#for making one of the most cute shojo manga have such title | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

saradianne14 · 4 years ago

Text

A3! If they were Youtubers: A thread:

Randomly talked about this with a friend during my stream today lol:

Sakuya:

Going to different Plays, telling you to check them out!

Vlogs of going to practice/getting ready for spring troupes plays

Hanging out with those in Mankai + Kamekichi makes appearances too lol.

Masumi:

May not be a YouTuber to be honest, he doesn’t really like getting attention.

If he were to be one, all his videos would be about you (the director) but he would never show your face on camera/blur your face because he doesn’t want anyone else to see your beautiful face!

Tsuzuru:

Probably too shy (and tired) to want to be a youtuber.

Plus he’s too busy taking care of his brothers/writing plays/acting to be a youtuber!

The only way I see him actually being in a video is on Citron’s channel doing a Manzai act lol.

Itaru:

I mean, gaming videos pretty much.

Would mostly be a streamer, instead of a youtuber. He’d probably be lazy to edit videos tbh lol.

Gaming with Banri and Citron a lot

Citron:

Learning Japanese with Citron! (Getting some phrases/words wrong pretty much though lol).

Storytimes about his time in Zafra.

Manzai acts with Tsuzuru!

Gaming videos + gaming with Itaru!

Vlogs about going to different places in Japan.

Dancing videos!

Would probably be down for any type of content! (Challenges, Try not to laugh, how to videos, mukbangs etc.)

Chikage:

Curry reviews, like his blog “Chliausa’s Spicy blogs”

I fee like other than curry reviews, he wouldn’t really do YouTube. But maybe he might react/Critique different videos on YouTube. (Would mostly roast the video/people in video if it’s “dumb” lol).

Tenma:

Vlogs. I mean he’s already famous, who wouldn’t want to see him vlog?

“How to care for your Bonsai tree” videos.

Getting lost in most of his videos. (Getting lost will be an everyday thing lol)

Shopping videos + with Banri sometimes

Yuki:

OOTD / OOTW videos.

Clothing hauls + collabs with Banri.

“How to style” + fashion videos

DIYS: How to design outfits/how to sew, lace knitting/needle felting etc.

Showing off the cute things he finds + shows you where he bought them.

Muku:

Shojo manga reviews! + sometimes with Sakyo (this will be the only way Sakyo will appear on Camera, since I doubt he’d upload YouTube videos himself!)

Vlogs! Hanging out with his troupe members & Juza/Kumon most of the time!

Chocolate mukbangs with Juza! Maybe even reviews different chocolate desserts.

I can see him making a video of him visiting a cat cafe with Misumi/Hisoka/Kazu. It’d be cute (:

Misumi:

Triangle hunting videos!

Showing his triangle collection and where he found them + triangle hauls & shows you where you can find them.

How to make Onigiri!

Parkour videos.

Lots of collabs with Kazu!

Videos of him hanging out with cats + maybe teaching you cat language lmao.

Kazunari:

Art/ graphic design tutorials. + Draw with me!

Vlogs! Always hanging out with his troupe members + the rest of Mankai.

Traveling videos! + collabs with Azuma.

DIY videos + collabs with Yuki

Q&A videos!

Try not to laugh!

Challenge videos /with Taichi & Citron, and maybe Misumi lol.

Just like Citron, may be down for all types of content haha.

Kumon:

Vlogs! + always showing Juza in his videos lol.

Nutrition videos

Workout videos

Ramen reviews! + showing you the best places to get Ramen.

Videos about Baseball

Videos of him trying out different activities/sports.

Banri:

How to be a fuck boy… lol I’M KIDDING.

Gaming videos + with Itaru

OOTW & Clothing Hauls + with Yuki sometimes

Trying to do prank videos on Juza.

Would legit try anything and be good at it. (Ex: He played Tennis for the first time and won every game against those who’ve played for years)

Vlogging his super ultra easy mode life.

Juza:

I know he tries to hide his love for sweets and candy, but let’s pretend he doesn’t. Dessert Mukbangs!

Trying different desserts from stores/restaurants etc. Would probably like to try different desserts from other countries.

He is pretty shy, so I don’t know if he would vlog or not.

Taichi:

Would make a video of anything to be honest. Like I think he’d make videos of whatever is trending.

Lots of Q&A’s because I feel like he’d love to talk to his subscribers!

Would probably always be vlogging!

Skateboarding videos.

Showing off cool yo-yo tricks.

Origami tutorials!

Omi:

Cooking videos for sure. + has Juza as taste tester for when he makes desserts!

Handcraft tutorials + collabs with Yuki sometimes.

Photography tip videos!

Sakyo:

Probably wouldn’t be a youtuber. He’d be like “I Ain’t doing that crap”

I feel like the only way he’d be in a video is if someone from Mankai includes him in a video.

Where would you see Sakyo in videos? On Sakoda’s channel! Lmao. Imagine Sakoda’s video titles like: “On the job with the boss,” “Hanging out with the boss,” “Running errands for the boss” and Sakyo would be like “get that camera out of my face!”

Azami:

Makeup tutorials.

Different skincare products + makeup reviews. + collabs with Azuma and Yuki sometimes!

Trying to pull pranks on Sakyo videos.

Soccer videos + (Soccer Challenges) with Tasuku and the soccer club maybe?

Rap battle freestyles with Homare lol.

Tsumugi:

Wait… Tsumugi isn’t good with technology, would he be able to make youtube videos?? He may need someone to help him edit and film! (Kazu)

“How to care for different types of flowers” videos!

Flower language videos (:

Tips on improving your acting + collab with tasuku!

How to make an omelette video… lol. Or showing recipes that have eggs in them haha.

Tasuku:

Workout videos + collabs with Kumon sometimes!

Health Tips!

Soccer videos + Soccer challenges. + collabs with the soccer club!

Tips on improving your acting + collabs with Tsumugi!

Hisoka:

Marshmallow review!

Teaching how to make recipes that have marshmallows +Omi does all of the cooking and Hisoka is just the taste tester.

Showing good napping places

Good plushie/pillow reviews!

Hisoka ASMR “Hisoka heartbeat and breathing sounds for 1 hour”

Homare:

Reciting his poems!

Tips on how to write poems

Vlogging the life of a genius! (He has fans already, so they’d love to watch his videos!)

Rap battle freestyles with Azami!

Play/book/art reviews?

Tea Time with Homare (like a mukbang pretty much, but classier)

Azuma:

Skincare routine and tips + product review videos.

Travel videos + collab with Kazu sometimes!

Wine + alcohol taste testing + with Sakyo/Guy/or Homare.

Color with me and chat videos haha.

Beauty related videos + with Yuki and Azami somtimes!

Guy:

Exploring Japan, vlog style.

Videos about Zafran culture and his times living in Zafra.

How to make different types of alcoholic drinks + sometimes Azuma or Hisoka help!

Karate lessons? + with Kumon.

Just like his Mankai blogs, Citron names the titles of his videos lol.

66 notes · View notes

screamting · 4 years ago

Text

ok i did the complaint so I’ll write up the cheat sheet.

Way back when manga and anime were first being translated to English, especially by fan translators, a lot of scanners chose to keep in honorifics. Honorifics function a little bit like the Miss/Mrs/Mr/Mx system in english, mixed with an informal/formal ‘You’. Unlike Mr/Ms, where it’s a title that’s consistent, honorifics change based on the speaker’s relationship with the addressee. One person may be addressed with all manner of honorifics, depending on how many different ‘status’ relations they have.

I learned these in like. 2000s/2010s, so if there’s been a recent upheaval in honorific usage in Japan that I don’t know of, that’s my bad, but this is the basics rundown. the way i’m typing may imply a gender binary but that’s just because I don’t know the specifics of what japan does w neutral language and you’ll have to ask someone who knows more.

Because the original examples from the nickname post were bnha, most of these examples are also going to be bnha lol.

-san: this is most similar to how Ms/Mr is used in english. When in doubt with an adult, it’s usually -san. Girls around the speaker’s age group and up are also called -san by default, generally. Kids may also refer to their older relatives with -san, like Oka-san, Onii-san, Oji-san, etc. but usually not the other way around.

-kun: this is usually for young men or between men of the same age-ish. It’s fairly casual and not a hard rule on gender. It isn’t insulting to use for girls, and may imply endearment.

-chan: chan is feminine, but usually just for girls younger than the speaker. It’s kind of a cute honorific (which is why in bnha Tsuyu (san) asks to go by Tsu-chan instead). Again, usually girls around the speaker’s same age would be -san, except in the case of Tsu wanting to be cutesy, or calling your gf -chan. It might be comparable to calling someone ‘honey’ affectionately. This is why Bakugo Katsuki’s nickname being Ka-chan is fucking adorable and bewildering to everyone around Izuku. It’s like running around calling him “Boomy”.

-sama: used like san, but for someone very important. Like god or something. Someone using -sama on themselves (hi papyrus) is being very braggerty. Like putting “The Great” in front of a name.

no honorific: you fam. .... or you being Real rude to people. For example, Kirishima in english calls everyone bro... because he is super informal and just drops honorifics because he is fam. Bakugou doesn’t usually use honorifics because he doesn’t care to be polite. Some of that rudeness is translated into the nicknames he uses all the time. It’s kind of like referring to your boss by their first name. It could be friendly, or you are on your last fuck.

-sensei: this is a job-based title, and is roughly equivalent to ‘teacher,’ but it is in general for someone who has a certain skillset that the speaker benefit(ed) from, like a doctor, lawyer, etc. In higher ed, it ‘Hakase’ may be used instead of sensei. Again, not everyone will call a teacher sensei-- Aizawa’s students call him Aizawa-sensei, but because Yagi is not a student, he uses Aizawa-kun, because Aizawa is a jr in the hero world.

So those are like....fairly common honorifics. There are others and other levels of them. They can be used to form nicknames as well. For example, the only way to make Ka-chan even more cutesy might be to make it Ka-tan, which is a babytalk version of -chan.

Honorifics also make it easier to tell the difference between siblings since last names are usually used by default. I was reading a fic where there was a brother-sister thing in the same class, and the running joke was someone would say their last name and they would both respond. It... would probably not happen that way, because between -san, -kun, and -chan, there were three ways to distinguish between them. Since it was a boy-girl duo I’d guess they’d use girl-san and boy-kun, or if one was slightly older than the other that one may get -san, etc. Fuck man, maybe they’d just uses -shonen and -shojo to differentiate them (as All Might calls Midoriya-shonen-- translated as “Midoriya my boy!” usually.)

This is a long post to beg people to consider the function in linguistic jokes. You don’t need to like. KNOW japanese and understand all the puns and whatever-- and I am goddamn begging you we not bring back bad honorific desu ne in fanfic-- but sometimes the jokes jarr enough with just having the setting in Japan that like. I keep reading. But I am also kept up at night staring at the ceiling, unable to forget.

Free me.

#bnha #honorifics #japanese language #beatext #languages #disclaimer: am not japanese and don't know it i have just been here a long time #'here' being 'i subscribed to shonen jump at 7 and they had a 'learn japanese' section that i could almost understand'

56 notes · View notes

blastoisemonster · 4 years ago

Photo

Marmalade Boy

Before talking about today's spinoff, I'd like to take a step back for better context and briefly describe the interesting relationship Italy has with japanese culture: the two countries, despite being so distant and having developed from very different histories, have been called similar in their habits and in many aspects of the daily life, to the point of showing mutual affection for eachother’s society and products; in our case, we’re especially talking about entertainment.

Which takes us to the slice-of-life anime genre: true animated soap operas originally maybe only targeted at an audience of female teenagers but that, once in italian territory, end up catching interest of the whole family with its intrigues and linked episodes. 1980/1990s Italy clicked perfectly with them; not only a great amount has been brought in Europe thanks to our translations, but a selected few have been taken as inspiration for completely original work based on that universe. Basically, yes, our television companies have produced anime fanfiction dramas. One striking example is Love Me Knight - Kiss Me Licia, which became something like a pre-Pokèmon nationwide phenomenon: not even Japan (which produced only one season and then called it quits) understood how or even why the average italian loved this saccarine shit so much, and still today the girl who originally sang our Kiss Me Licia opening basically owes her whole career and popularity lasting more than three decades (she's still singing anime openings and even doing concert tours) thanks to the leading acting role she played in four live action Kiss Me Licia sequel series. You've read it right, four. All met with huge success from 1986 to 1989 for a grand total of 144 episodes. Original mangaka Kaoru Tada knew nothing about this and the studio responsible for the animated adaptation of the manga, Toei Animation, had not even been contacted for the rights: truly, our entertaining industry was making fanart just as the average kid on DeviantArt likes to post his not-so-traced Goku drawings for everyone to see.

The second most remarkable big shojo love Italy had is the subject of this post, Marmalade Boy, known in Italy as "Piccoli Problemi di Cuore" (literally translated: Small Heartaches). The Mediaset adaptation team wanted to create another big Licia phenomenon but, this time, instead of producing live action spinoffs, they went and actually contacted the original author, Wataru Yoshizumi, for permission on modifying the anime's plot. Piccoli Problemi di Cuore has been one of the biggest and most coherent works of animation "cut-and-paste" the team has done during that late 90s, resulting in a completely new italian anime series of 70 episodes (out of the 76 original ones) inspired by Marmalade Boy's plot. And as expected, this became a huge hit: it started airing at the beginning of 1997 and it captivated the audience so much that after a while they had to move it to another channel and time block because people were watching it more than the news. This also allowed Italy to export their own Marmalade Boy inspired creation as a whole different anime with the international name "A Little Love Story". Piccoli Problemi di Cuore was the anime all the big sisters and more romantic girls of the class followed almost religiously at the time of its original broadcast. Of course I wasn't part of that audience at the time, but after having researched the very interesting backstory of our adaptation, I'd be more than curious to at least take a look at it. And the manga? The original 8 tankobon got translated in my country by Planet Manga several times: the first publication was split in 16 volumes, the second one had 8 issues, and then there's the "Gold" edition of 8 volumes with alternative covers. Oh, and just to be sure everyone had bought it, a fourth edition has been published as recently as 2015. Be it manga or anime, Piccoli Problemi di Cuore was always absolutely famous and great.

And then there's the Game Boy spinoff, that instead is exclusive for Japan. How come? Released by Bandai in 1995, this title had been originally conceived for the Game Boy and only three months later a Super Famicom version showed up, making it a unique strange case of an handheld exclusive coming second for home console, and not the other way around. Also, it’s a dating simulator! Personally, this is the first of this genre I see on the small screen.

Adorned with cute checkers patterns all around and predictably nice-looking sprites and background scenes, this game has the player assume the role of female protagonist Miki Koishikawa and flirt with three suitors: Yuu Matsuura (technically Miki’s main love interest in the original anime), Ginta Suou (long time Miki’s classmate and secret -even corresponded- crush, but too proud to admit it), or Kei Tsuchiya (a talented yet troubled pianist, also Miki’s coworker at Bobson’s ice cream parlor). A lot of places from the anime, such as the protagonist’s school, workplace, and house, can be visited, and there’s many more characters to interact with; all in run-of-the-mill dating sim fashion, Marmalade Boy features tons and tons and tons of dialogue and, as rewards, special cutscenes featuring Miki and the boyo of her life. I really don’t like dating sims at all, so I’m not sure if I could judge it fairly, even if I understood japanese. >.> But as far as I researched online, the general public and fans of the original source do seem to enjoy it, meaning that at least it does justice to the anime. The game seems programmed with passion as well, as it can be used along with a Super Game Boy for an exclusive border and more colorful pixelwork; it also has a password system, in case one screws up an answer and ends up with an undesired ending.

Unfortunately, no one has yet provided a translation patch neither for the Game Boy nor the SuFami version, and it’s clear that back in the day of its release, which is two years prior to Piccoli Problemi Di Cuore’s television airing, there was absolutely no interest in seeing it marketed to a western audience. Though, just imagine if an italian developing house would have taken interest into this spinoff as much as the television companies did with the cartoon! We’d have an italian translated Marmalade Boy’s videogame re-adapted to follow our own version of the story. An exorbitant cost for surely meager earnings, yet unmatched peculiarity... and probably, pride!

#Photography

8 notes · View notes

sillyfudgemonkeys · 3 years ago

Note

Comic buff with a thought, I notice the P5MM art and composition is more striking and closer to p5's art and style than the other manga, which is fine, but kinda... flat. (I find myself thinking there's something missing when I read it, then I look back at P5MM and I notice how there's more clever paneling, imagery, and stylistic choices akin to the games in it (like that one goro panel ya had a rant about) and I realize what's missing) That could be why P5MM is brought up more, just a guess. I dunno how you feel about all that though, I'm curious.

Under the cut cause it gets long cause of pictures:

I am very big on art style and visual presentation. I do actually judge a book by it's cover (manga, game, movie, show, yadda). If I find something pleasing to my eye I'll read it.....even if the contents are trash. Domestic Girlfriend is one, horrible manga (didn't finish, was holding out for Momo, aka best girl, and getting closure for her....then I bounced). Didn't watch the anime (didn't need to I was way ahead in the manga I think), but I know that opening is wasted on it. ldskfjaf Don't invest your time into it, it's not worth it, you would probably learn better morals from P5.......probably. But yeah I found the art style pleasing enough to try it out (I's not amazing by any means, but I like looking at it....or did.....that writing man....dat was bad ;w;).... *waves hands vaguely in air* yeah.

Fun fact, it's why I got into Persona. I happened across an ad for P4 on the PS2 in the Gameinformer magazine, it showed a screenshot from an animated cutscene plus one of the fully body art for the chars and I was like "Yes this is my jam!" (which only doubled down when I read what it was about, and it was a murder mystery and the article also talked up "the mystery of the glasses" which fakldjsalkfs yeah). So yeah it really clicked for me.

Tbh it's why I'm probably going to get back into freaking Bleach, and it's why I got into it and Naruto over One Piece (I don't think I'll ever read ON I'm sorry). Tite Kubo has sexy art what can I say? Can't trust a thing that man writes now but eh. It's also the reason I read a lot of Shojo (and now Yuri) manga, cause their art style is usually what I find very appealing (even if I've read the same gd shojo love story just by a different name for the 1000th time, give me the flowers and sparkly eyes! they are my life blood!)

And I've mentioned I really like Saito's art style. I've (attempted) to color some of his pieces on top of animate some manga frames (most of which I haven't actually published......I...I should....get around to finishing those up....haha...aha....haaaa). I really like his art, it's pleasant. But even with good art, I can still see past it and see what BS it's peddling and it can hamper my enjoyment of it. If I don't look at the context of the scene or the words on the page, I can be down with it. But when I'm reading.......I get annoyed. I balk at anything with Goro. I guffaw whenever Makoto's on screen (cause Saito nails her from P5, she acts useful but really she's useless but the narrative views her as useful it ironically makes her useless......it's the weirdest thing I've ever witnessed >.>). Like Saito really.....gets P5 it seems, down to it's flaws even (tho he can actually make the good parts of P5 shine, or at least parts that P5 failed to execute....execute in a way). But he also makes the flaws.....shine that much harder for me.

Now the Reg manga? it's nothing special art style wise, in fact it starts off VERY wonky, and while still wonky, has gotten a lot....better/cuter (esp Ryu). Not like shojo cute just.......I wanna squish their wittle faces cute (at times when it's not serious).

Like when it comes to Reg Manga these are the two pieces that have appeared in it that I feel kinda hit the P5 mark in terms of style:

(look at Mona, coming into this world like the pustule that he is 8U)

Which isn't much, but it's something. At least Reg's AOA is better looking than the anime. 8U

But I dunno, as the chapters go on, the Mangaka allows for more cuter expressions, and I just like their neat:

(btw I colored that page)

I dunno, it's not as overtly cutsey as Saito:

But they are still charming in a more simple way (without out having them go full chibi), it subtle but it gives it flavor. "Silly why are most, if not all those pics of Ryu and Anne?" I dunno guys maybe you should ask them how their backs are doing, cause they're the ones who are carrying the Reg manga when it comes to this! 8U

Tho I do think the first ch or two of Reg does a better job capturing P5's feel than the rest of the chapters, I think the mangaka is just.....bogged down by exposition and the game's BS that a lot of text on their pages so it almost reads like a novel:

ALots of text, not the most dynamic of framing with the panels. It's kinda eh. I haven't really read the manga past the 2nd dungeon tbh (I mean......as the residential #1 Makoto hater, I think that's fair.....that I'd start to zone out during my least fav dungeon....and then continue zoning out during my 2nd least fav dungeon askfdjaflk)

But during the first two dungeon arcs, I liked how.....bad the PT were at thieving, I liked how green they were. It was obviously a learning process. I also like some of the fight choreo (Saito did the best hand to hand one in the series in P4U's Yu vs Sho....which I actually animated....spoiler.....no I have no released that...my dumbass wants to tempt fate and see if I can redo it in color even tho it took me 4 days non stop to get that animated in just black and white.....but I am a fool so alas 8U). I mean it's not mind blowing, but it was simple and decently thought out, which is more than I feel like we usually get (esp with the anime shows....or at least P4/5's).

But I think what draws me in is....it's lack of P5 style. P5 style has them being still oh so cool despite being new at everything. It's tired me out. P5's how identity is style. It's....style over substance (gonna rile some feathers with that....Cvit(?) vid title). But P5 is overtly stylish, to the point it......weighs on me. Drags me down. Tires me out. I don't think they're cool, I'm bored with it. Ironically, Reg manga lacks that, which......def would make someone (and me usually) give it much of a passing glance. It's very basic I guess. But.....consider me, being in P5 hell, surrounded by all it's nausea inducing stylishness, sees a small break in the hellish hurricane to see.......normalcy. It kinda makes me connect better with the kids (kinda, it's still P5).

They feel like normal kids, trying to do their thing (sometimes trying to look/act cool and failing), and.....it's just the absolute antitheses to P5's brand......and I think that's why I like it. KLFJDSAFLKJA;

Anyway, who knows, maybe when I catch up on Reg in english and re-read MM with the official translation I might change my mind about a few things, or at least how I rank them. But for post length sake, and my sanity sake, I think I should keep the anime and mangas out of the "Which entry do you hate least" post......because I should just make another post where I go into both mangas as well as compare and contrast the anime! :D I'm just delaying some insanity for later haha....

Wait.........I just remember Day Breakers exists......and I liked it....still do....don't have much issue with it. Well shit, that is probably the one entry I hate the least. fklsdjfalkjdfkla;jsL;FJljsfdlskafaj *sobs* nO NO, I committed, and that's just a sad loophole. fdklsajflakfj *sobs* I still need to the game thing, cause let's be honest, the games are where it counts.

So right now my ranking for manga/anime is:

Daybreakers>Reg manga> MM>>>>>>>>>>TV Show Anime and it's OVAs (may the burn in the hell fire from which they spawned)

Oh, one last thing, forgot to put it in but I dunno where to put it now. I like how the manga tones down the pervyness some:

I mean Ryu is a fellow monkey. u_u .......but it's for the best I don't have to see his ape expression. ;w; (iirc the pyramid scene was a lot shorter/faster, but that's by the grace of reading and books rather than animation I suppose).

#silly asks #silly answers #i can't believe day breakers is what I hate least dfkjsalfjaf

3 notes · View notes

obiyuki-beebs · 4 years ago

Note

I found this in chapter 56 and I thought it was kinda interesting. While Zen is comforting Shirayuki as she's crying, Mitsuhide says,"But this is about Zen and Shirayuki. I don't think this sudden distance is a big problem. It's not like being apart would cause their existence to become smaller in each other's lives." Maybe it's foreshadowing they will separate? What are your thoughts on this? Do you think ObiYuki still has a chance or is it just the author toying with us?

hi anon!! (￣ω￣)

Short answer:

Yes, Whoaboy get ready I have some THOUGHTS, YESS!! and No.

I have been sitting on this ask for a long time sorry for le wait

The vast majority of this post is below the cut. I hope it is not too much / addresses what you meant.

Here are some notes before I subject whoever reads this to my madness:

These little moments of “It’s okay to do what you want to do” always strike me, and I think about them when I’m considering Zen v Obi endgame because it opens up the possibility that things can change.

Yes it’s a shojo and shojo protagonists tend to stick with their initial love interest... blah blah blah. I don’t think this preconceived notion of how shojo manga ‘always goes’ is a valid point anymore.

So .... I think the comments we are both thinking of usually refer to Shirayuki’s Path and how she must be able to Stand By Zen’s Side as an Ally, etc. So I’ll kind of be thinking of this from the angle of a Journey.

Everything discussed is also after The Play We Believe is Foreshadowing (except for the panels pulled from ch 9 and 20) which I think should be considered for the context of the plot.

If it is actually foreshadowing for an eventual Obi & Shirayuki story arc -- which tbh we might be in the midst of (currently) at ch 117 without realizing it -- then it’s relevant to how we frame the comments made afterwards. At the end of the day, Akizuki-sensei is an author. She is telling us a story. I think it’s reasonable to seek out clues to foreshadowing in fictional stories. So I’m operating under a 90% certainty that the play is foreshadowing.

I have found that the best (fictional) stories are ones that have been planned carefully. I have no way of verifying if AnS has been so precisely crafted to weave in so much foreshadowing that we speculate over, but damn it sure feels like it was.

The manga was originally just the first chapter, so we can assume that after writing that chapter and deciding to make it into a series, there was some planning done.

ANyway............... strong speculation ahead. I think I was ~60% thorough in my search to find material relevant to Foreshadowing of a Separation.

Please enjoy!

1) So we’ll start with a panel from ch 9,

where Zen is considering his relationship with Shirayuki and his growing crush.

This panel is, as stated above, part of the story that Akizuki expanded on after the original one-shot. In the first chapter, we get a lot of cute fate-chitchat between Zen and Shirayuki, but I think -- after deciding to continue the story -- Akizuki changed the tone to allow for more character development, and to challenge the Fate tropes often seen in romance.

Thus, the statement above from Zen that they may not always be together.

foreshadowing ?! ( ˙▿˙ )

___________________________

2) In Chapter 28,

we have the crew essentially saying they are all growing stronger for the sake of each other, and lending their strength as needed.

Within the story, Akizuki-sensei has established a theme of moving forward and changing as needed as a way to get stronger.

Mitsuhide says this to Shirayuki, also in Ch 28:

Why .... does Mitsuhide look so serious as he says this to her? Is he reconciling the fact that Shirayuki and Zens paths may diverge at some point, as they do for the Lyrias arc?

He follows up the above statement with:

He goes on to say,

“I want you to follow your heart so you can stand on your own wherever Zen takes you.”

So... maybe that context takes away some of the significance for fellow lovers of AnS. But I don’t think we should just ignore the statement.

I think she’s being given permission to change her mind; that it’s okay for her to have feelings for Zen, but it’s also okay if she chooses to end things. Mitsuhide will support her either way.

Even though the the full remark still has to do with Zen, she is being encouraged to stand on her own. She is her own person. She has friends who will still be there even if she chooses something different from what people expect of her.

In this case -- pertaining to AnS as a whole, from the perspective of everyone who ‘knows’ about ZenYuki in-story and also (meta!) the manga readers -- Shirayuki is expected to someday marry Zen.

After this, in Chapter 29, Izana is a bit derisive to Shirayuki after she gets the title from Tanbarun. I think his comments are intentionally made to make her uncomfortable. He says,

“Hahahaha! What an unusual title! Amazing!”

- cue confusion from Zen and Shirayuki -

“I wasn’t poking fun at it, it’s just a bit strange. Hmm... before, I said a nobody like her at your side would sully your name, Zen, but with this you can be friends without any such worry, right?

“Shirayuki, I’ve never asked what kind of relationship you want to have with Zen. And I don’t know if it’s something that can be said.”

Alrighty. So. Izana says in front of Shirayuki that he had described her as a nobody. This seems like something said meant to disquiet her, and her initial reaction is, “taken aback,” so we can safely say it was at least temporarily disconcerting for her to hear. I imagine it’s hurtful to hear you were once thought of as someone unworthy of notice.

Don’t get me wrong, I think most of what Izana says and does is in relatively good faith. I think the fandom has come to a general conclusion that he’s testing their relationship.

Obi finds her in the early morning and he notices that she’s upset, commenting that she’s making a strange face. She is still thinking about what Izana said, and Obi asks,

“Is it about the path you want to take?”

“....No. It’s that I haven’t given it any thought.”

Zen already wishes (though I don’t think he’s explicitly stated it the way he does later in ch 33) to marry Shirayuki, and we see her here facing emotional turmoil because that part of her future isn’t something she has thought about yet. Interesting, to say the least.

I’m not really sure about this, but it seems like she either means where Zen is taking her and / or where she can stand on her own.

And then .......

“Obi, will you lend me a hand?”

“Didn’t I tell you before that I’ll take you wherever you want to go?”

This part of the story is still heavy ZenYuki, but I think Obi saying this to her right now is significant. Akizuki has repeatedly weaved Shirayuki’s path into the themes of the story so far, while contrasting that Zen will meet her at her destination, while Obi will be at her side for the journey.

Zen and Shirayuki meet and talk. They basically address that Shirayuki doesn’t really know what the future holds, but that she still wants to stand by his side, and says that even though he’s a prince she wants to think it’s okay for her to feel that way.

You almost forget about the significance of Obi and Shirayuki’s relationship when it’s followed up by this ZenYuki scene. I wonder about the aforementioned nature-of-planning involved in the story and the future of the characters at this point.

gnah how did this post get so long already

___________________________

3) Zen has presumably given his blessing for Obi to be happy in love

In chapter 31, while the group is stranded outside Wistal due to rain, Zen and Obi are in the bath talking about the possibility of Kiki and Mitsuhide getting married.

“It’s fine with me as long as they can say that they’re happy. I intend to make sure of that.”

“You’ll make sure of that?”

“The same applies to you too, Obi.”

More foreshadowing? Presently it seems that the MitsuKiki ship has sunk, so contrasting this conversation to current-manga-events is titillating to me. ESPECIALLY because Zen says that he wants to make sure Obi is happy when Zen knows how Obi feels about Shirayuki. So it’s established that they will support one another as friends.

Later, Kiki and Mitsuhide are talking after dinner and discuss how the nature of Zen and Shirauki’s friendship never changes (that’s the impression I got from it). Mitsuhide recalls when he and Zen talked about the same thing:

I think what Kiki and Mitsuhide are referring to is that Zen and Shirayuki have made a conscious effort to become friends despite the barriers they’ve encountered so far, by way of them showing the strength of their mutual respect and desire to aid one another. I get a similar feel from the conversation between Zen and Mitsuhide.

And then .....

“The two of us will always be friends.”

ahem

Zen saying this -- in context to everything from the past four chapters -- implies that Zen is okay if their relationship is not romantic. If it is true that the mangas plot was deliberately planned out, these chapters will become increasingly interesting to look back on as the plot progresses.

The direction of the story has changed since then if we are only looking at the big turning point of Mitsuhide rejecting Kiki.

And despite that rejection, the group is still a group despite their physical distance.

___________________________

Brief note to say that in Ch 33 Izana says to Zen,

“Let me be an ally as you and Shirayuki follow your own path.”

While this is a ZenYuki comment, I see it as Akizuki reinforcing that each character is following their own path and they will be supported as they do.

___________________________

3.5) After this point is the first Lyrias arc,

where obiyuki shippers are starting to salivate over how much is packed in just for their relationship. I mean .... remember when she pushed him to the ground because she thought he would get hit by snow? And he gives her those moony eyes just like it didn’t stop ... my heart

UGH JUST SAYING IT BECAUSE context! Shirayuki’s path is changing slowly, and Obi is still by her side.

___________________________

4) A period of transition

I think this is around the time the Bergatt arc is actually beginning, leading up even to current-manga-events.

In Chapter 53

And thus, they head towards the path that a new wind blows upon.

The times are changing.

While Shirayuki is preparing for her and Ryuu’s move to Lyrias, Zen and co. are at Wilant meeting with Haruto, who describes fools aiming to throw the country into turmoil. This is a seed for the plot that develops, ie, the Bergatt arc that was not actually resolved when Touka gets taken down at Sereg in ch (?) 86. I bring this up because I think it shows the level of planning that Akizuki has put into the story at this point.

In chapter 55, after Shirayuki has finally been able to tell Zen she’ll be away from Wistal for 2 years, and they have this conversation (slightly paraphrased) after he’s processed for a short time:

Zen -

“Sorry. The fact that you would be leaving the castle was something that I’d never considered. So my reaction was a little slow.

“I’ll hear it. I’m sure there was more you wanted to say.”

Shirayuki -

“I’m really glad that I got to meet you and come to the castle! I’m where I am now because I wanted to become Zen’s ally; and i achieved that by coming to the castle and becoming a royal pharmacist.

“I’m sure that, like how it’s always been, there’s something ahead connecting to my path now. That’s why, because there’s a place I have yet to go, I want to be there.”

This is Zen’s face after she says the above:

What is he thinking? Is he worried about their romantic relationship? I interpret it as preemptive disappointment that they may not stay together.

Shortly after we get to the point you made in your ask (sweet anon) re ch 56 with Mitsuhides comment. This adds to the reinforced theme that change is okay and they will all still be friends and allies regardless of where life takes them.

BUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER Mitsuhide says that in reference to Zen and Shirayuki, Obi responds:

Is Akizuki drawing a parallel between MitsuKiki and ZenYuki? No idea. maybe. But somehow I do not find it coincidental.

This seems like a MitsuKiki hint, meant to fuel the ultra-shippable pair that we all loved... but after the rejected proposal, it’s hard not to see the whole situation differently re: zenyuki / obiyuki and mitsukiki / hisakiki.

Then the first true ObiYuki hug, and this:

“It feels as though Obi might suddenly appear in Lyrias!”

girl you already knew. Shirayuki knows that Obi will follow her.

Obi deliberately postpones going to Lyrias, though, in order to consider his feelings for Shirayuki and how to tell Zen.

Then!! in 58-59 we get long-awaited confirmation from Obi that he has feelings for Shirayuki, and after this beautiful moment Obi goes to Lyrias to be at Shirayuki’s side, and after everything that has happened so far that is a clincher for me regarding our beloved Foreshadowing.

While discussing Obi’s crush on Shirayuki, Obi asks Zen

“Aren’t you going to propose?”

“.......................Well, I’m.. making her .. wait.”

“Master ... I don’t recommend postponing it, you know.”

I wonder about this comment. Is this a clue for us that Zen postponing engagement is going to be a negative thing in the future?

idk maybe ╮(￣ω￣)╭

Either way ........ This transition period, in between Lyrias 1 and 2, shows us that the story is changing.

___________________________

I have definitely not covered all of the possible moments of foreshadowing and am actually going to leave off on that topic for the time being. I might do a part 2 as its own post.

But for now I will switch to previously mentioned point that...

5) Obi and Shirayuki’s paths are walked together

I think the following two panels are a great way to frame their relationship. Chapter 20 in early Tanbarun arc:

And then, much later in chapter 106 as they stand by the fire and Shirayuki tells Obi he’s handsome in the light:

“... because you come with me.” ( ╥ω╥ )

And then more delightful talk from chapter 104 that I think is ... gasp

foreshadowing !!!!!

They are having this discussion after they’ve found out about Kiki becoming engaged to Hisame.

“It’s necessary to have the courage to make a decision and take a step down that path, isn’t it?”

Shirayuki is possibly saying this due to the implications of Kiki’s letter. Kiki has made the choice to take a new path from the one she had been on by marrying Hisame.

So what about Shirayuki’s journey? Has her growth led her to a path she didn’t expect, and now it will take courage to step down it?

In recent chapters Shirayuki is shown to be seeing Obi differently and as a man:

overhearing him calling her beautiful and being surprised that he is embarrassed she heard

witnessing him going to a marriage meeting

that little moment where he is holding her wrist as a Lyrias knight tells him that the knights sister wishes him luck in love

the firelight comment oh my god

realizing she lost the pin Obi gave her and tearing up as she literally stared at him; upset that the gift she cherished is now missing and potentially realizing how very dear to her Obi actually is

fake dating and the 10 seconds of ... just... I still cant even

Obi is the one who is by Shirayuki’s side. They developed a bond through years friendship that is now being reframed by Akizuki. The nature of their relationship has been slowly changing and I think we approaching a time in the manga where Shirayuki will realize it.

___________________________

To answer your last question ... I do think ObiYuki has a chance and I do not think the author is just toying with us. I’ve talked a lot about my ObiYuki Endgame feels in previous posts/asks. I could probably talk about it forever but this post is absurdly long .... sorry

Thank you so much for the ask! and wow thank you so much if you actually read this whole thing!

<3 beebs <3

#obiyuki #obi x shirayuki #speculating #so much speculating #ask beebs #i dont think this is even my longest post #that may be an issue #ans #akagami no shirayukihime #obyuki #meta

70 notes · View notes

writing-in-mermish · 4 years ago

Text

The Romances of Journey to the West

I have not read Journey to the West.

I know the basics of the story and from what I am aware it isn’t really romantic. At all. Sure it’s got some side plots where romance might be an element, but not in the main plot.

So why are there so many stories based off of it that one of the main focuses is Romance???

I do not know the answer to that question, and wont be trying to answer it (sorry????). Instead, I’m going to talk about the media I’ve consumed based of off Journey to the West and their romances. Enjoy!

I thought it might be fun to do them all in order of when I consumed them (especially because I plan to add to this when I realize something new is also a JttW remix), but I don’t actually remember what order I started them in so we’re just going with obviousness. Starting with the most “Well, yeah.” and ending with the most “wait what?”.

first...

The New Legends of Monkey

I actually never finished this one (how many times can I say that in this post, ha ha ha....), and it’s probably the one I’m least likely to finish (but I’ve got a compilationist in me so we’ll see).

It’s basically a straight forward retelling from what I watched, the main difference that I could see being Tripitaka’s characterization and gender. They made him a girl which felt like an excuse to add a romance between the monk and the Monkey King, though it only ever hinted at things as far as I got, so maybe it never happened (the tags on this gif suggest otherwise though). Tell me in the comments if you watched it I guess.

The acting wasn’t great and I dropped it pretty soon in, so I don’t have much else to say. They also made Sandy a girl, so maybe they were just trying to make it more diverse or something. IDK.

The Epic crush of Genie Lo

This book was freaking amazing and I totally recommend it (and the sequel, it’s a dualogy so both books are out, no need to wait!). It’s the only one I’ve finished at the time of making this post.

It’s kinda the outlier because instead of a romance between Tripitaka and the Monkey King it’s a romance between the Monkey King and Genie Lo (who I won’t explain her character because of spoilers). It’s super fun and interesting.

It’s set in modern day after all the events of JttW took place, which also makes it different from all the rest, and definitely not a retelling. It uses all the same characters instead of just the character dynamics and plot.

They could have nixed the romance because it’s not the main thing but it’s really enjoyable so I ain’t mad (but it’s kinda more important in book 2). Also a different take than all the others so, props to the Author.

A Korean Odyssey

This is the only K-Drama in the mix and I had to watch a few episodes to realize what it was. I’m nearly done with this one (started it in October and was zooming through but have slowed down due to NaNo). Another one I’d recommend (in fact, all the rest of them I probably recommend, tNLoM is the outlier here).

Out of the ones that are more obvious and use the same names, this one is the most different since it’s Korean instead of Chinese. Instead of Tripitaka they just use Samjang, and they use the Monkey’s title, The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, a lot more.

This one is also modern, but with the lore that they’ve dropped, is not set after the JttW but is the JttW, without all the traveling though. Also, instead of moving scrolls from point A to point B for The Merciful Goddess Guanyin (who hasn’t seemed to show up at all), they’ve been shoved together by The Devil King (who wasn’t as big of a player in JttW from what I know, but is one of the main characters in this). It’s very funny and emotional, like most K-dramas I’ve watched.

the romance is integral to the plot because instead of being trapped with a circlet that gives him headaches, The Monkey has a bracelet that makes him fall for Samjang and hurts his heart when she’s in danger. This causes much shenanigans which range from annoying to funny to heartbreaking. Good stuff.

Inuyasha

Into the Shojo! You may have heard that this one is Journey to the West-esque (If you run in those kinds of circles) and it’s definitely the most obvious of the ones I’ve encountered. I’ve only watched the anime (still working on it), so if the manga’s different, I didn’t know.

It’s got the five man band, the non magical Trip. character who sets free the Monkey character and the circlet analogue (aka “sit boy!”). Also, we’ve got an actual journey and a magical item that they need to protect and get to a specific place.

It’s both modern and set in the past (portal fantasy!) which is fun. Especially since her family gets to know, and she goes back for school every once in a while.

The romances in this are also semi integral to the plot (it’s shojo, what did you expect), and it’s quite enjoyable. It’s got comedy, action, drama, and cute romance. (Also, it’s randomly getting a squeal after a decade I think.)

Kamisama Kiss

I didn’t realize that this was JttW until after starting the manga, which I picked up after I finished the anime because it ended on a cliff hanger (I have some thoughts about that phenomenon too, but that’s for different and much shorter post). I really liked the anime and am making my sibling read the manga with me now. (they just corrected me and said I offered and they said yes, but saying I made them is funnier so whatever.)

Instead of being a cool monk or having the reincarnated soul of someone special, our Trip. for this one is just a nice girl, down on her luck who is given the divinity of a deadbeat kami who she saved from a tree. And instead of a magical item to bond her with the Monkey character (who is a fox spirit) they are sealed with just a kiss. (Hence the title)

The romance is semi integral, but oddly enough, I’d say less than in Inuyasha. Sure it weighs on their minds a lot, but the main plot is about Nanami trying to be a good kami and take care of her shrine, not her perspective love interests.

Fun show (and manga). Very goofy, cool world building, compelling characters, and good drama when it showed up.

and finally...

Yona of the Dawn

this one might be more believable than the last one, but I realized it later and feel it’s got slightly less similarities with the original source material. Another one that I watched all the anime and now have started reading the manga with my sibling due to the cliff hanger. (I’ve noticed more differences between anime and manga in YotD than KSK, not important, but interesting to me).

The monk is a princess in this one, and her and five man band are mostly reincarnations of dragons, which is why they join her party, to protect her like their counterparts did. They’re all compelled by ancient blood. Strangely, the character I’d ascribe to Monkey king is not a dragon and is only compelled by loyalty (and love).

It’s got the epicness, historical-ish setting, and the journey, but instead of getting a MacGuffin to it’s destination, they’re escaping death and trying to restore a kingdom.

Romance is very complicated in this one. Very compelling and I’d say on the more integral side. Affection and it’s many forms are explored along the journey. There are many dynamics and they all have their own complications. It’s good.

(also, I hope to cosplay Yona some day)

So... yeah. That’s it. If you got all the way through this, thanks.

13 notes · View notes

pinkcurse · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter 264, 265, 266 , and 226.5 Thoughts...a mini novel

Ok, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I haven’t posted my thoughts in a long time. Graduate school is a killer! Anyway, let's do this in order.

Chapter 264

1. Do any of us really believe that Kimiko is gone for good? Like seriously. I feel like with her it is a waiting game to when she comes back. The question is, will she be reformed or will she try to do something to hurt Kyoko again? My money is on vengeance.

2. Kurisaki’s geeking out over Hiou’s grandpa is so adorable. I wonder if he will get a chance to meet him. Like if he comes on set to see how Kyoko is doing. The way he reacts to the fact that he didn’t hire Kanae makes me wonder if he suffers from the same illness that Kyoko suffers—wild delusions.

3. I think the most important and intriguing thing from this chapter is WHAT IS THIS ROLE THAT KANAE FEELS UNABLE TO DO? Like seriously, what kind of role would she lack confidence in performing? She seems very confident. If I had to venture a guess, it would have to be something about being happy with a family situation like the one she has, to act contrary to her nature. Also, it’s in America. So, Kanae starts the excuse of our beloved characters to the U.S or maybe introduce Juli into the mix.

Chapter 265

1. So the bullying of Koga begins. I’m wondering where this goes. Does he become yet another Kyoko admirer or does he play some sort of role in FINALLY getting Ren and Kyoko together?

2.”He’s just a toddler, toddling along.” I love this. It is soo true. Unfortunately for Kyoko...she is too. She thinks she understands love but she intentionally misunderstands that Ren is possessive of her. I would love SO MUCH for Kyoko to realize Ren’s feelings for her and call him out on it. Like she has already started to wake up to it with her conversation Kuon and why she shouldn’t have made the kiss promise with Kuon, but I question how many years we have to wait for it.

3. Ok, so Kyoko preserving the flower. I think all of her mementos from Ren are going to be sooo important at some point. Like Ren see’s getting to go into her room and seeing the bed for Princess Rosa, and the preserved the dandelion ring, and whatever place of honor Kyoko gives to her infinity points reward, and the corn stone sitting on a bed of sand from Guam. I hope that he sees this soon. Cause this will be the only thing, I think, that can make him realize Kyoko’s feelings.

4. BLEH SHO RUINS EVERYTHING. Not really, I think he is more of an instigator for Ren and Kyoko finally getting together. With Ren and Sho scheduled to show up at the same time... well, nothing good can come of this. Annnd... for all we know nothing good does come of it...

Chapter 266

1. Once again BLEH SHO RUINS EVERYTHING! I think we could all safely say that we saw Ren finding out Sho was there coming from about 200 miles away. I think as long as this incident wakes Ren up and gets his butt in gear then it isn’t too bad.

2. Ok, Kyoko and Sho seemed really cute together right there, but I think if we saw Kyoko’s side of the conversation it probably wasn’t as cute and playful as it appeared to Ren and Yashiro. Remember Kyoko is a great actress so she might have been doing what she felt was needed to get Sho out of there ASAP.

3. I kind of hate that he seems mad. But is he mad at her or himself? I don’t think he can be mad at her. I hope he realizes that and hopefully, they are able to have a decent conversation on the way to the studio.

4. POOR YASHIRO! He tried soooo hard and he has to put up with grumpy Ren all day. Maybe he is the one who encourages Ren that Kyoko's interactions with Sho indicate that her heart is healed and that NOW IS YOUR MOMENT! GO FOR IT! HONESTLY, though.. I want Bo to be the one to encourage him cause... I just do. If not Bo, then I want to see Ren reach out to his parents and get advice from them. I can’t help but think we might see Julie soon, with all the little Kuon pictures we’ve been getting. I think Julie is going to be important to Kyoko’s growth. Kuu taught Kyoko how to live in her acting and truly love her roles, while I think Julie will teach Kyoko confidence in herself, and show her it’s possible to have a loving healthy relationship without sacrificing herself.

5. Lastly, THAT LAST PAGE! Can that get any more ominous? With the Chapter title not even till then—Unexpected Results: One Day Earlier. So we are getting closer but the only thing I don’t expect is a confession, but it is the thing I am hoping for the most. I am just hoping they don’t have like an angsty time where they are separated and all depressed and angry at each other. The comment about the end of peaceful times, I think is a red herring (hoping?). I think if Ren does confess, Kyoko would definitely not be peaceful, mostly because she doesn't see herself as worthy of him. She isn’t even a possibility in her own mind. This is why we need Julie to save the day...or someone...anyone... help them...please.

Chapter 266.5

ZOMG WE GOT LIKE ALMOST A WHOLE FRICKEN CHAPTER SIDE STORY AND ITS GREAT!!!!

Ok so storyline, timing wise this chapter is in two different places. The first page says the event happens a bit before chapter 266. However, it is only chapter 265 where Tashio is trying to remember what he locked away in the vault and chapter 266 is the next day. So, he had to have given her the letter that evening. If that's the case I can see why Kyoko didn’t open it immediately, she might have been worried about angry Ren, but she also was probably too busy worrying about Sho’s arrival the next day.

So timing wise when Kyoko does open the letter, and based on Kanae’s comments, I think she doesn’t open it until after the Unexpected Results day... But Ren seemed OK... not like I would expect him to look if Ren and Kyoko had a falling out.

Kanae does conclude that Ren must have dropped some sort of declaration bomb on Kyoko that caused Kyoko’s reaction to Ren. Soooo this gives me some hope for the unexpected result being Ren mans up and starts pursuing her seriously.

All this being said this makes Kanae’s behavior during the Lotus and the Mire auditions strange. When Kyoko tells Kanae about “Amaya’s” feeling that Ren is in love with Kimiko, Kanae just kind of rolls with that idea, agreeing with Kyoko. We don’t even get a funny look from her to Kyoko. She has suspected Ren’s feelings from the beginning so why would she even entertain the idea that Ren is in love with someone other than Kyoko? The only thing I can figure is she saw through Kyoko’s lie and realized it was Kyoko’s feelings she was talking about. However, Kanae doesn’t indicate during this side story that she suspects Kyoko of having feelings toward Ren. I just find it interesting and inconsistent.

I am looking forward to eventually seeing Kanae call Ren out. Maybe it will be Kanae who gets our two idiots together....

This side story did bring out another inconsistency in the story as well...When Kyoko and Ren meet in the president’s office on white day Ren straight up tells Yashiro that he didn’t get her anything yet, but those tickets were sent the day before white day. Why lie about that? I don’t think Yashiro would have really teased him as much, maybe just said that it was a good idea that Kyoko would like the tickets.

Ok here is a question for you my friends. Were you as equally disappointed with this white day gift as I was? Like, I kind of thought that when we did get one it might be theme park tickets (cause Skip Beat! hasn’t done that Shojo manga trope yet) buttttt I want her to go with Ren...or better yet...with Korn.

What are your thoughts?

#skip beat #skip beat!#kyoko mogami #Mogami Kyoko #tsuruga ren #ren tsuruga #i am way behind #im sorry

42 notes · View notes

rickyriddle · 6 years ago

Text

AnR daily manga review: chapter 19

I forgot to say in the previous review that we’re now at volume 3. Yeah!

Isuke and Haruki having some girly chat. And then Haruki accidentally broke the bottle of nail polish because you know, girly stuff, I guess. Just how strong Haruki is?

Isuke revealing her real motivation: money. She doesn’t like being an assassin, but she sure loves how much it pays.

Looks like Isuke and Haruki come to an agreement, that family is what truly matters. This is the similitude between them and an important point when it comes to analyzing their relationship (which I did in my Isuke analysis).

Haruki received an alarming call from her sister. This is the trigger she needed to act.

Tokaku looks so damn comfy in the bath.

There’s actually no reason for me to have taken this picture, other than HAWT GURL!.

The elastics in Haru’s hair are the reason why I doubt that her hair had pigtails. We see here how they look when they are tied up, we see the elastics, but we never saw those with her regular hairstyle. I’m glad to know I was right. Yeah, in case you didn’t know: Haru’s hair isn’t pigtails! Anyway, Haruki...biatch??? It’s so unlike she to say something like that, she must be anxious about her family. Looks like it triggered Tokaku.

Another scene the anime completely messed up. In the anime, Tokaku simply yelled at Haru and tell her to get mad, while in the manga she does say that she has the right to be mad, which Haru denied, because “I have to smile, blabla”, and then Tokaku agreed that smiling suits Haru better. It’s such a cute TokaHaru moment, and the anime ruins it by making Tokaku unnecessarily angry. The anime does like to make Tokaku a hot-tempered character, while she’s more cool-headed in the manga.

New riddle from Kaiba! Because ya know, it’s in the title of the series. A look at Tokaku’s shirt! A bunny! Because there’s the kanji of rabbit in Tokaku! It’s kinda cute ^^

Like the previous chapters this one was rather calm, yet we can feel the tension raising up, we can smell an assassination attempt coming soon, and we know who’s the most likely candidate is. There was an interesting HaruI scene, as well as a cute TokaHaru one. A good chapter for the shojo-ai aspect of this story.

#akuma no riddle #riddle story of devil #anr #anr daily chapter review #anr manga #ricky talk #spoiler

12 notes · View notes

recentanimenews · 3 years ago

Text

Manga the Week of 4/27/22

SEAN: The end of April means the end of innocence, getting ready for the boys of summer, and other things that are not Don Henley songs.

We start with Yen On, who have Cross-Dressing Villainess Cecilia Sylvie 2, In the Land of Leadale 5, and Orc Eroica 2.

Yen Press has a whooole lot. We see A Certain Magical Index 25, Days on Fes 5 (the final volume), Dead Mount Death Play 7, Goblin Slayer 11, Golden Japanesque: A Splendid Yokohama Romance 5, Hinowa ga CRUSH! 6, I Was a Bottom-Tier Bureaucrat for 1,500 Years, and the Demon King Made Me a Minister 3 (also a final volume), In Another World with My Smartphone 5, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level 8, Laid-Back Camp 11, Love of Kill 7, Please Put Them On, Takamine-san 3, Plunderer 9, The Royal Tutor 16, Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts 15 (also also a final volume), Sasaki and Miyano 5, Shibuya Goldfish 10, and Toilet-bound Hanako-kun 13. I am getting… well, two of those.

MICHELLE: I’m at least getting Sasaki and Miyano!

ANNA: Not much there for me, since I’m not super into bureaucrats for the Demon King killing slimes after their levels are maxed-out.

ASH: I really ought to catch up with Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts; I’ve enjoyed the volumes that I’ve read. Also Toilet-bound Hanako-kun!

SEAN: Tokyopop debuts Yagi the Bookshop Goat (Honya no Yagi-kun), a BL title from Chara about a goat boy who loves to read books… and eat books! No one trusts him in a bookstore, can he convince the wolf manager to give him a shot? Honestly, this looks damn cute.

ANNA: I don’t care how cute it is!

ASH: Tokyopop keeps trying to tempt me.

MELINDA: Must… not… look… no. no.

SEAN: Tentai Books has a print light novel debut. You Like Me, Don’t You? So, Wanna Go Out With Me? (Kimitte Watashi no Koto Suki Nandeshou?), another high school romance between a mopey guy and the perfect girl. This genre has gotten popular lately, though usually with more irony than this has. The author also writes Are You OK with a Slightly Older Girlfriend? and When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace.

Square Enix has a 4th volume of Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!.

MICHELLE: I need to resume this series; the first volume was very good!

ASH: It’s true!

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan (Saikyou no Shien-shoku “Wajutsushi” Dearu ore wa Sekai Saikyou Kuran o Shitagaeru), based on the light novel also released by Seven Seas. It’s one of those “everyone says I’m weak but I’m secretly strong” series, and runs in Comic Gardo.

Seven Seas also has Cat Massage Therapy 2, The Dangers in My Heart 4, The Dungeon of Black Company 7, Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! 3, Kingdom of Z 5, Our Teachers are Dating! 4 (the final volume), Skeleton Knight in Another World 8, and Time Stop Hero 4.

KUMA has two new titles. sick is a BL oneshot about a young college student. He’s handsome, popular, has all the girls he wants. So why can’t he stop teasing the shy boy in his class? This ran in Takeshobo’s Opa.

Also one volume is Boys of the Dead, which KUMA describes as ZOM-BL!, and I can’t top that. It ran in Canna.

MICHELLE: I am potentially here for ZOM-BL.

ANNA: Me too!

ASH: Honestly, I’ve enjoyed most of KUMA’s releases, so far.

MELINDA: Okay, also count me in as possibly here for ZOM-BL.

SEAN: Kodansha has some print debuts. First we see Blackguard, a horror series from the creator of Devils’ Line. A mysterious virus called shojo is attacking people and… no, it’s not turning them into shojo manga, it turns each person into an identical carrier. Presumably our hero fights back. Also, given the title, presumably he’s not very nice.

ASH: Count me as curious.

SEAN: We also get A Galaxy Next Door (Otonari ni Ginga), a new series from the creator of Sweetness and Lightning. A young manga artist struggling to feed his family finds himself a new assistant, who’s almost otherworldly… and also says they’re engaged. This runs in good! Afternoon.

MICHELLE: I can’t say I’m wild about the premise but there’s enough residual goodwill left over from Sweetness & Lightning that I’ll check it out.

ASH: Sweetness & Lightning was such a delight.

MELINDA: Hm, yes maybe.

SEAN: And then there is Sensei’s Pious Lie (Sensei no Shiroi Uso), an 18+ series that ran in Morning Two. A young teacher is raped by her friend’s fiance, and struggles to keep it from her friend and also connect with her students. This has won awards, but as you might guess, is pretty intense and not for everyone.

MICHELLE: Sounds heavy but good.

ANNA: Way too heavy for me.

ASH: I’ve heard very good things about this series.

MELINDA: Cautiously interested.

SEAN: Also out in print: EDENS ZERO 16, Hitorijime My Hero 12, and Something’s Wrong With Us 8.

The digital debut is WIND BREAKER, a new manga from Magazine Pocket. I can’t believe, 20-odd years after WORST bombed in English, we are finally getting another delinquent manga about beating the shit out of other students. Awesome.

ASH: Ha! I’ll admit, I do like delinquent manga.

MELINDA: I mean.

SEAN: Also digital: Back When You Called Us Devils 12 (the final volume), Bootsleg 2, Even Given the Worthless “Appraiser” Class, I’m Actually the Strongest 4, Getting Closer to You 2, and Harem Marriage 16.

Kaiten Books has a digital release, the 3rd and final volume of My Dad’s the Queen of All VTubers?!.

J-Novel Club has the 9th and final volume of Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On?!, Fantasy Inbound 2, Maddrax 3, and Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! 2. On the manga side, we see Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight -Origins- 6, Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons 4, and Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf! 5.

Ghost Ship has a 3rd and final volume of Shiori’s Diary, as well as Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs 19.

Cross Infinite World gives us a 2nd volume of I Reincarnated As Evil Alice, So the Only Thing I’m Courting Is Death!.

Finally, Airship has the print debut of The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior, as well as Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 9, Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! 4, and Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling 3.

And we see early digital volumes for Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear 10 and The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior 2.

Want to buy manga? Or all you want to do is dance?

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

0 notes

tedlyanderson · 7 years ago

Text

A Completely Incomplete History of the Magical Girl Subgenre in Manga and Anime, pt. 2

Welcome back to my occasional, completely unscientific, very self-indulgent look at the evolution of the magical girl subgenre! In my first post, I said that the subgenre can be loosely divided into three generations, starting with series like Sally the Witch and Majokko Megu-chan in the ‘60s and ‘70s. In this post, I’ll describe the second generation of magical girls: the new crop of shows starting in the early ‘80s that added some interesting elements that would transform the subgenre. Come join me below the break, gentle readers!

First, a quick recap. When talking about such a specific segment of pop culture, it’s helpful to have a definition to narrow one’s focus and keep things on track. In my first post, I attempted to define the magical girl subgenre as best I could; what I came up with was a series in which the main character(s) are girls, typically teenagers or pre-teens, who have access to magical or otherworldly abilities in what is otherwise a normal, real-world setting, which are used in conjunction with personal strengths and virtues to solve problems and/or achieve their goals, and which they must keep concealed from other people who aren’t in on the secret. Again, it’s not the most scientific definition—it’s a pretty broad net, including some works it probably shouldn’t and excluding a few it should—but it’ll do for this analysis.

Series like Mahoutsukai Sally and Majokko Megu-chan in the ‘60s and ‘70s were popular, running for multiple years and getting translated into other languages and spreading to other markets, but compared to other series they were modest successes. They didn’t have the cultural impact and staying power of other series from Toei around the same time—Cyborg 009 or GeGeGe no Kitaro in the late ‘60s, or Mazinger in the early ‘70s. And while Toei kept periodically making magical girl series—for example, Mahou Shojo Lalabel in 1980—the formula did not substantially change. The second generation of magical girl would come from a different studio, a newer contender in the world of anime: Studio Pierrot.

Toei Animation was (and is) one of the original giants of anime, having been founded in 1948. Studio Pierrot was founded in 1979 by former employees of other studios, and was trying to make a name for itself. It had already hit upon a pretty successful franchise with its adaptation of Urusei Yatsura in 1981, and was starting production on a number of new series. (Urusei Yatsura also sort of fits the “magical girl” definition, and has proved one of Pierrot’s most enduring and beloved properties, but I’d argue that it’s not nearly as important in the history of the subgenre as the series I’m about to describe. Material for a future post, I suppose.)

For one of these new series, Pierrot decided to use the strategy of “media mix,” an idea that’s been around in Japanese pop culture since at least the 1960s but which had only recently acquired a name. To quote Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan by Marc Steinberg, media mix is “the development of a text across numerous media, among which anime plays a key role in popularizing the franchise; the dependence on other incarnations to sell works within the same franchise; and the use of the character as a means of connecting these media incarnations.” Basically, the idea is to build a franchise by using characters or ideas across multiple media, something that would reach perhaps its ultimate form in the Pokemon franchise a decade later. In this case, Pierrot would promote the music of a newly-acquired idol singer, Takako Ota, by making her the voice of the main character in a new anime series, Magical Angel Creamy Mami (Mahou no Tenshi Kurimi Mami), which premiered in July of 1983.

The “idol” is a specifically Japanese celebrity type, a young female starlet who generally appears on TV shows, in magazines, and especially in pop music. They’re usually presented and sold on the strength of their cute, pure, “girl next door” image, which means that their image is tightly controlled and heavily managed. It’s sort of the Hollywood idea of the “ingenue,” turned up to eleven and corporate-controlled. Now, if you remember, in my first post I noted that you can trace the development of the first magical girl series directly to the American sitcom Bewitched. These shows were putting their own spin on a fairly simple narrative: a girl with magic powers in a mundane world, dealing with simple problems and the occasional, unthreatening, cartoonish villain. In the same vein, you can trace the development of the second generation of magical girls to the introduction of this new pop-culture figure, the idol.

In Magical Angel Creamy Mami, Yu Morisawa is a normal 10-year-old girl, until the day she helps a small alien in his giant, invisible spaceship. For her help, she’s granted a magic wand with a variety of ill-defined powers and two helpers: talking cat-like creatures named Negi and Posi. Yu uses her powers to transform into a glamorous 16-year-old version of herself, who is quickly discovered by a record company and turned into a pop star by the name of Creamy Mami. She must navigate the demands of stardom while also occasionally solving strange magical problems and helping her friends.

I can’t claim to have any special insight into the minds of the show’s creators, but it seems pretty clear to me that Creamy Mami was tailored to fit the image of Takako Ota specifically, and the pop idol in general. The idol must be fresh and innocent even while being perfectly at ease with the demands of celebrity—both naive and media-savvy simultaneously—so our heroine is ten years old, but able to transform into an older, more mature form. She must be talented, but not seem ambitious—she must seem as though she has been plucked from her home without any preparation or training—so Yu is literally discovered by accident and pulled on-stage without even knowing she’s expected to sing, and uses magic in order to perform. The lengthy process of makeup and wardrobe is simplified into a glamorous transformation sequence: instant beauty, no hard work required! The idol is part of a massive pop-culture machine, but must seem like a completely ordinary girl who is never pressured by stardom, so the series has a hefty dose of comical magic antics and wacky side characters without any major consequences for our heroine. (The only recurring antagonists in Creamy Mami are a rival singer who resents the new, younger, cuter Mami, and an unscrupulous paparazzi named Snake Joe.) The overall premise of the series, with our main character being an idol herself, meant that Takako Ota’s musical talent was heavily featured, with one of her songs in the course of most episodes, in addition to both the opening and ending themes.

Many of the elements of the modern magical girl already existed prior to Creamy Mami—for example, transformation sequences were a part of series like Fushigi na Melmo and Himitsu no Akko-chan, as was the main character being a normal girl given magic powers rather than an inherently magical girl, and the cute funny sidekicks have been around since as early as Ribon no Kishi—but I would argue that they acquire a new importance and resonance when combined with the image of the idol. The glamor and pageantry of pop culture synthesizes nicely with the fantastic elements of the magical girl, while the dual nature of the celebrity—and in particular the idol, expected to be both untouched child and glamorous star—becomes something literally otherworldly, an amazing other self given by a being from the sky. By choosing a pop idol as both the main character and chief voice actress for Creamy Mami, Studio Pierrot had created a fusion of pop-culture archetypes that would become a huge success. The second generation of magical girls had begun.

Creamy Mami ran for 52 episodes and several original video animations (OVA), proving quite popular for the new studio. It finished in June 1984, and Studio Pierrot immediately followed up with similar series, each lasting for about a year: Persia the Magic Fairy (Mahou no Yosei Persia), Magical Emi the Magic Star (Mahou no Suta Majikaru Emi), and Pastel Yumi the Magic Idol (Mahou no Aidoru Pasuteru Yumi). Each of these series had the same basic premise—young girl is given some kind of magic power by a magical being and uses it in her otherwise normal life—although surprisingly, despite the success of Mami (and the title of Yumi), none of these later series re-used the premise of the character being a pop idol.

(I hear some of you cry: “That’s it? Four series, each a year long, all from a single production company? That’s what you call a generation?” And it’s true! By the standards I lay out, the second generation of magical girls is extremely small. But I would say that these four series, Mami in particular, are crucial to the history of magical girls. Think of this as a vital transitional period for the subgenre, a relatively brief moment in pop culture that would soon be superseded by newer, more popular works—the equivalent of Archaeopteryx linking dinosaurs and birds, these series bridge the gap between Sally the witch girl and Sailor Moon. Additionally, I’m mostly talking about series and developments in chronological order; while this period in the mid-80s is the birth and peak of the second-generation magical girl, there have been later series that fit this category.)

So what are the new elements added by the second-generation magical girl? As I see it, there are two: first, the ordinary girl and the magical girl are two distinct characters which require a visible transformation. As I said in the final paragraph of my first post, while the magical girl has always had to hide her abilities, only starting with this generation does she hide her identity behind another full-fledged persona. The opening credits of Mami show Yu and Mami’s faces spinning around like opposite sides of a coin. Creamy Mami is in fact even more separate than most other examples in the subgenre; not only does she look completely different from Yu, she is specifically described as six years older than her “normal” self. Again, this is the archetype of the pop idol given a fantastic spin; the “celebrity” is a different person from the “person.” (Think, for example, of Hannah Montana!) Connected to this first point, second, an emphasis on costume, pageantry, and physical transformation into a more glamorous self. This is also at least partly due to improvements in animation allowing for more impressive spectacle, but the creators certainly made good use of it. Mami is dynamic and colorful, obviously far more so than its black-and-white precursors. It is also more toyetic than previous magical girl shows, par for the course for a media mix show; Mami uses a magical compact and wand to transform, plastic replicas of which could be bought as accessories, and stuffed animal versions of her fairy companions were available as well. (To be fair, Mami was hardly the only series from this period to be merchandised so heavily.) To what degree the pageantry influenced the desire to make toys, or vice versa, I can’t say, but they certainly go hand in hand from this point on.

There are also elements of this generation that have become staples of magical girl series—the cute sidekicks, the magic trinkets—but I think those are not truly essential, or rather, that what is essential about them is included in my second point above. To put it simply, the second-generation magical girl is surrounded by more stuff—a wand, some talking cats, magical accessories—all of which add to the pageantry (not to mention the merchandise).

There’s another element which I don’t think is necessary for or specific to the second-generation magical girl, but which also deserves a mention: Mami and other shows are aimed at a slightly older audience than Akko-chan or Sally, and the characters are children who often have to navigate adult worlds. Mami is in the music business; the main character in Magical Emi is a young girl who participates in her family’s magic shows. Even in shows where the character is not specifically participating in an adult sphere, they still find themselves in the position of having to act like adults: in her very first episode, Persia tries out her new magic by transforming into a policewoman and tricking her friends. These characters have a child’s perspective on adult problems, and while they can sometimes help the adults in their lives, they are still often flummoxed by the mysteries of the grown-up world. I think this is largely a matter of changing pop-culture expectations, a recognition that older girls—relatively older, that is, pre-teens and teenagers—were watching these shows, and would want to see characters closer to their own age, or at least dealing with similar problems. Again, I don’t think this is a defining feature of this generation of magical girls, but it’s something that will come up in other series and which should be noted.

That covers the second generation of the magical girl subgenre! And boy, are my fingers tired. Join me for the third installment, in which we finally reach the series that would define “magical girl” in both Japan and the rest of the world, and which would leave an indelible stamp on the genre—and anime as a whole—that has lasted to today. You know the one I mean.

#magical girl #magical girl history #mahou shojo #creamy mami #studio pierrot #scsg!#persia the magic fairy #magical emi the magic star #pastel yumi the magic idol

121 notes · View notes

wittyy-name · 8 years ago

Note

Do you have any fic recs for klance that are modern college au or college age? Kind of like your fics?

I know of a LOT of fics where they’re college AGE, so I’m just going to rec a few I thought of off the top of my head where at least one of them is IN college, okay? ((note: I’m saying college here as in the American usage of the word, meaning university level))

Not That Bad -> Literally my favorite college au fic. Like, if you haven’t read that one already, you should. It’s adorable, and I love the pacing, and I love the insight into both the characters. It’s just good story telling and good writing, man. It’s complete and written by the talented @blue-lancer

Sharps and Accidentals -> Everyone’s a music major of some sort, Keith is deaf, and Lance is TRYING (but constantly fucking up, but he gets there). This one is also really good. I’m a slut for fics that actually have good sign language knowledge ((any of my homestuck followers know this)). The pacing is good, the writing is amazing, and I’m probably super biased because I love @zizzani and everything they write ((Bo is also my co-author to the time travel au and Drive Like You Mean It)). This fic is still in progress, but it’s looking great so far.

So Anyway, Here’s Wonderwall -> So this is a fic that’s slow to update, but I personally really like it. It’s falling into this category because Lance is in college, even though Keith is not. Keith is the bassist of a band. I just really enjoy the writing of this fic, the pacing, the world and oc build, and the overall atmosphere. It just has this VIBE about it that’s so chill and so unique. The moments between Keith and Lance just feel so genuine and real. It’s the story of two dorks slowly falling in love, and you can really feel that in each special moment they share.

Keith Kogane’s Guide to Extracurricular College Planning -> So this one is significantly shorter than the others. Only 4/5 chapters. Everyone is in the same fraternity. And… idk, I just really like it?? It has this vibe and a take on the characters that I just really enjoyed reading. It’s about poor Keith being in love with his best friend for years, and how the two of them finally come together.

Cross-Steps -> This one is also shorter by comparison, completed, simple, and very cute. Keith is a long boarding youtuber, and Lance is obsessed. They go to the same college. There’s mutual pining, boys being idiots, and it’s just a super cute, really chill and easy read. You can breeze through it and feel all the happy fuzzy fluff feels if you’re not in the mood for anything too heavy. It’s written by @varevare!

Don’t Break Connection, Baby -> This one is making the list because Lance is in college, they’re college age, and by the end of it Keith gets accepted into college, too (spoilers??). It’s nsfw, so you’ve been warned! Keith is a sex phone operator that Lance prank calls and things spiral out of control for both of them. I absolutely love this fic, because @princedeadend does such an aMAZING job balancing humor and smut and plot. Like, it’s the most realistic smut I’ve ever read BECAUSE it’s so ridiculous, hilarious, and fluffy. I saw someone once said it’s the fluffiest smut, and honestly, that’s a good description. Wrenn has this crazy ability to move the story along and set up setting using mostly dialogue, and it’s something I admire. Definitely a fun read. Be warned for extreme second hand embarrassment in the first few chapters.

Voltron Cafe -> Okay, so TECHNICALLY, they’re not in college, but Lance is studying for college and they’re college age, so that has to count for something, right? It’s still in progress, but it’s an extremely fun read. I’m enjoying it a lot. The author, @hannahmelto, also wrote Cactus, which I really enjoyed. From what I’ve seen, they’re currently teaching in Japan, and they wanted to take a stab at writing a maid cafe au. From what they’ve said in their notes, they’re approaching this fic like a shojo manga, which I think is a really interesting writing challenge to give to yourself (from someone who loves giving herself writing challenges too), and it definitely pays off! It reads like a manga in the best way possible. If that’s not your thing, I get it, but I’m very much enjoying this fic. They also have an ask blog for this au! @voltron-cafe

Misdialed -> More phone shenanigans! Just as the title implies, Keith accidentally calls a wrong number and ends up with Lance. The two of them start a friendship not knowing who the other really is. But they also both go to the same college and have mutual friends. They don’t get along in person, but on the phone they grow close. It’s an amusing and fluffy read with a lot of dialogue (that’s not a bad thing), but @sasaina-ai has threatened angst on the horizon (also not really a bad thing). This one is still in progress!

Okay, so honestly, there are probably LOADS more “college/college age” fics I could rec, but these are the first ones that came to mind. I thought of a few others, and even though I’ve been enjoying those a lot, they haven’t updated in quite a while, and I feel bad sending you that way since I know a lot of people don’t like to get invested in fics that haven’t updated in a while.

738 notes · View notes

his-naughty-little-kitten · 8 years ago

Text

Yana’s favorite tropes

Today I feel like adressing one of the most popular topics in the Kuroshitsuji fandom, the BL subtext. The male on male fanservice has always been prominent in the series, has stirred up controversy, attracted many. annoyed some, and even spawned a funny rumor that the manga was supposed to be a yaoi one. The last statement, which has aready been proved false, has it’s roots in the author’s past as a yaoi artist and the shota BL works that she published under her pen name Yanao Rock. For this post I decided to read one of those works, Glamorous Lip, a one-shot consisting in six different short stories, and take note of the similarities with Yana’s current and most prominent work, Kuroshitsuji.

First I want to note that with these observations I am not trying to prove a point or encourage any particular view of the manga, I simply thought that getting to know the author’s tastes might help to make future predictions on the current storyline.

As you’ve probably guessed already, the similarities are mostly a matter of aestethics. We all know what Yana loves; master-servant relationships, very young ukes and certain accessories, many of which already seem familiar, such as the victorian clothes,

Ciel’s family ring

or even the eye-patch.

As an aspiring manga author, I can relate to this. It’s perfectly normal to include all the elements you like when you’re designing a character. What I found interesting though, is the fact that many of the elements that we always assumed to be plot devices might be just a bunch of things that the author threw together just because they looked cute.

More interesting that the things she finds pleasing to the eye though, are the themes she likes writting about, the things she thinks might be sexy, her kinks. Why? Well, because if we know the kind of things she would include in an explicit yaoi manga, we can also tell how she would want us to interpretate those same situations if they were to happen in Kuroshitsuji, right? And, to be honest, there are more than a few that we have already seen in canon.

Some of these are...

- The always cute, sick uke

- Private all-boys school uniform

- Carrying the uke

(keep in mind that all these things ended in sex in Glamorous Lip)

- Hand in wall

Similar, huh? But yeah, I know what you are thinking; aren’t these pretty generic? Like, you know, the kind of overused tropes in all smutty shojo and yaoi.

Yeah, they are.

Though I did find a certain one that caught my attention more than the others. The last story in the book, a short chapter titled “Macherie” takes place in a fantasy setting, unlike the others. I was very surprised at first how familiar it seemed.

Not only the whole dressing up...

Bur also the slave-market dungeon...

And the scared boy in the dungeon...

And the inability to “love”.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it.

Yeah, I probably am. Please don’t get any wrong idea. I just wanted to show you the pretty images.

Plus the ending was totally cliché.

#kuroshitsuji #glamorous lip #yana toboso #official art

516 notes · View notes

blastoisemonster · 4 years ago

Photo

Tottoko Hamtaro: Tomodachi Daisakusen Dechu

After so many cartoons with human protagonists, let's switch to one with animals as main characters. Tottoko Hamtaro was originally just a 1997 short manga by Ritsuko Kawai counting only 3 tankobons, but it's in its animated version that the popularity clearly exploded: broadcasted by TVTokyo since the year 2000, Hamtaro's anime had a lenghty life of 6 years and almost 300 episodes! Archive sites list it as a shojo genre but I'm convinced it's more of a kodomo, meaning aimed at little kids regardless of their gender. Afterall, the non-linear plot follows the adventures of Hamtaro, young hamster, and a huge group of friends that have a life "out of their cages" when their owners are away. Episodes are simple, innocent, and if I remember correctly they even end up with a friendship lesson. Truly a harmless cartoon to the point of being a tad boring, but children won't mind because there's a cute bundle of fluff on the screen.

The italian main channel for cartoons, Italia 1, started broadcasting the first 200 episodes in 2002. Remaining eps were later moved to another dedicated channel, but it's the initial period that sparked a true mania for hamster pets among boys and girls of my age. I was attending middle school at the time! And yes, I used the general hysteria to buy hamster pets, too; though regardless wether it was a fashion or not, I really do like domestic rodents and have cared for mice and hamster pets for several years after. <3 Back to Hamtaro, anyway, another thing I remember being so big about it at the time was the merchandise more than the cartoon itself: Polly Pocket/Mighty Max-styled hidehouts, houses and dens started flooding the market, all inhabited by these very tiny (something like 1 cm and a half!) solid plastic hamster characters. People started to treat the tiny figures like the next Beanie Babies and the mania of collecting the whole Ham Ham group (which at the time counted more than 30 characters, but increased as the episodes went on) spread throughout the nation. "Booster Packs" containing just one figure started showing up with different rarities, and you can guess the reaction it had on the audience. Even nowadays the rarest charas are able to rack up some good bucks on the aftermarket, and I'm pretty sure an easy Google research will lead me to a site listing the complete character roster. There, here you go. Meanwhile I’ve also learned that Italy has also played a big part in this merch mania, as not only we have distribuited the whole original japanese series, but also made sets and figures of our own. The more you know!

On the games department, Hamtaro had a lenghty life on Nintendo's handheld consoles, especially flourishing on the GBA and with the last concerning title being distribuited for the DS; though of course what interests me the most are the two chapters for Game Boy Color. Of these, only one (pictured above) was kept exclusive for Japan, its subtitle being "Tomodachi Daisakusen Dechu", which basically means "Strategies for Friendship". Released in the year 2000 and developed by Pax Softonica, a subsidiary of Nintendo itself. The Game Boy library is indeed familiar with hamster based pet simulators, yet surprisingly this game doesn't belong to the genre, and is instead more akin to an "activity center" that doubles either as a personality quiz in which the player adds usual info such as birthdate, bloodtype and name and gets a Ham Ham character in return, or as a collection of "friendship wisdom" given by the titular Hamtaro. The rest of the game basically consists in just waiting for him to do something; the cartridge has in fact a real time internal clock, so the hamster follows a rather impressive schedule, and also may be out "for adventures" at times, leaving the owner- as in, the player- without interactions for some time. It's like one of those old Living Books games where you clicked around in hope for some interaction, only this time even less exciting.

Given its gameplay, it's no surprise that the rest of the world completely skipped this title in favour of the next ones; lush graphics and endearing animations aren't enough to make a game if it there is none, and incredibly, if Todomachi Daisakusen Dechu was yet another pet simulator, its existence would've been much more than justified. Luckily its sequel is much more interesting, so let's skip to that!

#Photography

2 notes · View notes

nofomoartworld · 7 years ago

Text

Hyperallergic: An Illustrated Portrait of Lolita Fashion

So Pretty/Very Rotten by Jane Mai and An Nguyen (all image courtesy Koyama Press)

“Life was like candy. So what if it was deceitful?” says a girl clad in a Rococo-inspired outfit, after breezily explaining that the way she got her money for shopping was by telling her clueless father a bunch of sob stories; she has no friends but she doesn’t care: clothes make her happy. “My happiness was at stake. It’s not wrong to feel good. That’s what Rococo taught me. But actually my soul is rotten.”

So Pretty/Very Rotten by Jane Mai and An Nguyen, published by Koyama Press (2017)

This monologue, uttered by the Lolita fashion-obsessed protagonist of the cult movie Shimotsuma Monogatari (“Kamikaze Girls”) (2004) served as the inspiration for the title of the book So Pretty/Very Rotten, written and illustrated by cartoonists Jane Mai, based in Brooklyn, and An Nguyen, from Ottawa. Recently released by Toronto-based Koyama Press, the book is a collection of essays, illustrations, and short comics that attempt to give Lolita fashion a broader cultural and sociological context.

Lolita fashion quietly began as a subculture in the Tokyo district of Harajuku in the 1970s, but did not fully flourish until the ‘90s, its outfits a synthesis of Victorian and Rococo styles (with Marie Antoinette and Alice in Wonderland being the ultimate muses). Pop culture took note. Manga artists, for instance, have drawn plenty of inspiration from Lolita fashion and so has the movie industry: other than Kamikaze Girls, notable movies include Gothic and Lolita Psycho (2010) and X-Cross (2007).

So Pretty/Very Rotten by Jane Mai and An Nguyen

But Mai and Nguyen’s book comes at a peculiar time for Lolita fashion: Cult-like magazines entirely dedicated to Harajuku subculture and Lolita fashion have folded in the last couple of years: CUTiE, the first magazine that used the term kawaii in reference to Japanese aesthetic and fashion, ended its run in 2015; Kera! ceased publication in April 2017; Gothic and Lolita Bible “went on hiatus” in May 2017; and FRUiTS magazine printed its last copy in February 2017 — its editor and chief photographer Shoichi Aoki said that “there are no more cool kids left to photograph.”

Being a “cool kid” that photographs well, though, is only a surface-level aspect of Lolita fashion. As Mai and Nguyen show through entertaining but educational storytelling, Lolita fashion is full of complexities and contradictions. The name Lolita, for example, is purportedly inspired by Nabokov’s nymphet, but in fact has little to do with her portrayal in the novel; rather, Lolita fashion is meant to convey an idea of perpetual innocence. The origins of the name “Lolita fashion” itself are unknown, though some theorize the name is meant to reclaim Dolores Haze’s innocence, eliminating Humbert Humbert’s male gaze. “Prior to the novel, Lolita was the nickname for Dolores and did not have the nymphet connotations,” Mai and Nguyen write in the “Frequently Asked Questions” chapter. The innocence embodied by Japanese Lolitas, however, is perceived by the conservative Japanese society as a provocation and disturbance to the nation’s strict conformism. Novala Takemoto, the author and fashion designer who inspired the movie Kamikaze Girls and whom Nguyen interviewed for So Pretty/Very Rotten, has previously argued that the Lolitas’ eternal childlike appearance is their own “form of resistance […] They don’t exist to please anyone.”

So Pretty/Very Rotten by Jane Mai and An Nguyen

The strength of So Pretty/Very Rotten stems from the manifold approaches the authors take toward Lolita fashion. They taxonomize it: for example, they explain and draw, in detail, the differences between demure “classic Lolita,” fond of tapestry-inspired fabrics and muted hues, the “sweet Lolita,” who favors pastel colors and images of cute animals and cakes, and the “gothic Lolita,” who adopts a more funeral-inspired attire and might carry, say, a coffin-shaped bag. Mai and Nguyen study it as a culture intersecting with other cultures, such as shojo (a cultural concept that can be used to refer to a “little girl,” “maiden,” “young lady,” and “virgin”) and the indie music scene, especially the glam rock movement Visual Kei. Mai and Nguyen, who have firsthand experience with Lolita by dressing in that fashion, observe the psychological ramifications of the lifestyle itself, particularly how it’s fueled by a very materialistic drive, which can cause a state of permanent dissatisfaction.

Nguyen actually obtained a PhD in anthropology with a thesis on Lolita fashion, and we can find excerpts and adaptations of her academic work in So Pretty/Very Rotten. While painstakingly collecting information on the topic, she had a persistent thought: “If only I could draw about this concept rather than use words to describe it.” In 2014, she asked Jane Mai to collaborate with her and that was the genesis of their book.

So Pretty/Very Rotten by Jane Mai and An Nguyen

Mai and Nguyen approach the subject through different perspectives: Mai’s work veers on the macabre and is strictly focused on the toll a consumerist culture like Lolita takes on those who partake in it. She gets her point across by sprinkling her comics with more than a light touch of horror: “My clothes are perfect, I will be ok,” says the protagonist of one of her comics while scratching her bald, scabby scalp that she hides under a doll-like wig; she had just coughed up a massive amount of blood, but she still looked perfect.”

Nguyen takes a more anthropological and interpersonal approach. One comic features Nguyen herself interviewing several Lolitas (something she actually did for her doctoral thesis) and the answers she receives are insightful: “Do you prefer to be cute or beautiful?” is answered with “Beautiful things seem far away somehow, like out of my realm. It’s for someone else to say, not for me to define or desire. But cuteness seems more attainable and at hand, so it’s something that I can imagine being.” “Do you think Lolitas are strong or weak people?” is replied with, “Lolitas are weak because we are overly kind, but we are strong because we are not afraid to be different.”

The drawing styles of the authors differ to a great degree, too: where Mai uses bold lines, rounder shapes, no grayscale, and illustrates heavily stylized characters that occupy the page without being constricted into boxes, Nguyen has a more ethereal style, and does not use as much black as Mai does. Their comics have a no-frills sketchbook-like quality: this allows us to focus on the enlightening dialogue rather than on, say, the flowers adorning a Lolita’s bonnet. And this is certainly not due to lack of drawing skills: in fact, in the bumper illustrations and fashion section devoted to the different styles of Lolita, Mai and Nguyen made sure they reproduced even the most delicate ruffle in the utmost detail.

In his interview and essay featured in So Pretty/Very Rotten, Takemoto bemoans how, in Japan, Lolita fashion has hardly ever been accepted as a worthwhile research topic, hence the lack of significant documentation save for strictly fashion-centric content. With few exceptions, like Masafumi Monden, scholars have confined Lolita into brief chapters of books exploring fashion subcultures in general. An accurate and comprehensive book on Lolita fashion is still to be written. In the meantime, Mai and Nguyen’s work is an invaluable resource for whoever wants to get acquainted with a culture that, underneath its frilly garments, is a paradoxical form of empowerment and self-assertion.

So Pretty/Very Rotten by Jane Mai and An Nguyen is out now from Koyama Press.

The post An Illustrated Portrait of Lolita Fashion appeared first on Hyperallergic.

from Hyperallergic http://ift.tt/2uFVqdY via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Hyperallergic

0 notes