga compared. While the anime sometimes took a bit of a dive in terms of budget and animation quality, that obviously never happens in the manga. Still, I think the series certainly benefits from having its Osakan dialect spoken aloud. This feature is completely lost in the English translation of the manga. I love the series for representing an "unconventional" love, and for always striving to keep things interesting. I love seeing Risa's outfits! Anyone looking for a quality shoujo series should check this one out. Labels: a: nakahara aya, consumerism, friends, holidays, manga, manga: lovely complex, manga: shoujo, video games, video games: final fantasy, video games: final fantasy xii scribbled mystickeeper at 8:58 PM
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wDec 22, 2008 | |
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Gin Tama I think I'm bouncing off of this series. I read four entire volumes, though! Maybe I'll hang on to 5-9 in case I change my mind. I appreciate the hilarity, and especially find the manga-ka's notes on the omake pages quite funny. There is a lot of potty humor, which I tend to ignore, and the characters themselves are often quite funny. BUT, it's too much for me. I need drama mixed in with my funnies! I wouldn't call this series stupid, or terrible. I just don't like it enough to look forward to reading a new volume. I did like the way the Shinsengumi was involved, though. If anyone has any final epic professions of love detailing why I should like this series, speak now! Labels: a: sorachi hideaki, manga, manga: gin tama, manga: shounen scribbled mystickeeper at 11:34 AM
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wDec 16, 2008 | |
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After School Nightmare, volume 6 So, there are spoilers behind the cut but I thought I'd toss out that the post is still interesting in terms of gender identity and ableism. I loved Suo's subversion of expectations in this volume. Of course, Mashiro has been trying to play the hero in every dream sequence, and because she is disabled, he assumes she needs his help most of all. In the nightmare, she takes the form of a masked mermaid (in real life, she is a former model, now disfigured and disabled by an accident). Mashiro finds her in the nightmare, picks up her, and rushes her to the roof. Her verbal tirade was great. Why did you carry me all the way up here? I said nothing, and still you decided I needed saving. I was waiting for the water to fill the basement. I was too weak to move until then. Did you notice the tail, darling? I'm made for water. You never thought that I might have been okay. You were too filled with the idea of being a hero. That's who you really are. You saw me struggling and thought, 'Oh, the poor girl.' Are you that in love with the idea of being a prince? I....hate you." She stabs him, and he wakes up. AND THEN KUREHA CALLS HIM ON HIS SHIT, TOO. K:Mashiro-kun. The other day you said I was "special." But what does that even mean? M: ...Huh? K: "Especially pathetic"? Isn't that what you meant? M: Kureha....? K: You're sweet to me because....because of what happened to me. [She was raped.] And because you think I need it. M: Kureha! It's not like I can just ignore the trauma you went through! K: Mashiro-kun. I understand what the mermaid was saying. It makes you feel strong and important to protect a girl like me. You want to hold on to that feeling, right? M: Kureha. Stop it. K: You need a girl like me to compare yourself to....so you can continue to feel like a man. Some of my friends are turned off by this manga because of its negative treatment of gender identity, but I'm hoping against hope that in the end, it won't be like that. I think Mashiro starts off with clear expectations of what it means to be a man, and what it means to be a woman. In the nightmare world, everyone else's bodily form is a vastly corrupted form of their real-life body. For Mashiro, his nightmare form is his own body. His complex identity is horrifying to him. The goal of the nightmare world is for each character to confront their nightmares and defeat them, and "graduate." We still don't know what happens to characters when they graduate. But I think that the entire series is meant to be an exploration of what gender identity means to Mashiro, and how he might finally be able to accept himself in the end. I like that he has a relationship with Sou, a boy, as well as Kureha, a girl. Of course the seeming man/man relationship is secret and forbidden, but will Mashiro remain a menstruating male? Does he even have to choose one half of the gender binary, or will he simply accept himself in the end? I don't know, but I'm loving this stuff and have confidence in the manga-ka that it'll turn out okay (and by "okay," I mean complex and interesting, not happy.). Labels: a: mizushiro setona, ableism, gender identity, manga, manga: after school nightmare scribbled mystickeeper at 3:39 PM
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