Archives for category: Manga
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Nodame Cantabile: Finale

July 8, 2010 //
1

I marathoned through the whole of Nodame Cantabile: Finale yesterday, and now there is a dark gaping void in my life which used to be filled with Nodame goodness. I almost blew the internet cap in the viewing process, but gosh it was worth it. I had delayed starting Finale because I thought this would happen, given how much I love the series. Despite the fact that I was utterly traumatized by the abrupt manga ending, seeing it again in anime form the second time wasn’t quite as bad. In fact, the anime actually helped me come to terms a bit more with the manga ending.

I think Nodame Cantabile is the ONLY series where I’ve read the entire manga, watched all three anime seasons, and the live action series (to the Europe special). I may have to track down the two live action movies soon. I also started a Nodame WIP to attempt to fill the abyss in my soul… it’s sort of helping :D

Nodame WIP

Seeing this image in the ED sequence always tore at my heartstrings, so… love to Nodame and Chiaki, and why, WHY did such an awesome series have to end? Whyyy?

NEET | Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei

March 17, 2010 //
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I recently learned that NEET stands for “Not in Employment, Education or Training.” I looked it up because it was referenced in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei episode 9, and I had no idea what it meant.

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - NEET

Is that sad? It’s a little sad, isn’t it? :?

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“On Translation” by Matt Thorn

March 16, 2010 //
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Was doing my usual browsing of the internets when I came across this excellent, thought-provoking article: “On Translation” by Matt Thorn.

Manga translation further requires an ear for voice.

In any decent manga, each character has a distinctive style of speech. In some cases it is more subtle than in others. It seems that most manga translators today (Have any of them lived more than a year in Japan?) have their noses buried in their dictionaries, translating word by word, rather than looking at the speech as a whole, and considering the personality, background, and mindset of the speaker.

They cannot see the forest for the trees.

Anime/Manga Rant of the Month

August 30, 2009 //
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Don’t have enough ideas (A.K.A. am too lazy) to write full blog posts on some of my anime/manga viewings in the past month, so I thought I’d just consolidate some of my main thoughts into one big post below:

1. Why why why do all of my favorite shoujo mangaka have to stop at cliffhanger developments in their series and go on maternity leave?? Cases in point – Tomoko Ninomiya (Nodame Cantabile) stopping right before Nodame’s big debut, or Karuho Shiina (Kimi ni Todoke) leaving right before a pretty big misunderstanding between Sawako and Kazehaya can resolve itself. (Not going to ruin Kimi ni Todoke for those of you who haven’t caught up to the hiatus point, but this crisis is HUGE. Probably not too hard to guess what happened and the amount of agony such an event would cause the reader.) I know Tomoko Ninomiya has since returned from her break, but still. Babies suck :x

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Kimi ni Todoke Review

July 19, 2009 //
3

Over my years of anime-viewing and manga-reading I’m sure that I have at some point come across series that made me rather teary-eyed. However, I can’t really remember any that managed to make me drop honest-to-goodness tears. I’m happy to say that I’ve finally met my match in a terrific manga series called Kimi ni Todoke. Granted I could blame some of those tears on raging hormones and a bit of general emo-ness at the time… I definitely don’t think this would be a tear-jerking series for the average reader. Tears aside, Kimi ni Todoke is really a wonderful read. If you enjoy reading bittersweet schoolyard/first love shoujo manga, you definitely have to check out Kimi ni Todoke!

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The Shounen Formula

March 23, 2009 //
4

It’s been a while since I’ve settled down with a nice long shounen manga series. Not to say I’m a shounen n00bie – I followed most of the ongoing series featured in the Taiwanese equivalent of Shounen Jump back in middle/high. So I’ve had my dosages of Rurouni Kenshin (adored), Hunter x Hunter (ok until it turned really weird), Shaman King (ok until it turned utterly convoluted/uninteresting), etc. And then more recently D.Gray-man (dropped but will hopefully pick up again someday?)… I think it’s fair to say lately I only pick up shounen if I like the character design, or have seen many pretty scans floating around and really want to wall said scans. AKA I usually read shounen to satisfy my silly “no-walling-unless-read-or-watched” rule, less so because I’m dying of curiosity about the plot.

But then there was Bleach – undoubtedly the longest shounen series I’ve managed to stick out recently (I’m up to chapter 201 now! xD). While marathoning/slugging through the story I find myself constantly being reminded of all the things I both love and hate about shounen manga.

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Random Bleach Thoughts [Spoilers Unless You've Read Past Volume 15 / Chapter 129]

February 28, 2009 //
2

I’m definitely really getting into Bleach as the plot thickens and hints of conspiracy abound. Reading Bleach is great for random associations and (minor as of now) complaints in a similar vein as my Urahara rant :P I get the feeling I’ll have more Bleach ramblings as I blitz on, but anyways…

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Bleach Splash Pages

February 9, 2009 //
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Here are two Bleach pages that I especially liked the text of, so popping them up here for safekeeping :)

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Urahara’s Eyeshadow/Eyeliner?!! [Possible Spoiler... Not.]

February 6, 2009 //
4

I’ve been gunning through Bleach the manga. I can kind of see how this one might be  more enjoyable as anime instead of manga, but my mom’s come to stay with me for a couple of months and it’s kind of weird to be like “Mom, please leave me alone. I need to watch some anime now.” Maybe it shouldn’t be weird but I don’t have that level of otaku-comfort around my parents yet.  They know I’m a raging manga fan though, after finally discovering the entirety of my rather substantial manga collection for which I pinched away years of middle/high-school lunch money. This happened a couple years ago, so they’ve more or less given up nagging me about reading manga.

Anyways… On the awesome character that is Urahara… (more…)

Nodame Cantabile Lesson 124 [Spoilers]

November 14, 2008 //
2

I decided to catch up with Nodame Cantabile again, probably because I was watching (and weeping over) Immortal Beloved yesterday. Beethoven is without a doubt one of my favorite composers ever. Despite being extremely incompetent at the actual delivery of a lot of these pieces, playing through the passion and the feeling in many of his sonatas when I was in middle/high really turned music into a big part of my life; something I came to depend on and cling to.

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