manga despair
Before grad school, I could count on my hand the number of manga I had read but somehow, the anxieties of grad school have unleashed my inner manga-reader. These are my shameful confessions.
Until recently, I'd only glanced at a few shoujo manga, and for the most part been turned off right away. Even setting most of the absurd premises aside (and how easily all absurd premises blur into one another), even if the first couple of volumes are amusing, the amusement soon wears thin as it becomes evident that there's no direction but just endless cycling through cliches (enter romantic interest for male lead; cue jealousy; enter romantic interest for female lead; cue jealousy; enter hard-ass family; cue melodrama and defiance ad nauseam). But I've discovered lately, that although they are few and far between, there are shoujo manga out there with a cohesive vision, with complex, over-arching intriguing plots and this has led to my downfall.
I read through all 19 (19!) volumes of Tokyo Crazy Paradise...in 4 days. The stock summary:
Set in a futuristic Japan where crime has elevated and apathy prevails, Tsukasa is brought up as a boy in order to protect her from the crime-ridden Japan. When the murder of Tsukasa's parents leaves her and her brothers homeless, she finds herself turning to the same people responsible for the deaths of her parents - the yakuza and fellow classmate/Yakuzi head, Ryuji.
But there is just so much more to this manga. It's got yakuza (how can one not love a manga about yakuza?), a emotionless-yet-hilarious bishonen, an awesomely kick-ass female main character, is vaguely (ok only tokenly) set in a futuristic sci-fi world, has a delightful sense of humor and wonderful character development with in-depth exploration of relationships. There are all sorts of problematic gender dynamics, but the ideas, the characters are engaging.
But what is driving me insane is that I can't find any fancommunity for it despite the fact that the manga-ka, Nakamura Yoshiki is soaring to popularity on the wings of her latest, very popular work, Skip Beat! There is no lj-comm, hardly any fanfic online (and certainly no compelling ones) that I've been able to dredge up. Hell, there aren't even decent scanlations! I know it's old. I know it's a manga and so has a smaller fanbase than an anime. But. I. Want. Fanfic!
I want post-seires Tsukasa/Ryuuji. I want a long fic about how Tsukasa finally admits to being the new seisai and is suitably kickass and amazing and *Tsukasa*. I want a fluffy fic about a look at a future Tsukasa/Ryuuji family. I want fics about Ryuuji's childhood. I want drabbles about Tsukasa's parents (all three of them!). There is just so much to do with them because Tsukasa herself knows so little (and her misguided idea that they were upstanding--almost narrow-minded--police officers being upturned at the very end when she has that fleeting evidence of their fondness for a yakuza killer and the hints throughout that the hardcore division of police force the worked for (Grave) was just one step removed from yakuza in its tactics; that Grave's methods of keeping the peace were the comparable to the yakuza's ways of preserving order on their turf).
You disappoint me, interwebz.
Until recently, I'd only glanced at a few shoujo manga, and for the most part been turned off right away. Even setting most of the absurd premises aside (and how easily all absurd premises blur into one another), even if the first couple of volumes are amusing, the amusement soon wears thin as it becomes evident that there's no direction but just endless cycling through cliches (enter romantic interest for male lead; cue jealousy; enter romantic interest for female lead; cue jealousy; enter hard-ass family; cue melodrama and defiance ad nauseam). But I've discovered lately, that although they are few and far between, there are shoujo manga out there with a cohesive vision, with complex, over-arching intriguing plots and this has led to my downfall.
I read through all 19 (19!) volumes of Tokyo Crazy Paradise...in 4 days. The stock summary:
Set in a futuristic Japan where crime has elevated and apathy prevails, Tsukasa is brought up as a boy in order to protect her from the crime-ridden Japan. When the murder of Tsukasa's parents leaves her and her brothers homeless, she finds herself turning to the same people responsible for the deaths of her parents - the yakuza and fellow classmate/Yakuzi head, Ryuji.
But there is just so much more to this manga. It's got yakuza (how can one not love a manga about yakuza?), a emotionless-yet-hilarious bishonen, an awesomely kick-ass female main character, is vaguely (ok only tokenly) set in a futuristic sci-fi world, has a delightful sense of humor and wonderful character development with in-depth exploration of relationships. There are all sorts of problematic gender dynamics, but the ideas, the characters are engaging.
But what is driving me insane is that I can't find any fancommunity for it despite the fact that the manga-ka, Nakamura Yoshiki is soaring to popularity on the wings of her latest, very popular work, Skip Beat! There is no lj-comm, hardly any fanfic online (and certainly no compelling ones) that I've been able to dredge up. Hell, there aren't even decent scanlations! I know it's old. I know it's a manga and so has a smaller fanbase than an anime. But. I. Want. Fanfic!
I want post-seires Tsukasa/Ryuuji. I want a long fic about how Tsukasa finally admits to being the new seisai and is suitably kickass and amazing and *Tsukasa*. I want a fluffy fic about a look at a future Tsukasa/Ryuuji family. I want fics about Ryuuji's childhood. I want drabbles about Tsukasa's parents (all three of them!). There is just so much to do with them because Tsukasa herself knows so little (and her misguided idea that they were upstanding--almost narrow-minded--police officers being upturned at the very end when she has that fleeting evidence of their fondness for a yakuza killer and the hints throughout that the hardcore division of police force the worked for (Grave) was just one step removed from yakuza in its tactics; that Grave's methods of keeping the peace were the comparable to the yakuza's ways of preserving order on their turf).
You disappoint me, interwebz.