(Untitled)

[uisceros]

Yesterday I went into Cambridge to meet up with one of my friends. At one point we went to possibly the only anime/manga store currently left in the area. I used to go there a lot when I was in high school. Anyway, I found the volume of Love Com I was missing. So yay!

(I honestly have no idea why I don't go to Harvard Square more, where I work is

Comments

[airplanemusic]

Oh! I have Koukou Debut on my To Read list (translation: I bookmarked the download page).

I have stuff I like to keep on my hard drive, too. But then sometimes I forget that I've already burned it, and I burn it again.. hurray!

[uisceros]

Yay! It's super cute, you should read it when/if you get a chance. (There's a particularly hilarious scene when the main character girl invites her boyfriend for a weekend thing, not realizing the implications... but that's not until chapter 30 something... I skipped around)

Hehehe!! I'd totally do that! I WOULD have done that if my dvd case weren't so close by! And sometimes I just randomly keep multiple copies of stuff, just in case (I have like, 2 or 3 copies of Coffee Prince, and apparently HYD.

[airplanemusic]

Yay!
I don't get why girls in shoujo manga don't understand stuff like that!

That's...a lot of copies!

[uisceros]

Because they're supposed to be ridiculously innocent? It's funny how the girl doesn't know, but EVERYONE around her does! You know, I've encountered quite a few girls like that... Am I just extra dirty minded?

Yeah, I know. It was in my Coffee Prince mania, when I was afraid I'd lose it, and made tons of copies of it (I blame it on the fact that it took me FOREVER to download.... if a series is particularly hard to get, I tend to be more protective of it)

[airplanemusic]

Wow I can't believe REAL girls would believe that!!
I guess it's cause usually the main character of a manga is stupid, so even if her (female) friends understand, SHE never would (just like a main character guy wouldn't understand stuff, but his [male] friends would)

Ah yeah, that makes sense (sort of!). Some things I have burned and on my external drive, cause I'm afraid of losing them! (Mostly just pictures)

[uisceros]

I can! I've known a few girls like that in high school! Even college, kinda.

That kinda bugs me, why is the main character always stupid!? Like, they can't even be NORMAL! I can understand if they're not terribly gorgeous, because most girls aren't models, but most girls have average intelligence!

Oh God... pictures. I have like, multiple MULTIPLE copies of pictures. I'm trying to clean it up, but like, fgor the europe pictures I have at least three or four copies of most of them on my hard drive, hard copies, and then copies on multiple discs. I'm extremely paranoid about pictures.

[airplanemusic]

Well I think it's because most people feel that way about themselves. Some people of course think that they're better than everyone else, but probably most people feel inferior to their friends. I know for me, I always feel like I'm the "boring one" -- no art or musical talent, not good at ABC or XYZ, not the pretty one, etc. So if the main character of a series is "average" (or below average) then more of the audience will be able to relate to her.

One series I really like for the main character is Kimi wa Pet. She's tall, beautiful, smart, and successful. But people think that she's stuck up, and wouldn't be interested in "dumb" stuff (like celebrities, etc.) so she ends up being lonely. And she has low self esteem, and has trouble with relationships (cause she only wants to date guys who are taller and more successful than her; because she got sick of guys she dated getting mad at HER for their inadequacies). She's kind of dumb common sense-wise, sometimes, but it's not bad.

[uisceros]

That makes sense! It still slightly irritates me that they can never be "normal" though. (Btw, I wouldn't consider you boring! I'm terribly envious of your mad language skillz! I always considered myself the "crazy one"... because I'm crazy. Not good crazy though. Or the "responsible one", which I hate beyond words.)

She sounds awesome! So totally NOT typical shoujo-esque. I need to watch/read that series sometime, but I'm currently dealing with a backlog. You know, over Christmas break, I like, watched NOTHING. Seriously. I basically read Gokusen fanfic the entire time.

[airplanemusic]

I know, it's frustrating! Actually it's interesting, because in some ways the stereotypical shounen and shoujo heros/heroines are really similar -- they're generally pretty plain, normal, maybe stupid, and of course they usually eat a lot.. But in shounen, it always turns out that they're The One, who will save the world (or whatever). I guess the shoujo corollary is the Miaka-type girl, who's loved by freaking everyone to the point that it's ridiculous.
(If I do consider myself anything, it's "the Japanese-speaking one"! Or "the perverted one"..)

Doesn't she?! I guess it helps that the intended audience for the series is women, not young/teenage girls. I have quite a backlog too.. Actually it took me YEARS to read the last four volumes of Kimi wa Pet. It's got a LOT of text (and lots of kanji) so when I read it before, it was really hard. It was still hard when I finally finished, but..oh well.
I also didn't watch anything! (Like, one or two episodes) I spent my whole break reading Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro manga.

[uisceros]

Yeah, what's with the eating?! They always eat so much, it's kinda strange... But yeah, I've noticed the "girl who everyone loves" a lot. I mean, in Marmalade Boy, EVERYONE loves Miki... It's like that in HYD too, the only one who isn't in love with Tsukushi is Soujiro. But I guess that's a girl thing to, we always want to be loved by lots of guys

[airplanemusic]

I seriously don't know! I don't know if it's some stereotype in Japan, that dumb people eat a lot, or what. It's something that happens in shounen AND shoujo too!
Ehhh while I do like the "girl loved by everyone" thing, I think I prefer something more exciting.. I mean even just, "girl loved by one guy INTENSELY" is more exciting to me than "girl loved by a bunch of guys". Or two guys. Two guys max!

It's a lot easier to find/find out about teenage manga, for sure.
Yeah, it seems less interesting to write fanfic about canon couples (esp. if there isn't even any kind of love triangle going on in the original story!).
I always end up reading fanfic for shounen stories/manga, where there aren't even ANY couples, let alone canon ones.. (And sometimes, I actually read het fics! omg! I've branched out!)

[uisceros]

It must be some sort of sterotype. I don't think they have that sterotype in Taiwan, since the whole country is obsessed with eating... I can't think of any stupid people sterotypes in Taiwan. One of their best insults though, is calling people a "pig", which is highly offensive (I believe), more so than it is here I think

[uisceros]

Random question, but did you ever read Bara no Tame ni? The drama I'm watching is based on it...

[airplanemusic]

Um, no..I've never even heard of it!

[uisceros]

It's old, apparently. But then, the drama I'm watching is old too! I love that a ton of twdramas are based on manga!