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Waaaaaiiii!! Yesterday was the happiest ever because my friend and I managed to go to this new and probably the ONLY manga kissaten (cafe) in Manila! (?????????????????) Yesterday, a manga cafe just opened in Makati. The place is owned by a Japanese and it caters to the Japanese salaryman who’s comissioned to stay here in Manila (along with other Japanese nationals who reside in Manila). Hence, most mangas are either seinen or shounen in nature. More than that, all of them are in Japanese. ^^v. The place is located near Makati Square. From Waltermart, you can see MANGA KISSA 10! lol. I swear, it’s old man’s humor but I thought it was funny to name the manga cafe like that. lol. The owner is very nice and they even have maids!! it’s like a maid cafe and a manga kissa all in one! I felt quite pampered yesterday. :3 ??????????????????????
What I found strange was that everyone was talking to me in Japanese. That might sound strange but I do look like Filipino and I am living Manila, and yet here were the nice maids asking me if I want another cup of coffee in really polite Japanese. The manager would also remind me from time to time to check on what I want and stuff. And even if I looked Filipino, they would talk to me in Japanese. ^^;; Yesterday, I came in with my Japanese friend, Yue-tan. And we were browsing through the shelves and I was just happy to see the entire set of Captain Tsubasa. The manager came to me and asked what mangas do I like. Yue-tan then tells tenchou that I can understand Japanese and I’m like “OH DEAR! I HAVE TO TALK IN JAPANESE! DAI-PINCH!” ^^;; I’m so used to reading it, but I’m not entirely used to speaking. Nonetheless, tenchou asked me the same question in Japanese and I go… “Spo-tsu manga ga suki. Seinen manga mo suki… (I like sports manga. I also like Adult manga)” in a very nervous and weird sort of way. Iyaaa hazukashii na. But tenchou was nice to talk to me in Japanese the whole time and thank god I didn’t painfully misreplied or anything. I think. ^^v
There are a lot of good titles, and I can’t even know where to start. What I love is it has a mix of old and new along with new manga zasshis!! <3 Particularly Shounen Jump and Shounen Sunday. As for the mangas they have complete sets or at least until the latest of: Golgo 13, KochiKame, School of Water Business, Captain Tsubasa, Kisaragi, and a whole blockade of Naoki Urasawa mangas. Did I say a whole blockade of Naoki Urasawa!? Yeah I did. <3 <3 They have Pineapple Army, Master Keaton, Yawara, and Happy! And they’re complete! WAIIII!!! So yesterday, I took a shot at reading Urasawa-sensei’s mangas… and naturally, here’s what I think…
Popularity: 2% [?]
This was a paper I submitted for my Japanese Literature class. I thought of sharing to people what I have learned about 20th Century boys using the fantastic theory in Japanese Literature.
It was at the summer of 1969 that Kenji, Yoshitsune, Maruo, Otcho, Keroyon, and Donkey made a pact of true friendship. In an open grassy field, the boys built their secret base. They tied leaves together and set traps along the way. In it, they shared mangas, music, jokes, and dreams. In crumpled papers, they drew fantasies of saving the world from a giant robot as well as saving the world from a deadly virus. They were nothing but children’s dreams, foolish childish dreams. In that base, they explored a world outside their limited reality. They had their own world inside that fortress. Anything of their world remained in that fortress and that very base protected the boy’s dreams of the future. At their hideout, they held a sign which became a symbol of their true friendship. Anyone who knew that sign was a true friend. Little do the boys know that 30 years after, the sign would haunt them again. A ‘true friend’ appears and asks the boys to play a little game — a game that would bring their dreams into reality.
In his 10th work, Naoki Urasawa explores the relationship of 7 boys and how their dreams and their realities all intertwine to create a new world, to the benefit of one, and to the horror of the six. 20th Century Boys (二十世紀少年, Nijuu Seiki Shounen) is a brilliant tale of how our actions in the past can completely change the future. Change is even an understatement. Change in 20th Century Boys brought about a complex revelation of how a forgotten face makes himself present by creating into reality the utopia that a band of boys created. It is this alienation and utopia that we will explore in this paper. Through the eyes of 20th Century Boys, we hope to see how modern writers today envision their utopian future. Could there be really a utopia? Or is one’s utopia another’s nightmare?
Popularity: 12% [?]
Happy by Naoki Urasawa
Published by: Shougakukan
Serialized in: Big Comic Spirits
If there's something happy about Happy, it's the fact that it's not quite the happy tale that you expected. Miyuki Umino may look happy in this cover, however, the unfortunate turn of events in her life isn't really something to rejoice about. You've got an idiot brother who owes 250 million yen to some yakuza loan sharks. You've got 2 brothers and a younger sister to feed. You barely have enough cash for a lavish meal hence you've got curry for three days again. Might I add that the loan sharks want to pimp you in some bath parlor? Swamped with bad luck, Miyuki tries to make ends meet by trying her chance with her dream, becoming a professional tennis player.
Still fresh from his Yawara escapade, Naoki Urasawa gives us a refreshing, slightly tragic, nonethless perservering heroine under Miyuki. He may have given up Judo, but on this end, it's all about who becomes the princess of tennis! That may sound cheesy, but it really is the tale of two women who have different paths to victory. As Urasawa exposes these two women, he asks us, which one of them will be truly happy?
Gan on 
Goran Markovic on 