What You Need to Know To Become a Magical Girl

March 13th, 2011

I’m in the middle of watching Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ). A number of people mentioned I ought to watch it and a regular reader and commenter here suggested in conversation on Twitter that it would change the way I thought about Magical Girls Series. I replied that I felt that that was highly unlikely. Today’s post is why.

This is not a review of Madoka. I’ll do that when it’s complete. In short – I think there’s a lot of interesting elements in the story, both in terms of plot construction and visual design. I marathoned the first 8 episodes yesterday and am still watching, so that says something. ^_^ Today I want to explain, in a roundabout, allegorical way, why the plot complications in Madoka did not surprise me all that much.

Tools you need before becoming a Magical Girl:

1) Extensive reading of major literary works

This is why “average” middle-school girls are so often pegged by magical sidekicks to become Magical Girls. If you are an adult, former Comparative Literature major, you’d recognize irony and other literary plot complications when you saw it and not fall for things so quickly. So, make sure your kids read O. Henry and W.W. Jacobs as early as they are emotionally capable of reading them. Adam also suggests adding the story of Faust to the list and I agree. Perhaps some of the more annoying Arabian Tales, in which promises by genies are twisted, as well. dmunder7 also correctly suggests that Greek Myths – especially those involving Delphic prophecies be on your child’s early reading list.

2) A healthy dose of cynicism

Again, most middle-schoolers are not yet steeped in the ways of the world and actually think that they are important. If you make your kids aware of the larger world and the horrors humans perpetrate upon one another at a young age, they are much less likely to fall for a line, whether it be the guy who asks them to help him find his lost dog in the woods, or the cute magical creature offering to fulfill dreams.

3) A list of questions

If anyone offers you a chance to be a magical girl, start asking these questions. Unless you get a complete answer to all of them, say no and walk away:

– What are all my powers and what do I have to do to use them? This includes weapons, spells, mantras, poses, songs, familiars, etc….

– What is the downside/trade-off to using my powers (health, lifespan, suck energy from people, etc…)

– Who are my enemies, how do I recognize them?

– Do we have past connection, do we have a current connection? (If we have a past connection, how did I defeat them last time? If we have a current connection, how will defeating them affect their daily life now?)

– Why are they my enemies?

– What are the risks I am taking (death for me, death for my loved ones, destruction of everything in the known universe, etc….)

– What’s the long-term effect of doing this? (Do you wipe our memories, do we all die, but save the world, do we get to return to a normal life…how do I get out of it, once I’m done?)

– Do I have allies? How can I recognize them? What are their powers?

– Did we have a connection in the past and how does it affect our connections (if any) now?

– What else do I need to know that I haven’t explicitly asked, but will affect me if I don’t know it?

– What’s in it for you?

If you have any questions you’d add, feel free to do so in the comments. I’ll add the best in to the list.

I hope this gives you a better perspective of my perspective of Madoka, as well. I’m going to watch a few more episodes now. ^_^

***

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a list for Making a Magical Girl Anime. It’s a list to help you decide whether to become a Magical Girl…just like it says in the title.

Posted in Now This Is Only My Opinion | 46 Comments »


Playing Hooky

March 12th, 2011

I’m taking the day off today to do other things entirely.

For your reading entertainment, please visit OtakuUSA magazine for an interview with Himekawa Akira and Qais Sedki, the creators of The Gold Ring, an Arabic-language manga that was entriely delighful on every level. I hope you will all be able to read it one day in English.

The interview was in part conducted by our friend Komatsu Mikakzu-san, and I’d like you to show your support for his first journalistic endeavor for the magazine.

Enjoy your Saturday and I’ll catch up with you again next week!

Posted in Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »


Bad News and Good

March 11th, 2011

By now, most of you have heard that there was an extremely powerful earthquake in Japan. It measured 8.9 and is considered to be the worst ever recorded in Japan, even surpassing the Great Kantou Earthquake of 1923. This has been followed by strong aftershocks and more earthquakes. Tsunamis measuring 10 meters high hit the coast of Sendai and Fukushima. And unfortunately, but not surprisingly, fires are breaking out in some areas.

I spent the morning contacting our friends, colleagues and acquaintances in Japan. So far, we’re receiving positive responses from everyone. Even our friends in Hokkaido seem to be safe at the moment.

Of course, we all are sending good thoughts and prayers to everyone in Japan.

If you are not philosophically opposed to supporting the Red Cross, you can Text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the international relief fund for Japan. I am not endorsing the Red Cross and there are other reputable rescue and relief organizations. Please follow your conscience and do what you think is right and best in regards to offering relief.

In a masterly bit of bad timing, today was the day that Anime News Network announced that ALC Publishing has been honored by the Kyoto International Manga Museum by having a number of our manga included in their permanent collection. For a very spiffy picture of our dear friend and staffer Komatsu-san handing over the books to Watanabe-san of the museum, check out the ANN story.

Of course, we are very pleased by this, but also wish it had been announced on some other day, because it is a little hard to feel very good about it today. Nonetheless, we thank Komatsu-san for his assistance, and the Kyoto International Manga Museum for allowing us to contribute to their research collection!

Posted in ALC Publishing | 8 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 8 (ささめきこと)

March 11th, 2011

Here we are at Volume 8 of Sasamekikoto (ささめきこと). And we are just about as far from where we started as we can be. Instead of layering Yuri tropes and riffing on fan expectations, Volume 8 is a straightforward look at what happens when two people decide to be more honest with their feelings, with the strong subtext of “taking responsibility.”

We left Sumi on the cusp of running for Student Council President and facing a smear campaign about her sexuality. To counter this, she is set up on a date with Akemiya-kun as a beard, but when he shows up as Akemi-chan, the more important message becomes one of personal responsibility for one’s choices. This is brought front and center when Mayu punches out a classmate for her unkind words and Sumi, as Karate team captain has to bear the responsibility. Ultimately, to save the Karate team from being disbanded, Sumi pulls herself from the election…only to have Ushio step in to replace her. Ushio, determined to be as responsible a member of the Student Body as Sumi is, wins. The Karate team remains intact, and Ushio does not back down from her own new responsibilities.

Throughout this volume, Ushio’s brother is being pressured by their grandmother to take responsibility for his own future and for Ushio. After she falls and is injured, he bites the bullet and confronts Kinuta-san about his responsibility to his grandmother and Ushio. The scene where he asks Kinuta to marry him was, IMHO, one of the funniest, most realistic scenes we’ve had in the series (and the reactions of the people around them remind me strongly of a night in a restaurant in England during which everyone in the room was visibly listening in on a breakup at a table in the center of the room.)

And then there’s Sumika. Sumi has been under a tremendous amount of stress recently. She’s pulled herself from the election, but had attention focused on her personal life in a rather unnerving way. Then she had to deal with Mayu’s situation. But what pushes her to the point of breaking is Ushio saying that she’s leaving to go take care of her grandmother. Smear her, blame her, make her the brunt of what you will…the one thing Sumika cannot tolerate is the loss of Ushio.

And that brings us to the end of a very excellent volume of a manga that is not what we could have expected, but has become everything it could be.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Where will Volume 9 lead us? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out!

Posted in Ikeda Takashi, Sasamekikoto, Yuri Manga | 9 Comments »


Digimon Tamers Anime (English)

March 8th, 2011

As I noted a few weeks ago, the anime Digimon Tamers is now available on Hulu.com. This has provided me a chance to revisit one of the most remarkable Saturday-morning cartoons I’ve ever watched.

Digimon follows the same formula that made Pokemon a hit – young people “collect” creatures, and participate in fights so the creatures can “evolve” to higher power levels. In Digimon Tamers, which was the third anime series of the franchise, there is a card/computer game version of “Digimon,” which is played by all of our principle characters. As a result of several plot complications, actual Digimon are transported from the “Digital World” to our world. The plot follows these Digimon and their human counterparts, their “Tamers.”

The Tamers are Takato, the Digimon anime franchise equivalent of a energetic young tenor in opera. Distinguished by his goggles, every-so-slight cluelessness and energy, he is the de facto leader of the group. Jian (called Henry in the English dub) is a Chinese-Japanese, whose father was part of the team that originally created the Digimon. The third member of the group is Ruki (called Rika in the dub,) known as the Digimon Queen for her card gaming skills.

Takato appears to have created his own Digimon by force of will and, like his Tamer, Guilmon is guileless, cheerful and energetic. Jian appears to have had his Digimon, Terriermon, for some time and they already have a history and some traumatic experiences behind them when the anime starts.

Ruki is typical of many girls in gaming – she works twice as hard as the boys, ekes out a little respect and about the same level of derision, and is, at 10 years old, already quite jaded and cynical. At first glance, there’s no way not to peg Ruki as a babydyke, from the leg holster and the broken-heart t-shirt she habitually wears, to her passive-aggressive relationship with her Digimon, Renamon.

Renamon is eight kinds of awesome as a fighter, she’s smart and, compared with the other Digimon, she’s mature. (To be fair, Terriermon is more mature than Guilomon, partially because of Jian and partially because he is older and more experienced than Guilomon.)  Ruki and Renamon’s relationship is as full of denial, recrimination, poor communication and tenderness as any real-life relationship. It’s almost embarrassingly realistic.

I first watched this series as it played out on American TV, during a Saturday morning cartoon block. Now, watching the original anime in Japanese with subtitles, I’m amazed how *little* was changed for the dub. I’m amazed – and impressed. Scenes, tone, dialogue are all exactly as I remember it.

I am not impressed by the subtitling on Hulu, however. It has exactly the same lack of quality control that plagues Crunchyroll’s subtitling. It really would be worth hiring an editor, purveyors of streaming subtitled anime. Instead of seamless translation, there’s typos, grammatical and syntactical errors, and an overall sense of middle-schoolers or non-native English-speakers having been put in charge of the project.

Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to be able to watch Digimon Tamers again, and watch Ruki slowly, reluctantly, come to realize what Renamon really means to her. If you missed it the first time around on TV, I hope you’ll give it a try this time. It’s a surprisingly excellent franchise cartoon.

Ratings:

Art – 7, with flashes of 9 and moments of 5, when the budget runs low
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – really depends on how you interpret Ruki and Renamon’s relationship. Let’s call it a 5
Service – 1

Overall – 9

It’s not a “Yuri anime” but is an excellent anime, with Yuri potential if you want to go there. If not, it’s a great cartoon.

Posted in English Anime | 5 Comments »