uaaaaaaah!
First: Done! with the final book for one of the series I illustrate last night/early this morning. It was both a happy and sad moment for me. Well, happy and sad and tired and worried and relieved and so on, because it was 1am and I also was co-leading the first day of the arts-and-sports camp at our church this afternoon. But the other woman who helped to lead it has experience as an elementary teacher, so she did an awesome job introducing the project to the kids, and I showed them cool things they could do with the paints (we did watercolours this week!) and then we wandered around and got to look at all the cool paintings the kids did. They are so great!! Seeing all these young artists work made me wish they would ALL grow up continuing to make art (I know some of them will for sure, though!). Kids are great :D
After thaaaaaaaaaaaaat I stopped by the bookstore on the way home (ohh, it is such a temptation to have that bookstore so close to our church) to see if they had any of this month's new manga. They didn't, not even Hockey Club!, so I will have to order that one (and apparently Kimi ni Todoke got pushed to next month? or else the store's computer listing is wrong... either way, booooo!). But I couldn't just leave with nothing, of course, so I bought Skip Beat! 7-8! And thus I turn myself into a full-fledged addict-fan of this manga...
The first thing I just gotta say about this series is, (and this is not really relevant to the series it self), the typesetter is awesome. I guess that's Sabrina Heep? Seriously. I can't think of any other time I bothered to notice the typesetting (except when something about it was messed up) but the way it's done in this book makes me incredibly happy. Like, I'll notice it on the page and start giggling with pleasure. Mainly, I think she hand-writes the SFX. I'm a rather detail-oriented (obsessive-compulsive) person, so, yes, I do things like closely inspect individual letters to note the minutest difference in angles/lengths of strokes/etc, and it is plain to me that no two letters are exactly the same within a text blurb. And if there are three of the same letter, they're still not the same, so this rules out a font that has two versions of each letter. I guess it might be a little sad that something like hand-drawn sfx can make me so happy-I mean, that's pretty much the norm if you're reading it Japanese. But for those of us who don't, we usually get stuck with a whole bunch of the same 4 fonts used over and over and over and over and over again. So it is really really nice to get variety, to see that someone actually took the time to write the words in order to fit the area they're meant for. And handwriting always looks better than handwritten-ish-looking generic-font. So that, and the way that words are drawn out ("Moooookooooooo," "Shooootaroooooo!" "I'll really kiiiiilll you!" (ehehehe, this makes it sound like such a terrible series. at least the hate isn't evident in the title, as in another series my family likes to mock me for)) make it fun to read. I can totally hear Kyoko screaming in rage everytime she yells "Shotaroooooo!"
Oh, that rage and anger. It is just SO much fun. I feel bad making such a statement, but not really. When Kyoko gets mad I can't help but root for her. But... I think she begins to realize that those negative emotions aren't always healthy or good (and I realize it myself, as she learns the hard way). They're still awfully satisfying and entirely deserved emotions, though.
And then, somehow, this series manages to be girly. Rage-and-hate-filled-girly! I didn't even know that could be, but it is!! It's like... the perfect perfect blend! Kyoko's dreams of being a princess, and her dreams of revenge! Her evil leer and her angelic smile! I think in my mind, I normally think of spunky(?)/violent/strong personalities as "tomboys" and sweet/happy/cute personalities as "princesses"... maybe because that's what I see so often in media? But Kyoko proves that you can be crazy-violent and strong and still cherish "girly" dreams. Of course, that said, I don't think this series or the character are so girly that it'd be a turn-off to readers who don't care for that. It manages to sneak the girly stuff in subtly. It's just so good...!
What else, what else? I wrote out a list of things that filled me with LOVE when I was reading the first 6 volumes last week or whenever, but I forgot some of the context. I wrote down an awesome pun, though, "poultry recognition" (the situation involved dressing like a chicken). The line "Don't say things that shatter my dreams!" from I don't know what. The starburst halftones used in people's mouths to express shock and devastation. A character who used the "When you sigh, happiness flies away!" line (I should have been telling myself this a few weeks ago). This is another series with a lot of outrageous, and yet extremely likable/lovable characters (like Lory! Ahahahahaha!!!) And the ones you're not supposed to like are so fun to hate. I really like Kyoko and Ren's interaction. I knew going into the story that the romance was extremely slow-paced, and that was one of the reasons I held off reading (foolish girl), because I really hate when mangaka stall with that stuff. But, at least as of volume 8, nothing feels like stalling yet. Although there are certainly frustrating occurrences, the pacing is just as it should be, letting me get to know and love the characters in due time. I think it's pretty authentic.
Sooooo, I only own two volumes (and those from the middle of the series) so I can't really lend them out very well, but if you read it then talk to meeeeeee! To distract me from the wait till OCTOBER for other series I love, and help me put off buying more volumes that I probably can't afforddddd~! Ohhhh, but volume 8 left off in a bad spot!! I thought volume 7s were cursed, but this series' v7 was actually a relatively "nice" ending, and then things kinda fell apart in 8 (though there was still some really good/awesome stuff too) and awawawawaaaah...!!! (after writing this, it occurred that most people reading it who might comment are probably caught up with releases, and hearing that might just make me want to go out and buy ALL THE VOLUMES RIGHT NOW even more, so maybe that's a bad idea....)
Thanks for putting up with me, everyone :D I won't do another manga-fangirl post for a while, I think...? The weather's gotten real cold all of a sudden! I don't know what the deal is but I'm wearing sweaters around the house and Mum wore a scarf outside when she met up with a friend this afternoon!! Man, Michigan. This what you call July??
After thaaaaaaaaaaaaat I stopped by the bookstore on the way home (ohh, it is such a temptation to have that bookstore so close to our church) to see if they had any of this month's new manga. They didn't, not even Hockey Club!, so I will have to order that one (and apparently Kimi ni Todoke got pushed to next month? or else the store's computer listing is wrong... either way, booooo!). But I couldn't just leave with nothing, of course, so I bought Skip Beat! 7-8! And thus I turn myself into a full-fledged addict-fan of this manga...
The first thing I just gotta say about this series is, (and this is not really relevant to the series it self), the typesetter is awesome. I guess that's Sabrina Heep? Seriously. I can't think of any other time I bothered to notice the typesetting (except when something about it was messed up) but the way it's done in this book makes me incredibly happy. Like, I'll notice it on the page and start giggling with pleasure. Mainly, I think she hand-writes the SFX. I'm a rather detail-oriented (obsessive-compulsive) person, so, yes, I do things like closely inspect individual letters to note the minutest difference in angles/lengths of strokes/etc, and it is plain to me that no two letters are exactly the same within a text blurb. And if there are three of the same letter, they're still not the same, so this rules out a font that has two versions of each letter. I guess it might be a little sad that something like hand-drawn sfx can make me so happy-I mean, that's pretty much the norm if you're reading it Japanese. But for those of us who don't, we usually get stuck with a whole bunch of the same 4 fonts used over and over and over and over and over again. So it is really really nice to get variety, to see that someone actually took the time to write the words in order to fit the area they're meant for. And handwriting always looks better than handwritten-ish-looking generic-font. So that, and the way that words are drawn out ("Moooookooooooo," "Shooootaroooooo!" "I'll really kiiiiilll you!" (ehehehe, this makes it sound like such a terrible series. at least the hate isn't evident in the title, as in another series my family likes to mock me for)) make it fun to read. I can totally hear Kyoko screaming in rage everytime she yells "Shotaroooooo!"
Oh, that rage and anger. It is just SO much fun. I feel bad making such a statement, but not really. When Kyoko gets mad I can't help but root for her. But... I think she begins to realize that those negative emotions aren't always healthy or good (and I realize it myself, as she learns the hard way). They're still awfully satisfying and entirely deserved emotions, though.
And then, somehow, this series manages to be girly. Rage-and-hate-filled-girly! I didn't even know that could be, but it is!! It's like... the perfect perfect blend! Kyoko's dreams of being a princess, and her dreams of revenge! Her evil leer and her angelic smile! I think in my mind, I normally think of spunky(?)/violent/strong personalities as "tomboys" and sweet/happy/cute personalities as "princesses"... maybe because that's what I see so often in media? But Kyoko proves that you can be crazy-violent and strong and still cherish "girly" dreams. Of course, that said, I don't think this series or the character are so girly that it'd be a turn-off to readers who don't care for that. It manages to sneak the girly stuff in subtly. It's just so good...!
What else, what else? I wrote out a list of things that filled me with LOVE when I was reading the first 6 volumes last week or whenever, but I forgot some of the context. I wrote down an awesome pun, though, "poultry recognition" (the situation involved dressing like a chicken). The line "Don't say things that shatter my dreams!" from I don't know what. The starburst halftones used in people's mouths to express shock and devastation. A character who used the "When you sigh, happiness flies away!" line (I should have been telling myself this a few weeks ago). This is another series with a lot of outrageous, and yet extremely likable/lovable characters (like Lory! Ahahahahaha!!!) And the ones you're not supposed to like are so fun to hate. I really like Kyoko and Ren's interaction. I knew going into the story that the romance was extremely slow-paced, and that was one of the reasons I held off reading (foolish girl), because I really hate when mangaka stall with that stuff. But, at least as of volume 8, nothing feels like stalling yet. Although there are certainly frustrating occurrences, the pacing is just as it should be, letting me get to know and love the characters in due time. I think it's pretty authentic.
Sooooo, I only own two volumes (and those from the middle of the series) so I can't really lend them out very well, but if you read it then talk to meeeeeee! To distract me from the wait till OCTOBER for other series I love, and help me put off buying more volumes that I probably can't afforddddd~! Ohhhh, but volume 8 left off in a bad spot!! I thought volume 7s were cursed, but this series' v7 was actually a relatively "nice" ending, and then things kinda fell apart in 8 (though there was still some really good/awesome stuff too) and awawawawaaaah...!!! (after writing this, it occurred that most people reading it who might comment are probably caught up with releases, and hearing that might just make me want to go out and buy ALL THE VOLUMES RIGHT NOW even more, so maybe that's a bad idea....)
Thanks for putting up with me, everyone :D I won't do another manga-fangirl post for a while, I think...? The weather's gotten real cold all of a sudden! I don't know what the deal is but I'm wearing sweaters around the house and Mum wore a scarf outside when she met up with a friend this afternoon!! Man, Michigan. This what you call July??