fandom review 2021
Dec. 31st, 2021 03:30 pm( Read more... )
Fandom Alphabet: A, B, C, O, R — Ships
Dec. 6th, 2020 03:20 pmDecided I might as well do this! I’m posting these in sets organized by theme, since I don’t think anyone wants me to post 26 times in a row. Grabbed from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
naye.
Full list, if you want to do this yourself:
( A, B, C, O, R )
naye.Full list, if you want to do this yourself:
( A, B, C, O, R )
manga catch-up
Oct. 25th, 2020 02:17 pmHaven’t really done a fannish journal in a while, might as well!
I’m rereading Nervous Venus: I started page-flipping bc I was trying to put together my Yuletide letter and it made me want to reread it. Dropping out of anime fandom for years really took a toll on my Japanese skills, oof. I’m one volume down, five to go. I’m always surprised by how much this manga (and Tokyo Babylon) have managed to hold up despite my tastes changing and maturing.
I finally finished Demian Syndrome. As I mentioned previously, the last scans group that was doing it dropped off the face of the earth roughly 7 years ago, but I recently discovered that someone else picked it up and finished it! I just didn’t get around to reading that last volume and a bit until I had to write my Yuletide letter and reread it from the beginning. No spoilers but can I punch everyone?
I also went down the entertainment industry BL manga rabbit hole again. (Pray for me if I start putting futekiya on my CC bill.) I enjoyed Koi ni wa Mukanai Shokugyou especially, bc Kanai Kei is incredible at using panels to frame things and to visually show emotions rather than tell them.
I’m also playing Hades bc my friend campaigned for it (ʘ‿ʘ)✿ I am so so so bad at it. I’ve always been bad at games involving aiming and dying, and for some reason I am very bad at bullet hell when I need to do anything other than dodge.
*
The big news of course: new Tokyo Babylon anime! Everyone’s commented on the younger and slimmer-shouldered seishirou, but my main worry is the seeming setting change. Tokyo Babylon is deeply tied into themes about societal changes and anxieties due to technology in the early ’90s. I can definitely see how it would translate well to 2021 but at the same time, it would be a very different footing for this story. At least it looks like we’re getting an animation budget!
in defence of bl
Aug. 22nd, 2020 09:07 pmsomeone ripped off the manga seven days and westernized it, and when they were called out claimed it was because they were making it “realistic” to “lgbt culture”. (the book is date me, bryson keller and there are more details in this twitter thread.)
i hate this assumption that manga can’t be realistic to the lgbt+ experience; i hate this stereotype that bl manga creators are all cishet women when it’s plainly not true; i hate this idea that stories of japanese lgbt+ experiences cannot be valid because they must conform to western ones. there have been so many creators who have worked to push the boundaries of this genre their stories were sidelined to, to include and focus on lgbt+ stories in japanese mainstream media.
( Read more... )
i found out this month that someone finally finished scanlating demian syndrome. it’s one of the first few manga i read, back in october or november 2004, and storm in heaven was still in the middle of scanlating the first volume then. i probably need to reread the entire thing before i try to read the last five chapters because i’d already forgotten most of it by the time the jouhoku picked it up from sih.
Chihayafuru
Aug. 16th, 2014 02:34 amNine or ten years ago, I fell in half-love with Suetsugu Yuki’s Only You and Eden no Hana, despite the soap opera dramatics. Within a year, she was suspended for plagiarism, and I remembering being completely broke up about the fact that Eden no Hana would never finish.
When Suetsugu Yuki came back with Chihayafuru in 2007, I was so excited about it, but I never read it. I didn’t read it when it won the Manga Taishou in 2009. I didn’t watch it when the anime began airing in 2011. I didn’t watch it when my then-coworker, who I admired, vehemently recommended it to me while drunk and walking home from his farewell party in 2011 or 2012. “It’s nostalgia,” he said.
I’ve just watched the first episode. It’s kind of funny, because its theme has haunted me through my teenage years: a nostalgia for the simple friendships that you have when you are ten years old. The first significant story I wrote, that I started writing in 2007, was about exactly that. I spent three years in total writing that story, trying to give it a happy ending, trying to let the main character get over the past. Perhaps it’s for the best I never started reading Chihayafuru in 2007, when I still bought into that nostalgia.
Ten years later: I’m back to Suetsugu Yuki.
When Suetsugu Yuki came back with Chihayafuru in 2007, I was so excited about it, but I never read it. I didn’t read it when it won the Manga Taishou in 2009. I didn’t watch it when the anime began airing in 2011. I didn’t watch it when my then-coworker, who I admired, vehemently recommended it to me while drunk and walking home from his farewell party in 2011 or 2012. “It’s nostalgia,” he said.
I’ve just watched the first episode. It’s kind of funny, because its theme has haunted me through my teenage years: a nostalgia for the simple friendships that you have when you are ten years old. The first significant story I wrote, that I started writing in 2007, was about exactly that. I spent three years in total writing that story, trying to give it a happy ending, trying to let the main character get over the past. Perhaps it’s for the best I never started reading Chihayafuru in 2007, when I still bought into that nostalgia.
Ten years later: I’m back to Suetsugu Yuki.
A Drunken Dream
Oct. 21st, 2010 10:51 pmI recently received A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Hagio Moto, translated by Matt Thorn and published by Fantagraphics. I heard about the book through ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
battour, who is a fan of The Heart of Thomas, and I can’t pass down a high-quality translated volume of manga. Many years ago when I was just getting into anime and manga, I studiously devoured Matt Thorn’s blog, so I had—have—great trust in his translations. Plus, an autographed bookplate? Instant motivator. However, a week after I placed the order, I received a letter stating that A Drunken Dream was out of stock, and my hopes of a signed bookplate were crushed.
Yet! The day the book arrived, I’d already completely forgotten about it and was awaiting the arrival of my latest purchase, the limited edition DJ Max Portable 3. (That package has only just left its 3-day purgatory at Customs Canada.) The package arrived at noon as I was readying to leave the house, so I only had time to open it and admire the cover—and the unexpected but welcome bookplate—before heading off, late. I was absolutely blown away by the quality. No lie: I think the price was an absolute steal. Today, I finally opened the book, and as is my wont read the meta first before reading the actual story, or in this case, stories. I am struck by how frank Hagio-sensei is about her family life, for a culture whose children are taught to keep mum no matter what happens.
The best things should be savoured, and as such I have only read a couple of stories so far. It is hard to reconcile the style—both visual and literary—of the 1970s with that of shoujo manga of the past decade. Having also some exposure to Terra e… and Kaze to Ki no Uta, the first impression given by shoujo manga of that generation is of a world lost in time and space, the world of a child’s dreams and nightmares. It’s jarring coming from a habit of mundane realism and stark dystopia, though arguably, the worlds of these manga can be just as dystopian as any Lord of the Flies–styled story.
battour, who is a fan of The Heart of Thomas, and I can’t pass down a high-quality translated volume of manga. Many years ago when I was just getting into anime and manga, I studiously devoured Matt Thorn’s blog, so I had—have—great trust in his translations. Plus, an autographed bookplate? Instant motivator. However, a week after I placed the order, I received a letter stating that A Drunken Dream was out of stock, and my hopes of a signed bookplate were crushed.Yet! The day the book arrived, I’d already completely forgotten about it and was awaiting the arrival of my latest purchase, the limited edition DJ Max Portable 3. (That package has only just left its 3-day purgatory at Customs Canada.) The package arrived at noon as I was readying to leave the house, so I only had time to open it and admire the cover—and the unexpected but welcome bookplate—before heading off, late. I was absolutely blown away by the quality. No lie: I think the price was an absolute steal. Today, I finally opened the book, and as is my wont read the meta first before reading the actual story, or in this case, stories. I am struck by how frank Hagio-sensei is about her family life, for a culture whose children are taught to keep mum no matter what happens.
The best things should be savoured, and as such I have only read a couple of stories so far. It is hard to reconcile the style—both visual and literary—of the 1970s with that of shoujo manga of the past decade. Having also some exposure to Terra e… and Kaze to Ki no Uta, the first impression given by shoujo manga of that generation is of a world lost in time and space, the world of a child’s dreams and nightmares. It’s jarring coming from a habit of mundane realism and stark dystopia, though arguably, the worlds of these manga can be just as dystopian as any Lord of the Flies–styled story.
