#rumiko theater

[misteria247]

It's honestly a wonderful time being alive as a Rumiko Takahashi fan in this day and age. Like we're being fed so well.

[rumicworldweek]

A reminder of the prompts:

Day 1 (OCT 4) - Favourite manga/anime or firsts Day 2 (OCT 5) - Favourite character(s) or bandages Day 3 (OCT 6) - One place or secret Day 4 (OCT 7) - Favourite underappreciated/minor character(s) or family Day 5 (OCT 8) - One scene or flowers Day 6 (OCT 9) - To the future or flash forward Day 7 (OCT 10) Free day • Happy Birthday Rumiko Takahashi!

Don´t forget to tag rumicworldweek and/or mention @rumicworldweek!

[everest-mantra]

made a rumic world community if anyones interested!! https://www.tumblr.com/communities/rumic-world

[ukyou-kuonji]

Rumiko Takahashi talking about her male characters compilation

Bonus bc it was such an outlier:

[yumedoca]

So recently I went back and reread ‘Those Selfish Aliens’ (AKA Takahashi’s first published work) and I just had to draw Kei and Akane because of how cute they are! 💕

[xbuster]

[hanmajoerin]

Hai there, Love your blog, it’s the kind of content my Rumic loving heart craves! ♥️

So anyways, here’s my question: What’s your top 5 favorite Rumic One-Shots?

Hope you’ll answer X3

Thank you so much 💐!

I adore your question because what Rumic Theater story isn't my favorite? It's incredibly hard to narrow down, but if I had to choose I'd say my absolute favorites are "The Merchant of Romance", "Hidden in the Pottery", "When My Eyes Got Wings", "Fire Tripper", and "Maris the Chojo".

Bonus Honorable Mentions are "Wedded Bliss" and Dust Sprut/Wasted Minds (it's not a one-chapter story, but I fell in love with it from page one.)

[straightfacedstrangeness]

Rumic World fun facts!

It seems widely known that the short story Those Selfish Aliens is essentially the pilot for Urusei Yatsura (aka Those Obnoxious Aliens), but reading some more Rumic World & Rumic Theater short stories and comparing them to the Furinkan.com publishing timeline, a few other stories seem to be pilots for—or early versions of the ideas that would later become—other Rumiko Takahashi series.

Wedded Bliss was published in the same magazine (or a spinoff title) as Maison Ikkoku, within a month of Ikkoku's debut, though the order in which they were created is unclear since either one could've been written/drawn earlier and been held for publication at a later date. The tone of the story and the couple's dynamic is more reminiscent of Ataru & Lum than Godai & Kyoko, but the wife even has Kyoko's hairstyle and apron!

[these stories were published so long ago they read left-to-right!]

In 1985, again in the same magazine as Ranma 1/2 but this time 2 years before Ranma came out, we have Excuse Me For Being A Dog!, a romantic comedy featuring martial arts, involuntary transformations, and early prototypes of Akane, Ranma, Kuno, and even the Akane/P-chan dynamic! I have to wonder if the gag in Ranma where Ranma briefly thinks Ryoga's turned into a dog is a meta reference to this story.

Also of note: 1983's Fire Tripper and Sleep And Forget also contain ideas that wound up in Inuyasha. The former is a story of time travel between the modern age and the Warring States era, the latter is a story of reincarnation and mystical demon dogs, and both contain the Takahashi-typical dynamic of an average schoolgirl drawn into romance with a mysterious wild boy.

All the stories were originally published in English in Rumic World and Rumic Theater, but as of this writing they're all unfortunately long out of print.

[acquired-stardust]

Anime Spotlight #3: Project A-ko (1986)

Join Ash as she takes a look at an underrated pride month anime classic and formative movie in her journey navigating queerness - it punches way above its weight and is well worth your time. Perhaps the greatest queer anime popcorn flick of all time, Acquired Stardust's spotlight on 1986's Project A-ko is here!

As previously discussed, time and tide can play funny tricks with our memory and perception. To that point, there's a special sort of magic that old media facilitates. Separation from the people and circumstances that produced it goes a long way towards helping us disconnect from preconceived notions and expectations to experience works more at face value. For a brief amount of time the brain is tricked into allowing itself to believe that this ancient work of art exists somehow outside of time and place - apart from not only the underlying political and cultural factors but also the individuals that birthed it.

Project A-ko is a work that synergizes incredibly well with this psychological trick but is perhaps doubly impressive when looked at in its proper context.

Released theatrically in June of 1986 (only a little over a month before Studio Ghibli's first official project Castle in the Sky) and named after Jackie Chan's 1983 Project A, Project A-ko was born out of the staff behind foundational hentai OVA series Cream Lemon deciding to pivot and make a mainstream movie for theaters. Carrying a similar spirit to Project A, Project A-ko is a sci-fi action-comedy that smashes together the absurd and the mundane brilliantly.

Opening with a scene entirely in English (even in the Japanese language version) that sees a spaceship fall to earth and destroy the coastal southern Japanese city of Graviton, we flash forward 16 years to our protagonist (the eponymous A-ko) waking up to walk her friend C-ko to school for their first day. Deeply steeped in Class S tropes that had been popular in anime since the 70s that saw homoromantic relationships between women become somewhat normalized, C-ko catches the eye of rich and elegant classmate B-ko who immediately becomes overwhelmingly (and inexplicably) infatuated by her and deeply jealous of the relationship C-ko shares with A-ko, which stokes a rivalry for the affections of C-ko that gradually becomes more unhinged as the movie rolls on, even managing to slip in an unexpected cameo from an American fast food icon.

It is here, beyond the basic setup, that Project A-ko begins to coalesce into something far better and much more clever than it has any real right to be. The lead characters, at first basic archetypes generically named but actually containing multi-layer puns, are wonderfully self-indulgent, given tons of room to come into their own and become a surprisingly strong ensemble. Gender, gender roles and sexuality are portrayed with a fascinating nonchalance (the likes of which is also featured in anime of the time such as Dirty Pair, as made clear with a very popular post on this very site). Fight choreography is shockingly good for the experience level of all involved (who by this time had mostly been known for their involvement in adapting Rumiko Takahashi's manga Urusei Yatsura).

The soundtrack (also in English and very of its time) matches the tone of the film in the best ways possible and helps to shape the film into something that is all too rare in the world of queer media: positive, happy stories celebrating the love people have for each other without getting too far into the weeds of angst and tragedy that is unfortunately often part and parcel with the real life queer experience. The Japanese voiceover cast features a stellar lineup of actors including Miki Ito, Emi Shinohara, Michie Tomizawa and Shuichi Ikeda (as well as a very early appearance by Megumi Hayashibara), and needless to say they knock it out of the park. One potential pain point is C-ko's loud and obnoxious nature, which despite being a central part of her character is toned down in the English dub. If one finds her to be especially grating, which is one of anime's hallmarks in this era, the English dub is serviceable enough.

Watching Project A-ko was a formative experience for me, with its Goku-esque lead becoming a hero of mine. The final shot of the movie still manages to make me emotional every time I see it. Its simple concept of 'the superheroes and supervillains in your everyday life' is executed wonderfully and the bright-eyed, saccharine tone is an incredible breath of fresh air in contrast to the misery that queerness (and, more often, external reactions to said queerness) often brings about in our lives. There is so much to be said about this movie but as is so often the case with anime spotlights, it's hard to get granular without spoiling the experience and I'd much rather you see it for yourself than have it spoiled for you in what is in all likelihood the first time you're hearing of it.

They say that the best queer media is often accidentally made by straight men who have no idea that they're making queer media and that holds true for Project A-ko, who's character designer/animation director Yuji Moriyama says they simply hadn't put much thought into in that context which is unfortunately believable - although Project A-ko receives several sequels, they get progressively further away from the shockingly refreshing queer love story that is the relatable heart of the movie, contrasting its rising stakes and insanity that culminates with a three-sided battle that once again causes widespread damage to Graviton City.

But such is the beauty of old media - for a brief hour and a half we are able to allow everything but the thing we're watching to fade away. To take it at face value. To see ourselves in these archetypal characters, and to brim with pride as they become engaging characters all their own. To hope that perhaps one day the world will treat queer people with the same sort of complete nonchalance featured in this movie, and to hope that we too may one day be able to have the sort of relationship between A-ko and C-ko in our own lives.

A gem hidden among the stones, Project A-ko is undoubtedly stardust.

-- Ash

[gonagaiworld]

Rumiko Takahashi disegna un nuovo manga 1-shot "Kane no Chikara" della serie Rumic Theater debutterà il 5 aprile. Info:--> https://www.gonagaiworld.com/rumiko-takahashi-disegna-un-nuovo-manga-1-shot/?feed_id=353490&_unique_id=6418063db234b #KanenoChikara #Manga #RumikoTakahashi #UruseiYatsura

[misteria247]

Friendly reminder of the Urusei Yatsura manga!

It's a canon fact that Ataru keeps a diary. Like a legitimate diary, not a journal. And in the manga when people find out about this they instantly call him weird or laugh at him (Mendo, it's Mendo who laughs at him). All except for one person.

Lum.

In fact Lum does the opposite of laughing at this fun fact.

She gets angry on Ataru's behalf.

Even back before these two had their understanding of one another and were closer than ever, she still stood up for Ataru and Ataru stood up for her when it really came down to it.

Just.......they're perfect your honor I rest my case.

[anotherfandom]

Well, I am caught up on the officially released English volumes of Mao. It feels weird to be caught up on Rumiko Takahashi's major series, since I essentially just read forty years of manga. Though, Volume 11 of Mao comes out in like, two days. And I do still have some stuff like Rumic Theater to read, though I have to figure out how.

Mao is great. I get after Inuyasha, none of Rumiko's works have been megahits but Mao manages to feel like Mermaid Saga but with a continuous narrative. It is dark and full of mysteries. It often feels like a thriller to me, with big reveals and edge-of-my-seat tension. I am enjoying it a lot. Since it isn't done, I can't really post my conclusive thoughts though.

I like how Nanoka gets to be brutal. I like the generally solemn vibe of the whole series, even comedic beats have a certain melancholy to them. I like the tragic circumstances around all the plots. I like the scariness of the mysteries (especially of Nanoka's home life in the "present"). I'm excited to read more.

[rumicworldweek]

Weekly Shōnen Sunday No. 28 July 9, 1978

[ljaesch]

Rumiko Takahashi Is Knighted by France

The French government has conferred the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) decoration on manga creator Rumiko Takahashi. Since making her debut in 1978, Takahashi has created such manga as Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, Mermaid Saga, Rumic Theater, Ranma 1/2, One-Pound Gospel, Inuyasha, RIN-NE, and Mao. In her career of over four decades, many…

[kikyoinuyashashipper]

A funeral service was held for Tooru Rikiishi in an auditorium at Shonen Magazine publisher Kodansha’s Tokyo headquarters on March 24, 1970, roughly a month after the character passed away in the magazine. Some 700 fans managed to attend, somehow, though it was held on a Tuesday afternoon, when most of them presumably had school or work. Staged by avant-garde theater troupe Tenjo Sajiki (“Ceiling Gallery”), the service was complete with a picture of the deceased overlooking a boxing ring brought in from Korakuen Hall, and included the standard reading of sutras and lighting of incense, as well as a somewhat less conventional KO count to ten on a gong. The eulogy was read by troupe leader Shuji Terayama, who described Rikiishi as “an illusionary force of the Establishment dreamed up by slum guerilla Joe Yabuki”.

In other words rumiko wanted and believes/thinks of kikyo as a beloved character so beloved and worthy to be equated to Rikiishi, who at his death in the manga had a funeral service held for the great and greatly written fictional character in real life.

Rumiko Takahashi: “Kikyou is one of my favourite characters from “InuYasha”. It’s a bit strange, but for me she was like Rikiishi from “Ashita no Joe”!”