Hee! Yay! I love you ^_^ I would love to be able to talk to you about mutual anime/manga series again!
And why do they do that? The plot/premise can be so deceptive as to what's really going on in the series.
I DON'T KNOWWWW! I wish they wouldn't! Because I've seen so many awesome series that start out in the most ridiculously awful ways. Tenshi ni Narumon is a good example, of course - naked girl falls out of the sky on you zomg! - but Kyou Kara Maoh, which is like this epic fantasy military shounen-ai fest, starts with the main character being flushed down a toilet into another universe. GAH. I think it's a gimmick thing; the creators think no one will be interested unless they have a flashy, unique, bizarre premise, and then they sort of forget it happened. A lot of yaoi starts out with incidents that totally squick me out and then pretend they never happened.
Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ sounds interesting, and seems as if it's giving you a lot to think about.
I now own all of it! It's out in two omnibuses of three volumes each, and at the end of the first omnibus, it very much redeems itself as far as all the animosity and fighting over Hazumu. Which made me very happy. I have high hopes :D
I'm beginning to wonder if in a lot of manga, the feelings about/understanding of gender/sex/romantic attraction issues of the manga-ka is as much a factor in how their characters are portrayed as is the attitudes about it in Japanese society as a whole.
You know, that's really interesting. I think Kashimashi was written by a guy, and one whose usual series are very fanservice-oriented. This one has exactly one exploitative picture in three volumes, and it's someone's misconstrued fantasy, not reality. I'm really looking forward to the rest, to see how it turns out and what the "message" is. Speaking of that, I get kind of depressed about, I dunno, having lost my blissful ignorance, because I can't just read a series anymore without thinking about what they're trying to say or imply or put forward as "right". Tomari in Kashimashi kept saying things in flashbacks when Hazumu was a boy about "boys can't do/be X, stupid! Be more manly or I won't like you anymore!" and it makes me so MAD... and it would make me even madder if she ends up being portrayed as in the right for thinking that. But I don't know if she will be. I wish I could read it without thinking so much XD
Like Usagi? Or better than that?
She's not very much like Usagi at all. Juliet is more like Utena, actually, only less mature than Utena. Juliet's angst is never played for laughs, like Usagi's whininess or laziness or clumsiness, all of which made her more human and endearing. Juliet's periods of weakness and self-doubt are like Utena's, only more frequent XD And Utena drives herself, you know? She knows what she wants to be and her ideals are her motivation. Juliet sometimes lets her own feelings guide her (like feelings of justice, or of love) but she's also extremely torn about what's expected of her, which is a huge burden.
I have the first half of the series, and I'm done with it! You can totally borrow it! I'd love to hear what you think and talk to you about it :)
no subject
And why do they do that? The plot/premise can be so deceptive as to what's really going on in the series.
I DON'T KNOWWWW! I wish they wouldn't! Because I've seen so many awesome series that start out in the most ridiculously awful ways. Tenshi ni Narumon is a good example, of course - naked girl falls out of the sky on you zomg! - but Kyou Kara Maoh, which is like this epic fantasy military shounen-ai fest, starts with the main character being flushed down a toilet into another universe. GAH. I think it's a gimmick thing; the creators think no one will be interested unless they have a flashy, unique, bizarre premise, and then they sort of forget it happened. A lot of yaoi starts out with incidents that totally squick me out and then pretend they never happened.
Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ sounds interesting, and seems as if it's giving you a lot to think about.
I now own all of it! It's out in two omnibuses of three volumes each, and at the end of the first omnibus, it very much redeems itself as far as all the animosity and fighting over Hazumu. Which made me very happy. I have high hopes :D
I'm beginning to wonder if in a lot of manga, the feelings about/understanding of gender/sex/romantic attraction issues of the manga-ka is as much a factor in how their characters are portrayed as is the attitudes about it in Japanese society as a whole.
You know, that's really interesting. I think Kashimashi was written by a guy, and one whose usual series are very fanservice-oriented. This one has exactly one exploitative picture in three volumes, and it's someone's misconstrued fantasy, not reality. I'm really looking forward to the rest, to see how it turns out and what the "message" is. Speaking of that, I get kind of depressed about, I dunno, having lost my blissful ignorance, because I can't just read a series anymore without thinking about what they're trying to say or imply or put forward as "right". Tomari in Kashimashi kept saying things in flashbacks when Hazumu was a boy about "boys can't do/be X, stupid! Be more manly or I won't like you anymore!" and it makes me so MAD... and it would make me even madder if she ends up being portrayed as in the right for thinking that. But I don't know if she will be. I wish I could read it without thinking so much XD
Like Usagi? Or better than that?
She's not very much like Usagi at all. Juliet is more like Utena, actually, only less mature than Utena. Juliet's angst is never played for laughs, like Usagi's whininess or laziness or clumsiness, all of which made her more human and endearing. Juliet's periods of weakness and self-doubt are like Utena's, only more frequent XD And Utena drives herself, you know? She knows what she wants to be and her ideals are her motivation. Juliet sometimes lets her own feelings guide her (like feelings of justice, or of love) but she's also extremely torn about what's expected of her, which is a huge burden.
I have the first half of the series, and I'm done with it! You can totally borrow it! I'd love to hear what you think and talk to you about it :)