Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Hitchcockian Manga

While browsing for suggestions on new manga series, I came across a recommendation for the manga Arisa, by Natsumi Ando. It was recently declared one of the best manga series out there at the San Diego Comic Con this year.


The story begins as a bittersweet one: twin sisters Arisa and Tsubasa were separated from each other after their parents' divorce- Tsubasa goes live with her father and Arisa goes off with her mother (it's The Parent Trap all over again! What the heck? Don't these people know about custody sharing agreements?). For several years they stay in touch via letters. Things are seen from Tsubasa's point of view, primarily. She is the spirited and strong "Demon Princess" at her high school. Despite her toughness, she is actually a very thoughtful person with an innate sense of justice. She absolutely adores her sister and thinks the world of her: she's  beautiful, popular, has good grades, has a boyfriend... And one day they finally agree to meet.


Monday, September 12, 2011

The Monchichi Guy!

Ok, I TOTALLY have an excuse for being away from this blog for so long. I know my musings on manga have been sorely missed. *Crickets*
My excuse came in the form of the highly addictive- but quite long- manga, Hana Yori Dango by Yoko Kamio. It's been translated as Boys Over Flowers and made into quite a few TV shows- and anime! ...And...um...after reading the extremely loooong manga, I ummm...discovered Netflix had the Korean TV show version of it available on streaming...and...yeah. Geek.