In this documentary, Studio Ghibli Producer Toshio Suzuki explained how the Nausicaä manga came to be. Apparently when Suzuki had tried to pitch the concept of Nausicaä to different studios, he was flat out rejected as the producers couldn’t see the point of making a feature film without a manga to support the promotion. Suzuki then decided that if the producers wouldn’t let Miyazaki make the film without a source manga, Miyazaki would have to create that manga. As a result, the Nausicaä manga was published in 1982 and became the most popular feature in Animage one year later. The success of the Nausicaä manga paved the way for the production of the Nausicaä film that so many know and love, and the film was released in 1984. This sequence starts at the 5:50 mark in part 1 of the documentary on YouTube, and is definitely worth checking out in tandem with Jason Thompson’s column on the Nausicaä manga!

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

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?

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

// It took me a while, but I finally finished Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei a few days ago. The art was cool, I enjoyed the satire, etc. but to be honest, getting through the show felt a bit like a chore because there’s always so much going on, so much getting thrown at you. I felt like I should be absorbing a lot more of the show than I did, so I had a bit of the “guilt complex” going on there xD;; Which is kind of funny, since I had switched from the Zetsubou manga to the anime BECAUSE there was also so much going on in the manga. I found myself spending an inordinate amount of time squinting at the sea of ant-sized text on each page that I thought the anime might be slightly easier to take in. And of course, some of the more cultural-specific references don’t always translate over to English quite as well – manga or anime.

But for all my upfront ranting I really did enjoy Zetsubou-Sensei. It was completely random (I’m looking at you, random dude/director?-face that was pasted EVERYWHERE in the show) and extremely clever in concept, satire, and presentation. The stories with each of the students are always a lot of fun, and for some of the complexes I definitely found myself thinking, wow, that commentary was SPOT-ON in pointing out humans’ weird social kinks! And the art is really awesome. I’m glad that I’ve crossed this one off my to-watch list and can now put it on my to-wall list The only thing I regret is not feeling the urge to charge through the series like I did with, say, Gundam SEED.

I’m following one black comedy/social commentary with another social commentary that’s even darker – Welcome to the N.H.K. I’ve started with the manga and I think this is another series where I’d prefer to watch the anime… but for now I’m plowing through the manga, and my first impressions of N.H.K. is that it is completely depressing I’m going to have to add something more lighthearted to my watch/read list… any suggestions?

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.

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

…I AM kidding, for the most part. I just wish they didn’t have to stop tantalizingly before a major plot event. I can totally see the mangaka plotting this out with some evil editors though: “What? You’re going to have a baby in X months? Ok, let’s build up the story as much as you can before you have to leave so the readers will stay tortured and hooked until you come back!”

2. Princess Tutu seriously ROCKS MY SOCKS. The show’s creators are my new heroes – I love how the music and many different fairy tales are woven so cleverly into a lovely new story. All of the characters are awesome. Also, nothing about the plot is cliche – I just finished DVD 4 (of 6) and still have no good guess about how the story will end. I’m constantly on tenterhooks waiting for the next disc to arrive from Netflix. Also, I’ve watched Tutu’s transformation scene repeated 18 times now (once every episode?) but am still loving it every time.

3. RahXephon sucks. Granted I approached this series very lazily and spread out the viewing over a long period of time, but it just never kept me hooked enough to want to marathon it. I basically forced myself to finish watching the series today, and thought the ending was kinda dumb. I appreciated a bit more of the hidden themes and whatnot after googling some reviews (I had picked up this series because it had received so many positive reviews) but I’m not impressed by having to google in order to gain that iota of appreciation. I’m far too lazy of an anime viewer nowadays to really enjoy anything that requires trading a bunch of brain cells for understanding. Also, I think I’m completely over the whole emo boys who are emo for the sake of being emo crap (and to a lesser degree, surreal for the sake of being surreal sequences). I didn’t have much sympathy for Ayato at all. And in case you’re wondering, I really disliked Evangelion – and this is actually the other main reason why I picked up RahXephon, because I thought I might appreciate it more in contrast. As is, I (marginally) hate RahXephon a little less than EVA. I’m really not a mecha hater – I just seem to really dislike seminal mecha series.

…I’m probably extra bitter towards RahXephon because I had finished both of my Princess Tutu Netflix discs and have to wait until Monday to get the next one. As a substitution for Princess Tutu, RahXephon just doesn’t hold a candle

I picked up Kimi ni Todoke after reading Casey’s glowing review of it on Anime News Network. The story immediately sucked me in – the protagonist, Sawako Kuronuma, is a sweet and pure-hearted girl with creepy appearance and ways befitting of evil characters in horror films. As a result, she’s nicknamed “Sadako” after the cursed ghost in the popular Japanese horror film “The Ring” and isolated in school – that is, until she met Shota Kazehaya, an equally sweet but very popular boy from her class. Kazehaya’s interest is immediately piqued by the kindness he sees in Sawako underneath her forbidding appearances, and the story takes off from there. With help from Kazehaya, we follow Sawako’s personal journey as she slowly steps out of her shell, makes friends, and comes to terms with who she wants to become as a person, and what she would need to do to get there.

I love this series because it brought back so many memories of school days past – as such, the story feels very real. I couldn’t help rooting for Sawako as she tried to take on her inner demons and reach out to her classmates. There were many scenes that were rather heartbreaking in how well they showed the cruelty of kids. Even if it’s often unintentional, it still cuts. At the same time, while I was completely taken with Sawako’s internal struggles and growth, I was also absolutely infatuated with the emerging love story. It’s always refreshing to read a shoujo story where the main female character isn’t throwing herself willy-nilly at the main guy. And a lot of the love story circles back to the theme of personal growth – not only for Sawako, but also for Kazehaya as well as he finds himself affected by Sawako’s genuine heart and gestures. And that for me is a sign of a really great love story – showing that it’s not just one character involved that changes, but both characters for the better.

On an interesting side note, I skipped to the Chinese translation after chapter 13 in order to read ahead, and found the story much more compelling in English than in Chinese. It could be that I’m still adjusting to the differences in tone and nuances between the two languages. A part of me also thinks it might be because real-life Kazehayas are much harder to come by in the States than in Asia, where I more or less split my student days – making English-speaking Kazehaya much more appealing.

Regardless of my language preferences, I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading marathoning and will likely be indulging in a lot more of Kimi ni Todoke. Again, if you like shoujo series with a bit of a character twist and a simple yet compelling plot, pick up Kimi ni Todoke – you won’t be disappointed!

P.S. In case you’re curious, the monumental tear-inducing spot for me was chapter 7. If you’ve read it, let me know if you think my tears are justified

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.

So the “Shounen Formula” is what I like to think of as a time-honored golden rule passed down through the generations which dictates how all shounen mangaka shall structure their stories. It goes something like this:

1. Main/General Character(s) Introductions

2. Main Character(s) vs. Enemy Minions/Underlings Fights
(Minor Plot/Scheme Development)

3. Main Character(s) vs. +5 lvls Enemy Minions/Underlings Fights
(Main Character realizes his weaknesses; identifies need for training)

4. Main Character Undertakes Grueling (But Usually Short) Training Session – Power Up!!

5. Main Character(s) vs. +10 lvls Sub-Bosses Fights
(Plot/Scheme Development)

6. Main Character(s) vs. Boss(es) Pre-Fights
(+ Additional/Optional Training Sessions – Power Up!!)

7. Main Character(s) vs. Boss(es) Fights
(Plot/Scheme Development)

8. Main Character(s) vs. Uber-Boss Fights
(Plot Resolved/Uber-Evil Scheme Revealed! Uber-Boss Defeated! Usually!)

9. Insert Happy Ending if series ends here; if not either send Uber-Boss to different dimension to plot out the evil scheme behind the next arc, or bring in new Uber-Boss. Repeat steps 1 – 8 but power up +10 lvls to all characters involved at the start of new arc, with a bit less training involved.

The sequence of the steps may be mixed, but the overall structure usually remains quite identifiable. THIS formulaic set-up is what I really disliked about Bleach, all the long stretches where I went oh, there goes another hollow fight. And there’s another one. And another one. And there’s a shinigami fight. And there’s another one. And another one… The plot development/scheme hints were enough to keep me going through the Soul Society arc, but I found most of the resolutions rather disappointing. Case in point: Byakuya’s back-story or “reason” why he was the Cold Bastard for so long. Apologies to all the fangirls, but it was lamez0rz. And while the back-story behind Rukia’s lack of will to fight was kind of sad, ultimately Kaien Shiba’s character was so underdeveloped that I didn’t feel much more than a vague sorry-ness for all involved.

For all the underdeveloped characters though there are more than enough cool, decently developed characters to keep my interest going. Not that I’ll ever hold Bleach up as a paradigm of fabulous character development, but it’s great to see cool, kick-ass main characters be, well, cool kick-ass characters. Not only are they (usually) pretty or hot to look at; almost everyone gets their share of quirky/personable moments that make them more endearing. Going back to Byakuya’s example – this scene for me majorly made-up for his lamez0rz back-story. And it made me chuckle -

(Courtesy of onemanga.com)

I also really like how, even though there are several huge-breasted female characters involved in quite a few fan service-y scenes, generally said female characters are very likable and/or amazing in their own right – i.e. Orihime Inoue and Yoruichi (although I guess she’s average-sized). I was ambivalent towards Rangiku, but she’s definitely growing on me.

So despite the formulaic set-up, Bleach satisfies my base needs as an anime waller with rocking Tite Kubo character designs and awesome textage. As a manga enthusiast, I’m hooked by all the real honest-to-goodness laugh out loud moments (or at least some chuckle out loud moments) sprinkled liberally throughout that makes Bleach a continually fun read. And nowadays, anything that can bring out a laugh is worth sticking with.

1. Why are all the Soul Society captains like, utterly invincible? Apparently you can blast huge-ass holes in their torsos, rip/cut them up pretty badly and they still won’t die.  Case in point:

(Original image courtesy of onemanga.com)

Seriously… Gah. D: I don’t care if you’re a captain, if you’ve been hit that badly YOU NEED TO DIE. That freaky looking Kenpachi Zaraki is another one who won’t die, despite getting a melodramatic scream from Yachiru after Ichigo kicked his ass. Also, I might’ve ruined this one myself from browsing too many Bleach scans this afternoon, but I guess Aizen is going to come back as some sort of anti-hero behind the conspiracy despite all the suspicious frames involving that foxy looking Gin Ichimaru. DON’T TELL ME IF THIS IS THE CASE because I haven’t gotten there yet and am kinda holding out hope that Aizen’ll be the one captain that can stay properly dead. Even if that hope is pretty weak at this point.

Speaking of captains…

2. Why the heck is Byakuya Kuchiki so popular? I like his character design and he has that awesome “Chire, Senbonzakura” move. Kind of makes me want to watch the Bleach anime to see how it’s animated. But up to this point, he’s a huge bastard. I’m really really hoping he has a kickass backstory because otherwise… to me he’s just going to be the Cold Bastard who for some mysterious reason has amazing chick appeal.

3. Renji Abarai’s zanpakutou looks like a mashup of several Okami gods!

(Original images courtesy of onemanga.com and animeartbooks.tk)

4. Zangetsu looks like Vincent from Cowboy Bebop, with cool shades!

(Original images coutesy of animevisions.net and minitokyo.net)

5. He can be annoyingly strong even for a shounen hero, but given that none of the main characters seem to be able to die in Bleach it’s probably just as well. I <3 Ichigo! /end.

If I were the rain,

Could I connect with someone’s heart,

As the rain could unite

The eternally separated earth and sky?

- Memories in the Rain

(Courtesy of onemanga.com)

(Courtesy of onemanga.com)

Anyways… On the awesome character that is Urahara…

…was anyone else utterly disappointed to discover that his eyeshadow/eyeliner thing wasn’t “real”, and that it was just his hat’s shadow?!?!

(Original image courtesy of onemanga.com)

Instant drop in coolness and respect points from me. Although I still love his character, I loved him MORE when I thought he had some sort of funky Johnny Depp thing going on. Urahara looks awful without his hat anyways so it’s a good thing he will eternally be The Hat Guy. I guess Yūkyūzan Anji from Rurouni Kenshin will just have to continue as the cool eyeshadow/eyeliner guy for me… *sniff*

(Courtesy of http://users.skynet.be/aoshihomepage/)