Where is the Shoujo community?

Nanahoshi Kiyoharu from
True Love, Sweet Lies.
What's this got to do with the post?
Nothing, just stare at the bishie,
It will cheer you up.

Shall get to a review soon since I recently finished reading a few mangas like Ueda Rinko's Tsuki no Shippo and Toma Rei's Reimei no Arcana. It's been a long time coming but I was more or less hesitant to pick up something that reminded me of Fushugi Yugi (which I shat on in another post eons ago).

Anyways, one of the things that I've come to consciously realise today is that the shoujo and josei demographic don't have much of a community. I mean sure there are forums but nothing mainstream enough unless it's a specific series. With the market being dominated by predominately shounen and seinen titles and anime following suite, it's no wonder such a niche genre is often overlooked in mainstream discussion.

How to buy online smut manga

As someone who uses Renta as a means to legally obtain manga, having your money slowly deplete as you binge read everything has become a problem. More or less, especially with smut, you have to break the age old saying "don't judge a book by it's cover" and actually start doing it. I have made the mistake of impulse buying and as a poor, jobless, university student, savings are everything. So by making plently of mistakes, I've come up with some rules I follow to ensure I don't buy shitty smut manga.

Ao Haru Ride getting a Japanese film adaptation

Kou looks pretty hot, I'll know
I'll need a bucket to catch my drool

As all of you may know, Ao Haru Ride has already got an anime (withholding comments until at least the 5th episode) and now it's getting a live action adaptation to go with it.

I hope people understand that what makes a good adaptation of any manga into a live action film or drama is that they consider their purpose of the film and try and re-image it to a more realistic interpretation. Copying the manga exactly and turning it into a movie makes it dull. If I want something exactly the same, I can just go read the manga or watch the anime.

Reading list for June/July

Sorry for lack of activity in the review department and otome gaming but I've mainly been busy and burnt out from life in general.
Anyway since I'm not sure what to review at the moment, I'll give a short list of relevant series that I've finished reading this past month along with a summary.

I'm excluding oneshots and other odd series because they're too boring to be mentioned or ongoing series that haven't really picked up yet. So in chronological order we have:

80s and 90s

Shiroi Mado no Mukougawa by HIKAWA Kyouko (1980)
Your typical childhood friends school life story that builds up to the confession scene and ends. It's quite charming though and has a bit of the late 70s manga art in terms of style without the galaxy eyes. Being a fan of Hikawa's works, it's nice to see her art evolving compared to Kanata Kara which is one of my favs.

Tokyo no Casanova by KURAMOCHI Fusako (1983)
It's a story of false incest where the main gal finds out her bro ain't her bro and she starts having feels for him basically. It's quite dated with hair styles and clothing but I like it for that. It has some idol/actor industry themes to it to if you like that kind of stuff.

"Shoujo Sucks"

Kako from Mishounen Produce
understands my feels.

Here we go, the common thing you hear from people who don't like shoujo, it's because it "sucks". I have to admit there are a lot of bad shoujo mangas but the same thing could be said about shounen, yaoi or anime in all honesty. I know I love to bag shoujo a whole lot but it's more or less a love-hate relationship.

When I see people say the whole genre sucks, it's usually for the following reasons:

• Art sucks/ eyes are way too big
  I get if art sucks if things aren't too in proportion or positioning of their features are weird. Though it's quite a contradiction to say their "eyes are too big" as anime and manga eyes are considered big to outsiders. Art is subjective and just because you've seen a few eighties-esque eyes doesn't mean all shoujo mangakas draw saucer plate eyes. If you judge a manga/anime based whether it's a 10 or not, you're are missing out. Though I do have my favourite mangakas in terms of art so check out that post.

• Bishies, men don't act like this in real life
  I think I can write a whole individual post on bishounens alone and in fact, I'll make it a future post. Bishies represent a teen's ideals in the most hyperbolic way in much the same way as moe girls in shounen or even some men's ideals on bust size in H mangas/anime. We don't expect men or teenage boys to act like this, look like this or be like this in real life. They don't have to be the definition of perfection but can you let a girl fantasize?

• Romance/Characters/Storyline is dumb and unrealistic
  I've said this before and I'll say it again, when your manga is being post in something like LaLa magazine, do you really think there is going to be anything too deep and meaningful? The demographic  puts many potential story ideas out the window (you got editors) and shoujo is such a niche market already.
  
  If you're reading a psychological manga you take the story quite seriously, that's a given. So if the story doesn't live up to you expectations, like having a ridiculous story line then that's a valid complaint.
  If you read a horror, fantasy or even a comedic manga the author expects you to "suspend disbelief" and go along with the premise instead of proclaiming their work to be an unrealistic portrayal of romance/people. It's not meant to be taken that seriously.
  
  The same principles apply to shoujo. If you come in with the expectation for it to be a masterpiece you will be disappointed. Realise the intention and target audience and appreciate it for what it is. You're allowed to hate some manga series but don't let it stop you from enjoying some silly titles every now and then.

All in all, shoujo is a pretty ridiculous genre full of exaggerated caricatures and ideals, not meant to be taken seriously but for fun. Not to say that there aren't some amazing titles out there. My top 5 list has some of my favs plus I will be posting another Top list of some mangas for non-shoujo lovers to try out so stay tuned.

So do you like a lover, hater, neutral to shoujo? Or are you just like me, it's a love-hate thing.

Weeaboos and Hanyu Yuzuru

On tumblr for the past few days, there has been an increasing obsession with Olympic figure skater, HANYU Yuzuru. Hanyu, a 19 talented year old athlete, was being compared to the likes to k-pop artists and anime characters.

Let that sink in for a bit.
A young athlete that qualified for the Olympics, a world class sportsman, is being compared to a couple 2d characters and some Korean idol singers. The only thing he has in common with any of them is that they are Asian pop culture icons.

Many dismiss his immense talent at entering the Olympics, winning the short figure skating event for his overwhelmingly "kawaii-ness". The fact that these girls are likening him to things that have little relation to him proves how Asians in popular culture are a fetish and how Asians are caricatures rather than individuals.

I enjoy watching figure skating since Kim Yuna became popular. I'm not particularly interested in the technicalities of ice-skating but I appreciate the work, the talent and the overall performance given by these professional athletes.

And that is where we discuss weeabos (or Koreaboos). Weeabos do know the Japanese culture and show an invested interest through manga, music and dramas. Though they see Japan through a limited, skewered scope which means they lack true understanding. Instead they throw around words like "Kawaii" in mid sentence (while speaking English), add honorifics like "-chan" or "-kun" or freak out when they meet a Japanese person while proceeding to ask if they've watched the latest Anime purely on the basis of being Japanese rather than knowing whether they share that common interest. It's the same as someone approaching an American and assuming they are sexually promiscuous and fetish-izing them for the fictional behavior they see on tv.

Many weeabos may even claim they're part Japanese and have fetishes for anyone who happens to be Japanese without looking at them as normal individuals. Not every Japanese guy is a bishounen and not every Japanese girl is a submissive, chipmunk sounding Anime girl.

 I guess I'd hate to say this but a delusional love/fetish for Asian cultures really puts you at the spectrum of, well... being racist. You see you have two extremes of being a racist, number 1 is absolute disdain for another culture while putting your own up on a pedestal and the other is an obsessive adoration which leads to you putting the another culture on a pedestal while believing others are less superior.
Let free dictionary explain it:

rac·ism  (rā′sĭz′əm)

n.

1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.

2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

-freedictionary.com

So there you have it, my take and opinion weeabos. What's your opinion of weeabos? Are you sometimes guilty of these behaviour? And hey, if you know a weeabo, give them a hint and send them this post ;)
All comments are greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer: This is my perspective of people fetish-izing Asian culture. Though I am not Japanese, being Asian, I've had similar experiences and share my personal view on things. Though it's just an opinion, I fully acknowledge I'm responsible everything I say and an opinion is not an excuse. Instead let's have an intelligent discussion for a better understanding of things :)

Cheese in the Trap is getting a k-drama? + Official English Translations

On random note, CITT has finally got official English translations though they are still only up to chapter 5 right now. Now on to the big news. According to the webtoon live, it seems that CITT is getting picked up to be a Korean drama.

Before I make a really judgmental, biased opinion on this I have to say that I personally found Boys Over Flowers, the Korean adaptation of Hana Yori Dango, to be atrocious and over the top. Hana Yori Dango was definitely no master piece but I felt like they really butchered the premise. I have the same sentiment with To The Beautiful You (Hana Kimi) but on a lesser degree.

The great points about this webcomic was that it wasn't molded or sculpted by the hands of an editor of a magazine who perpetually force feeds the mass audience with cliches and stereotypes. It was written by an artist by the pen name, Soonkki, who had her own ideas of what a story should be and isn't over ridden with puppy love of melodrama.  This is something I touched on in an earlier post before.

 It's set in college instead of high school, it deals with money/family problems and touches more on the psychological pressures, love, friendship and confronting your demons.
If it was in a magazine, it'd be set in a high school and the focus would be on romance.

Manga through the eras + Sorry I've been MIA

Hello readers, I haven't been posting since I've been on two 1 week long trips (sorry I didn't cue anything) and I've been playing otome games like a mofo.
I also fell into a personal slump so I didn't want to force out crappy posts for no good reason. This blog is more of a hobby than anything.

I still have been reading manga so I'll short list some of the new manga series I've picked up below.

1. 1985 - Cipher by NARITA Minako
2. 1987 - Boku no Chikyuu o Mamotte (Please Save My Earth) by HIWATARI Saki
3. 1990 - Viehmannin wa Utau by YAMAGUCHI Miyuki
4. Hadashi no Aitsuby TAKADA Rie
5. 1999 - My Sweet Dragon by SAKAKI Yuuka
6. 2005 - Tenkuu Seiryuu by YAMAGUCHI Miyuki
7. 2007 - Ten no Ryuu Chi no Sakura by SUMOMO MOMO
8. 2010 - Scarlet Palace by YI Huan
9. 2010 - Mairunovich by SATO Zakuri

I felt like it was appropriate to put them in chronological order since the 80s manga were definitely interesting but really draggy at times though after reading a review of Cipher, it all made sense. It was written for 80s teens (and Japanese teens at that) where time traveled slower and people actually went outside to have fun. I really enjoyed 80s manga like Miriam (1983) by Hikawa Kyoko if you're into investigative cowboy adventures.

Manhwas vs. Webtoons

There's this common misconception that Manhwas and Webtoons are the same since they are both Korean Language comics. Let me rebut this and say this is not completely right in my opinion. Many people use Manhwas interchangeably with webtoons and although it's not technically wrong it bothers me how they are classed as the same thing.

I feel like one of the major factors are how the medium is presented. I'll shortlist some of my observations on the given genre (correct me if I'm wrong):

1. Manhwas are presented in paperback book form or in magazines. This greatly restricts target audience (whether it's a tween, older teen or young adult magazine) which in turn feels like the author must meet the demands of what the audience wants. It's a good thing sometimes but generally the author should really be in charge of the story's creative direction. They also have editors, both a good thing and a bad thing, it stops the author from writing anything to choppy but again, restricts them from creativity.
   
   On the other hand, Webtoons are obviously posted online, free for anyone to view. Traditionally when hosted on sites like Naver, they get money based on hits and popularity I'm assuming. It actually gives the artist more freedom in writing the story and the audience is not restricted. The demographic is anyone that has a computer and likes comics.

Top 10 Things I Learnt About Japan Through Manga

Sometimes I'd get into conversations with my friend and occasionally when the topic of Japan comes up for some reason or another I'd spit out information like it was nobody's business. Most of the time they're taken aback, awed by my worldly knowledge but actually it's mostly donates from sitting at home and fawning hopelessly over 2D men.

Here are 10 interesting things I learnt about Japan and it's culture that you can't necessarily read from a textbook

1. Blood Type Horoscopes
   I was always curious why some mangaka would include blood type in character profiles along with height and name amoungst other things. They even made specialised condoms for each respective blood type. It really should be taken with a grain of salt but hey no harm in reading about it. It says that I'm the type to start but not finish thing, that I can agree on.

Rating Systems in Manga

For those of you not familiar with my manga reviews, I do not have a rating system.
Why?
What I've noticed while looking through baka updates and filtering the kind of manga I want to read from the ones I don't, I always take notice of the rating.
If gives me a ballpark idea of whether the manga is good or not.
That is by all means fine and quite useful.
But the problem is a lot of it isn't an accurate reflection of whether it's really good or not.
A lot of the ratings are really subjective.
For eg. there's your stereotypical shoujo oneshot.
For an avid shoujo manga freak like me, I always judge things based on the purpose of the manga. Most of them are just fluff to read to kill time so I would probably rate it, say a 7.5.
On the other hand, if someone was actually judging it, having only read really meaningful stories then they would probably give it a 4.

Same scenario can be used it there is a deeply emotionally driven plot.
Someone like me would rate it a 9 but someone who loves cheesy crap mixed to together with comedy and hot bishies might not appreciate it so much and give it a 7, labeling it boring.

Rating systems only work if you have certain standardized criteria. That's why I don't have such rating systems because dissecting a story and slapping on a number isn't how I feel it's supposed to be seen. Sure you break it down into simpler parts but logic, reasoning and numbers isn't supposed to be associated with manga, especially shoujo.
Your supposed to review it as a whole (how well it's put together), the purpose and it's intended audience.

Some are obviously better in the morals, execution and art. I feel like putting rating systems for those wouldn't be bad.

Well done with this boring post. Look forward to more reviews...

Takano Sensei is qutting shoujo. WHAT AND WHY?

For those that don't know, Takano Ichigo is the mangaka behind Orange which I may or may not have ranted and raved about. She's relatively new on the scene and Orange is probably her best work, her other mangas are cute but mediocre at best.
Even though it was released in 2011 I can dare say it's probably one of the best manga I have ever read. So when I heard that's she's quitting I was shocked.
According to her now deleted blog, a post said that she was essentially tired of haters and she's been contemplating about quitting. "Nothing will change if only one among so many artists disappears" she says, not but you are a top notch mangaka and you haven't even started.
There are plenty of shit ridden shoujo and you don't see them quitting, (insert joke about Watase Yuu). It's just so disappointing. She does plan to finish it off before she quits, not sure if I'm relieved or sad. It's currently on hiatus and I really hope she does the story justice. Not sure if I should recommend it so much anymore since I personally feel it's really good.

Shoujo Manga Cliches: Annoying Female Characters

So with my recent comeback to my blog, I'm going to start writing about shoujo manga cliches. If you read shoujo manga as frequently as I do. You will know what I'm talking about.

1. The Crybaby/ mentally weak female lead - one of the most god damn annoying cliches in the whole shoujo manga world. If an author is too lazy to think up something original, they'll whip out this 1 dimensional character. Girls like this frequently exist for the guy they love; they have no depth at all. They don't have any deep relationships with friends or even family members, their sad little lives revolve around their high school crush or loved one.

Playful Kiss vs It Started With A Kiss

 WARNING: The following statements are my opinion and don't take anything I say as a personal insult to you. Please gtfo trolls.

Itazura Na Kiss, if you have never heard of this manga than you haven't been living in shoujo manga universe for long. This ever popular manga was written by the Mother of shoujo manga cliches, Tada Kaoru. Unfortunately, when moving house, she got into a terrible accident that lead to her death; leaving this manga incomplete forever~  
dun dun dun

This didn't stop it from having an anime, a J-movie, a T-drama and now a K-drama.

I personally haven't watched the Japanese movie so I can't make a judgement on that but I can make a judgment on the other two. The only reason why I'm doing this now is because I heard these girls say :

I like Playful Kiss, it's so cute. I don't like the Taiwanese version. The characters don't look too appealing. It's bad, don't watch it

Guys who read Shoujo Manga

Have you ever met a guy who has read shoujo manga (like in real life)?
I mean I've seen a few guys who admit to reading it on the internet, which I find pretty cool. I don't think guys who read shoujo manga are necessarily gay, if they were they'd probably prefer to read more shounen-ai or yaoi.

Anyways, I know this guy friend of mine has recently been getting into shoujo manga and he says that he's preferring it over shounen (at the moment). Of course he'a a total noob at it XD
He doesn't see a difference between manga and manhwa (and even manhua).
And trust me, there is a difference but let's save that topic for another day...
He also gets kinda easily sucked in to the cliches but he'll eventually get sick of it and develop his own taste.

He started off by what type of mangas do I read. I replied shoujo and he's like "what kind?" and it pretty much started from there. It's sort of hard to recommend shoujo to guys because I don't want to recommend something too girly.

Although he says he enjoys Kimi no Iru Machi and he really wants me to read it (which I will as soon as my lag is gone) and Kaichou wa Maid-Sama which we are both addicted to (yes it may be pretty cliched but it's done well :L)

I actually don't have friends that are fanatic with manga like me. They either read ones I don't like, read one or two or don't read any at all so I was surprised that I could talk about manga with my guy friend XD

Haha I'm going to regret procrastinating but whatever.
Well thanx for reading ^^