I’m out of the office for the next few days with limited computer access. I’ll do my best to approve comments, but it might be some time before I reply to anything. If I don’t approve your comment or reply to it I am either away from the computer, do not have computer access or am ignoring you. Pick whichever works best for you. ^_^
I’ll pick up with the news reports next week. Thanks for your patience!
Have you ever considered how difficult writing a story without conflict must be? I mean, think about it – no screaming matches, no tears, no throwing things, no hand of god tragic events…what is there to care about?
Would it even be possible to write a story in which everyone was just…nice?
Watashi no Su is that story.
Because the Yumi/Sachiko/Touko era of the novels is over, we now turn our eyes to other characters around Lillian. We are introduced to Momo, a first-year whom we ultimately learn is in Touko, Noriko and Kanako’s first-year Tsubaki class. One day, just as she’s leaving class, she passes out. Eiko-sensei, the school doctor has her escorted home by a second-year, Tamaki. Tamaki is instantly likable and a little goofy-whimsical, reminiscent of Sei. When asked what to call her, Tamaki suggests Tama-chan or Tama-Tama. Momo declines politely and sticks with Tamaki-sama. Tamaki suggests that Momo call her “onee-sama” but when Momo asks don’t they have to be soeur for that, Tamaki’s reply is, “well…why not do that then?”
That night Momo learns that her mother is marrying the younger man she’s been dating for a while. It’s a second marriage for Kaya, Momo’s father died while she was still young. Momoko likes Shuu-chan and is fine with that, and fine that they’ll be moving into his family house.
When they get to meet the family, it turns out that Shuu-chan’s grandfather also has a second marriage – a much younger woman named Tsubaki. And they have a daughter, Momo’s age. You see this coming, right? Yes, it’s Tamaki.
So, when Momo works out the relationships, Tamaki would be her step-great-aunt. Tamaki declines to be called this, so they stick with Tamaki-sama. :)
The rest of the story is just…stuff. Stories from both sides of the family, parties, who’s going to do the laundry when, the stuff I call “playing house.” There is no conflict, except in very small ways, when people share lives.
It’s really nice. Nice to have Momo and her family welcomed by Shuuto’s parents and grandparents, nice to have Shuuto and Momo get along. It’s just…nice. Every chapter is a pleasure to read and the final ‘crisis’ is obvious, small and…my god, it’s nice.
I went into this book wondering if Konno-sensei could make me fall in love again. I mean, let’s face it, Yumi and the gang were charming and lovable and it’s really hard to just set them aside. You keep wondering how they are. :-) Cleverly, Konno places this story in a time and place that the story has already covered, so you *know* where and how they are, which frees you to just enjoy Momo’s story. And by god, what a nice story it is.
Ratings:
Overall – Nice
The Oshaka-sama mo Miteru series is continuing as well. I find I also like Yuuki and his friends and am looking forward to bits that we don’t already know about from the previous novels. Basically, Konno-sensei can write characters that are really likable – which is, in itself, incredibly difficult to do.
If it were up to me, every guy who wanted to write about women would be required to read/watch K-On!. I find the series to be utterly delightful in every way, and about as realistic a portrayal of a bunch of girls hanging out as I’ve ever seen. It’s not a “realistic” series but it’s got just the right mix of realism and fiction to make a great story.
The K-On! manga is a series of 4-koma strips and has all the usual strengths and weaknesses of the format. Volume 1 is a great example of the format actually working.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself. For those of you not already familiar with the series, K-On! is about the “light music” club in a high school and the four (then five) girls who are make up the band. Ritsu is the drummer and the on-again-off-again-responsible President of the club. Yamato Nadesico beauty and bassist Mio is a fan favorite, because she’s the most shy and retiring, fans got to see her underwear and she writes funny song lyrics. (The last is not probably part of why most fans like her, but it’s why I do.) Lead guitar and lead character is the pleasantly loopy, idiot savant Yui. Tsumugi, the keyboardist, with her daikon eyebrows, is our passport to Yuri, and latecomer Asuza plays second guitar and second fiddle to Yui’s gags.
What makes K-On! work is the characters and the interaction between them. It’s natural, carefree, goofy. The characters are more than just one joke, maybe as many as three or four jokes per character – it allows for more combinations in the playbook. Above all, what I like best is how freely they share food and touch each other – something that, at least in my experience, is pretty natural for female friends. When Yui hangs over Mugi’s shoulders, it’s not “Yuri,” it’s what friendship looks like.
Nonetheless, Yuri there is, if only in Mugi’s mind. For it is Tsumugi, with her “Mugi-vision” fantasy scenarios that pairs the various girls in the band. Many fans see the obviousness of Mio and Ritsu as a couple, but Mugi doesn’t limit herself to imagining just them. :-) Fujieda Miyabi had a fan-work for this series at the last Comiket of basically nothing but Mugi imagining them all paired up. It was very silly, on top of the normal silliness of the series itself.
The anime was a big hit in Japan – and totally understandably so. It was and is delightful. The second season is running as we speak. The manga has already been licensed by Yen Press and I very much look forward to its release here. I hope that someone picks up the anime (if no one has yet done so,) because that’s a series I will glad throw my money at – I’ve been tempted to buy the Japanese DVDs already.
Ratings:
Art – 7
Characters – 10
Story – 9
Yuri – 3 for “Mugi-vision”
Service – 3 for the whole underwear thing, but other than that, it’s probably more like a 1
Overall – 9
This is the kind of series that just totally works in every direction. The characters, the art, the writing all work together a complete package of entertainment.
I’m getting a lot of angry comments from folks from Kotonoha these days, as a response to my post on my entry for Gunjo. The main accusation appears to be “how dare you, you’re friends with Lilicious and so you are playing favorites.”
I want to address this issue, mostly to provide a permanent link for the next 3,000,000 times it comes up.
I do not support scanlation of material that is currently in print or available for sale – in any language.
In general, I believe that you have no right to entertainment and if a book is licensable or licensed, scanning it does not “help build an audience.” Things might have been different a decade ago, but now, the justification for scanlation is primarily ego on the groups’ side and desire to get something for nothing on the leechers’ side.
The folks at Lililicous know my opinion on this. I have no influence or control over what they do. I am friends with them, but we do not see eye to eye on the matter. I have made the point many times on their IRC channel in hopes of educating people who are not aware that they are violating copyright or hurting individual artists by doing this.
The reason for my post about Kotonoha was because they linked to my review of Gunjo and I suddenly got many new visitors to the site from there. It seemed sensible to let visitors from there know that I do not support scanlations of licensable material – which might be implied from the link. It’s not out of hate or retribution or favoritism and I’m sorry it seemed personal. I have no belief that any scanlation group is better than any other.
The fact that I have a notice up on this title and have never done that before is being misinterpreted by many of you. The issue is not what group is violating the copyright here – the issue is the work that is being scanlated. I am a little more vehement about this title, because I know how much blood, sweat and tears it took the artist to create and how important it is to her. And the thought that anyone is planning on scanlating it makes me ill when I know what she went through with it. The fact that Lili had it on their site is really quite irrelevant – for one thing, I don’t go to their site and have no idea what they have on it. I don’t follow their scanlations, to be honest. (In fact, I gave up reading scanlations some time ago when I realized that it was something with which I strongly disagreed. I also stopped providing out-of-print material for scanlations at that point.) If Lilicious had started to scanlate it, and I had received a lot of visitors from them for it, I very likely would have had the same or similar message. It was merely an issue of timing, not which group. I have removed Kotonoha’s name from the message, since so many thought I was harping on the group. That was not the intention and for that, I sincerely apologize.
If it were up to me, all scanlations groups would grok that they are not helping anyone worth helping. No mangaka is excited to be scanlated. You are not providing a service – you are complicit in copyright violation. You are not “building an audience,” you are devaluing something that many people have worked hard to create. And for every one person who *might* buy a work *if* it comes out and *if* it’s available at a local book store when they want it, you’re giving someone else’s work – something you have no right to in the first place – away to hundreds, maybe thousands of people who will take it and ask for more. The only audience you are building is one made up of people who have no intention of paying for the privilege – or worse, paying you to “support the group,” while the mangaka who did the actual work gets nothing from it.
To answer a specific, rather ingenuous argument in the comments – the chapters that were online for free at Ikki were published by the official publisher, with the artist’s approval. Legal online versions of a comic are clearly not the same as scans that do not have the artist’s permission.
This is exactly what licensing is. You want to publish this manga? Then license it. Then everyone gets what they need and want. You will get to translate, publish and distribute a title you love to people who want it and the mangaka gets paid for her work.
I’ll be glad to keep approving comments that disagree with me. I won’t be replying to them other than to point them to this post where it’s relevant. (My opinion on personal or offensive comments is very much “sticks and stones.” It’s tiresome, but you can’t do much damage, because I don’t know you, you don’t know me and you are not one of the dozen people or so on the planet whose anger can hurt me.)
This is my honest, heartfelt opinion as of today. It has changed in the past and will be subject to change in the future. Chances are if you rely on scanlations, I won’t change your mind. But to be honest, I really can’t approve of people distributing work they have no permission to distribute. The more I get to know the mangaka, the less I find the justifications for scanlations make sense.
May 20, 2010 Update: In response to a totally reasonable question in the comments, I have pulled the full translations of the Maria-sama ga Miteru Novels from this blog and will not be posting any more. I am keeping synopses and reviews here, because, when you talk about a cool pair of jeans you saw in a store to a friend, you are not implicitly encouraging them to steal those jeans. I know that my reviews here stimulate sales – perhaps in only a small way, and perhaps more people rush out to find scans than are motivated to purchase the books, but I know that the large percentage of Okazu readers *do* buy what they want to read and watch and I thank them and tip my hat to them.
I also want to point out that it is not a sign of weakness or hypocrisy to have an opinion that changes over time, no matter what opposition politicos say. :-) As we change, the market changes, circumstances change, technology changes, it’s sensible to have one’s opinion change. Ten years ago, I was fully in support of scans. It was extremely unlikely that most of what fans read would ever get over here. Today, manga publishers are bringing over unheard of amounts of manga, which is good, and struggling with the market, which is bad. Go Comi!, CMX, Aurora, CPM, cutbacks at Viz…all of these are signs not that the publishers are losers, but that the growing audience for manga does not mean a growing market for manga. As a result of this change, I’ve come to the opinion that while I still understand the desire for scanlations and subs…I can no longer support them. Does that make me a hypocrite because I translated stuff and provided raws for scanlations of out of print or obscure titles in the past? I’m sure many of you think it does. I can say only this – that was my position then and this is my position now. Things have changed. I have changed.
Perhaps one day publishers will find a way to create an online library that allows readers to read, and buyers to buy and all will be happy. I look forward to that day.
Surprisingly, I do not love CLAMP. Like Madonna, I admire their grasp of their business more than I do their actual creative work. They are undoubtedly talented, their art is lush, and they are as close to genius and masters of their craft as any creative group out there. I am an unashamed Card Captor Sakura
When the fine fellows at Media Blasters offered me a copy of Season 1, I took it precisely because I thought that, with all those years of watching anime behind me, perhaps now I could come to this classic series with an appropriately “objective” mentality. Basically, I wanted to know if the series could make me care about Hikaru, Umi and Fuu.
Well…it did. About two-thirds through I found myself totally kvelling at them when they cleared some level or other. And boy, did I appreciate the meta-comment about their story being an RPG. It is obviously so, but it was fun to see them say it.
Aside from my dislike of Mokona who, as an acquaintance put it so well on Twitter, is like a kitten, “cute, but a real asshole” I found the series to be engaging. (I think I mentioned that if I find myself humming the theme song for days and days, it’s usually a good sign….) It’s also a product of its time and place. The animation was not as good as we might hope, and certainly not CLAMPs best work, but their standard character designs were solid. It’s fun to imagine what it might look like if it were done now.
The story was…refreshing. It’s innocent of service, it’s got solid storytelling, power-ups and great teamwork and bonding between the players. The “twist” at the end was as obvious as the hand on your arm, but it’s good to remind ourselves that this was a show for kids. You can tell by the “Who Is it?” “game” at the end of each episode, as well as the innocent look at life, love, adventure and maturity. It’s an added bonus for me that it is voiced by some of my favorite voice actresses, women who were the top of their industry at the time.
My *only* complaint about this collected Season Box set is that the interviews with the various Voice Actresses have unbelievably bad sound quality and are impossible to hear even at top volume. In every other way, it’s a lovely set.
Did I like it? Yes. This time I did.
Ratings:
Art – CLAMP, but not at their best. – The art was 8, but the animation wasn’t up to it – 4
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 0
Service – .5 (I’m sure, if you REALLY wanted to, you could find something salacious to obsess over, but that’s a lot of work for little return.)
Overall – 7
My thanks go to Media Blasters for their kindness in allowing me to once more step back to my anime roots and regain a taste of those early days.
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