"I bet you think this..."
Oh dear! Some people seem to have got used to my frequent posting, and now two (or three?) whole days have gone by without a new update and we simply must know What I Have Been Up To!!!
So what have I been up to? Yesterday, modeling in a rainbow-coloured outfit for a painting class at my old school, visiting friends and dropping in on some great senior art shows at the same place; today, working and then out for a jaunt with mum to an Asian grocery-store and a flower-grocery-store and to visit my grandma and give her an african violet and then home, and then I made yakisoba again (because it is so full of good flavours and it fills me up so nicely! Mmm~).
I got this really really suuuuuper cute set of chopsticks at the Asian store, and it has all different animals on each one, and cute bright colours, and it is SO CUTE! But the label on the package says "chopsticks for special guests" (and "おもてなしのお箸") so... maybe that means I should save them for a special occasion when I can offer them to my guests, rather than hoarding the cute all to myself (I do already have a large collection of chopsticks as it is...). Frog, Monkey, Rabbit, Panda and Duck, you are formally invited.
I read some manga too:
I'm not sure I had actually heard of Metamo Kiss (complete in three volumes) before, as far as reviews or popular acclaim or promotion or... anything. But it caught my eye a while back when some Tokyopop titles were on sale, and it caught my eye again recently when I came across the TP-books-for-a-dollar sale, so I bought all three then and there. The covers were cute, the review I could find didn't seem entirely dismissive (and that was on ANN, who can usually be counted on for discouraging reviews! :D), and for $3, hey! The story is about a boy (the protagonist) who is part of a family that can switch bodies with their "fated person" by touching a certain spot (in his case, the lips. Gasp!)
So it was kinda cute, but I didn't absolutely love it. The covers really are nice-the lace/doily-ish Tokyopop spine border is nice and fitting, as ever, and the illustrations themselves are loooovely (the first one has a heart-shaped-rainbow-bubble with the word "kiss" on it, which, on writing it out, strikes me as about the most delightfully shoujo-manga girly single object you could possibly ever come up with (although if you have other ideas I'd be thrilled to hear them!). The cover art carried through the rest of the books too, with cute facial expressions and cute hairstyles and cute outfits. Buuuut the story was a little less convincing. I did like the adorable opening scene, and I thought the mangaka's subtle use of stars for story-significance was fun (and it totally caught me by surprise when the significance was revealed). But the whole idea of a "family curse" wasn't really explained at all, and they didn't really talk much about what the point of having a "fated person" was aside from providing the necessary shoujo love triangle, and even the gender-bending was a bit silly and uninteresting; and having read Fruits Basket dealing beautifully with the first issue and Oyayubihime Infinity dealing awesomely with the second and Your & My Secret dealing hilariously with the third, it was kinda like, "Eh. So?" I do kinda wonder if this was supposed to be trying to "get in on" Fruits Basket's popularity, with the rather random transformation-thing. And then there were things like the Fireworks Confession Scene (which totally felt out of place even in the actual chapter! why did the mangaka bother??) and the main character's love interest suddenly acquiring a fanclub of male classmates for one or two chapters in the middle of book 3... (only to promptly disappear for the rest of the book) (however, there was a really entertainingly narcissistic character in the fanboy group, so I enjoyed that)
Still, I did think the ending was what it should be, considering it didn't really have time to do what it needed to to fully depict the characters' relationships and changing feelings, and I enjoyed reading it. The issue of forgetting was rather sudden and again not properly explained, but the emotions it brought out in the characters were really relatable and drew me into the story despite the other issues. Overall, I'm glad Omote-sensei didn't try to force things too unrealistically and "expectedly" at the end (because we all know how I feel about forced, unrealistic hookup endings!!) And, I think for the mangaka's first series that maybe wasn't well planned out from the start and just kinda bumped along till it came to an end, it was rather enjoyable. And only $3, after all!
At first, I didn't bother to read [non-Japanese-manga-styled-graphic-novels] because they just looked badly drawn or badly written. Then they started to get better but I still didn't bother because I liked the kinds of stories I knew I could generally count on with Japanese titles (that is, happy/cute/comedic shoujo romances). Then I started using the library and branching out a bit, and I found some fun stuff from TP and Minx and Oni Press (but none of them sufficiently hooked me enough to buy my own copies (except the awesome Scott Pilgrim, but my brother likes it even more than me so I let him own it and borrowed his copies)) and then there was the TP sale and I remembered that I kept hearing good things about Dramacon so I finally went ahead and bought it. But there were only two volumes at bookcloseouts, so.... right now I am very very much wanting to get myself a copy of volume 3, and feeling more than happy to pay full price for it, and also highly interested in checking out her more recent series being published by Yen Press, so you can take that as my recommendation if you like.
I remember hearing good things about the series, but I don't remember what those good things were, so I'll just go ahead with what I liked. For starters, the characters' facial expressions are excellent-the series is very entertaining just through that alone. The script/dialogue is also a lot of fun. I think comics that are [well-] written originally in English have something about the dialogue that is just different from Japanese manga, a sort of snappy-back-and-forthness, or maybe it's something about the dialogue mirroring how people casually speak with each other, I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it's really fun to read. It's nothing against the translators or original Japanese authors, just a difference in the languages' styles. I dunno. I noticed it most with Scott Pilgrim, which has just hilariously awesome dialogue, but I got a similar feeling reading Dramacon too.
As for the story, for the most part I really enjoyed it and got totally drawn into what I was reading, sympathizing with the characters and hoping for the best for them. It's a little weird that each book basically takes place over 3 days or so (the convention weekend, where our main characters from opposite sides of the country are thrown together along with a horde of other anime fans), and that the second book is set a whole year after the first. I'd kind of like to see what these characters do in their day-to-day lives, when they're not getting all thrown around and confused in the Drama of the Convention. There is a lot of drama, so the title is very fitting. Some of the bickering and situations seemed a bit immature at times, but I could definitely believe that the characters were highschoolers/college-freshmen, and I thought the drama and craziness was only a liiiittle bit exaggerated. I also enjoyed how some of the characters teased the main character about how shoujo manga had rotted her brain, because of her habit of imagining situations out of a shoujo manga... and then those situations actually happening. Ahaha~ So, in conclusion, I really want to know what happens next!!!
Oh, and then, I forgot to ever post these two writeups, so here goes a couple more from a week or two ago!
I got a couple more manga Saturday night. The latest volumes of ongoing series, but I enjoyed both of them more than I expected. Yay!
The first one was volume 3 of Mixed Vegetables. In volume 2, some stuff... happened. I forget some of the details. *skims volume* We met more of Hana's family (including irresistibly adorable little brother who plays baseball!) and they made cakes and egg-things and stuff. And then at the end they ran off dramatically to Hayato's family sushi-shop!!
So volume 3 starts in the sushi shop. Hayato's dad is cool but weird (the "looks good until he opens his mouth and you realize he's a fool" type). Hana makes some declarations of her sushi-chef aspirations. Hayato has yet to do the same (or opposite, rather, since he wants to abandon sushi for cakes). The characters looked a bit more grown up in this volume, somehow. Or at least, the high school characters did. Their parents looked as refreshingly youthful as ever... I was almost convinced that the teacher was a woman this volume, but then I remembered this was still questionable.
Overall, the series continues to be fun and nice to look at-I can't get over how nicely Komura-sensei draws hands. And dramatic poses and expressions. Everything is Very Dramatic in this series!! Declarations of Sushi Apprenticeship and Not Giving Up and Following Your Dreams and so on (this isn't a criticism; I enjoyed it). And I like that it focuses on the characters and their families and friends (though the chapter with the friends-drama seemed a bit random and out-of-the-blue to me). Still has some translation flaws, but nothing too terrible (says the know-it-all who never laid eyes on the original Japanese version (I read enough manga, I can still make an educated guess!)) I enjoyed the last chapter a lot (with Hayato's crazy mum and Hana's awesomeness). And then the end of the chapter! More Drama! Ahh!!! To be continued in June!
Another thing, and I feel kinda bad saying this, but it was good to read a volume of manga with a nice sturdy, glossy cover and a reasonably hefty weight to it. *small sigh*
And the other book I got was High School Debut 8. I had a brief internal debate when I saw the shelves (I wasn't intending to buy anything, just see if they miraculously had a copy of Tears of a Lamb 5 (they didn't, so I preordered it, along with VBR 6 (incurable optimist that I am) and 7Hate♥)) and realized Mixed Vegetables, Lovely Complex and High School Debut all had new volumes (and then I got home and realized I'd totally forgotten Crimson Hero, but I think I'm a couple volumes behind on that anyway). MixVeg was a must-get, because I'm silly like that. High School Debut won over LoveCom though, because I think I'm still a little mad over Risa's conduct in the last volume... and from the reviews I'd skimmed, it seemed like I'd probably get more enjoyment out of HSD.
Annnnd it was great!! Yoh and Haruna are just too cute, in their own rather unusual ways. The first half of the book dealt with some new students (boys) who had some sort of interest in Haruna (I still don't have the quiet one figured out, but they were all pretty funny) and was quite entertaining... with a rather shocking conclusion. The second half of the book was about Haruna's birthday, and was pretty much entirely filled with "awwwwww". I love all the characters, and I love how they tease each other (Asami is terrible, and I'm beginning to realize Asaoka is pretty evil too. hahaha) Another thing I realized, not that it's all that relevant (or maybe it is!), was that Haruna has very normal looking (and acting) parents. This probably stood out all the more in contrast to Mixed Vegetable's two goofy families, but Mom and Dad looked like a normal, middle-aged mom and dad; and also this is maybe the first shoujo-manga Dad I've come across who didn't get super-crazy-protective of his daughter at the slightest hint of a Boy (he was even the one who suggested she might want to spend her birthday with her boyfriend! crazy!!) Anyway, I like that this series never takes itself too seriously. It's fun and light, and even though Haruna often makes a big deal out of tiny things, it's understood that she's being ridiculous, so it's just kinda funny and cute (though sometimes I do get caught up in it and feel a little anxious for her happiness... but things always end nicely!) This is a very sweet series :D
So what have I been up to? Yesterday, modeling in a rainbow-coloured outfit for a painting class at my old school, visiting friends and dropping in on some great senior art shows at the same place; today, working and then out for a jaunt with mum to an Asian grocery-store and a flower-grocery-store and to visit my grandma and give her an african violet and then home, and then I made yakisoba again (because it is so full of good flavours and it fills me up so nicely! Mmm~).
I got this really really suuuuuper cute set of chopsticks at the Asian store, and it has all different animals on each one, and cute bright colours, and it is SO CUTE! But the label on the package says "chopsticks for special guests" (and "おもてなしのお箸") so... maybe that means I should save them for a special occasion when I can offer them to my guests, rather than hoarding the cute all to myself (I do already have a large collection of chopsticks as it is...). Frog, Monkey, Rabbit, Panda and Duck, you are formally invited.
I read some manga too:
I'm not sure I had actually heard of Metamo Kiss (complete in three volumes) before, as far as reviews or popular acclaim or promotion or... anything. But it caught my eye a while back when some Tokyopop titles were on sale, and it caught my eye again recently when I came across the TP-books-for-a-dollar sale, so I bought all three then and there. The covers were cute, the review I could find didn't seem entirely dismissive (and that was on ANN, who can usually be counted on for discouraging reviews! :D), and for $3, hey! The story is about a boy (the protagonist) who is part of a family that can switch bodies with their "fated person" by touching a certain spot (in his case, the lips. Gasp!)
So it was kinda cute, but I didn't absolutely love it. The covers really are nice-the lace/doily-ish Tokyopop spine border is nice and fitting, as ever, and the illustrations themselves are loooovely (the first one has a heart-shaped-rainbow-bubble with the word "kiss" on it, which, on writing it out, strikes me as about the most delightfully shoujo-manga girly single object you could possibly ever come up with (although if you have other ideas I'd be thrilled to hear them!). The cover art carried through the rest of the books too, with cute facial expressions and cute hairstyles and cute outfits. Buuuut the story was a little less convincing. I did like the adorable opening scene, and I thought the mangaka's subtle use of stars for story-significance was fun (and it totally caught me by surprise when the significance was revealed). But the whole idea of a "family curse" wasn't really explained at all, and they didn't really talk much about what the point of having a "fated person" was aside from providing the necessary shoujo love triangle, and even the gender-bending was a bit silly and uninteresting; and having read Fruits Basket dealing beautifully with the first issue and Oyayubihime Infinity dealing awesomely with the second and Your & My Secret dealing hilariously with the third, it was kinda like, "Eh. So?" I do kinda wonder if this was supposed to be trying to "get in on" Fruits Basket's popularity, with the rather random transformation-thing. And then there were things like the Fireworks Confession Scene (which totally felt out of place even in the actual chapter! why did the mangaka bother??) and the main character's love interest suddenly acquiring a fanclub of male classmates for one or two chapters in the middle of book 3... (only to promptly disappear for the rest of the book) (however, there was a really entertainingly narcissistic character in the fanboy group, so I enjoyed that)
Still, I did think the ending was what it should be, considering it didn't really have time to do what it needed to to fully depict the characters' relationships and changing feelings, and I enjoyed reading it. The issue of forgetting was rather sudden and again not properly explained, but the emotions it brought out in the characters were really relatable and drew me into the story despite the other issues. Overall, I'm glad Omote-sensei didn't try to force things too unrealistically and "expectedly" at the end (because we all know how I feel about forced, unrealistic hookup endings!!) And, I think for the mangaka's first series that maybe wasn't well planned out from the start and just kinda bumped along till it came to an end, it was rather enjoyable. And only $3, after all!
At first, I didn't bother to read [non-Japanese-manga-styled-graphic-novels] because they just looked badly drawn or badly written. Then they started to get better but I still didn't bother because I liked the kinds of stories I knew I could generally count on with Japanese titles (that is, happy/cute/comedic shoujo romances). Then I started using the library and branching out a bit, and I found some fun stuff from TP and Minx and Oni Press (but none of them sufficiently hooked me enough to buy my own copies (except the awesome Scott Pilgrim, but my brother likes it even more than me so I let him own it and borrowed his copies)) and then there was the TP sale and I remembered that I kept hearing good things about Dramacon so I finally went ahead and bought it. But there were only two volumes at bookcloseouts, so.... right now I am very very much wanting to get myself a copy of volume 3, and feeling more than happy to pay full price for it, and also highly interested in checking out her more recent series being published by Yen Press, so you can take that as my recommendation if you like.
I remember hearing good things about the series, but I don't remember what those good things were, so I'll just go ahead with what I liked. For starters, the characters' facial expressions are excellent-the series is very entertaining just through that alone. The script/dialogue is also a lot of fun. I think comics that are [well-] written originally in English have something about the dialogue that is just different from Japanese manga, a sort of snappy-back-and-forthness, or maybe it's something about the dialogue mirroring how people casually speak with each other, I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it's really fun to read. It's nothing against the translators or original Japanese authors, just a difference in the languages' styles. I dunno. I noticed it most with Scott Pilgrim, which has just hilariously awesome dialogue, but I got a similar feeling reading Dramacon too.
As for the story, for the most part I really enjoyed it and got totally drawn into what I was reading, sympathizing with the characters and hoping for the best for them. It's a little weird that each book basically takes place over 3 days or so (the convention weekend, where our main characters from opposite sides of the country are thrown together along with a horde of other anime fans), and that the second book is set a whole year after the first. I'd kind of like to see what these characters do in their day-to-day lives, when they're not getting all thrown around and confused in the Drama of the Convention. There is a lot of drama, so the title is very fitting. Some of the bickering and situations seemed a bit immature at times, but I could definitely believe that the characters were highschoolers/college-freshmen, and I thought the drama and craziness was only a liiiittle bit exaggerated. I also enjoyed how some of the characters teased the main character about how shoujo manga had rotted her brain, because of her habit of imagining situations out of a shoujo manga... and then those situations actually happening. Ahaha~ So, in conclusion, I really want to know what happens next!!!
Oh, and then, I forgot to ever post these two writeups, so here goes a couple more from a week or two ago!
I got a couple more manga Saturday night. The latest volumes of ongoing series, but I enjoyed both of them more than I expected. Yay!
The first one was volume 3 of Mixed Vegetables. In volume 2, some stuff... happened. I forget some of the details. *skims volume* We met more of Hana's family (including irresistibly adorable little brother who plays baseball!) and they made cakes and egg-things and stuff. And then at the end they ran off dramatically to Hayato's family sushi-shop!!
So volume 3 starts in the sushi shop. Hayato's dad is cool but weird (the "looks good until he opens his mouth and you realize he's a fool" type). Hana makes some declarations of her sushi-chef aspirations. Hayato has yet to do the same (or opposite, rather, since he wants to abandon sushi for cakes). The characters looked a bit more grown up in this volume, somehow. Or at least, the high school characters did. Their parents looked as refreshingly youthful as ever... I was almost convinced that the teacher was a woman this volume, but then I remembered this was still questionable.
Overall, the series continues to be fun and nice to look at-I can't get over how nicely Komura-sensei draws hands. And dramatic poses and expressions. Everything is Very Dramatic in this series!! Declarations of Sushi Apprenticeship and Not Giving Up and Following Your Dreams and so on (this isn't a criticism; I enjoyed it). And I like that it focuses on the characters and their families and friends (though the chapter with the friends-drama seemed a bit random and out-of-the-blue to me). Still has some translation flaws, but nothing too terrible (says the know-it-all who never laid eyes on the original Japanese version (I read enough manga, I can still make an educated guess!)) I enjoyed the last chapter a lot (with Hayato's crazy mum and Hana's awesomeness). And then the end of the chapter! More Drama! Ahh!!! To be continued in June!
Another thing, and I feel kinda bad saying this, but it was good to read a volume of manga with a nice sturdy, glossy cover and a reasonably hefty weight to it. *small sigh*
And the other book I got was High School Debut 8. I had a brief internal debate when I saw the shelves (I wasn't intending to buy anything, just see if they miraculously had a copy of Tears of a Lamb 5 (they didn't, so I preordered it, along with VBR 6 (incurable optimist that I am) and 7Hate♥)) and realized Mixed Vegetables, Lovely Complex and High School Debut all had new volumes (and then I got home and realized I'd totally forgotten Crimson Hero, but I think I'm a couple volumes behind on that anyway). MixVeg was a must-get, because I'm silly like that. High School Debut won over LoveCom though, because I think I'm still a little mad over Risa's conduct in the last volume... and from the reviews I'd skimmed, it seemed like I'd probably get more enjoyment out of HSD.
Annnnd it was great!! Yoh and Haruna are just too cute, in their own rather unusual ways. The first half of the book dealt with some new students (boys) who had some sort of interest in Haruna (I still don't have the quiet one figured out, but they were all pretty funny) and was quite entertaining... with a rather shocking conclusion. The second half of the book was about Haruna's birthday, and was pretty much entirely filled with "awwwwww". I love all the characters, and I love how they tease each other (Asami is terrible, and I'm beginning to realize Asaoka is pretty evil too. hahaha) Another thing I realized, not that it's all that relevant (or maybe it is!), was that Haruna has very normal looking (and acting) parents. This probably stood out all the more in contrast to Mixed Vegetable's two goofy families, but Mom and Dad looked like a normal, middle-aged mom and dad; and also this is maybe the first shoujo-manga Dad I've come across who didn't get super-crazy-protective of his daughter at the slightest hint of a Boy (he was even the one who suggested she might want to spend her birthday with her boyfriend! crazy!!) Anyway, I like that this series never takes itself too seriously. It's fun and light, and even though Haruna often makes a big deal out of tiny things, it's understood that she's being ridiculous, so it's just kinda funny and cute (though sometimes I do get caught up in it and feel a little anxious for her happiness... but things always end nicely!) This is a very sweet series :D