Manga and Anime Seminar - 2020

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read? It made me very sad, honestly. Emotionally, it was very compelling, but the ending was so bittersweet it left me with a a very sad impression. I'm glad that Yun Ai and Indeling are together, as I did feel like despite Indeling's weird face at the beginning, he was always a good guy. Maybe one day L will come back. 2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect? I really felt badly for Yun Ai and her struggles. Her dad running away, her poverty, her classmates picking on her. While I personally haven't experienced issues this severe, I also was severely depressed at points in my life due to my ongoing depression (I am medicated, don't worry!) and I can understand how she felt. The feeling of losing hope, of giving up on your dream, that is something I've once felt before. But the journey of regaining hope is also one I've gone thro...

I read some of Oishinbo and I wanted to discuss one of the chapters I found interesting this week, which was the chapter on tea. I didn't find it interesting because of the tea, in fact tea wasn't talked about that much. Rather, I found the concept behind the chapter more interesting. It was the reflection of a Japanese-American senator who came back to Japan to find that all his old friends became wealthy, and seemingly lost their "spirit". I find it ironic, because the mangaka puts America in a good light in the senator reminding both the viewer and the characters of the manga to not consume too much and not to lose their Japanese spirit and heritage, yet America is one of the biggest countries that pushes capitalism and consumerism. So, to me, it's ironic that the Japanese-American senator is sick of the wealthy lavish displays of food from his old Japanese friends. Though, it makes sense given his background that maybe he's also tired of American displa...

Contemporary manga! I've already read A Silent Voice --both the original one shot and the entire manga! It's one of my favorites for how uniquely it makes you look at the troubles a deaf person faces, as well as the change of someone who used to be a bully. But enough about that, because it'd just be me reiterating something I've already read. This week I read a bit of Silver Spoon ! I am a huge fan of Full Metal Alchemist , but never had read her newer, latest manga. I always think it's interesting how mangaka can make you feel passionate towards something you'd never really been interested in before. Arakawa is writing about something she herself knows, since she was raised on a farm. I feel like Silver Spoon is slightly alike another manga I've read before, Shokugeki no Soma . Except, while Shokugeki no Soma is mostly written for fanservice and shonen stereotypes, Silver Spoon takes itself a little more seriously due to different authors. We're a...

Junji Ito is one of my all time favorite mangaka! I've read all of his works that have been translated/scanlated into English. My favorite of his works is actually the short story manga, Glyceride . I think this short story sums up why Junji Ito is a master of horror manga. He is able to capture this unnerving and sometimes gross atmosphere with his stories and his art. Glyceride  is absolutely disgusting in it's content, and it makes me slightly nauseous when I'm reading it. However, I think that's the genius of the work. The fact that it's able to compel such a reaction in me is exactly what makes it good. Junji Ito is also funny to me, because a lot of the inspiration behind his work isn't very deep. For example, he's stated before for Gyo  that his inspiration was basically "if sharks could be on land that'd be terrifying." And a lot of other of his works also just derive from him thinking about "if this happened, wouldn't that b...

Isekai! I'm actually very familiar with isekai, since it's the hot manga craze right now. I read quite a handful of them and The Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime  is one of my favorites. I think it's because it handles the reincarnation much less like a "self-insert" of the author's self, and it's more about this man turned slime and how he's starting to govern a whole country on his own. Another favorite of mine is So I'm a Spider, So What?  It's about a girl who was killed in her class, but is reincarnated as a spider. These two are my favorites of the isekai genre so far not only because the web novels started early on in the isekai boom so they're less like the "mainstream" isekai now, and they're quite unique. The spider isekai focuses a lot on our MC's struggles being a weak spider, and fighting and growing into a stronger spider. It deals a lot with healing, getting damaged, and being a (giant) spider scaring ...

This week was about Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and various others like Neon Genesis Evangelion . I had already watched Akira  and I think animation wise and setting wise, it is a great work of art. However, I believe that the story itself from the film does not make much sense. Akira  was adapted from a much longer manga, and thus had to be condensed for the film, which explains a bit of its problems. Despite this, I still think that it is an outstanding and lasting work of art, just because of the animation and themes. I didn't read too deep into Akira  upon my watchings of it, because it is rather fast paced and disjointed. You're not able to grasp everything like in the manga, because it doesn't cover all of it. The manga has much more detail and subtly, which I tend to find as a problem with many of these long manga to anime adaptations. Akira lead to the growth of anime's popularity internationally so I think it deserves to have a place in history for its influen...

This week I read My Brother's Husband  and rehashed My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness . Originally, when I read it, I related heavily to the MC in My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness . I also experienced times of heavy depression throughout my life. I loved the art style of it, as well as the straight forward storytelling. At some points, though, I didn't quite "understand" what the author was talking about. I think because she was just expressing her train of thought, it sometimes got jumbled up. Or perhaps it was done on purpose because depression and loneliness sometimes don't make sense at all. Addendum: It was also a bit hard for me to read because as I mentioned in class that I come from a somewhat emotionally reserved family (asian stereotype I know but it holds for me), and it's hard to be so outright and forth coming like Nagata Kabi was. It was also relatable to a sense that I didn't like reading it, because what if this will be me in 3...

Today was seinen and shounen day! I presented on 20th Century Boys  by Naoki Urasawa, as was familiar with Full Metal Alchemist  and read some of Oyasumi Punpun. I was inspired by Macy's presentation on FMA to discuss the female characters in 20th Century Boys.  I think the girls in FMA are spectacularly fleshed out and presented, especially for how many there are. In 20th Century Boys, there aren't nearly as many important women compared to the men; however, I think they are all well developed and important. They aren't stereotypes of women. Our first woman, Yukiji, is a very strong female. Both literally physically strong and mentally. She is still feminine, however. She prefers to wear feminine clothes, typically attractive clothing. She complains about her love life, and she has an obvious crush on Kenji. She's both a tomboyish but also feminine character. She has her own personality and concerns beyond relying on the other characters. She's concerned for ...

This week I read Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun.  I chose to read this because my friends are fans of it. This manga is definitely targeted towards girls. The set up is that the main character, a girl named Chiyo, wants to confess her love to Nozaki, a rather oblivious and dense boy who is also a mangaka of a somewhat popular shoujo manga as well. The manga is rather hilarious in that Nozaki just does not understand Chiyo's feelings, but Chiyo doesn't give up. Along the way, we meet other characters who also have their own romantic problems. It's meant to be a comedic, 4koma-esque manga. A lot of the ideals are subtle, but still there. Much of it is not giving up, not misunderstanding or having clear communication. Take life by the handles! Another manga I want to mention that is both shoujo and romance is O Maidens in Your Savage Season. I've actually been reading this for a while, slowly, although new scanlations just got released (yesterday at the time of this postin...

Romance manga is something I'm very familiar with, so for this week I reread and rehashed myself with Princess Jellyfish, Ouran High School Host Club, and Fruits Basket. To start off, Kuragehime's mangaka, Akiko Higashimura, is one of my favorite. Not because of Kuragehime, actually, but because of one of her later works--Tokyo Tarareba Girls. I think Princess Jellyfish stands out because it is such an unusual romance. TTG is also unusual, with a slightly older cast. I think both are phenomenal because it shows different sides of love, unlike usual shoujo romance manga. Love isn't this one way street where you meet some person in high school and suddenly you're together forever, it hardly happens that way. On the other hand, Fruits Basket and OHSHC both revolve around the high school romance. Both were actually two of my first series getting into animanga. Personally, I don't think they're actually that stand out aside from OHSHC's humor now that I'm...

Sorry for my absence this week, I was really not feeling well that day (or week to be honest). I'm actually disappointed since I missed Miyazaki week and I love Miyazaki. For this week, we read Nausicaa. This being Miyazaki's only manga, I was amazed to see how similar it was to his films. Then again, coming from previously being in Animation, I understand why it's so similar. It's basically like storyboarding and anime, but with less frames. Another thing that intrigued me is the fact that the plot was simplified upon converting into a film. The plot for the manga was very fleshed out and complex, but obviously a film cannot fit all that nuance so it must be simplified and condensed. This actually makes me want to see what the original plot to all of Miyazaki's films are, and if they are originally more complex and simplified down to fit a feature film length.

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)!