Category: Anime, Manga, Etc

I must admit that I usually approach Father’s Day with a bit of dread because of what I may or, often as not, may not get. Yeah, that’s pretty selfish, but to deny the facts would be illogical. This year though, I was very pleasantly surprised to get volumes 4, 5, and 6 of Kare Kano! 🙂 I’m a big fan of shoujo manga, and Kare Kano is one of my favorites, but it’s definitely not the sort of thing generally associated with Father’s Day. My younger daughter, our household Chiyo-chan, made me a cool Inuyasha themed card. I was just sooo surprised to find that people were actually paying attention to what I liked! Oh I am so selfish, but I guess that’s okay one or two days a year…

I took my youngest ones with me to see Cars today not really expecting much. I was delightfully surprised to find a movie that just felt good all over! As a racing fan/driving enthusiast/gear-head I was absolutely delighted with all of the nods to the greats of racing, NASCAR in particular. And as a tech enthusiast, the fluid and very natural feeling animation was like good sex, or good drugs, or good beer…you get the picture. Seriously, when I say natural, what I really mean is that the cars literally came to life. If cars were alive, they’d move like that! And to top it all off, the human story and good acting completely sold me. Anyone who likes racing and cars and believes that the trip is as important as the destination, should give Cars a look. But if you’re taking small kids, be prepared to see the movie again sometime on your own, because at nearly 2 hours, I probably missed 15 minutes due to potty breaks…sigh… But this one is well worth seeing again!

Anyone who’s seen my book collection over the years would see that if has evolved from an ever growing collection of Star Trek and Science Fiction novels, to a now rapidly growing collection of manga. I still love sci-fi and fantasy too, but now I’m getting my fill of these via manga and anime. And even better, there’s an even richer diversity of other genres that I’m enjoying via manga. Indeed, for me, manga has been a gateway to many strange new worlds and places I’ve never been before. So it was with great interest that I read 12 Reasons Why Manga is Not a Gateway Drug to Western Comics. I found this excellent analysis of why the manga boom is not likely to raise the fortunes of American comics while perusing articles at When Fangirls Attack. To boil down Barb Lien-Cooper’s analysis, the worlds of manga and western comics are just too different, particularly with respect to the roles of women as authors, fans, and characters. This takes an ironic twist given that in many respects the roles and opportunities available to women in Japan are not only behind those in the U.S., but also China. But in the worlds of manga and anime, this is not the case, and with the growing international popularity of these media, perhaps there will be some leverage to change things back home.

I never really got into American comics. When I was younger, I read mostly comedies like Archie and some Disney based stuff. Then later The Avengers were a favorite. But by the time I went to highschool, I was finished with comics and reading science fiction. Then for a brief period in the 80’s I got hooked on Batman via some really good graphic novels that came out during that time. I loved the art and the very mature nature of the stories. I would probably have kept buying them if it wasn’t so hard to find the stuff. At the time there was only one place I knew of that I could easily get to for graphic novels and even that was a hassle. This is in contrast to today where chains like Borders carry most of what I’m looking for and of course everything else can be ordered from Amazon.

I’m firmly in the manga camp now, having come over via anime. There’s a lot to see and I’ve met some very interesting people, so I think I’ll stay for a while.

Mondays are generally pretty stressful for me no matter what. I just accept that now for the most part. Today I was mostly filled with a great sense of dread, as if fearing what was going to happen next. I think it really got started with a rather vivid dream I had last night.

In this dream, I found myself acting as a servant in the compound of a wealthy and powerful family. It was like Rong-guo House in The Dream of the Red Chamber, which I’ve been reading. The thing about though was that I really didn’t belong there. I was actually there trying to get someone else out, woman whose name don’t remember. At least that is the impression that I remember having. On my first attempt, I barely got into the main house and out before being caught. And a little later I received a summons to the house from one of the old and powerful family matrons.

Oddly enough, I missed my appointment with her because of a party. It was outside of the compound and the people lined up to get in were common folk. Unfortunately it filled up just before I could get in. So I rushed back to the compound for my appointment, but it was too late. The next thing I knew, I was acting as a servant helping serve meals and pretty much winging it the whole way. But no one seemed to notice or even care that I was just an outsider who had slipped in. I guess they really needed the workers.

Finally, there was a loud commotion. Someone in the family was very upset that there were all of these outsiders inside of the compound. He declared that they were going to purify the house. I took this to mean that outsiders like me were going to be killed, so I took that as my cue to leave. What surprised me at the end was the fact that a lot of people were hurrying to get out of there as well. Apparently the whole place was full of outsiders not related to the family by blood or formal relationship!

I never rescued the girl, and I don’t remember getting out of the compound either. But I did wake up with some pretty intense feelings, and perhaps that’s what colored my mood today. I like to joke that I’m Chinese by marriage, but clearly now I have some proof that my subconcious has been thoroughly influenced by my exposure to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean culture as I certainly didn’t gain such imagery from my midwestern upbringing! Maybe tonight I’ll dream the conclusion…

The other day I was thinking a bit about how anime and manga had affected the way I look at things. That is, what things had I taken from anime and manga and grafted onto my personal reference frame? I didn’t come up with any really good answers to that because by and large it was Star Trek that shaped much of my world view long before I became an anime enthusiast. At lunch today, I found my answer, and it quite honestly is rather important. In short, I do not assume that every woman I see is definitely a woman.

While waiting in line, I noticed a rather tall black woman in a nice, skirt and jacket business suit combo. She had long legs in white stockings. The skirt was maybe a little short, but that could have been because of her height. But something just did not seem quite right. I only got a brief glimpse of her face so I really didn’t have a lot to go on. It could have been her overall shape, coupled with the height that fed my doubts. But it has really only been during the last 3 years that I really got into anime and manga and attending anime conventions that I would take note of any such gender doubts.

Crossplay, cosplaying as a character whose gender is opposite your own, is fairly common at anime conventions. Gender bending characters and plotlines are also fairly common in manga and anime. By and large there tend to be more males cosplaying as female characters than females cosplaying as male characters. Some of these crossplaying guys are actually quite convincing, while some are infamously unconvincing. Soon I found myself always taking the femaleness of any given cosplayer with a grain of salt. It really wasn’t important to me anyway, since my interest was in the great costume they had put together. A lot of the time I don’t even bother trying to make a gender assessment until I look at the pictures at home.

I don’t know if the woman I saw today was born a female or not. And honestly, it really doesn’t matter to me beyond simple intellectual musings. So what have anime and manga taught me about women? Don’t believe everything you see!

I just finished reading Neon Genesis Evangelion, Volume 9 and as I understand it right now, I’m in for a very long wait before the next volume. Sigh, I always get totally into things, so when the train stops things can get a little tough. I’ve gone through all of the TV episodes and movies, including the director’s cuts and just started reading Angelic Days. So I think that just leaves the manga, and the game upon which Angelic Days is based.

I doubt that the game, a dating sim essentially, will ever see U.S. shores, especially since Kaworu is one of the people you, as Shinji, can date. So that just leaves the manga which is similar to the anime, but has a refreshing new take on the plot and characters. On the whole, the manga has a darker tone that seems more consistent with the situations that the characters find themselves in. While I’m waiting, I’m going to take a look at The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain for some further insight into Kaworu. This will be particularly interesting to me after watching a History Channel program on Satan and Hell today (6-6-06).

I wouldn’t call it an epiphany exactly, but on the way to work today I shifted a bunch of puzzle pieces in my mind and came up with a slightly disturbing result. My wife, the I’m not Gonna Blog WillowBrow, has been reading I Say a Little Prayer which just came out. Just prior to that she’d read On The Down Low. She told me that both of these are stories about the secret lives of gay black men. I thought it was interesting that she was reading this, but really didn’t give it any other thoughts until one other piece fell into place. I’ve been playing a lot of Final Fantasy XI lately and I usually play as a female hume warrior named Laureta, just my preference… I was joking with her about how most of the female characters are actually played by guys and she may some off the cuff remark about how they were gay guys. Well this morning all of these pieces came together and I thought, Ack! My wife thinks I’m on the down low!

Well, just to cut to the chase, I am not on the DL and she doesn’t think I am either…at least that’s what she said. Later I joked, What!? You don’t think I’m sexy enough to be on the DL! She told me that the books were interesting, but the romance scenes were a bit graphic. This immediately got me thinking about yaoi and all of the paddle waving fan-girls at anime conventions. There just seems to be something about attractive men in romantic relationships with other men that captivates some part of the female imagination. Perhaps it’s something about seeing men in a way they’re not accustomed to. Or maybe because the couples are men, there isn’t the same identification with the characters that there might be in a story featuring heterosexual couples which allows some freedom from whatever sexual constraints the reader may have. I strongly suspect that most of the readers of these books are women, as are most readers of yaoi manga. I’ve been to some yaoi panels and learned a lot (had a lot of fun too), and I still don’t completely understand the attraction. But I do greatly enjoy the freedom to discuss it! 😉 Apparently so will a whole lotta other people at Yaoi Con in the fall!

Is life imitating anime? On the way home I saw a young woman on State Street whose short black hair had been dyed blue. She was dressed in a short turquoise skirt and grey stockings that had a look of grunge and goth to them. All in all, a nice combination, so kudos to you! it’s been almost 2 years since I saw my first blue haired babe in the wild, anime conventions don’t count.

Well, looks like my attempt to rationalize skipping Otakon this year has failed! After determining that the source of my darkening mood today was rooted in part in having cancelled my hotel reservation, I decided that I would go after all. So I got a reservation at the hotel outside of Baltimore that I stayed at last year. It was okay, and will cost me half as much as the other place. So Otakon is back on baby! 😀 Trouble be damned!

This past weekend my church had its first retreat in about 3 years. A lot has happened and a lot has changed since the last retreat, so it was nice to get to know the newer people and the new pastors a bit better. One of our traditions is a Saturday night talent show during which people sing, read poetry, do skits, and all sorts of other things. In previous years, I was just an audience member, but this year I decided that I had no excuse not to share something that has become very dear to me. Almost 3 years ago, I started singing Japanese anime themes at anime conventions. So with Anime Central coming up, I decided to share this part of myself with my congregation.

I decided to sing Sore ga Aideshou from Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, which is my favorite song right now. I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but during my first practice it was so well received by the kids who were practicing a skit (and horsing around) that all of my nervousness went away. So with confidence, I did my piece and it was well received. It was also the first time that a Japanese song was part of the show.

What I’m most proud of though are my three youngest children, who lead by their 10 year old brother, performed City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2. The other kids thought it was pretty cool, and of course they all knew what the song was from, so right then three little stars were born!

A few days ago, I noted the rise of Yaoi manga at Borders and wondered where the culture police were hiding. Now after reading volume one of Yubisaki Milk Tea I’m wondering if I should quit using coupons and start paying for things in cash! Yubisaki Milk Tea is the first manga I’ve personally encountered that features cross dressing, and a heavy dose of lolicon (lolita complex) including underage nude girls, all in one package. I know such things have existed for some time in Japan, but this is the first I’ve seen of it in a mainstream bookstore. The story is interesting and I like the exploration of gender identity introduced by the the cross dressing Yoshinori/Yuki. But the lolicon undercurrent is a little pervy putting the manga right on the borderline of hentai. So the book is shrink-wrapped and marked with an M (mature ages 18+) for good reason. But there is nothing graphically explicit that would push the title over the line, so while it may inspire some really naughty thoughts, the police are not likely to come a knockin any time soon.

All of this makes me wonder if we’ll see another volume of this stateside at all. It also makes me wonder if manga in the U.S. has already peaked which would make catering to niches within manga another way to support sales. Or is this part of a greater trend in the entertainment industry to cater to more mature tastes?

Uh oh, looks like I’m goin to hell now! Out on my lunch walk I stole a second glance at a cute nun! Too much Chrono Crusade I guess… No seriously, I think it was mainly because you don’t see too many nuns on the street in habits these days…Yeah, that’s it…

I was also lucky enough to find volume 3 of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga at Borders which completes my collection up through volume 8. And Yubisaki Milk Tea is now out and on the shelves! I’ve been waiting for this one after the interesting write up in NewType.

This is just one data point to be sure, but I noticed today at Coconuts that the Naruto DVDs have already been marked down $5 from the already low $19.95 to $14.95. There were also a good number of copies available. I wonder if maybe the fans of the show were pissed off by the release of only the slightly hacked, dub only version in the U.S.. I know I was! I was looking forward to seeing it uncut in Japanese. The lame ads running on Cartoon Network right now are probably not helping. If it is true that sales have been bad, then perhaps next time the powers that be won’t diss the fans with a lame release. Yeah, I know the uncut version is coming later this year, but still I’m pissed! Yeah, I’m the impatient type…