Manga and Anime Seminar - 2020

For this week, I read a little of Golgo 13,  and all of Cigarette Girl  and Abandon the Old in Tokyo . The gegika we read this week, I feel like, closely resembles more of our modern manga than does earlier works of manga. Not only do the "dramatic pictures" more closely resemble the style of modern manga, but also the way the stories are told. Especially Golgo 13, in my opinion, which continues to be serialized to this day. I thought Abandon the Old in Tokyo and Cigarette Girl  were particularly interesting, because they  both were kind of slice of life, but discussed serious day to day topics. I feel like the characters are also drawn to reflect this--many of them look very similar, and I feel like that reflects the everyday person, that these things could happen to anyone. The stories aren't necessarily concluded by the end, but they are common themes. The titular "Abandon the Old in Tokyo" is especially an interesting one to me, as Asians have to deal wi...

This week, we read Ayako  by Osamu Tezuka. My personal opinion is that I am not a fan of this manga. While the concept of the story is interesting, I think not only the translation is awkward, but also the pacing of the story. Usually what compels me to become invested or feel attached to fiction are the characters, or worldbuilding--which isn't really applicable for Ayako , but none of the characters are very enjoyable for me, except Naoko and Su'e. Even Ayako herself leaves me unsettled and disturbed at the end. Aside from the characters that make me a little more than disgusted by their nature, the story pacing and translation was also jarring to me. I understand trying to interpret a dialect; however, the way the translator did it made it very awkward to read (at least from the version I read online). In addition, the story pacing does not seem to develop "naturally" to me. Like, at the end when Shiro just whips out TNT and blows them all up... What? Where did...

My four panel manga (or 4-koma)!