wSep 27, 2009


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. :[

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scribbled mystickeeper at 8:21 AM
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wApr 29, 2009


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!!

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scribbled mystickeeper at 5:55 PM
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wMar 16, 2009


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.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 10:17 AM
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wMar 9, 2009


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.


"That's not what I learned at my da's knee," Aly retorted. Her mental image of people executed by righteous natives was too awful for her to let Ochobu's prejudices stand without argument. "The raka used to kill all the time. Your nobles and your rather temporary queens in the years before the luarin came were so busy battling each other that you didn't have the strength to fight off an invasion. By the time you banded together, it was too late."
"I know that," Ochobu growled, mashing her berries with ferocity. "All of us who inherited this mess know."

...

Ochobu laid her pestle aside. "We have lived too long as tenants on lands that our foremothers owned. I know that. I know what is at stake. I can see for myself that a certain young woman is royal in two bloodlines, and that seems to fit the prophecy. But I am no lapdog, trained to roll onto my back for you or any other luarin. I am here to make up my own mind."
Aly brushed a speck from her sleeve. "Then let me tell you something I've observed. Those you call luarin here, including the ones who are part luarin, part raka - they aren't citizens of the Eastern or Southern Lands. They see themselves as Kyprians. They took your land's names for thier own. They've made the Isles prosper. I think they've earned the right to stay, if they don't side with the Rittevons when the time comes."
"Is the god speaking through you?" Ochobu demanded, eyes flinty. "Or just you?"
Aly fought the urge to give Nawat's shrug for a reply. "I assume the god picked me for my opinions as well as my skills, however temporary I might be. I am an outsider. Sometimes we see more clearly than those who live inside the problem."
"I'll be better off when you leave," Ochobu complained. For the moment she sagged, the lines of her face deepening. "You've given me a headache. Go away."
Aly went.



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 Squall Leon talking.....LOL DAVID BOREANAZ. What a perfect combination. It was like....suddenly there was liquid sex in my video game!

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.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 11:34 PM
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wDec 23, 2008


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.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 8:58 PM
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wNov 29, 2008


We're seeing "Bolt" tomorrow!

I read the first volume of Yuu Watase's "Imadoki!" manga. This put a spin on her usual schtick by not being supernatural. Still, the male protagonist was a complete jerk, but the female protagonist decided to put up with it, which means she finds him attractive. The female protagonist's best female friend turns out to be a conniving bitch. I've just go to wonder what Watase's female friends did to her in high school. I mean, seriously. My usual library has the rest of the series, but I'm wondering what the point of reading Yuu Watase manga is.


The first 1.5 volumes of D.Gray-Man have been pretty sweet, though. How come nobody recommended this in my quest for good shounen? 19th century England, an exorcist, nice art and great aesthetics (I love the moon, love the occasionally drippy backdrops), an enemy that manifests sin and stuff. Does it suck later on like Bleach? Because that would be pretty sad!

I know I watched the first episode of the D.Gray-Man anime and hated it. It seemed really formulaic and useless. I guess that was mostly the pacing, voice acting, and other stuff? Now I'd like to rewatch it to see how it compares.


Future shounen plans include: Continuing to read Naruto from where I left off, trying Gintama (the library didn't have the first three volumes there!), and continuing Claymore (I got two volumes today, which I will read before driving home). I'll probably do these things before attempting to return to Bleach, methinks.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 1:11 AM
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wSep 20, 2008


Recently Read Manga Report....with pictures!



Apollo's Song by Osamu Tezuka

Tezuka is considered the god of anime/manga, but I had never read anything by him before. His works date back to the 1940s and have influenced every manga genre.

Apollo's Song is really weird, but really good. The protagonist is a boy named Shogo, who has grown up hating love. Society fears him as being a psychopath, because he's killed animals after finding them mating. He is an inmate at institution attempting to rehabilitate him. Through hypnotism and electro-shock therapy, Shogo experiences elaborate dreams in which he falls in love with a woman, only to meet a tragic end every time. A Greek goddess (I can't remember which one it was, :/) tells him that this is his punishment for acting out so much violence against lovers in his life. Eventually, reality and the dream-world blur together. This was pretty awesome, and I'm looking forward to reading more by Tezuka.




Tekkonkinkreet by Taiyō Matsumoto

This manga was originally published in the early 1990s, but has recently gained a lot of attention because of the movie adaptation that was made in 2006.

Black and White are two orphan boys living in a city called Treasure Town. The yakuza (Japanese equivalent of the mob) is trying to take over the city, but these two snot-nosed kids simply won't have it. Black is the intelligent and more violent boy, while White seems to be somewhat impaired mentally, and is constantly singing nonsense songs. They live together in an abandoned car.

This manga, and its anime adaptation, have garnered a lot of positive press, but overall, I wasn't too impressed. I'd still be interested in watching the movie, though. It seems to have had a pretty high budget, and the action scenes would probably be fun.




Sand Chronicles by Hinako Ashihara

I absolutely adored volume one of this series, and I highly recommend it for its art style, its pacing, and its emotional impact.

Spoilers for volume 3.

I love Ann, and I love Daigo. But I also love the Tsukishima siblings, and I want them to be happy, so I want Ann and Daigo to end up with Fuji and Shiika instead of with each other.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 7:39 PM
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wAug 16, 2008


After School Nightmare, volume 1

I never know how to mark spoilers for the first volume of a manga series. Because, obviously it spoils the first volume, but it's impossible to talk about the series at all without "giving away" the premise of the series! I choose to un-cut because I think a lot of people on my friendslist will find this interesting, even those who don't normally read manga.

Ichijo Mashiro is a popular boy who plays on his school's kendo team. But the very first pages of this manga show him standing in the shower, staring at the blood from his first period on the ground. "No way," he breathes, but as we read on, we learn that it is way: Ichijo is a boy from the waist up, and a girl from the waist down. He has spent his life behaving as a boy, and kept this secret from everyone he knows.

Until now, anyway. Ichijo is forced by a mysterious teacher to stay after school for a class needed to graduate. In this class, a handful of students interact in a dream world where each of them struggles against their biggest fear, and competes for a key. The students appear to each other as manifestations of their fear. One student has two giant holes in her body: one in her face, and one in her chest; one student has turned into a long, sentient hand. Another walks around in a suit of armor, challenging his classmates for the key. Ichijo appears as he normally would....except that he is wearing a skirt. To his horror, he realizes that this dream world is not just a dream....everyone remembers everything afterward, and because his classmates can see his face, they all now know his secret.

Manga will often use ambiguous gender as a trope, but this is one of the few I've seen that actually shows the protagonist grappling with with different gender identities, and what they mean to him (or her; Ichijo is certainly a "he" in volume 1, but it remains to be seen where his heart will take him). It is clear that right now, Ichijo's view of gender is very warped.

Ichijo says, Guys are stronger. Guys are sturdier. Guys have more freedom. Guys have fewer weaknesses. That's why I want to be a guy. I focused on being like a guy so I would become one. But....when I lost to Sou...I knew it was because I'm a girl. Even though I trained so hard to become strong....I lost to a slacker...because of my body. It's really amazing how distorted everyone can get. ... This body I walk around in is the most distorted thing of all. That's why I didn't turn into anything else in that dream. Because this body is uglier than anything I know.

Of course, this is Ichijo's view of men. In the dream world, he learns that his classmate Kureha was raped on her way home from school at the age of 5. Why is it that men do nothing but hurt? she asks. If only they'd all just die....

Still, despite watching Kureha's nightmare, Ichijo still longs to be a man: I want to become a man with a steady heart. Beautiful and unwavering...I want to be a dignified man.

It will be interesting to see how Ichijo develops throughout the series. To defeat his nightmare, I'm assuming that he will choose one gender over the other. In the first volume, he seeks an open heterosexual relationship with Kureha, but it's clear (from their passionate kiss) that he and Sou have homosexual feelings for one another....or, at least, the feelings will be homosexual if Ichijo remains male.

I enjoyed this volume thoroughly, but unfortunately, it's wildly popular. I think I had this on hold at the library for a month before I got a hold of it. Oh well; future volumes will be something to look forward to.

Look, an online preview!

Questions I have right now: What does it mean to "graduate"? Will Ichijo become accepting of his body, and of what it means to be a strong woman, or will his view of gender remain warped? How come he thinks he has to be a woman to be with Sou, or a man to be with Kureha (who ironically hates men, and considers Ichijo the "only man she can be with," because he's not really a man)?

My all-time anime favorite Revolutionary Girl Utena makes me feel a lot safer. She would have a lot to say to Ichijo's "I wish I could be dignified and strong like a man." Women can be like that, too!

I try to keep track of what manga I consider "safe for kids" because I get a lot of people asking me "What series are okay for my 7-year-old daughter?" It's probably not something I would hand to my 9-year-old niece.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 11:58 AM
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wJun 27, 2008


Baby & Me

Takuya Enoki is an 11-year-old boy whose mother died less than a year ago. He and his father are left to care for Takuya's 2-year-old brother, Minoru. The artwork in this series leaves something to be desire, but it is pretty consistent with the general style of the early 1990s from whence it came.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first volume: both Takuya and Minoru miss their mother, but it is Takuya who is forced to fill part of her role by helping his father raise his baby brother. Takuya isn't in any after-school clubs because he picks Minoru up from daycare. He often buys groceries so his father can make dinner. Takuya resents this at first, saying that he hates Minoru, and wishes he would go away forever. By the end of the volume, though, Takuya accepts that he loves his brother, and continues to be the best brother he can be. It's very sweet.

And then the series continues for 17 more volumes.

I made it through volume 4 because that's all my library has, but the series got very repetitive after volume 1. Ragawa introduces Takuya's classmates and their baby siblings, so Minoru and Takuya have more people to interact with, but not much else happens. Maybe one day, I'll sample volumes 10 and 18, and see if Minoru and Takuya age, or otherwise develop.

The series is notable in that it is a shoujo series with a male protagonist. I can't remember any manga series I've read in which Japanese school life and family life are viewed from a male perspective. Additionally, I can't remember any series in which a baby was featured as a main character. There are a few in which babies are faceless props, or very minor side characters. Pregnancy is often used as a dramatic plot device, but I've never seen the baby portrayed as a person before. I've never thought about it, but that's a pretty untapped market. Babies are cute, and invoke emotional reactions in other characters.

The closest series that I can think of is Yotsuba&!, but she is 6 years old, and the series is technically sienen (who comes up wtih these categories, anyway?).

In conclusion, volume one was original and good, but the series was too much of the same thing after that, for me.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 9:53 AM
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wJun 2, 2008


Cardcaptor Sakura, vols. 1-12

I'm making it my goal to read most of the manga written by CLAMP before delving into their two current series, xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, as the two contain lots of crossover elements. I'm also doing it because CLAMP has made a pretty large impact in the manga medium, and they have written in many different genres. To see my past posts on CLAMP manga, I recommend using the tag system to your advantage!

Technically, volumes 7-12 are called "Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow," and are numbered 1-6. Whatever.

This is the only CLAMP series that I had read once before (most of it, anyway). Like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura is an old favorite of mine. Sakura Kinomoto is a fourth-grader with a special mission: to collect the magical Clow Cards, each of which have a separate magical ability. The Clow Cards were created by Clow Reed, a magician with "supreme powers." Sakura opened a book in her father's study one day and met Kero, who looks like a cute stuffed animal that's a hybrid between a lion and a dog, with wings. He assures Sakura that he is only in this "cute" form because he is low on magic, and his "true form" is "awesome and scary."

The fact that Sakura was able to open the book means that she has magical powers. And thus, she uses them to collect the cards, with Kero's help. The only person who knows about her secret mission is her friend, Tomoyo. Tomoyo thinks Sakura's mission is so cool that she makes different elaborate outfits for every time Sakura goes out to capture a card. In Tomoyo's words, "When you do special things, you have to wear special clothes." Hence the frill.

Tomoyo (a girl) has a very apparent crush on Sakura, who is totally oblivious. Sakura is head-over-heels for her brother's high school friend, Yuki. Sakura's father married her mother when she was only 16 years old, and her father was a teacher!! Sakura's cousin, who is also Tomoyo's mother, is very jealous and angry at Sakura's father for taking away Sakura's mother. This also means that Sakura and Tomoyo are second cousins, and the love of Tomoyo's side of the family for Sakura's seems not to have left. Tomoyo knows that Sakura is completely oblivious to her love for her, but instead of pining and angsting about it, she encourages Sakura to express her feelings to the person she loves: Yuki. This is a very mature attitude for a 10-year-old!

Things grow more interesting when Li Sayoran transfers to Sakura's school from Hong Kong, and tells her that he is a direct descendant of Clow Reed, and therefore entitled to capturing the Clow Cards for himself.

Sakura is a pretty typical cute fourth grader. When Kero (Kerberos) tells her that uncaptured cards can do evil in the world, she asks, "Um, um, evil? Like stealing a snack? Or bending a flower? Or not doing homework? Or staying up late...?" Her cuteness (combined with her determination and courage) will make you love her; I promise.

And all of these plot points are from the first six volumes only (maybe even only the first 2 or 3, I don't remember).


But there is so much to discuss! Romance is highly prevalent in this series, so I've decided to try my hand at making a list for who likes whom.

Sakura -> Yuki (later revealed to only like him because of his relationship to the Clow Cards, although for a while it was pretty creepy how she kept noting how similar Yuki was to her father and Eriol!!!)
Sakura -> Li
Li -> Yuki (Same reasons as Sakura)
Li -> Sakura
Yuki <-> Toya
Fujitaka (father) <-> Nadeshiko (mother)
Nadeshiko <- Sonomi (Nadeshiko's cousin and Tomoyo's mother)
Tomoyo -> Sakura
Rika <-> Her teacher (WTF?!?! SO INAPPROPRIATE)
Ruby Moon -> Toya (?)
Eriol <-> Ms. Mizuki (WTF age-gap, although maybe it's different because he's the reincarnation of Clow Reed?!)

ALSO, my FL has told me that clones and doubles will be important in Tsubasa Chronicles (well, they always are in CLAMP - look at Chobits, X/1999 and RG Veda, for starters!). Thus, I thought it would be worth mentioning that Sakura has a card that allows her to make a copy of herself when she has dire need of one; for example, when she must battle a Clow Card while also lying in bed sick from school. Her brother Toya could tell it was a clone right away, and had a conversation with it.


This series is appropriate for all ages (although it might be difficult for very young readers to keep track of who likes who, as well as some of the plot points). It does not contain the references to panties that Angelic Layer does.

I love this series! It's one of my favorites by CLAMP, although nostalgia might have a lot to do with it, as well as its similarities in structure to Sailor Moon (perhaps my all-time favorite). The series is probably more focused on human relationships than on the Clow Cards themselves, although there are plenty of plot twists to keep that aspect of the story interesting, too.

I like that Sakura is strong in ways outside of her magical powers: she is athletic, and often shown roller-blading and otherwise being active in school. She is also a genuinely nice person, and a responsible role model for young children in that she's often shown taking turns with her older brother and father to take care of household chores.

I love that Sakura's father is shown cooking and cleaning in a way that isn't a hilarious joke. I love that there is gay love that isn't meant to be laughed at. The only thing in the series that made me cringe was the cousin!love and the student/teacher loves.

My favorite characters were probably Sakura herself, Tomoyo for her pure and honorable love, and Toya, for knowing so much but only acting when it was appropriate.

Cardcaptor Sakura looks like it will play an important role in CLAMP's current series Tsubasa Chronicle, as its protagonists appear to be aged versions of Li and Sakura. I look forward to reading it, and will be very angry if Sakura is a passive, useless heroine.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 6:43 PM
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wMay 28, 2008


Panel Report: Shoujo Bodies

Panel Report: Sponteaneous Panel: Shoujo Bodies ♦ 7:30pm, Saturday

Most bodies in shoujo manga are thin and wispy, with an emphasis on androgyny. Many of the men tend to lack muscle definition (think Yuu Watase), while the women are much less curvy than their shounen manga counterparts. What does this mean to us? What other body types are there in shoujo manga? We will hopefully talk about gender-bending, cross-dressing, body image, and the fashion industry. Suggested series to discuss: After School Nightmare, Paradise Kiss, Walkin' Butterfly, Angel Sanctuary, Fruits Basket, W Juliet, Rose of Versailles, and Princess Knight.

This panel was organized by and , and it was pretty awesome. For some reason, I don't talk much at Wiscon panels, so even though this one was less than 10 people, I still didn't say much. In my defense, I was quite tired, but still very excited. What follows is basically a list of titles of manga series, with the small amount of commentary I wrote down. Again, I was tired.

also wrote up this panel with a better summary than I did, and also caught some series titles that I missed.


Princess Knight is apparently the first shoujo anime, made by the creator Astro Boy, etc. The Japanese title is Ribbon Knight. The protagonist is a woman whose father wanted a son, and thus raised her as one. It sounds very much like the premise of the manga/anime series Rose of Versailles, although this one of course came first.

After School Nightmare sounded just plain awesome. The protagonist is an intersex character who wants to be male, but is biologically female from the waist-down. He menstruates. The plot sounds just plain awesome, with students encountering their worst nightmares at their school, after class. It was noted that girls' nightmares often involved aspects of themselves, while boys' nightmares were usually something else.

Baby & Me - a story in which a male protagonist is used to discuss traditionally female problems: how it can suck to care for a baby because you can't easily hang out with your friends, go to school, or date.

NANA - I've already read ~15 volumes of this series and watched the anime. The narration style of the story was mentioned, in that it is two women having a conversation. In NANA, the plot is driven by internal character development, but music and fashion and the characters' appearance is still very, very important.

Mars is an older series that starts off with the female lead being a timid character afraid of the world because of abuse. In one particularly notable scene, she describes this abuse to someone else, who sympathizes, "You must have felt really scared." The protagonist replies, "No, I was furious," with some violent imagery on the page. Then, this valid anger of the woman is set aside, and the story then focuses on the male lead.

We discussed briefly how male characters often experience physical trauma (losing an eye!), while female bodies are often left untouched. Women are also not often scarred permanently, whereas male characters are.

In Rurouni Kenshin, a scar on the cheek is used to mark the protagonist (who has a round face and therefore feminine features) as a man.

Other series that were mentioned:
Princess Princess (at an all-boys school, some boys must cross-dress into frilly clothing so that the other boys have something to look at)
Walking Butterfly
Rose of Versailles (I have watched most of this)
Angel Sanctuary
High School Debut
Hana Monogatari (1920s book, where shojo manga gets its style from)
The Tale of Genji (a novel)
Kitchens - Banana Yoshimoto Link!

The Nanami's egg episode in Revolutionary Girl Utena is totally all about menstruation and pregnancy. The pregnancy, I got. The menstruation, I missed. I need to rewatched Utena.


Whee! I'd love to read After School Nightmare and Princess Knight, for sure. I intend to check out the other stuff, too.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 9:59 PM
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wMay 10, 2008


Manga v. Comics

When I posted about writing my Global Cultures paper, I mentioned its topic: representations of gender in Japanese manga versus U.S. comics. I did say that the beginning contained an explanation of the differences between the two, and Keely said, "Post it!" This is that post.

I should note that this is not an English class, and we received next to zero instructions on how to write this paper, or give the presentation on which it was based (Please excuse the poor writing). I was at a particular disadvantage because everyone in my class presented on their Study Abroad trips, and I have never studied abroad (it is not required to receive a Global Cultures certificate!).

Anyway, this is a slightly modified version of the introduction, and the transition in the middle.

Argh, I forgot that I edited this on the computer at work, and never saved the new version to my home computer, :/ I'll do my best to make it sound like the other one!

Unfortunately, I have not studied abroad, and have only left the country to cross the border into Canada to buy my high school Prom dress. Yet, with the world becoming increasingly globalized, I still have multicultural experiences every day. I have been an avid reader since a young age, and am constantly trying new authors and classics. I do like reading well-written science fiction, but I am willing to try any genre. After trying a few graphic novels from the public library in high school, a new medium of texts became visible to me. As time has gone on, I discovered manga from Japan, manwha from Korea, and comic books that are published in the United States. I now find myself the president of the UW campus Anime Club, which meets weekly.

"Manga" usually refers to any comic made in Japan. It is the Japanese word for comic, and is used by English-speaking readers to differentiate it from other graphic novels, such as American comic books. While American comic books are generally printed in color and on larger pages, manga is almost always printed in black and white, and shrunk to a smaller size when bundled into volumes. Manga also tends to have more stylized art, while artists for American comics strive to make their characters as realistic as possible. Another interesting difference is that a Japanese manga artist is almost always in charge of both the writing of the series and the drawing of its art. In the American comic book market, however, it is almost always the case that a comic series has one or a few writers, and separate people who are artists. Long-running series will see writers and writing teams come and go as the story continues for decades.

In the United States, the quickest way for a person to read a new issue of a comic book series is to purchase a single, stand-alone issue. In Japan, the quickest way to be updated on a current manga series is by buying a weekly (or monthly, as the case may be) catalogue that runs between 5 and 10 series at the same time. Generally, catalogues try to run series that have something in common, such as their target audience or genre. American comic books seem to have a longer history than Japanese manga. American comic books have about a 70-year history, while mainstream manga is only about 30-40 years old. As time has progressed, both markets have periodically borrowed from one another.

One of the major differences between comics and manga is target audience. American comics have sometimes tried to market series toward girls. In the 1950s, publishing company DC tried, but did not have much luck, probably due to overly melodramatic plot lines in series with names like "Heart Throbs," "Young Romance," and "Girls' Romance." The cover of one such comic has a glaring woman, saying, "Don’t mind me, Barry! I’m only the girl you’re engaged to!" to a surprised man embracing a woman with pointed, round breasts (YES, THEY WERE BOTH!) and a very short skirt. There is another with a black-haired woman saying, "If you don’t go along with my little scheme, I’ll spill the beans about your SECRET MARRIAGE!" The woman to whom she is speaking has tears falling from her eyes, and looks forlorn. Aside from these failed attempts, there really no longer are series marketed solely towards men or women; the stories simply stand as different genres, and the reader can decide what sounds appealing.

Conversely, Japanese manga series are labeled according to their target audience, and the Japanese names for these groups are used by American readers. "Shounen" is the Japanese word for "boy," and it refers to manga targeted toward boys. In general, these series focus on a male protagonist who engages in a series of fights. Throughout the series, he will get stronger as he fights pretty much every person he ever encounters. Some popular examples include the series Bleach, Naruto, and Fullmetal Alchemist. "Shoujo" is the Japanese word for "girl," and it refers to manga targeted toward girls. In general, these series focus on a female protagonist and her relationships with others. These relationships are not only romantic intrigues, but also often focus on family and friendship. Of course, no single series will fit neatly into a box, but these are general categories. In general, I read shoujo manga, although I enjoy action and suspense manga, as well.


I also had a paragraph somewhere in here about how manga and American comics approach realism. In the American series X-Men, for example, great pains are taken to explain that super heroes have super powers because of genetic mutations. A lot of time is spent building a school for "mutants" to attend, fleshing out the government's reaction to the existence of such mutants, etc. In manga, characters will have features such as cat ears for no apparent reason, and everyone else seems to think that it's normal. In manga, you get very comfortable very quickly with the concept of "just go with it."

If you have question, ask them! Maybe I can answer them, or could find the answer for you. I actually read a lot more manga than I do American comics, :O

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scribbled mystickeeper at 9:46 AM
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wMay 4, 2008


RG Veda

I'm making it my goal to read most of the manga written by CLAMP before delving into their two current series, xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, as the two contain lots of crossover elements. I'm also doing it because CLAMP has made a pretty large impact in the manga medium, and they have written in many different genres. To see my past posts on CLAMP, I recommend using the tag system to your advantage!


This is the 10-volume breakout series of the manga-making team CLAMP. I've been reading CLAMP titles in a roughly chronological order, so it was pretty jarring to shift from X/1999 to RG Veda, in which the artwork is obviously older, and not as good (CLAMP started making RG Veda in 1989). The heinous male hairstyles and ridiculously broad shoulders make a comeback. Still, it's possible to look past that, and appreciate the intricate clothing and dramatic storyline.

I've been reading CLAMP's X/1999 series for a while now, but I'm going to wait to blog about it, as I only have 4 volumes left to read. Still, the parallels between the plots in RG Veda and X/1999 are striking, in that they are two series with the exact same premise.

Taishakuten, the evil guy, is attempting to gather the "six stars" (people) "that will tear apart the heavens." Yasha, a protagonist, wants to gather the six stars for himself, to put an end to Taishakuten's tyranny. He travels with Ashura, a young boy/girl who is the last of his bloodline (and looks a lot like Chun Hyang, from another CLAMP title). Normally, Ashura is a polite and fierce young boy. Periodically, however, his mind and body are taken over, and he is able to kill ferocious enemies with pure energy. People are constantly following Yasha and Ashura, trying to kill Ashura.

Once the six stars are gathered, one of two things will happen: they will be the flame that incinerates all evil, or they will be the flame that turns the world into a burning hell. (So, yes. The exact same premise as X/1999!)

Yasha travels with Ashura because he is the one who awakened Ashura, despite being told that Ashura would one day kill him. Ashura is genderless, although he is referred to as a "he" in the English version, as the English language has no genderless pronoun. Ashura is constantly blaming himself for the deaths of others, and whining about how everything is his fault.

While it can sometimes be easy to spot phallic symbols in the media, RG Veda is notable in that there seems to be a number of background arches and the like that represent female external genitalia. Also, like X/1999, RG Veda has some female characters whose purpose is to literally be a sheathe for an important sword (sexual metaphor much?). In order for the sword to be born, the women must die.


This series has been made into a 2-part OVA, which I might be willing to try some day because it's short.

This series might be difficult to get your hands on, as I think it's out of print. Many thanks to the Brown County Library, for having all ten volumes!

Wikipedia tells me that Ashura, Ashura-o (evil!Ashura....unfortunately, the English translation does not keep the suffixes, so it's more difficult to keep them apart), and Yasha will appear in one of CLAMP's current series: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.


Overall: Not recommended for children due to the gore content. I'd rate it as a "meh." The plot is pretty predictable, and I feel like there was supposed to be some sort of plot twist at the end, but if there was, I missed it. It was fun to see how CLAMP started out

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scribbled mystickeeper at 10:00 AM
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wApr 26, 2008


SUCCESS

I now have a birthday present for Amelia, changed oil in my car, and my paycheck in my savings account.

The trip to the library was also fruitful, even if my mom watched with slow horror as I checked out 17 volumes of manga (BWAHAHAHA!).

I checked them out in the name of research. Even though my paper is supposed to focus on things already discussed in my presentation (given in February), I figure I might need a few more series in order to bring my page-count up to where it's supposed to be. Thus, what I checked out:
--Bisco Hitori's Ouran High School Host Club, vol. 2 (I've seen the entire anime series and loved it, but just want to double-check that the anime is close enough to the manga that I can cite it without actually reading it!)
--Tomoko Ninomiya's Nodame Cantable, vols. 1 and 2 (Have already read these, and watched ~7 episodes of the anime; just want a refresher because I didn't write about it in my blog very much.)
--Yukie Nasu's Here is Greenwood, vols. 1 and 2 (Haven't read any of this, but it's a pretty classic shoujo series, so I want to see if there's anything I can talk about from the basic premise.)
--Chie Shinohara's Red River, vols. 1 and 2 (Same reasons as Here is Greenwood)
--CLAMP's RG Veda, vols. 1-10 (BWAHAHA. I own volumes 1 and 2, and my goal is to read everything by CLAMP....ever. The Madison library doesn't have anything past volume 2, so I'm going to try my damndest to read all of it before the weekend's over. Since it's CLAMP, though, I think that I will have things to say about their representation of gender, which bodes well for my paper!)

So! Aside from visiting my family, I think that the weekend will be spent reading manga and taking notes. I'm okay with that.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 2:42 PM
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wFeb 16, 2008


Legal Drug

This manga is only 3 volumes long, but it is also unfinished. Why?! Like Legend of Chun Hyang, I thoroughly enjoyed this series, and wish that there was more I could read right now.

Kazahaya Kudo is a runaway found in the snow by Rikuo. Rikuo brings him to the Green Drugstore, and the two young men live together and work for Kakei, the owner of Green Drugstore. Their default job is typical store maintenance, but from time to time, Kakei will send them out on special missions for extra cash. These missions usually require Kazahaya's ability to read people's emotions/memories to solve their cases (or obtain special items).

Kazahaya is the younger of the two protagonists, naive, and has a rather pretty face. Rikuo is taller and colder, and it's pretty heavily implied that the two boys might have subtextual feelings for one another (or, at the least, provide great fanservice for readers who might read and go, "OMG! They're totally gay! This is so cute!"

As a side note: This series is definitely not intended for young children!

I look forward to reading more of this, when more comes out. Wikipedia tells me that only 1/5 of the story has been told thus far, and that at Anime Expo 2006, CLAMP told people that they intend to revisit it in the near future.

Rikuo and Kazahaya will both appear in xxxHolic.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 2:23 PM
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w


Magic Knight Rayearth

Magic Knight Rayearth is a 6 volume series (although the latter three volumes are also referred to as "Magic Knight Rayearth II, vol. 1-3). Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are three girls who attend different schools in Tokyo. Their classes happen to be having field trips at Tokyo Tower at the same time when they meet by chance. The three girls are transported to another world while they hear a voice calling them "Legendary Magic Knights," and asking them to save the world of Cephiro.

Princess Emeraude is the one who called the girls. Along their journey to save the princess (and thus, Cephiro), they are given weapons, armor, and a white ball of fluff that looks like a chubby rabbit, called Mokona. In the world of Cephiro, one is able to fight enemies with the strength of their will.

There is a nice plot twist at the end of the first arc, but it didn't really make the three volumes leading up to it worth it. I found the second arc to be much more boring than the first one. Especially disturbing was volume 4, when each of the girls felt the need to apologize profusely to their love interests for happenings that were not their fault. I think it was supposed to be romantic? SO NOT.

This series was more interesting than, say, Angelic Layer, but I still don't really care for it. In terms of having a girl (or group of girls) transported to another world, I like Escaflowne better (and possibly Twelve Kingdoms - I need to rewatch that series). In terms of magic girls fighting, I like Sailor Moon better.

This series was made into a 49-episode anime series, as well as an OVA. The OVA apparently changes the storyline a lot, but I'd be more willing to watch that than 49 episodes!

Overall: meh.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 12:23 PM
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wDec 23, 2007


Man of Many Faces

Man of Many Faces is a 2-volume story written by CLAMP. It centers on Akira Ijyuin, a 9-year-old attending Clamp School. As you may remember, he is one of the three Clamp School Detectives. In Man of Many Faces, Akira periodically dons an eye-mask and a top hat (looking very much like Tuxedo Mask, from Sailor Moon!) and steals highly-prized items for his two mothers, who ask him to do so. In addition to stealing for them, Akira also does all of the cooking and cleaning for his mothers (remember, this is ALSO in addition to all of his work with the Clamp School Detectives, receiving perfect grades, being on the Student Council, etc.).

One night while evading the police, Akira happens to meet Utako Ōkawa, a kindergarten student at Clamp School who is nursing her broken heart. Verily, at the tender age of 5, Utako has fallen in love. With her teacher. See, CLAMP has this tendency to make young girls between the ages of 5 and 9 fall in love with their teachers, and it is oh, so romantic! Also, WTF. Oh well. Thankfully in this series, the teacher has refused her love, due to their 22-year age difference. Also, Utako is only 5. 5!

Anyway, the series is overall fluffy and cute, detailing their romantic encounters. At least, it's mostly cute except for my mind constantly going, But they are only 5 and 9 years old! WTF! They are impossibly intelligent and mature for their ages. But. Still. Weird.

It was nice to get a lot of characterization for Akira, as Nokoru and Suoh were the two who were most-developed in the Clamp School Detectives manga. The interwebs tell me that these three boys will also appear in X/1999 and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. I wonder if they'll still be elementary school students, or if they will be older. Utako will also have a cameo in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

Also, it can be hard to find manga that is "safe" for young children, in that it doesn't contain any sex or graphic violence, so I will mention that both Man of Many Faces and Clamp School Detectives are kid-safe!

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scribbled mystickeeper at 10:52 AM
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