Actually, I wanted to keep it short, but, well, OPINIONZ! I HAZ THEM.
LOL Not dead yet! There's just nothing happening in my life to write about (well, not in English. I'm venting occasionally but mostly in German. Because German is such a wonderful ugly language and thus works best if you really have to rant).
I'm just saying, because I know some of the people on my f-list are, like me, still using some ancient version of Photoshop, that I finally after searching for, like, five or so years, found a tool to convert new brushes for Photoshop CS+ to something that's usable with my old Photoshop 7! The thing is called abrMate and it really works (well, most of the time. Let's say it converts about 90% of brushes, 10% make it crash and I have no idea why).
In other news, Midnight Secretary #1 and Akuma to Lovesong #1 (yes, they kept the Japanese name) are out in German and not only is the quality rather good (not Tokyopop-Germany-good but definitely above average) but you also get a bookmark with each manga. Now I really hope both series sell well because then they might license some more of that kind of stuff.
Well, that is unless I'm a weirdo and people generally feel like this idiot here. I mean, you know, I normally don't rant about other people's opinions on manga (well, here I do but at least I protect my LJ from pingbacks of all sorts because while I'm usually not a coward, I don't want endless whining and discussions by and with this kind of people). But THIS brainless macho asshole takes the cake of all clueless macho assholes around the world, if just for that one sentence (emphasis mine): "None of the characters are really likeable, and one would expect at least the heroine of a shojo to be adorable and lovable." WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS IDIOT! A shoujo manga heroine is not the same as a brainless pseudo-porn shounen or seinen manga heroine! I mean, this is his opinion on Tenjou Tenge #5: Of course, Tenjo Tenge is known for scantily clad women and martial arts battles that seemingly involve the energies and forces that bind existence. Vol. 9 implies the presence of a muscle-bound black man’s huge penis, and depicts women using sexual intercourse as extreme reward and punishment. Meanwhile, the battles are as big as the ones in Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This is nasty sexy and crazy violence, but Tenjo Tenge catches readers’ attentions because it refuses to be not crazy. His "grade" here is a A- lol. What would you expect from such a homo sapiens Neanderthal leftover person?
You know, I wouldn't give a damn about his opinion if only publishers didn't. I mean, they pay people for their opinions, either in money or in books so that other people read them and it helps them to decide whether they buy a manga or not. But if they leave that to the opinion of some misogynist idiot on whom proper shoujo manga is utterly wasted because he just doesn't get it, because it is more complicated than Tenjou Tenge and the heroine is not the willing plaything of male fantasies, his stone age male opinion is even possibly damaging for sales.
Or maybe it works as a deterrent to other idiots who like Tenjou Tenge. But I doubt that they would have bought Akuma to Lovesong in the first place.
And, um, just to make this clear: I don't hate Tenjou Tenge. Some parts are great fun! I just don't see the Epic Plot and the Depth of Emotions that some people seem to recognize. What I see is a brainless, silly manga that shouldn't be taken seriously and probably not be read if you are a true feminist who takes her mission seriously out of necessity (because you are, for example, living in a country where people like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are serious contenders for President). Or maybe my problem is that I'm not male.
Edit: No, I don't really have a problem with the Republicans. I just don't like their stance on reproductive rights. And this is a parallel with our macho manga "critic" above - while on the one hand it is none of my business who gets to be the President of the USA (I don't think Obama is Jesus either and didn't think so four years ago, mind) it always has repercussions for and in Europe if the world's last superpower is ruled by a clueless idiot. If American women want people in power who think that it's a male's god-given right to control his wife's/girlsfriend's/daughter's/patient's/victim's body and conscience, fine, it's a democracy. BUT whatever mind-boggling idiocies the Americans think up, they sooner or later end up having either effects (like the current global economic crisis) or even copycat politicians (like all those idiots who thought "intervening" in Lybia was a good idea) over here. That's why the idea of someone like Santorum in power makes me a little bit sick. Just sayin' for clarification. He might be good for America and Americans and, as I said, it's a democracy. But I fear he's bad for Europe. Very bad. Just like machos reviewing Akuma to Lovesong are bad for shoujo manga sales.
Oh, well, I didn't want this to be that long. Sorry ^^
I'm just saying, because I know some of the people on my f-list are, like me, still using some ancient version of Photoshop, that I finally after searching for, like, five or so years, found a tool to convert new brushes for Photoshop CS+ to something that's usable with my old Photoshop 7! The thing is called abrMate and it really works (well, most of the time. Let's say it converts about 90% of brushes, 10% make it crash and I have no idea why).
In other news, Midnight Secretary #1 and Akuma to Lovesong #1 (yes, they kept the Japanese name) are out in German and not only is the quality rather good (not Tokyopop-Germany-good but definitely above average) but you also get a bookmark with each manga. Now I really hope both series sell well because then they might license some more of that kind of stuff.
Well, that is unless I'm a weirdo and people generally feel like this idiot here. I mean, you know, I normally don't rant about other people's opinions on manga (well, here I do but at least I protect my LJ from pingbacks of all sorts because while I'm usually not a coward, I don't want endless whining and discussions by and with this kind of people). But THIS brainless macho asshole takes the cake of all clueless macho assholes around the world, if just for that one sentence (emphasis mine): "None of the characters are really likeable, and one would expect at least the heroine of a shojo to be adorable and lovable." WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS IDIOT! A shoujo manga heroine is not the same as a brainless pseudo-porn shounen or seinen manga heroine! I mean, this is his opinion on Tenjou Tenge #5: Of course, Tenjo Tenge is known for scantily clad women and martial arts battles that seemingly involve the energies and forces that bind existence. Vol. 9 implies the presence of a muscle-bound black man’s huge penis, and depicts women using sexual intercourse as extreme reward and punishment. Meanwhile, the battles are as big as the ones in Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This is nasty sexy and crazy violence, but Tenjo Tenge catches readers’ attentions because it refuses to be not crazy. His "grade" here is a A- lol. What would you expect from such a homo sapiens Neanderthal leftover person?
You know, I wouldn't give a damn about his opinion if only publishers didn't. I mean, they pay people for their opinions, either in money or in books so that other people read them and it helps them to decide whether they buy a manga or not. But if they leave that to the opinion of some misogynist idiot on whom proper shoujo manga is utterly wasted because he just doesn't get it, because it is more complicated than Tenjou Tenge and the heroine is not the willing plaything of male fantasies, his stone age male opinion is even possibly damaging for sales.
Or maybe it works as a deterrent to other idiots who like Tenjou Tenge. But I doubt that they would have bought Akuma to Lovesong in the first place.
And, um, just to make this clear: I don't hate Tenjou Tenge. Some parts are great fun! I just don't see the Epic Plot and the Depth of Emotions that some people seem to recognize. What I see is a brainless, silly manga that shouldn't be taken seriously and probably not be read if you are a true feminist who takes her mission seriously out of necessity (because you are, for example, living in a country where people like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are serious contenders for President). Or maybe my problem is that I'm not male.
Edit: No, I don't really have a problem with the Republicans. I just don't like their stance on reproductive rights. And this is a parallel with our macho manga "critic" above - while on the one hand it is none of my business who gets to be the President of the USA (I don't think Obama is Jesus either and didn't think so four years ago, mind) it always has repercussions for and in Europe if the world's last superpower is ruled by a clueless idiot. If American women want people in power who think that it's a male's god-given right to control his wife's/girlsfriend's/daughter's/patient's/victim's body and conscience, fine, it's a democracy. BUT whatever mind-boggling idiocies the Americans think up, they sooner or later end up having either effects (like the current global economic crisis) or even copycat politicians (like all those idiots who thought "intervening" in Lybia was a good idea) over here. That's why the idea of someone like Santorum in power makes me a little bit sick. Just sayin' for clarification. He might be good for America and Americans and, as I said, it's a democracy. But I fear he's bad for Europe. Very bad. Just like machos reviewing Akuma to Lovesong are bad for shoujo manga sales.
Oh, well, I didn't want this to be that long. Sorry ^^