#brickme

[iamenits]

what files do you use to make gifs? they're very smooth and pretty 😢

Thank you! 💙

I used MakeMKV to convert my Blu-ray discs to mkv files.

UPDATE After I ripped them with MakeMKV I ran the MKV files through HandBrake. That gets rid of the black bars as well as makes the file size considerably smaller. I don't remember if I changed any of the default settings other than changing the format to MKV.

I use MPV Player to take one png for every frame of the moment I want. The link goes to a tutorial on how to set it up.

Then I use Krita to turn those screenshots into gifs. Adding filters and such.

I could go into more details if you want (though it might take me a while) but that's the basics. If you have any specific questions I could answer those as well.

[starlightgenie]

Another gift from @brickme 🥰

[retrosofa]

🪄

Although I'm not a big Himitsu no Akko-chan fan, I do really love her compacts from both the 60's and 80's series.

However my favorite is probably the Holy Grail/Rainbow Moon Chalice from Sailor Moon, specifically the 90's anime version! It's just so cool and I'm glad I finally own two different versions of it.

[relentlesslyexisting]

Hi! You have so much cool info on your blog, can you share some of your resources on researching and academic reading of shojo??

Wow, I'm really happy you feel that way ;_;

In terms of sources, lets get the boring stuff out of the way first. These books and essays are sorta "shoujo manga history 101," and if you've seen any shitty youtube video about the history of shoujo manga, these sources are gonna sound really familiar. (I'm just gonna copy paste from my bibliography basically)

Boys' Love Manga and Beyond : History, Culture, and Community in Japan (McLelland, Mark J, Kazumi Nagaike, Katsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker)

A Life-Size Mirror: Women’s Self-Representation in Girls’ Comics.” Review of Japanese Culture and Society 4 (Yukari Fujimoto, and Julianne Dvorak)

Fantasies of Cross-Dressing : Japanese Women Write Male-Male Erotica (Kazumi Nagaike)

 “The Formation of Postwar Shōjo Manga, 1950–1969.” In Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan (Deborah Shamoon)

“Shojo Manga! Girls’ Comics! A Mirror of Girls’ Dreams.” Mechademia 2 (Masami Toku)

“Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: ‘Boys’ Love’ As Girls’ Love in Shôjo Manga.” Signs 31, no. 3 (James Welker)

The articles on this list I have read to completion, but my approach to longer books is to just read the chapters that sound interesting to me. James Welker is really nice, top tier Gilbert penis academic. I owe him my life. All of these are available in English, and if you have the means I highly recommend poking around Jstor if you wanna find more. These are some sources I cherry picked from my senior thesis bibliography, but if you DM me I can give you the whole thing.

The essays written in the backs of English language manga publications of some manga are great too. I really enjoyed reading the essay in the English release of Talk Me Back by Murasaki Yamada. (The essays in the back of Japanese reprints are also pretty cool, but far less accessible)

Another great resource is this other blog https://www.tumblr.com/brickme

She used to have a useful page where you could pick through her tags to get her translations and manga history rambles, but that page is gone and it seems shes on hiatus, so digging that stuff up might take some more poking around. I used to read her posts on slow days at work, hours of entertainment really. Some tags that might help in searching her blog are: #text post and #replies

The more fun sources are the primary ones. Articles written in June magazine and books written by the authors that penned manga classics. Author interviews are great too. But I can't stress enough that the best way to gain insight on shoujo manga is to read a shit ton of it. And not just shoujo manga, manga in general. The best part of academic resources is finding new interesting things to read. In fact, I really should be reading more.

[sebbyisland]

akahika final thoughts (500 words + 1k supplementary content)

part 1

part 2

part 3 (you're here!)

Conclusion

It’s not mind-blowing to have some yuri or shojo influences in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine (or any shonen magazine). I mean, Blue Box is right there. What IS surprising, at least to me, is to see the Akahika rivalry take up so much narrative space. I love seeing girls who fight in a healthy way, and to have it take up space in the story rather than just a one-time thing is so satisfying to witness. I still can't believe the magazine that gave us Goku vs Vegeta, Naruto vs Sasuke, and Deku vs Kacchan now gives us Akane vs Hikaru (and Karashi. As a fun topping), and it feels completely natural with the rest of the Weekly Shonen Jump lineup. Similar to how shojo magazines have changed over time, we can see shonen magazines make changes by releasing a story like Akane-banashi. The fact an important rivalry for the shonen protagonist is informed by shojo and yuri story beats is just one of many ways Akane-banashi leads these changes.

I’ve wanted to make an essay about shojo rivalries for years, but if you had told me in the past that a shonen rivalry would inspire me to finally get it done, I would have told you, “be serious.” I have a love/hate relationship with shonen rivalries. I often find it dissatisfying when the protagonists rival is both most important to the protagonist’s story and most important to the protagonist’s personal life, but at the end, there’s this expectation that the protagonist still needs to adhere to social norms of what is actually supposed to be the most important part of your personal adult life, so now their rivalry can’t carry as much emotional weight as it once did. Honestly, it reminds me of Class S breakups because girls need to “grow up” into “real women.” Akahika, however, will never have that problem because while Hikaru is important to Akane’s STORY, she’s not the most important person in Akane’s life, nor is Akane the most important person in hers. This also means the emotional intensity of the Akahika dynamic is a bit more mellow than the average shonen protagonist rivalry, but I much rather have this so there’s room to watch Akane’s growth. I’m also a slow burn fan, so I could be biased.

In my biggest, most self-indulgent fantasies, Akane-banashi gets fully adapted into an anime and a live action film and Akahika becomes the next big shonen rivalry and the animated adaptation makes their homoerotic moments even more homoerotic and in the story conclusion Akahika run the Arakawa school together like how Issho and Shiguma do but better which basically makes them rakugo wives. Will any of that happen? Who knows! I don’t care. Akahika is already winning. 

As a final note: Thank you so much for reading this! Even if you only made it through a portion of it, I hope it was informative. I know I learned a lot in the process of putting things together, at least. The discussion of shojo rivals is really underdeveloped in fandom, so I hoped this could spark your interest in them! My inbox is always for questions. I ask that you please consider skimming through the Supplementary Materials before sending a message, though.

Supplementary Materials

I’m using this section to include any extra commentary that didn't fit the main essay + educational materials that might be useful.

Educational Resources

I am far from an expert in shojo or yuri. There is a lot of nuance I did not cover because that was not the focus and I am not someone informed enough to discuss it. I barely feel like I'm informed enough to write this essay 😭. If you would like to learn more about the topics discussed (in English) from people who actually know about this stuff, I recommend reading essays like this one from a professor in manga + gender studies , this huge resource on yuri research, and the following blogs: okazu.yuricon.com, @/fehyesvintagemanga, @/osharenippon, @/retroyousei, @/brickme, @/yurimother and this article she wrote, @/empty-movement, @/animefeminist, @/ani-mentation, and also this paper on the early shojo decades. Oh, and this documentary on Takarazuka. And these interviews with a yuri author that inspired the "this too is yuri" meme.

Some commonly cited books are By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga which is by the host of the okazu.yuricon blog I mentioned in the paragraph above, and Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan. It might be more accessible to read an academic review of these books.

Bishonen/girl prince/boy prince aesthetics are informed by multiple different pop culture influences, not just the Takarazuka Revue. You can learn about one such influence here.

If you are interested in learning more about Takarazuka Revue, or watching a performance from a Takarazuka troupe, there is a fan wiki written in English for this very purpose.

If you don't watch Utena, you should at the very least watch Shiori's monologue since this was a big inspiration for part 2. You can also literally watch all of Utena eng sub/dub for free on Youtube (trigger warning list).

This isn't necessarily educational, but if you read all of this, you might be interested in this butch x butch yuri anthology.

Addressing Gaps in Analysis

I’m worried I threw around the term “sapphic subtext” a lot without clarifying what that exactly means.

The intention was to convey a distinction between "yuri" as a literary genre and "implicitly sapphic/lesbian relationships" overall, aka sapphic subtext. GL/yuri often has relationships that are almost entirely built on recognizable subtext because certain tropes get popularized. Often times, when I refer to "sapphic subtext," I am specifically referring to the subtext established by the yuri genre itself. However, because yuri also includes explicitly sapphic romantic/sexual relationships, it felt too confusing to just refer to everything remotely sapphic as "yuri." Hence, for the purposes of this essay, when I meant subtext, I said "subtext," and when I mean something explicitly sapphic, I said "yuri." Please know that these definitions are not concrete.

The full extent of the Takarazuka Revue's influence on how gender roles are represented and/or challenged in Japanese pop culture is complex. I want to clear up potential misunderstandings from my use of gendered terminology that may have come from this:

Do not confuse the Takarazuka-inspired girl-prince/girl-princess sapphic dichotomy described in this essay with a butch/femme dynamic. There is obviously overlap, but they are not synonymous with each other. A butch character is not always a bishonen character and vice versa. A femme character is not always a princess-like character and vice versa. I get these differences might seem miniscule, but when trying to do formal literary analysis, I think people should always be weary of applying Western terms to a culturally non-Western phenomenon, even if it usually communicates the same thing in a colloquial context.

"Are you familiar with the term akogare? So, in my research I did come across akogare (one of those nuanced "no direct english translation" words that seems to describe a deep admiration for someone??) to describe the sapphic subtext of retro shojo. Since I cannot with confidence explain what it means nor how the term is typically used, it wasn't mentioned in the analysis.

"Akane-banashi is a shonen manga and yet you barely acknowledged shonen manga history. What gives?" The answer is quite simple. The focus of this essay is not the shonen manga industry. I'm sure someone else would have a lot of fun analyzing Akahika in context of the history of shonen manga, the gender roles in shonen manga, or the impact of shonen manga on pop culture, but that person is not me.

“Why didn’t you talk more bout Glass Mask?” I never read/watched Glass Mask. While I was willing to read MANY things for this, I was not about to start the juggernaut that is Glass Mask just so I could include it in my analysis. I would love to see someone compare Glass Mask with Akane-banashi, though.

"What about Ruka?" This isn’t about him.

"What about Urara and Mayura?" This isn’t about them.

"I have misgivings about [interpretation of a complex aspect of RGU's narrative]?" Part 2 is catered to an audience who is familiar with Akahika, but not RGU, so some things like the rose bride/prince dynamic were dumbed down a bit. If you have RGU questions feel free to send an ask!!!

"Wait, why don't we talk about Act Age?" Short answer: I never read Act Age. Long answer: Act Age was a popular theatre manga published in Weekly Shonen Jump that was discontinued because the author was arrested for sexual harassment towards minors. Given Akane-banashi released approx 2.5 years later, it is possible that the former success of Act-Age influenced Akane-banashi's inception, but this is purely conjecture. I personally consider Act-Age defunct and irrelevant. I only mentioned it in the part 1 footnote because it used to be published in the same magazine as Akane-banashi.

[yyh4ever]

I keep hearing Togashi originally planned the ending of Three Kings to be an all out war arc that Kuwabara would come back for, but I can’t find anything from Togashi or anything to confirm. Is any of it true?

If not, how would you have changed the Three Kings arc?

I've heard something similar, but I've never seen Togashi saying anything like that in any interview. I doubt that's true. He wanted to end Yu Yu Hakusho right after Yusuke fought Sensui, because he was already exhausted at this point, and had already explored every possible direction for the yyh characters. So, JUMP and Togashi agreed on having six more months to conclude the series.

Maybe, that's because in Yoshirin de Pon he says he had the idea to start deconstructing the characters, something Jump turned down, so people started to assume he wanted to do an all out war similar to what he's been doing in the Succession Contest Arc in Hunter x Hunter? I have no idea how this rumor started.

"If I ever manage to have a long serialization in Jump, I will end it on my own terms". That's what the man said. I beg everyone to read the "Yoshirin de Pon!" interview to understand more about his feelings at the end of the Yu Yu Hakusho series.

Source: translation by brickme

I think the all out war arc with Kuwabara is something people wanted, not Togashi. At the end of the bunkoban edition (2011), when letters arrived asking for more Yu Yu Hakusho content, Togashi replied with a short comic, killing most of the main characters and showing he was really done with Yu Yu Hakusho.

I don't think I would have changed the 3 Kings Arc. Sometimes, I think I would have wanted a war, then it would be an arc focused more on Kurama, my favorite character. But, Yusuke wouldn't have much space in a cold war, full of military strategy. I believe tournaments and face-to-face confrontations suit more the spirit of Yu Yu Hakusho, and that's one of the reasons Togashi wanted to end it, to avoid repeating the same storylines over and over.

But, now I am curious, how would you all have changed the Three Kings Arc?

[dailykodocha]

サマー・ポストカード ふろく Summer Postcard Furoku Ribon Magazine August 1995 Scanned from the personal collection of Daily Kodocha

I bought this off of the wonderful @brickme - thank you for letting me take home a small piece of your collection!

I also wish to goodness that this was called the 夏葉書 and not the サマー・ポストカード but that’s studying Japanese for ya 😫

Reverse of the postcard reads: 郵便はがき(Mail Postcard) 切手をはつてね (Put a stamp on it) 絵小花美穂 (Picture - Miho Obana)

[zcjkmark]

ZC1500 block machine #blockmachine #blockmakingmachine #machine #brickm...

[scarfy-posting]

you suck Brickm attack

WGAT🧱🧱🧱🧱

X_X

[maeiga]

brick matthews :3

I FUYCKJ8I9NG LOVE BRICKM MATTHEWS

[starlightgenie]

These were a gift from @brickme 💕😊

[retrosofa]

Here's trivia for Cutie Honey episode 14: Ah, The Last Day of School.

Screenwriter: Masaki Tsuji

Art Director: Mataharu Urata

Animation Director: Eiji Uemura

Director: Kazukiyo Shigeno

The episode title could possibly be a reference to When Worlds Collide. In Japan, it's known as "The Last Day of Earth" or 地球最後の日. Thanks to @brickme for the heads up!

In addition to the Elvis and National Geographic posters in Honey and Natsuko’s room, there is another that says “Musik, Mante Banye.” Mante Banye is probably a botched transliteration for “Mantovani,” as in the famed musical conductor and composer, Annunzio Paolo Mantovani.

Thanks to Switchpoint for the heads up!

The January 1974 issue of TV Magazine mistakenly claims Natsuko was murdered by Dynamite Claw. This mistake was also made in the Cutey Honey Roman Album, released in 1980.

Danbei mentions Sanada Yukimura, also known as Sanada Nobushige, who was a samurai from the Sengoku period. He’s probably most famous for being the leading general on the defending side of the Siege of Osaka.

As the school begins burning to the ground, Pochi jumps up and yells “Nippon Chinbotsu!” or “Japan Sinks!” This is a reference to the 1973 disaster novel of the same name by Sakyo Komatsu. 

In the next scene, Miharu wonders if there’s a revolution or internecine violence happening. The term she uses is uchi geba (内ゲバ)  which comes from the Japanese word uchi for “within” and the German word gewalt for “violence.” Miharu is likely referring to the student protests that occurred at Japanese universities during the late 60’s.

This is the only episode in which Honey doesn't kill anyone.

See you next week!

[runawaycarouselhorse]

There was a name for that, they had reds and blues, right?

@brickme do you remember the name of this inking process?

Here are some images from the body of the first chapter, or first “act,” of Nanako SOS (ななこSOS). This is one of those manga chapters that is partially in this three-color format. I wonder if that has a proper name in Japanese.

[msbrickkitten]

I think I've got the hair on my brick me closer to my actual hair color! . . . . #lego #gobrickme #brickheadz #brickme #cute https://www.instagram.com/p/BvusldqHNqo/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=myr34lj02o8i

[dailykodocha]

Kodocha Resources

Looking to stay connected to the Kodocha fandom? Here are some creators and resources for you!

The Kodocha Archive First off, we have to shout out @thekodochaarchive - a blog dedicated to preserving Kodocha content run by our friend @rgmbrasil! You can also follow the archive on YouTube.

The Kodocha Discord Server: Babbit's House Join the party! Also by RGM!

That Kodocha Girl You know I gotta shout out my gal Ari-chan @thatkodochagirl and her fantastic YouTube channel dedicated to all things Kodocha. You can find character analysis, clips, and rarities galore!

19 O'Clock News: A Kodocha Podcast Once a month That Kodocha Girl and I sit down and analyze a character or story arc from Kodocha - sometimes ft. special guests! Listen on YouTube. If you are interested in joining us as a podcast guest, fill out this form.

Liz/kodomonomocha Liz creates Kodocha content on social media and has collected raw screenshots and footage for others to use. Also #1 Naozumi fan! Follow her on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Her resources are available on her carrd or on Pinterest.

HoneyCherry08 If you're looking for Kodocha fanart, HoneyCherry08 is responsible for most of the art of the last few years! You can see their work on Pixiv and Twitter.

Kodocha Blurays If you haven't already, please consider supporting Discotek Media's heroic rescue of the Kodocha license by purchasing the blurays from @rightstufanime. Buy Season 1 here. Preorder Season 2 here.

Daily Kodocha I am Daily Kodocha, and I post daily scans, screenshots, memes, gifs, fun facts, and video clips of Kodocha. I am slightly more active on Twitter.

Kodocha Tumblrs There are a lot of really lovely blogs here on tumblr that share some fantastic Kodocha content. Not all are active. @hotwaterandmilk @dezaki @brickme @kodochaforeverandever @akitoandsana