Thursday, July 28, 2011

Haven't We Met Before?

Since I've been watching InuYasha, I can really see the similarities between it and Ranma 1/2. Since Rumiko Takahashi is the mangaka for both, it's not strange to note that the drawing style is very similar in both mangas... but that's not where the similarities end:

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

InuYasha

So I was all mopey over having finished Kaze No Stigma and wondering what next when I started browsing through Hulu... I started watching The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, but was getting a little frustrated with the dub. It's not bad, but I like hearing the original voices, the inflections in the voices, the timbres...I mean, the sense I get is that these actors have been doing this for a very long time. Sometimes the dubs sound too fakey for me.


It seems every anime site I go has endless episodes of Bleach, Naruto, and InuYasha. Because I tend to avoid what is massively popular for very prejudiced reasons on my part, I had never bothered to find out more about them...So, out of desperation, I queued an episode of InuYasha on Netflix...and four episodes later in the original Japanese (oh yeaaaz!), I am hooked.

I am a certifiable dum-dum because I already liked manga by author Rumiko Takahashi, who also wrote Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku. Why didn't I try InuYasha before? It's one of those great mysteries of (my) life...

I like the mythic aspect and the whole feudal Japan context. And a half-demon dog, half-human hero who can be deterred when ordered to sit by a 15 year-old girl?




 I'll write more after I've watched more, but I am enjoying the "forced" partnership between the guy with dog ears and the girl in a school uniform.

166 episodes to go!

Yay!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Oresama Teacher and a Little Personal History of Insanity...

 First- a little bit of background:

Manga Lassie- A Chronological Chart on Delusional Behavior:

  • Age 4: So enraptured watching Hong Kong Phooey that I never noticed that China, the cat, was the one really keeping it all together.
  • Age 6: Ardently wanted to be Tarzan. Not date him. BE him. As in swinging around on vines all day with a sidekick chimpanzee. This ended very badly with a time out due to wrecked living room curtains and running around clad solely in underwear.
  • Junior High: Somehow got it in my head that Bruce Lee is my shepherd and I shall not want... for fistfights. Made it my life mission during recess to attack all the boys in my class. It is a damn miracle none of the guys lost their temper and clocked me. 
  • College: My roommate dragged me to the opening of a popular martial arts flick with her Tae Kwon Do school. I was thinking of joining and was thus the lowest ranked one. My roommate, a yellow belt, was rubbing her hands gleefully, thinking she finally had a toadie to boss around, and was about to order me to sit in the back of the car. In the middle. However, the vehicle in question belonged to the school's head instructor, who had a little crush on me and explained that I got to ride shotgun next to him because I wasn't formally a student yet. Carte blanche for blatant disregard for rank!
  • College: I briefly dated a black belt in karate. He was very good and competed internationally. I became Kato to his Clouseau and would orchestrate elaborate ambushes attempting to catch him off his guard. He patiently and resignedly deflected every single one of my attacks. It was never meant to be.
* * *


 I think everyone who reads manga has an archetype their sympathies gravitate to for various reasons. Mine is the tomboyish heroine who is a bit of a goofball, but can kick butt when necessary. I think that's why I like Kyoko Mogami in Skip Beat,  Chiemi Yusa from Junai Tokkou Taichou! and Kurosaki Mafuyu from Oresama Teacher. Ok- Kyoko doesn't do the whole martial arts thing, but she raises hell in her own way and isn't scared of displaying her very...spirited temper. Chiemi finds her match when she clocks Akifumi "Deranged Devil" Hirata at school- he falls hard: on the floor...and for her (aaawww...I set that up so nicely).

Mafuyu, from Tsubaki Izumi's Oresama Teacher, however, has given me the biggest laughs.


In so many ways she reminds me of myself whenever I'd get worked up with my heroic delusions. Except that she can back up her bravado...

Monday, July 25, 2011

Kaze No Stigma- Stigma of the Wind

My plan was to go back and review all the manga and anime I've read/watched so far...But I feel lazy. I *AM* going to do it because I have a lot of opinions about the characters and titles...however...I want to talk about the anime I am currently watching.

It's Kaze No Stigma- or Stigma of the Wind, as some translations have it. The Kaze No Stigma anime is  based on the light novel written by Takahiro Yamato and illustrated by Hanamaru Nanto. I think the best way to explain a light novel is that it consists of stories more suited to young adult readers- junior high and high school, primarily.

First things first: apparently the author died before the series of books was completed.  I haven't read it yet. The anime, however, has been completed and is only 24 episodes. I've noticed that often anime based on a long-running manga (and some manga can run for years and years) will choose only a few volumes/story arcs and end. That's what happened with Fruits Basket and Kare Kano...and so far, with Kuregahime (oh please, please, let there be more seasons of jellyfish-inspired dresses, cross-dressing, and Banba's righteous afro).

The whole premise of Kaze reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender in that you have different groups of people mastering the use of powers based on the four elements. In Kaze, however, they are "magic users," as opposed to "benders," and the action takes place in contemporary Tokyo.



Delurking...

I have a background in literature. I feel I need to disclose that not because I think my interpretations will be outstanding in that "I READ BOOKS!" pretentious way, but because I feel a bit apologetic about my field in general.

You see, I think...the way things are now...the majority of people isn't motivated to enjoy reading. And I place the blame largely on the scholars in my field because they like to decide what literature consists of... and more and more it is becoming this hermetic field in which saying you actually "enjoyed" a text is considered taboo.

Back when I was a grad student, I decided I was going to read the genres folks in my department looked down on: sci-fi, romance, fantasy, kids' fiction, comics...and manga. I have to say I've pretty much made some amazing discoveries and except for those drugstore romances (seriously, there was only so much "soulful longing" I could read before going cross-eyed) I've enjoyed opening up my world.

About a year ago, a good friend of mine, with whom I watch movies every week, and I started watching the Nickelodeon series, "Avatar: the Last Airbender" and loved it. The storytelling was wonderful, the characters were engaging, and the world building was fabulous. Once it was over, we wanted more anime-style stories...so we discovered a Japanese series called Mushishi...And then another called Kuregehime (Princess Jellyfish)... And I found I was needing an anime fix between our weekly movie sessions, so I came across Fruits Basket on Netflix a few months ago.

Fruits Basket was really mesmerizing and when it ended, I KNEW there had to be more to the story, so I discovered scanlations... It wasn't my first encounter with manga, though: I had previously collected "Ranma 1/2" and started collecting Saiyuki (but gave up once I realized I would run out of shelf space). 

Fruit Baskets made me realize that there was a rich world of storytelling whose surface I hadn't even scratched...And that led to some more amazing discoveries...Discoveries that I'd like to share here, because until very recently I knew almost nothing about the genre.

Whether you are new to manga or are a seasoned reader, I hope my recommendations and insights lead you to explore, comment, and support these very interesting, entertaining, occasionally heartwarming, and often humorous, modes of sharing stories!

PS- I'm still pretty new to anime and manga, so if you want to steer me in the right direction,  give me some suggestions, question what I've said, point out that my banner is crooked (I'm letting it go- I'm swapping the OCD for a Zen outlook), I'm open to it. That being said...I don't tolerate rudeness... and how to put it clearly? Plain mean-spirited attitudes. I am all for a good argument, can dish it out and take it...except for aforementioned behaviors. In those cases, I will exercise my right to hover my cursor over the delete button above your jeremiad.