anachred

Lessons from Shojo Manga 101:

Never let a hero think "Oh, well *she* was a psychopath. Time to move on..."

That way he cannot be Tragical.
Thus keeping the Heroine's small crush from fomenting into a Grand Passion.



~ This Week's Lesson Brought to You By: Pretear ~

which I am enjoying more than I quite understand and which I'm fairly sure is supposed to be a pun with Prettier?

I, uh.
Uh.
Just fell in love with a comic that's completely ridiculous.

Of course, that's it's charm.

And if you're one of the people I've chatted with about:
Ouran
Sesshoumaru of Inuyasha
Skip-Beat
or any other things that have self-awareness of their silliness and work it...this may be something for you.

Watashi no Ookami-san is described thus:

Bored of sitting around holding a wine glass all day, the Demon Lord is looking for something new. Something cute. Someone like Komomo, the level 0 heroine who has just appeared before him, ready to vanquish him like all heroes (or heroines) do. Faced with a demon king who'd rather watch TV under a kotatsu and make out with her than spread evil over the land, what will Komomo do?




...in a completely related but mood-altering note
The real problem with shoujo romances is how often they have heroines rush headlong into a relationship that's supposedly problematic and refuse to address the actual issue.

Like, what happens when you fall out of love with your step-brother and still have to live with him?
(Crossroad is a story that doesn't take an easy out here.)

Skip-Beat is good because Kyoko can't put away her issues. She's working through them, and it's uphill.





So yeah, I had a good time at the TnT con today.

But this has been waiting for me to post it, forever.

Cultural note to make this more immediately comprehensible: in Japan, almost all stores you bag your own groceries. This is feasible, because they are on the Old World schedule of buying groceries every day or so. You can walk or bike with them easily that way.

Of course, though my mom happily converted, bringing home groceries for 7 was still rather a parade...


The Artist's Distraction



I so know that feeling, babe.

Thousands of Hot Asian Chicks are Looking for a Guy Just like Me!

Sorry. Just thought I'd share that.





Okay, my Reprobate friends of sounis  were recommending this, as well as The Book Thief, and I think since they titles muddled in my head, I never gave it a second look. (The Book Thief has always sounded too serious for the reading mood I was in.)

This is awesome. I wish my reading attention span wasn't shot to pieces by reading all the shoujo. Whoops...
(Actually. It was never that good for much anyway.)

But speaking of that...
This comic competes with few others for sheer beauty and strength.

The Voice Blooms Red (Akaku Saku Koe)

With the manhwa (Korean comics) that are really fetching to me, it shares a sort of stillness.
Technically, it's the dialogue:panel ratio--so many more silent panels rely on the art to tell a story rather than just talk. But it's artful.

(Here there was a really cool page that was disabled. Have a cover thumbnail instead.)





It's like the Hayao Miyazaki films of the comics world, in a way.

The Voice Blooms Red (my title translation) is a mystery/special police forces/and terribly understated romance manga.
It is two volumes, I don't think they've been translated except by fans. The translation job is not bad. The story itself has psychic depth. And the creator's comments at the end made it even more interesting to reflect on.

I've read the whole thing--brilliant to the end.
 Unreservedly recommended.

...so here's the comics post!

Okay. I'll put it under a cut.




I have so many trope-challenging story ideas right now, it's not even funny. I'm writing a rejected-makeover that takes on a lot of the crush tropes, but I would like to create one that takes on the sit-com tropes, particularly the *masquerading as a boy/girl* one. In which the roommate is never the interest. (Heresy? Don't burn me yet...)

Rambling Japanese Nostalgia Post

While reading the manga "Aishiteruze Baby" (Love Ya, Baby) [a completed series--is it sad that I am suckered in by that status now?]

there was a sequence where the high school characters are on a school trip. The developments involved are uninteresting out of context but there was one page that brought to mind a vivid memory I hadn't seen in a while.
(Am I the only one who feels that way about memories, that you "see" them, and seeing them is something you should do every once in a while so you don't forget?)

I went on the school trip to Tokyo when I was in Japanese middle school. I got to see the Japanese Diet building, real live Monet paintings, one of the historic temples, and the Japanese production of The Lion King.

Between these moments, however, I was with a class of middle school kids.

The first night we spent we were in a more traditional hotel--that is, mats on the floor. Over fifty girls in one big room. Things didn't settle down before I went to sleep, and I didn't sleep particularly soundly. So sometime in the small hours of the night I was debating going to the bathroom. I sat half-awake for a while. Ayaka (who sat close to me in class) started to get up, and I joined her. I think I didn't even know where the bathroom was, which since my Japanese wasn't really great yet was a terrifying prospect. I don't remember, but I may have been agonizing until I saw she was going.

We dared the hallways. Found the girls' room, only to cross paths with Shinya leaving the boys', giggling as he made a dash for somewhere else.

When Ayaka and I met up at the sinks, we looked at each other's sleep-puffy faces, and at least I was thinking of how mortifying it was to be seen like this. A teacher yelled from down the hall. More guy-giggling. Shinya's goofy-sounding voice, too (he'd clearly not tried to sleep yet).

I journaled about this, mostly to keep that memory. The sheepish smile across the mirror at a girl who was always so together when she got to school, without her glasses or hair done, the feeling of dismay and disapproval about the guys still running around and surprising poor half-asleep girls on their way to the wash room.

There were a lot of things to that were good about that trip--but that was one of the best, because I felt like just a girl, for once, not the red-headed outsider. Ayaka and me.

...and Shinya. Thanks for that, buddy.

I know I've been Miss Post-Happy lately. For this I am sorry.

{jitsu wa itsumo motto gaman tzuyoi na mon nan da kedo...}*


But I really need to update a few people on the Very Important Progress of Bethany through Mangaland.
Or anime-land, as it were, but it doesn't have the same ring, so tekitouni tsukatta.**

Thoughts: Only On Ouran HS Host Club, You May Skip If You Couldn't Care Less.
(Or just post a link to a cute character picture from another comic of your choice.)

I'm getting to the end of the anime. I'm looking forward to seeing how they develop it, since I've read up to the latest release on the comic and it's tying up nicely there. (Beware spoilers of a sport, if you care...)

kusunoda/Casanova/Bossa-Nova!
I've decided I really like that character and his subplot. The anime refresher brought this home to me.
Kyaa~

KyouyaWhatNow?
I also find it interesting that Honey-Senpai outright states he believes Kyouya has feelings for Haruhi in his round-up statement on everyone's love lives. As far as I noticed, there was no real development there in the comic, except for the cute little day-on-the-depaato sequence. (The mock-harrassment thing...is very ambiguous. Such lovely ambiguousness, it is too, dark and dreamy...)

Thoughts, anyone?
(This would leave only Honey Senpai and Mori out of the love-muddle. Which is fine. Except who wouldn't love to see Mori with someone? It may be he's too serious to go out with anyone while still in high school. Or he has a secret relationship...moe~moe)

Ohmigosh. I am turning into a fangirl!? NOEZ.




*the truth is I usually am just better at restraining myself, though...
**am doing as I please/without regard

{More from the reading front...Starting with Girl Genius}

Oh, Gilgamesh, I love it when you make Klaus faces.

Also, my life is complete: Girl Genius has incorporated YURTS.
For a long time my Xanga blog was headed by the statement: Someday I Will Live in a Yurt.

So. Why aren't all of you reading Girl Genius (Adventure! Romance! Mad Science!) yet?
{Note: the art gets cleaner, and goes full color after the first volume or two.}



Ouran High School Host Club:
Gred and Forge here saying--twincest is wrong! (I'm sure this filk song has been written already, but I want to write my own anyway...the picture of the actors holding that sign is like, my favoritest actor promo shot ever.)

I love how these guys are just what the only-child non-red-headed Fred and George would be. Especially since they have a different personality, so it's like getting more of Fred and George, but without being a rip-off.



As for me, I'm fighting the good fight, trying to stay awake long enough to read Carnie's Conspiracy aloud to myself again.
Wish me luck. The coffee's making no headway.

"But since the club president is now lying down due to culture shock, would you mind coming back next time?" ~ Ouran High School Host Club


o h m y g o s h, this is the silliest thing I have enjoyed in a long time. Making me laugh aloud. (I mean, the manga moments that make me laugh are generally silly, but this *whole thing* is so silly.)


This is going into my arsenal.

Since the president is in bed with culture shock...
You know. A lot of countries would be better off if their presidents were more susceptible to culture shock, really...


( ETA: Very Important Exhibits )

moooooooooou. [pardon my Japanese.]

If there's one real occupational hazard of being a writer, it's having your brain kidnapped by any passing story.

I'm not kidding. I really think this must be dangerous.

Right now, the undertones of Cupid & Psyche in a Korean comic called Bride of the Water God.

What's strange is that the sequence that brought the thought to mind was totally unrelated, when I stopped and thought about it--except for the sacrifice to a monster/god element in the story already.



The Water God is in the shape of a child during the day,  transforms once night falls--and of course his "bride" doesn't know this, and is trying not to fall for the more age-appropriate guys around.

Anyhow. Maybe just the night motif was strong enough to put it in my mind... And then one of the frontpieces was this:



I'm now off-again/on-again thinking about how to write a story with this basic idea behind it (the Psyche thing, not the Water God thing). Not like I haven't read at least one highly superior retelling so that I ought to leave well enough alone. (But I never do...)

And I have a million other things already started.

The colors and art on the covers are beautiful, by the way. They have the partly photorealistic and then aged colors, though, that make that kind of art look...taxidermied, to me. Which actually kind of works for this comic, but anyway...

Skip-Beat random though No. 3ish:

Seems like Reino really is supposed to be a vampire. I must say the blurring between the metaphorical and the literal in manga is exquisite--completely unreliable.
Chapter 89: Suddenly, Vamps!


***
...ooooor, maybe not!

*plaintive* I am so confused...
(Chapter 93)

Oh Kyoko, you only think you don't want to be caught in Ren's acting. *head shaking*
I really hope we get to see you both having at it soon.
/random thought-blogging


Oh, but I am so glad that this comic affirms older-woman/younger-man pairings and disparate ages. Otherwise I'd have to try and not like Ren, who is a 20 y.o. baby... /snarky aside





...later: *actually, most pending issues could be fixed by having Kotonami and Fuwa fall for each other. If not, I would delight in seeing the manga-ka show why this obvious pairing cannot be. Ma~a, dear wagamama chounan boys...*

{...I think I'm listening to Jeff Buckley for the first time. Is this possible? I know the name like it's important...}
 

So I've been falling for Shoujo Rom-Com (that may sound like a redundancy, but bear with me) lately.

Another instance of me succumbing to a love that brands me for an Uber-Nerd. I'm not complaining...it's more of a self-amused cataloguing at this point.
...fantasy, Ender's Game, poetry, costumes, anime, an emo band, Enya, chant, shoujo, old book smell, Pixar kid movies...

One closed-series comic I've really enjoyed and just finished is not a rom-com, but a drama-dy. Kinda.
If you are at all likely to read a comic, I'd like to recommend crossroad to you, for it's characters.

 

( Oddity )

 

Okay, stats on my other current affairs:

Vampire Knight: another example of a non-Rom-Com (it's a little bit horror, above the usual manga love of the creep-tastic.) At Vol. 2.
Vampires at boarding school, blah, blah, blah. The heavy association of blood-taking and sex is kind of an interesting tension here, but my heart just isn't in it...

Tail of the Moon: this is also interesting in that the heroine sets out to have babies with the hero on the 3^rd page, but in a naïve and horrifyingly awkward way. I would like it better if Ninja Master Boy wasn't so beautiful... At Vol. 2

Skip-Beat: !!!

Okay, this is famous with good reason. (I always forget that this can happen, and am always ashamed of my snobbery when I discover I've been avoiding a potential favorite.)

It's a bit weird at first, and not in a good way, with out-of-nowhere spirit powers in the heroine rising from her wrath...in total contrast with her normal personality. This mind-bending facet kind of abates (though not going away) as the other plots develop. And let me say, this showcases all the classic elements of manga with all the strength they have, rather than the weaknesses.

They knew each other as children!

He's actually his father!

They both are incapable of love!

But it feels organic to the comic, since it never takes itself too seriously. The angst and emotives are off-set by real moments, or at least wacko humor.

I've read every chapter in scanlation, and earnestly hope to have money someday and use it to buy the Japanese originals...or at least the most recent ones. ^_^