Follow-up.

[sub_divided]

I had no idea Lawrence Yep was such an unsung hero. Poll!

Poll Familiarity Test

1. Updated the gmail accounts with Vampire Knight chapters 10-18.

2. Let's talk about yaoi manga.

Comments

[i_smile]

Oh, that comment. :))) I felt validated reading it and it wasn't even addressed to me.

I kept hoping for another chapter of I Want to Become Your Bird that'd explain the main character. I bet that's what Sasuke would be like if his family had lived and his brother & Naruto just kept getting better than him while he had no huge motivation to become the best. The way it ended was just--???. It wasn't great, but it was memorable for the WTF factor.

repost, spelling.

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It ended? How many chapters? I have the first four.

The sad thing is that I think those hastily thrown together scenes between MC and his father were supposed to explain his chronically low self-esteem and passitivity. They just didn't work.

L-I-mean-the-love-interest is even more WTF; he's so obviously the author's Ideal Male that it isn't even funny, but for some reason it didn't occur to her that his personality should affect his actions. Also I thought it was hilarious that after the first chapter, his resemblence to L drops dramatically. It's like suddenly she/her editors realized that they were bound to get in trouble, ripping off Obata that blatantly. I mean, in the first chapter you can figure out which panels she might have traced.

I bet that's what Sasuke would be like if his family had lived and his brother & Naruto just kept getting better than him while he had no huge motivation to become the best.

Now that's an AU I'd read.

Re: repost, spelling.

[i_smile]

I think I only had one or two chapters. Maybe that's why it made no sense to me! :D I came away with the sense that the kid had no parents, or something? That it was just him & his big sister & his uncle a few streets away. It was basically just the Sasuke-Ishida kid falling all over his slacker sister's boyfriend, blushing, and then going home. I figured the BL was all because of the teacher sex in the first volume, before his unrequited crush on an older boy purifies him and stops him from going back to the teacher.

I mean, in the first chapter you can figure out which panels she might have traced.
I'll have to go back and look at that! He did look very, very similar.

Re: repost, spelling.

[i_smile]

...where "first volume" means "very beginning". :/ All those epic shounen series are influencing my vocabularly.

[cynic_in_charge]

I'm still a bit boggled to find out that Yep isn't considered part of children's canon. Not even really part of the children's fantasy canon. XDXDXD

[sub_divided]

No, but look at the poll results! Most people have read him after all. He probably isn't any more neglected than most YA fantasy authors who were only briefly popular.

[cynic_in_charge]

Now that I think about it, he's probably canon for children immigrant lit since I think he has a monopoly there. I only vaguely remember the books where it talks about the building of the railway and a brother and sister that were separated (brother went to the US to make money and well, yeah). If I remember correctly, it was dynastic. The series, I mean. "Dragon's Gate" was the most famous of them.

S'weird 'cos I tend to slot Yep into the same category as Alexander, Yolen and Wrede, as I read all three at the same time until I realize that it's not really his niche. XDXDXD

[sub_divided]

I put him with the fantasy authors too, but that's because I liked his fantasy books better than his historical fiction books.

There aren't a lot of immigrant books, but there is a LOT of second-generation YA. About, you know, growing up and trying to figure out who you are, when your friends want you to act more American and your parents act like they're still in China/Russia/Mexico. I know there are a lot of these because I was obsessed with them in middle school. (Sadly, I can't remember the titles anymore.)

[amei]

I think there was a lot worse yaoi manga out there than I want to Become Your Bird? Granted it wasn't especially good, and the girlish 15 yr old ho' perhaps doesn't gel. I wouldn't say his family life is really all that normal either. D:?

Totally not seeing the L resemblance. Maybe there's a similarity to Obata's style in that character, but then again I've never had an eye for art anyways???

repost html

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I think there was a lot worse yaoi manga out there than I want to Become Your Bird

Probably, yeah. I'm still not sure why I took such an especial dislike to this one. I haven't read that much BL this year, maybe that's why. Hrrrrm but the non-normal family parts were so obviously just an excuse to make MC a ho, plus they were not THAT bad (so your dad is always busy and dismissive, this is different from others how?) so I sort of overlooked them. They certain had no effect on his sister.

I've never had an eye for art

Whaaaaaa? No way! He looks like curly-haired L from the beginning, especially in the panel that cuts off his eyes (a favorite curly-haired L position).

Curly-haired L One
Curly-haired L Two

I guess it's not ripping off so much as being VERY inspired by.

[ramble_corner]

ahaha &heart; for love mode. it was the first yaoi manga that I read , believe it or not and it always have a special place in my heart XD

and re: last volumes

yeah reading them also made me reread the first ones and goes 'ooh that's why'
all the extra details that are not noticed before until you got to the last volume. Like how T's uncle was what made Aoe made 'he's such a normal kid' remark to T on the phone .
XD

[sub_divided]

Haha Shiki. I liked that when you finally do get to his chapter, it uses the EXACT SAME PANELS from the flashbacks volumes and volumes earlier. Talk about planning ahead.

Best part of re-reading was recognizing Tien Lee. OMG.

[summertea]

The only ONLY reason why I read 'I Want To Become Your Bird' is because it's pretty.

[sub_divided]

Maybe I'm being too hard on it? If it had no redeeming qualities it would be easier to like/dismiss, it's the fact that any of its elements taken alone is good, but when you but them together it's bad, that makes it so infuriating.

But it is pretty. I wonder if more artists are going to start imitating Obata's style now.