Dec
31
2007 looked good. :3
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And so I round things up, just like before, about the fun things and the good things that I read and played with in 2007. I managed to read a lot of good new manga and reconnected with the old. :3 I did a couple of recommendations for mangacast already so we’ll just stick to the fun titles that I had fun with this year.
This year was all about Moe for me. Moe and otaku culture got me strong this year so pardon mates if these are fan-frenzied choices. :3 Maybe it’s all that toy collecting. Or maybe I’ve been reading Heisei Democracy and Ace too much. :3
Lucky Star. A story about nothing and everything. This totally got my heart ablaze especially with Konata’s Otakon (Otaku Spirit). The humor is simple although you do need some otaku knowledge to get past Konata’s jokes. I cannot stress enough how much i enjoyed watching this and how this has changed my karaoke habits forever. Must I add that I love it so much I preordered the nendoroid konata? Oh yeah. love.
Darker than Black. Bones struck gold with this one for me. It was a good well paced story with enough action to keep the fanboys going. I personally loved Hei’s team and how they stick together to the end. This really isn’t a Moe selection, but Mao’s got enough Moe for all of us. :3
Moyashimon. Bacterias talking and fermenting. I’ve been hooked on fermented items this year so to see the bacterias behind just makes my heart flutter so. I cannot resist Oryzae and for 3 months, I was wishing I had that talent to see them. But sadly I can’t. But thank god for Moyashimon. :3 Love the manga too. The covers rock.
Kekkaishi. I’ve been loving the manga for some while and now that the anime is out, I’m totally hooked every week. I love the story, the kinship between the brothers and the families that nurture and protect them. The story is well paced and I see that there’s no rush to follow to the manga (Oh yeah! No filler arcs… yet.) And if you played the DS game, oh darn it’s wicked!!
Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei. I actually started following Shonen magazine because of this. But yeah, a manic-depressive suicidal teacher and a plethora of lovely students to his call and beckon is worth getting desperate over. I enjoy this series in the sick and twisted humor way.
Lovely Complex. Ah~ High School Manzai Love. <3 <3 Seto no Hanayome. Yakuza mermaids. What more can I ask for? :3
Nodame Cantabile. Because I’m a fangirl.
Gintama. Oi. This came out last year, so why am I pimping it? Because it deserves pimping. yo. And I’m using that as a lame excuse to place this image in my website.
All in all. It was a great year. :3 A very fun year, I might add. :3 There wasn’t enough drama but there was lots of comedies this year. Or maybe I was really just choosing the comedies. :3 I hope next year would be just as fun! I look forward to next year! :3
Dec
31
Welcome to N.H.K (NHKにようこそ)
Published by Kadokawa Shoten
Serialized in Shounen Ace
Translated by Tokyopop
A new year’s about to start so let’s talk about a manga about starting things anew. This is a story about changes. A rude banter from a classmate has turned a man into an anti-social NEET. A girl who has not coped with change convinces herself she can change another. Contrary to popular belief, Welcome to N.H.K is not a story about otakus and the otaku experience. It is a look into the darker side of our humanity, a depressing loneliness only brought about by a conspiracy that doesn’t bring to people together but tears them apart. A painful yet beautiful romantic tale about two people who are trying their best to defeat this great conspiracy. Welcome to NHK.
Dec
18
Pluto feature film?
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*fangirls* Okay. I have to breathe here for a second. In between waiting for Gundam 00 fansites to load, I was reading Frederick Schodt’s interview in Newsarama. There is this line in this interview that just totally blew me away (among others Tezuka related).
I think it is one of the best manga of recent years, and I can’t wait to see it made into a feature film.
O_O Did I read that right? Did Schodt say he’s looking forward to see it made into a feature film? Uhmm… does this mean a feature film for Pluto is in the works? *w* I maybe reading into it much, but knowing the realism of the story, the depth of the drama, the popularity of the manga, and Schodt’s insider knowledge with regards to anything Tezuka… THIS COULD BE POSSIBLE!! *_* Just imagine how visually stunning and gripping this movie would be!!
I really think I may be speculating much but I think he wouldn’t mention it if the idea has not been proposed, right? I mean… I wouldn’t talk about Otaku Champloo being published into a book if I knew that it was close to impossible from happening. But if I knew it was possible and is closer to being real… then I could slip up and say off the hat “I’m looking forward to seeing my book on the shelves soon” As if that could actually happen, but a Pluto movie could just be ‘possible’!
Gah! My fangirling Urasawa and Tezuka heart has just passed panic mode. I mean, if this ’slip-up’ it’s true, then the next few years of Anime would be very interesting indeed. :3 Don’t you think?
Dec
14
Yesterday I was at home doing some chores and I’m totally surprised because my holiday stash of manga arrived from Japan (via IloIlo)! YAY!! I got some great mangas AND… JUMP SQUARE’S MAIDEN ISSUE! Wai! I’m excited to read it but Moyashimon got me first. THANKS MUCH KARL AND TIN FOR THE STASH! LUFFS YOU!! <3 <3
Dec
10
Today I checked out the Pasko ng Komiks Komiksibit in U.P. which is part of an event co-organized by our group. Along with prints of artwork by icons of Filipino comic art like Nestor Redondo, the exhibit also features a lot of great talent from up and coming local artists.
However I did notice several pieces which particularly struck me because they were so different from everything else in the exhibit, whether classic or contemporary. These pieces were a set of photographs, which, taken together, looked closer to a fashion spread than a comic. I was wondering if it was a CLAMP homage of sorts. It turned out to be something else altogether–images from the gallery of a virtual band named Mistula. The images were very pretty, make no mistake about it. However, I can’t help but think about the photographs’ collective significance as a comic. That is: Is it really a comic or a photo story? In an effort to understand, I checked their website and found more photo stories rather than what I would consider to be traditional comics.
This essay does not dismiss the exhibit of Mistula on Pasko ng Komiks. Professor Vim Nadera has his reasons why these images were placed there. What I want to focus on is an exploration of the possibilities of comics, the boundaries that many follow and the creative freedom that people may sometimes abuse. On one hand, we have comics such as Gerry Alanguilan’s Elmer. On the other end, you have photographs that come with what might be considered dialog, and, for lack of examples, we have this from Mistula.
It is interesting how digital media has transformed the comic art form in different ways. In fact I do find this process interesting, using different media to make an unconventional comic.
Maybe this shot by Mistula would definitely qualify as a comic spread as defined by more traditionalist perspectives. Digitally drawn and colored illustrations have become ubiquitous in the field of graphic arts and design. Comics is in the process of evolution, both as an art and a literary form. I am not quite sure if the combination of graphic design, composition, digital photography, and mascots would constitute a comic, however, or that people who practice this sort of art–and I do believe it is art–would qualify as comic artists, at least not in the way that I think Carlo Vergara and Andrew Drilon are comic artists.
Maybe it’s because I’m a purist. Maybe it’s because having read and listened to many sob stories of my favorite mangaka and artist friends, I always felt that a comic will always be governed by a cohesive and solid narrative, bound by the geography of panels, colors, ink, illustration, and the corresponding limits the confluence of these elements necessarily impose. Tezuka could have just photographed a boy wearing a cone on his head and placed a caption in his photo saying “Hi! I’m Atom”. But Tezuka did it differently. He drew his story of a robot boy with human feelings within the universe of a storyboard.
I think I may be placing undue importance on the intersection between story and illustration and how they fit together in a panel. Without a story, without something resembling an illustration, a comic is not a comic but simply a photo story, or what in Japan would be considered as a light novel. I mean, there must be a valid reason why a light novel in Japan would never receive a Tezuka award despite being gorgeously illustrated. Light novels also contain images that support the narrative, right? What makes the likes of Griffin and Sabine not a comic but an art book? So here’s me trying to understand — what makes Mistula’s work a comic when it’s closer to a photo story? Are graphic design and fashion photography now to be considered as valid forms of comic art? Would you consider a family album that contains artistically executed shots taken in sequence and then placed with captions in flickr as a valid comic?
Scott McCloud defined comic as a “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.1 “. With the wealth of sequential images online that produces responses from viewers (just check flickr!), anything could already be the comic that McCloud has defined. I mean, if Mistula did it, why shouldn’t other art forms based on similar premises be considered as comics?
I have a feeling that Pasko ng Komiks and our exhibit have inadvertently run headlong into an old debate regarding the definition of comics. These are my two cents about it, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on what you think. Do you think storybooks or photo stories should be part of a general definition of comics?
This post was done for the regular Comics/Graphic Novel feature of Read or Die. You can also check out that page for some of my blogs for them. This entry presents only my opinion not of the group.
- Understanding Comics. New York: Kitchen Sink Press. 1993. Page 9. [↩]
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Otaku Champloo is...
a small serving of bittersweet manga bits by a manga addict named Khursten.
She currently digs mangas about boys who live to be men. -
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