Archive for the “Manga” Category

Ma foi c’était très bien!!!!

C’est si vieux que cela Japan Expo? Je me souviens quand cela ne tenait pas plus haut que la blague de bizut quand j’étais une pauvre âme sans but dans les couloirs de Jussieu. Puis, les accidents de la vie oblige, j’ai laissé passé tous ce qui était conventions, peut-être parce ce que j’avais trop honte de la dérive dans laquelle je partais.

En 2008, j’avais enfin un aperçu de ce qu’était la Japan Expo, mais c’était loin d’être impérissable.

*par respect pour mes pairs, et aussi par crainte des possibles dérives de la part d’Anonymous, j’ai évité de prendre des photos de ceux de l’anime fandom francophone que j’ai eu la chance de rencontrer, notamment Tin et Nina Wolken, ils me comprendront*

Mon regret est de n’avoir pu rencontrer voire reconnaitre Axel Terizaki, Klashikari et d’autre gars que j’ai rencontré sur twitter ou les blogs, et autres forums.

Revenons à JE. 2012, je travaille, par là j’entends boulot stable, depuis des mois, donc j’ai du fric et, ma soeur ayant passé et obtenu son bac, j’ai envisagé la possibilité d’y aller.

J’ai même rencontré un collègue de Leclerc dans la file d’attente, il se reconnaitra.

Ma soeur voulant voir autre chose, on s’est donc séparé. Puis j’ai rencontré Tin. Et je dois dire que l’expérience était largement différente de 2008. Notamment contact avec la scène amateur, rencontre avec des artistes doujins japonais, etc… Le premier burger new-yorkais de Marshall dans How I Met Your Mother, voilà la sensation qui décrit ce Japan Expo 2012. Car j’ai, grâce au guide Tin, j’ai pu gratter sous le vernis, et voir à côté de quoi les casuals passent. Et cela me redonne envie.

Mon loot JE est pourtant modeste, 189 euros dépensé en doujins, Touhou et Nanoha, commission de la gentille Kanna de Plum, une peluche Ryuk pour mon petit frère, un bonnet Totoro pour ma soeur qui m’a accompagné et un bonnet Kyuubey pour moi.

Donc merci à ceux que j’ai eu le bonheur de rencontrer. Je sais enfin ce qu’a ressenti Marshall en mangeant son premier burger à New York.

Just a Burger? Just a burger. Robin, it’s so much more than “just a burger”. I mean…that first bite—oh what heaven that first bite is! The bun like a sesame freckled breast of an angel resting gently on the ketchup and mustard below—flavors mingling in a seductive pas-de-deux And then…a pickle…the most playful little pickle! Then a slice of tomato, a leaf of lettuce and a…a patty of ground beef so exquisite; swirling in your mouth breaking apart and combining again in a fugue of sweets and savor so delightful. This is no mere sandwich of grilled meat and toasted bread, Robin: this is God…speaking to us in food.

Pour les photos, c’est sur mon compte twitter.

AX of Animesuki is right. I might need a cave soon. What would be the best for me would be a fallout shelter. You guys would be afraid to know how many figs I may ending up with by the end of 2012. I will say it anyway, that may be well over 30, just from amiami alone, a little more with those outside amiami.

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Like many boys, back in my childhood, I was more drawn to robots and other boy things. I even started drawing robots, taking inspiration from the robots of the week in UFO Grendizer. I also had the luck to watch Space Sherif Gavan and Bioman back then, but that’s another thing.

However, when UFO Grendizer had been airing, I had to sit through episodes of Candy Candy, that I never quite liked, Versailles no Bara, that I found cool because of the rapier duels, and Minky Momo, that I liked a bit. I said a bit. Already in that day, the naked transformation scenes in Minky Momo started molding the pervert sleeping in me (a dose of Father hiding porn in Disney VHS leading to some accident did not help). One can argue that Minky Momo laid the ground for my future self as a moé enthusiasm.

Flash forward to a few years later, Little Princess, also known as Princess Sarah in France, aired alongside other magical girls shows like Magical Emi and Creamy Mami. Robotech and Saint Seiya was the rage and I happily followed those shows. Princess Sarah had grown a sentiment in me. This was not lust, and less perversion, because, you know, Sarah was in no way sexualized. Sarah cultivated in me a sentiment akin to a urge to protect the character from whatever bad things happened.

And a little after that, Kimagure Orange Road came. Madoka Ayukawa was the one reason I watched the show. Do note that in the 2000s, Motoko Aoyama, Sakaki, Matsuri Shihou, Mai Kawasumi and Mio Akiyama were among my favorite characters of this past decade. Notice a pattern in those characters?

What was the point of those paragraphs? Oh, that’s very simple. I enjoyed “boys” shows as much as the kids and teenagers belonging to the male gender in my age range did. I recognize that I drifted further away from the mecha genre since Evangelion, as I got exposed to cyberpunk and embraced heroic fantasy since I started reading books by Michael Moorcock as my definitive favorite genre (this is a story for later). However, the seeds of my enthusiasm for the moé subculture have already been planted way back in the Pinky Momo days. I had been a shounen fan primarily but I could not really say no to a few eye candy. This enthusiasm needed the right water for the seeds to grow and complete my conversion.

This happened in the early 2000s. I had few enthusiasm for the current offering of early 2000s. FMP by Gonzo was not so bad, but ought to be better. Hellsing made me rage when I got my hands over the scans of the original manga. And my first encounters with Gundam, Wing and a few UC here and there, left me with little enthusiasm toward the franchise (as much polarizing Eva was, I had a more enjoyable experience and UFO Grendizer AND Macross, as I learned more about Robotech, were definitely my favorite mechas). A show with a cult following had been lent to me by my friend, who was my only contact with anime on the intrabutt. It looked like Nikita meet conspiracy thriller. This was called Noir. Good idea, I loved the fact that it took place in France and awesome score by Kajiura. Moreover, I was utterly fascinated by the main duo, Mireille Bouquet and Kirika Yuumura.

I was drawn to that air of nobility that Mireille oozed, and also that slight vulnerability going on for Kirika. As you can see, Noir was flawed, but the duo made me willing to let them not bother me.

The fact that I could not access to Guilty Gear X2 made me search for alternatives. Zepy introduced me to doujin fighters. And I loved what I played. Glove on Fight, Queen of Hearts 2001 and Eternal Fighter Zero. Those games made me curious about the moé subculture, as I WANTED to know more about the characters who starred in those games. This was in that time that I started d/ling moé anime to see what they were about. I’ll be honest, this being the early 2000s (2002-2003 tbh), I was left disappointed with what I saw.

Then came a doujin game, with sprites that were not SDs, and having Ciel that I have known through Glove on Fight. You guessed it. This was Melty Blood. And that was a blast. Melty Blood was the turning point for me. A jaded, oldefag, got converted to moé subculture. That’s it. Type-Moon and Nasuverse are the things that turned me into a moéfag. And Touhou definitely helped sustaining the momentum. But this was not out of nowhere as you could see. Those was just the springs that nurtured the ground in which the seeds were planted.

Where do I stand now? I have explored a few classics I enjoyed back in the day, this time with proper dubbing (japanese with subs), so I could give shows like Hokuto no Ken the due respect, and sorrow over how the french executives mistreated them and disrespected the fans that were older than me when those shows aired, and all those fans could do is to lament the bad dubs or the gag dub.

So, I am a moé enthusisast, giving my classics their due respect. I cannot bring myself to completely hate those watching the Big Three, because I had been there and knew that they will eventually change. I now find myself unable look down on the moé subculture. This didn’t mean that I didn’t feel embarassed over that one guy marrying his body pillow. As a moé enthusiast, I think that people should be able to draw the line and realize when they are making monkeys of themselves. I sometimes go “mai waifu!!” like over Sakuya Izayoi or Byakuren Hijiri, but in the end I know it’s all tongue-in-cheek.

This seems to be a problem with oldefags, they looks down on moéfags, and are… just… SERIOUS. ALL THE TIME. And forgetting that anime is firstly, and mostly, just entertainment. This is my sentiment when I look at the seemingly joyless folk of a certain blog. They seems to think that there is a war, a righteous, against the moéfags, while forgetting that it is quite possible to enjoy every specter of the medium, but just that people likes one side more than the other. But this is another story, perhaps developped in another day.

tl;dr: I was not always a moéfag. In fact, I used to be one of those jaded oldfags. However, the seeds of moé love had been planted in me by Minky Momo, Little Princess, Orange Road and various magical girl shows. It only needed the right trigger to grow and convert me. This trigger is nothing less than Melty Blood.

For a change, a guy. But not the only one that will be in my collection, since I am planning to add Makoto Shishio AND Batman

The box IS HUGE

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I have gotten a little lazy on my updates, but this is not for naught. Those I got are Sanae, normal and nendoroid, Kurisu Makise, Branwen, Saito Hajime AND Byakuren. I shall now start with Sanae.

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2011 was… an interesting year for me.

Fitting pic since as a buddhist, I have been dragged, for some time, into taoism by mom. Credit: Ringetsumon

Anime

This first quarter of the year started out strong with Madoka setting the bar very, oh so very high, by daring to go where Nanoha itself did not dare to go. It also was a blind bet on Shaft’s part and Shaft certainly fared much better with one of its first tries on an original IP than KyoAni did years ago with Munto, does people still remember Munto TV btw?

The second quarter showed disappointment with Hidan no Aria, yes JC Staff should really be stopped to be entrusted light novel adaptations with reckless abandon. A damn shame, the whole Ariaverse IS an interesting sandbox for original characters creators or fanfic writers. I personally would have retconned Vlad as looking like an actual vampire from the lores or Hammer movies or Castlevania tbh. Denpa Onna was very nice to follow while Steins;Gate started out slow and took a while to get used to or to like. There was also Ano Hana, but later on the angst then the narm in the last episode downright pissed me off.

The third quarter had Idolmaster, a harmless yet good show. Those expecting the GRIMDARK study of the GRIMDARK world of idols complete course with couch casting and NTR could just fuck off. Then you had the pretentious Kama-sama no Memochou, that’s really the one word describing this show. Penguindrum IS a polarizing show, some will see it as THE anime of the decade, it is not so for me. Why? Because I think that Ikuhara have gone overboard with it. I liked what I have seen in Utena but what I have seen in Penguindrum did not strike the right cord with me. The likes of roriconfan can blow, I am not going to rain praise on Penguindrum just because Ikuhara did it. I did not have to like everything churned out by Tim burton, I just don’t see why I should do the same for Ikuhara. Finally the last shows of the third quarter of 2011 to me were Croisee and Usagi Drop. Croisee was a slice of life trying to see how a Japanese girl would do in late 19th Paris; but the painting of the Paris in Croisee was very far from the miserabilism I was see used to see since Emile Zola, it may not please those looking for something more ambitious, but it appealed to me. Usagi Drop was to me the winning show of Summer 2011. Yes, well over Penguindrum. Maybe because deep inside me I wanted to experience the hardship of being a father, adoptive or biological. But more importantly, this show have done it with a just tone, without excessive pandering. And steins;gate continued to gain momentum and confirmed its status around a certain episode.

Fall 2011 had Fate Zero, Ben-To and Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. Fate Zero have yet to finish before I can fully judge it. So far, it delivered, less than Kara no Kyoukai (unfair when you know that it is comparing movies to TV series) but much better than Deen’s Stay Night. Boku wa Tomodachi could be called, for me, the Married with Children of the Harem Highschool Romcom genre. The comedy in it was crude and rude, and crass but it worked well for me. More importantly, the fanservice blended well with the series, and it looked good for most of its run, as you SHOULD expect from an entry in the genre. Not the most memorable comedy around, those for me are Excel Saga, Kimengumi and Cromartie High, but I will surely purchase the DVDs if I have the opportunity. Then Ben-to, an affectionate parody of the fighting shounen genre, but also the demonstration that one trope have overstayed its welcome. Nope, that girl don’t get a free pass because she is a lesbian, fuck you guys.

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If there are purchases that I could count as compulsive, those two are the ones. I don’t know much about the Muv Luv Alternative franchise, other than hot pictures on danbooru. Those hot pictures are mainly the reasons I rushed on those models like a predator on two schoolgirls.

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I was apparently so caught in gaming and other distraction that I have forgotten this blog.

Well, to be honest, there is also the fandumb on the part of both anime veterans and new guys to the hobby. This is the kind of discussion that makes me sick.

As a veteran (remember I started watching them when I was 4 or 6 years old) I am of the opinion that we are way too harsh to the “new” anime. A lot are pointing fingers to moé as the single cause of the decline that seems to be ongoing. How is it different from the situation of the 1970s where Super Robot reigned supreme, or the 1980s where it was mostly sport anime? I mean, I can get tired of the always angry, always impatient and ALWAYS SHOUTING mecha pilot or the sport prodigy archetypes, they did annoy me at one point of my life as anime fan. I was always more fond of the monolithic badass of few words (like Kenshiro, Guts or The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s movies).

When I think about, I can think of two reasons, even tho they are not the sole reasons. Until over 10 years ago, we relied on our local importers and localizers for our anime fix. They chose for the local market and demand of the local public. I insist on the local part because every countries are fortunately not the same. As a result, USA anime fandom is not the same as those from Mexico, France, Spain, Italy, Singapore and Philipine, to name a few countries. So, while the importers gave us a choice, it was a limited choice that catered to the taste of the fandom of the moment. If sport anime is in, like because of a world cup or the olympics, one could expect more sport anime, otherwise it is the action shounen and the romcom shoujo.

It was more rare to see an anime catering to another kind of audience. Onii-sama e created a lot of shock among the french parents associations because of its homosexual tone, let’s not get started on Hokuto no Ken. So our choice was limited by what taste our education gave us and what the moral guardians allowed. In this time of broadband internet, the importers and the moral guardians hardly matters anymore, you have now the choice to watch ultraviolent anime (Elfen Lied) and what people calls girly moeshit (Aria) and anything in between.A single click and at the cost of HD space and free time, here you have the lastest episode of… Bleach, yeah an example. Yes guys, this anime the importers took so long to license, you have already seen it months or years before every “casuals”. Here, you can chuckle when your friends are telling you that Death Note is the shit, “Yeah, right, Slowpoke.” Now think about it, you now have the CHOICE. And you can see ALL the bad, with the mediocre, average, the good and the potential classic that people may talk about for the years to come. But you are seeing the bad, really and think to yourself, “What the fuck is this shit?”. You need to remember what I said about the importers. Yes, they filtered out the bad shit for thirty years, and sometimes some of the bad shit of the 1970-1990s does get through. Those are the series that are lying somewhere in a closet, shamefully hidden by the guys who licensed it and collecting dust, those are the anime that gets a few episodes aired before being pulled out of air because of poor reception. Like, “what was that anime about a new sport mixing baseball with football (what USA calls soccer)?” And you have forgotten the title, and it may be better that way because it was that bad. This is one of those anime that makes you feel lucky if you have never wasted your time with.

Now the second reason, the anime netsphere, be it forums, image boards or blogs. Before them, you relied on anime magazines. They told you what is bad and what is awesome, but not anymore. Why? Well, you can look at blogs or forums to have a hot reaction over the lastest episode of Bleach. It’s easier now to voice your opinion, and easier to be listened. The thing is that, one complains, followed by another one and another one. See where I am going? One can go to youtube and read the comments about music or movies. “Music/movies used to be better in the 1960s-1980s”. How can 1990s be bad when music give us The Cranberries, Radiohead and more, and when we got Pulp Fiction, The Crow and Se7en? How could 2000s be worse than 1980s and 1990s when you got Muse, Masterplan for music, and Shaun of the Dead, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Hot Fuzz for movies?

Now extend this to anime and can you see how the whole “Things used to be better in the *insert decade here*” have become laughable and disgusting to me?
I do have hope in the creative and entertainment industry of nowaday, and I want to. I am not just going to sit on my ass and cry over how more anime should be like *insertgreatclassic* here. I do want to be surprised, nicely, by the likes of Gungrave, Durararara and Bakemonogatari. And if it meant to have to roll my eyes over yet another harem anime/mecha anime/Generic Light Novel, fine. That would not stop me from trying to search for the diamond, I mean, afte all, you DO have to dig through dirt and shit to find some, right?

But the current problem I meet is when I tell that modern anime is not as bad as veterans makes it out to be, and name the series I mentioned, I get the “Yes, but…” answer. What I am supposed to answer? What those modern anime have to do or have to hope to live up the classics? I have yet to hear a compelling answer regarding why those classics are untouchable standards that everyone should bow to and never criticize. But until, all those reasons belongs to the subjective realm and are therefore not acceptable for me.

I may see myself as a veteran, but I think that veterans are just way too severe to modern anime. Especially when they forget that their classics were aired among rubbish too.

I just had to post this one.

Source is here.

She have gotten a fourth season. In manga form.

Yes, you will miss the music (not that great. The franchise needs Kajiura for that), the animation (suffered at times from QUALITY) and the voice acting.

But you can hope that Tsuzuki will bring flesh to his vision without having to worry about budget restriction. In fact, his worst enemies will be deadline and if something goes wrong with his collborators.

I am midly amused by the fact that the one in charge of the drawing in “Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha Force” is the same as the one who drew Shina Dark. A rather nice light fantasy manga with a bit of ecchi. We should not worry about the moé and the fanservice.

Now, it will be the first time we will see a magical girl in her mid-twenties. I just hope that the fact they dropped “Shoujo” in favor of “Senki” for Nanoha Force is not just for show and actually express the wish of the author, and a part of the fan community, to depart from the genre.

While this community have chanted that its roots lies in Gundam and Super Robots. One have brought up an alternative if not more interesting interpretation.

A careful scrutiny of the Nanohaverse reveals that it isn’t really a magical girl series. It’s a fantasy-adventure series like Slayers disguised as a Magical Girl series. The high-tech look of TSAB equipment and the title obscured that.
There’s also the fact that Nanoha, Fate and Hayate are getting too old to be called Magical Girls anymore. At 25, they’re approaching the other contender for the title of oldest magical girl, right?

You have the journey element (Nanoha Takamachi, her challenges and her growth), the happy party growing as more enemies are defeated, the signature weapons so dear to the adventurers, and the quest for artifacts of doom in the first seasons (the jewel seeds and the Book of Darkness), and you also have the older generation eventually passing the torch to the new generation (seen in some fantasy epics, or in tabletop RPG games where player characters becomes too powerful and when the players and the gamemaster want a peaceful retirement). Those elements and the overall structure are indeed closer to the fantasy genre than Gundam or the Super Robot genre.