Aug 31 2008
Image found on a mineral makeup company’s website:
“NATURAL” BECAUSE THE WOMAN’S FACE OBVIOUSLY HAS NOT BEEN PHOTOSHOPPED, NO NOT EVEN A LITTLE
You know, it wouldn’t even have stood out as much if they’d just gone ahead and smoothed her hand, too.
Aug 27 2008
Challengers is a four-volume yaoi manga about a dorky sarariman named Mitsugu who meets a dorkier college freshman named Tomoe and falls in love at first-dorky-sight. It’s one of the few yaoi manga I’ve read with a major age difference (Mitsugu is 25, Tomoe is 18) that doesn’t creep me out, largely because Mitsugu seems to have done some reading in the genre and knows the pitfalls. It starts out with the unfortunately common plotline where one guy offers the other a place to stay while being dishonest about his intentions - but Mitsugu realizes this is fucked-up immediately, and instead of sitting around being broody and tragic about it, tries to clear things up. He admits his attraction to Tomoe, promises not to put any pressure on him, and actually doesn’t.
Obviously, Tomoe eventually realizes he’s in love with Mitsugu, too. By eventually, I mean “the beginning of volume 2.” The other three-quarters of the series is sort of an ensemble comedy wherein Mitsugu and Tomoe attempt to be gooey-eyed and domestic while various less-fluffy characters inflict wacky hijinx on them. These include Mitsugu’s pushy best friend and pushier mother, several horrific gay stereotypes (Gay guys are creepy and vulgar and gay bars are terrifying! Mitsugu and Tomoe aren’t really gay, they just happen to be in love with other men! Oh, yaoi manga.), and Tomoe’s homophobic and permanently furious martial artist older brother.
Also, the manga contains much educational information about Americans.
It becomes obvious pretty quickly that Tomoe’s angry brother Souichi is Takanaga’s favorite character. It is obvious because he gets beat up a lot. Like, every single chapter in which he appears. He is also the only character in the manga who is threatened with rape. (No, it’s a yaoi manga, this is incredible.) His best friend/favorite victim Tetsuhiro, a sweet, dorky guy who tries to redirect his rage away from Mitsugu and Tomoe, is secretly in love with him. Obviously, these two will get their own manga. This manga is Koi Suru Boukun/The Tyrant Who Fell In Love.
Tyrant is not much like Challengers. Despite that he and Mitsugu look and act almost identically in Challengers, unlike Mitsugu, Tetsuhiro is not, it turns out, as nice a guy as he looks. (I’m going to cut here.) Continue reading “Challengers and Koi Suru Boukun, by Takanaga Hinako”
Aug 25 2008
(He posted an image gallery of pre-war yuri illustrations from his top-secret Matt Thorn sources!)
Though I worry he will get all tired and burned out from making all these insanely content-heavy posts. That is a lot of stuff, there, for a blog that’s been up three weeks.
Aug 24 2008
Aug 24 2008
Aug 23 2008
I needed a watch; there’s a store in Wing Town with pocket watches for 1000 yen; I always end up taking normal watches off and putting them in my pocket anyway. My course of action was clear.
It has a little magnifying lens in the cover in case I need to solve any crimes. I plan to wear my bowler hat if I go out today.
Aug 22 2008
AWESOME BOOK SUMMARIES
Sam is a broken young man, whose job as a film critic is just starting to take off, even as his personal life is crashing down around him. His relationship with Marcus, God of Fear, turned out to be a horrible mistake.
(It has great cover art, too! It’s just so pleasant and domestic-looking. One of those objects is probably supposed to be a whip, but it’s so badly drawn it’s impossible to tell for sure.)
Aug 21 2008
Might this be even angstier than Fruits Basket, and have an even froofier heroine? I think it might!
No, I mean. Apparently it’s possible to create a shoujo manga heroine even more sweet and pure and self-sacrificing than Tohru. Or at least, I don’t remember Tohru giving me a sugar-headache in the very first chapter. Ow.
The scanlations I’ve seen are deeply dreadful. Even if you’ve never heard the phrase before, is it really that hard to figure out that “has a light rear end” means “is promiscuous”? I don’t think that one’s hard.
Aug 18 2008
Last night I dreamed I went through what I’ve read of Detective Loki, found that there were no scenes of Narugami without his shirt on, and came to the realization he had to be a cross-dressing girl. Because that’s the only possibility? This is what manga does to you.
And now I’m totally convinced that that would be awesome. It is not, however, going to happen. (Now that I’m thinking about it awake, I think he is shirtless for a second in the wedding story.)
Aug 15 2008
Now with helpful illustrations!
The Wispy Clairvoyant Albino Agoraphobe bears some type of strong psychic or magical power, is the key to unlocking such power, or is in some other way vitally important to those around him, but is in some way too “weak” to make independent use of this power. He or she may be physically disabled by some injury or illness; physically disabled due to imprisonment; emotionally disabled by a tendency towards passivity and a willingness to be led; or, usually, some combination of all three. He or she will be constrained to a fairly limited physical setting that nonetheless gives off an air of wealth and privilege, often a palace, temple, hospital, or laboratory.
He or she is usually, as the name suggests, very thin and pale, with white or silver hair - though blond, blue, and purple hair are also permissible if styled appropriately limpidly. (Green is uncommon.) He or she is required to be young (-looking) and attractive, and may be a small child. The Agoraphobe may be either male or female, though I’ll say “he” from here on for simplicity’s sake.
Continue reading “Encyclopedia of Manga Tropes: The Wispy Clairvoyant Albino Agoraphobe”
Aug 15 2008
Mukuro = NEW FAVORITE CHARACTER. (To the surprise of no one.)
Spoilers (including some for Hunter x Hunter up to the Greed Island arc):
Aug 14 2008
I had it with edamame and niboshi, so as to make the project all cultural in nature (the beer was Kirin), but I still couldn’t finish it.
I think alcohol and I just don’t get along unless it’s totally drowned in juice or chocolate. I got a 700 ml thing of Nikka whiskey in March, and I only finished it this week. (Whiskey belongs in soy cocoa, and sometimes in orange juice.)
People out decorating graves again today. It’s been cloudy, so there were little plastic raincoats on the lanterns. I saw a woman carrying away a box of 100-yen-store incense. The store is right next to the graveyard. I wonder how much of the incense that gets burned there - and how many of the offerings at the parking-lot shrine - come from the 100-yen-store. I’ve seen cans of vending-machine coffee sitting on the graves, too.
(My incense is all from the 100-yen-store. It’s not very good? I’m wondering where around here I can buy Nippon Kodo. I’d like to try their domestic line…)
Aug 13 2008
Accidentally slept through most of today. I got up around noon and went over to the school to see if I had any mail, then came back, read for a while, and went back to bed. When I woke up again it was seven. Apparently I was tired.
I went out to get groceries. The graveyard is three blocks from the apartment, but I could smell the incense from just outside. The graveyard was crowded with people setting out flowers, incense, and lanterns and cleaning the graves. The lanterns are pretty, but everyone seemed to be extinguishing them before they left. I wonder if that’s normal, or just something they were doing this year because it’s been so dry. Someone towards the corner closest to the closed grocery store was burning some very good pure sandalwood incense, which doesn’t seem to be common - I think it’s usually blended with aloeswood. A little girl pointed a flashlight at me and said “stop!” in English, because she knew the word and wanted to say it.
Aug 13 2008
Wow. Hiei and Kurama’s backstories are actually pretty hardcore.
I just want to show this to Kubo Tite and go, like, “THIS IS HOW YOU DO THE MORALLY-AMBIGUOUS DUDE’S FLASHBACK SEQUENCE.”
No, seriously, Kurama’s backstory is more badass than most of the villains in Bleach. Kurama. Do you know how sad that is? ’cause that is eight points of sad on the shindo scale. (Note: The shindo scale goes up only to seven.)
Aug 12 2008
It came out a lot better than last time I made something like this, I think because I put in approximately Way More Than I Thought I Needed quantities of miso, garlic, and black pepper. One should not be conservative with these ingredients.
(Measurements are totally approximate. Also, sane people probably do not eat stuff like this when it’s 90 degrees out?)
Continue reading “Stuff-That-Was-On-Sale-Yesterday White Miso Soup”
Aug 11 2008
(The encyclopedia of manga tropes will totally exist someday when I am not lazy.)
This character type appears most often in shounen manga. The Tiny Infuriated Bastion of Heteronormativity is a young boy - markedly childlike in appearance compared to other male cast members - whom the narrative makes a point of proving “more manly” than the male protagonist. When he is stoic he is more stoic, when he is angry his speeches are more impassioned, when he is in love he is more awkward and monosyllabic, and when he loses a fight his urge for vengeance is greater.
He will frequently attempt to prove himself better and more masculine than the main male character, particularly if said character has taken away the attention of an enemy or love interest on whom he was himself fixated. He will often be sensitive about his height, and there may be non-consensual cross-dressing.
Continue reading “Encyclopedia of Manga Tropes: The Tiny Infuriated Bastion of Heteronormativity”
Aug 11 2008
(I’ve gotten past the part where I stopped reading in Shounen Jump now. The phallic stadium is completely new to me!)
“The Ankoku Bujutsukai. The evilest people who run rampant in the dark spheres organize an annual tournament where they bet on teams fighting each other for the occasion.”
“You’re going to become a simple foetus!! And I’ll crush your head!!”
“Now is time to finnish this fight! You’ve made me very angry!!”
“Usually, armor is for the protection of the one wearing it. Mine is a bit different. I wear it in order to control my power. It’s a terrible power that I can’t even control.”
“Aaaaaahhhh!!! What the —- !? The power is acting like acid!!! See — we’re melting!!”
“It looks like a lot of flowers are flying around as if to protect Kurama! But… Karasu doesn’t seem bothered by them at all!!”
(Otherwise-immobilized Kurama attacks opponent with his hair.)
Opponent: What… With his hair!?
Kurama: Sorry. I can also use my hair.
I swear to god, Kurama is the most exploitive shounen-manga bishounen ever. He gestures dramatically with roses, and attacks people with his lovely long hair, and sometimes wears a cheongsam, and (spoilers up to volume 13 under the cut) Continue reading “More brilliant Yu Yu Hakusho dialog”
Aug 10 2008
Brilliant shounen manga scanlation line: “What? He can conduct electricity!?” Most people can conduct electricity. I myself have conducted electricity on at least two memorable occasions.
(Well, you know. More than two if you count the sweater-related kind.)
