Category Archives: manga

Skin-deep Personality: Thoughts on the Categorization of Anime Girls

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As anyone who reads this blog would know, I like girls in anime, and I like moe. However, there are times when even I question the kind of conversations that arise from talking about female characters and what effects they’re having on fans.

Growing up, I was taught various lessons on beauty, namely that inner beauty trumps simple appearance. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” “It’s the inside that counts.” Adages such as these shaped the idea that while physical beauty is more prominent in society, emotional beauty, personality, and character are considered to be deeper aspects to admire. While I do not discount physical beauty in people be they fictional or otherwise, this idea of personality trumping looks is something I still believe in. In anime, especially with the current prominence of moe, something which I think is much more personality-based, with moe visuals derived from personality, this seems to be the case.

However, with the increase and proliferation of moe terms, it can sometimes feel like character traits are no different from physical traits. Calling a character a tsundere becomes not much different from calling a character a busty redhead. Personality can become just as simplified as appearance and turns into something very immediate, very at-the-surface, and easy to fetishize. Liking a character for their personality becomes just as shallow as liking someone because they have nice legs.

Sexualization isn’t the thing that bothers me. Rather, it is that the type of sexualization that can occur as a result of this categorization of traits makes it difficult to see if someone actually genuinely likes a character or not. If I ask someone why they like a character, and they say, “Because she’s a shy twintail tomboy meganekko,” then I myself wonder, “Is that REALLY why you like them?” If an entire conversation is spent simply throwing out these categories as descriptions in lieu of actually talking about the characters, it can give the impression that these characters are undeveloped and shallow. Maybe they actually ARE that shallow sometimes and it’s all in good fun, but it still creates the feeling in me that personality becomes just another facet of a character to get gratification from, rather than something to cherish on a deeper level.

This is I assume a personal thing, and I don’t expect others to necessarily feel this way. I’m not faulting anyone for doing this, nor am I criticizing the existence of otaku vocabulary, as I do this myself pretty often. Still, there’s this gnawing bit of doubt that can occur when I see it when I think a real dialogue or discussion should be occurring.

Kaiba and What He Expects Out of His Anime

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Defining 90s Shoujo…maybe

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When speaking of the spring 2008 show Itazura no Kiss, the way I and others describe it as “so very 90s shoujo.” And it’s true. The show, even animated in 2008, screams the conventions of shoujo from that decade, which is no surprise seeing as the manga is from the 90s.

But then, I thought, what if someone had no idea what 90s shoujo was like, and that description was therefore useless? How could I accurate convey the properties which make up 90s shoujo?

This is the challenge I’ve set out for myself, and I have to admit, I have no idea how this will turn out.

Visually, 90s shoujo is all about clean, almost cartoonish designs for characters. Girls are much more cute than sexy, but it’s not the type of cute one expects to moe or fawn over immediately. Guys are certainly bishounen, but rarely do they look completely feminine. Line work tends to be very simple, giving 90s shoujo a very flat look, but not so flat that the reader or viewer becomes distinctly aware of it.

The melodrama dial isn’t cranked up nearly as high as it is in 70s shoujo, where characters’ emotions hit harder than a train filled with lead, but characters are affected strongly by the small events around them. There is suffering, but it tends to be a beautiful sort of suffering where you can tell that the characters will recover from whatever their problems may be.

90s shoujo is innocent. This doesn’t mean that it’s devoid of sex. Far from it, in fact. The difference is that there is not much venom (or lead poisoning) between characters. The drama is strong but fairly civilized, and characters generally do not end up wanting to kill each other. Love triangles do not end in ridiculous tragedy.

90s shoujo is pleasant in a way that shoujo from other eras is not. It’s about 50/50 escapism and realism, and is almost always uplifting.

Hokuto no Ken Event for 7/7

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Seven artists are going to be making redesigns for the four Hokuto Brothers (Kenshiro, Raoh, Jagi, Toki), as part of the Hokuto no Ken 25th Anniversary Celebration.

The event will be held on July 7th, 2008 at a Tower Records in Tokyo.

As for the “redesigns” themselves, it’ll be…interesting…as let’s just say the artists selected do not exactly have Hara Tetsuo-esque styles.

The 7 Chosen Ones

Kitai Shinichirou (DEVILROBOTS)

Mad Barbarians

Tenmyouya Hisashi

Inoue Takaho

Urata Spancall

Hirose Soushi

Matsushima Satoshi

Source: Anime! Anime!

MACHIGAETAAAAAAAA!!! or What the Hell Happened to School Rumble?

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It seems like I’ve been checking up on how various series I left behind are doing lately. First there was Bleach, then Inuyasha, and now School Rumble. And my first reaction is…

What?

At some point School Rumble started dropping the drama bombs like they were coming from Little Boy and Fat Man, and I am puzzled as to how and why this happened. The revelation concerning Karasuma alone is…odd, to say the least, and not in the Karasuma kind of way one would expect. I mean, I know it’s always been a relationship manga/anime, but it was always focused more heavily on the comedy aspects. Did something happen in the author’s life that would cause School Rumble to have such a stark change in mood?

This is like the first time I’ve seen an actual manga undergo the same fate as most comedic webcomics, where suddenly DRAMA is introduced into a world that was originally meant for humor and hijinks.

Maybe I’m judging it bit too early, but this was incredibly jarring.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: The End of Inuyasha

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I’m not a fan of Inuyasha, so I really haven’t kept up with it this whole time. I do recall buying a single issue from a store back when manga was still being sold like monthly comic books, and I did watch Inuyasha at my college’s anime club. When the heads of the anime club decided to stop showing Inuyasha, I wondered why. One of the last episodes we watched had Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru working together to defeat a common enemy while using their respective blades as intended (Inuyasha for destruction, Sesshoumaru for healing), so I thought that it was finally getting somewhere good and would conclude soon after.

Ha.

Many jokes have been made concerning the “never-ending” nature of Inuyasha, but finally we can stop cracking wise about it and switch to humor based on the fact that as of this week, Inuyasha finishes with 558 chapters.

Inuyasha ends with a final battle with the demon Naraku, after which Kagome makes a decision to choose what’s right over her heart’s desire. The battle itself is pretty nice and conclusive, but it’s the kind of final battle you know that Takahashi could have pulled out at any moment and it would have still made sense. Sesshoumaru wielding his Nendou Bakusai Ken Bakusaiga with its endless destructive capabilities, it could have been a cheese wedge forged by destiny instead.

Inuyasha thankfully concludes with an ending and all that, as opposed to the abrupt stop that occurred with its anime counterpart. It’s not the best ending I’ve seen, but I doubt it’ll displease too many people or get accused of being a cop-out/Gainax Ending/any other conclusion-themed perjorative.

Really, Inuyasha will ultimately not be remembered for its plot, so having an actual ending doesn’t hurt or help too much, though I think it leans towards the latter. I’m not a fan of Inuyasha like I said, but I think its fans will continue to have adventures with Inuyasha and friends for a long time.

Inuyasha is finished, but it’s still endless.

In conclusion, I just want to point out that I was the first person to say that Inuyasha is “Dragon Ball Z for girls.” If anyone says otherwise, they’re wrong.

What if there was a Hot Dog Manga?

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I went to Coney Island yesterday and helped myself to some Nathan’s Hot Dogs, the world famous ones you can get at any franchise but they are especially special at Coney Island.

Yakitate Japan, Addicted to Curry, La Sommeliere, there’s all this food-themed manga in existence, so what if someone decided to aestheticize and romanticize the world of hot dogs? And I don’t mean hot dog eating, as that’d be way too easy.

Imagine a scene where a character is explaining the source from which one person made his hot dogs, and in the background as he’s explaining it you see giant vats of pureed meat and meat by-products churning around. The background itself would have bold speed lines to show the power with which the hot dog mix is being churned. It would all look beautiful.

…Maybe this would work better if it was about sausage, as it would put the creation of the actual sausages into the hands of the characters. Maybe in that case one of the battles would involve hot dogs.

(And every year all participants would put all their dreams into winning the Sausage Fest).

OEL Manga, what is up with it

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A few years back Tokyopop started advertising and promoting its own line of “Original English Language” or OEL Manga, and no one I know reads them. I’ve checked out a few here and there, but I feel something holding me back when I see a title in the stores. On the few occasions where I have picked one up to read, well, sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised and other times I’m not.

I liked Bizenghast overall, but the fluctuation in quality from page to page was very distracting. A well-done drawing would lead into a rush job into another nicely detailed drawing, and it seems like the product of someone with not enough time to really hone each panel.

Dramacon is another one I decided to take a look at, simply because Anime Jump and others had lauded it for being one of the better titles. I found myself unable to finish it, as it felt less like a heart-felt examination of the convention scene and the drama in it and more like wish-fulfillment on a level below Comic Party. What’s a mysterious love interest with a scarred face doing in a story where the focus seems to be Normal Anime Fans Doing Their Normal Anime Things? Maybe I’ll come back to it at some point, but it was like the pieces of the puzzle did not fit together properly.

I’m probably giving them a harder time than I should, but at the same time I’m really not, as it was Tokyopop’s desire to showcase these talents on a level on par with work from Japan. If there’s any OEL titles of merit that I’m overlooking, I’d like to know about them.

The Target of My Obsession Reflects Back Onto Me

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I’m usually okay with it, but there are times when I wonder how to explain my fascination with Ogiue to people who are not otaku, or not familiar with anime and manga. There is perhaps a latent fear that it’s not something easily understood, or that I’ve taken my interest in Ogiue a step too far such that I’d prioritize her over a significant other if I were in a relationship.

…Then I realize that I’m worried about my obsession and sexualization of a manga character who constantly worries about what others think of her obsession and sexualization of manga characters.

Hmm.

Waiting in line, drawing the Ogi

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This is something I did while occupying time yesterday.