In other news one should not eat leftover pizza and half a bag of jellybeans in one sitting. Well not without some training first. Maybe I am not built for that kind of eating. Maybe I will stick to late nights with ice cream and Code Red instead.
break me out of this prison please?!?!
Since this is an ANIME blog maybe I will talk about anime now? Weird concept I know. But today is the yaoi for the season woohoo!!! Spoilers for boy on boy action and Tenchi being a hypocrite YAY!!
So much joy!!!!!!!!
Episode Summary: Ritsu watches as Takano gets in a fight with a random person. Turns out the random person is Yokozawa and he is pissed about the newest manga that has been released. It sold out in the first day and Ritsu is like um why is this a problem? A co-worker explains that it will take 10 days to get more mangas reprinted and that is a lot of money lost. However Takano orginially requested a lot more prints so basically Yokozawa is on crack. Yokozawa catches the two gossiping and basically calls Ritsu out on using family connections. Ritsu is like :( and his people try to cheer him up. And also point out if he fails he can never show his face in public again. This really makes Ritsu love the work environment. Ritsu attempts to deliver some work via the elevator but runs away when Takano gets in the elevator too. This brings up some flashback scenes with the relationship in high school and how Takano is going to make Ritsu admit he loves him again. Ritsu is all RARW and decides to do other work. He calls a manga artist to see how her storyboard is going along as she is 5 days late. He feels that he can help her with her storyboard as recently Takano made him read over 100 storyboards. Oh and a storyboard is basically the layout of a manga.
Spy on us while we are talking about you is just RUDE!
While working Ritsu gets angry when Yokozawa wants to go out for drinks with Takano. Ritsu loses more of his mind as Yokozawa and Takano are hanging out after work and Takano laughs. LAUGHS. Ritsu tries to escape but is yelled at for not adhering to the Japanese rules of seniority. Ritsu tries to escape more but Ritsu and Takano are stuck in the same subway home. Takano demands to know why Ritsu is ignoring him to which Ritsu makes excuses. Then the train almost crashes and Ritsu ends up in Takano’s arms. Once home Ritsu discovers the storyboard has been sent to him so he sets to work with the corrections. He ends up with a lot of corrections and isn’t confident in his work. He attempts to fax the storyboard to Takano but Takano demands he come over. Ritsu eventually does and Takano gives him advice on storyboards and such. The second the work is done Ritsu tries to leave but Takano stops him and demands to know why he is being ignored. Ritsu tries to lie and says he has a girlfriend. Takano responds to that lie by kissing Ritsu and fondling his junk. Ritsu is all X___X and tries to run away only Yokozawa is outside Takano’s door. THE END!
Poor molested Ritsu. :(
This fact blew my mind!!!!!
But let’s start with the technical stuff. LEARNING if you would. XO I really had no idea how much work went into mangas and each week I find myself feeling more and more sorry for manga artist and anyone connected in that industry. Of course I do buy the mangas even after I read scans online but this motivates me even more to support the artists. SUPPORT THEM NOW!
So much power X___X
However…this is all very X__X to for a different reason. I had no idea editors had so much power over how the mangas are presented. Of course this could all be done for dramatic flair for the anime but I tend to believe this is showing a great deal of truth. Which takes a bit away from my manga enjoyment. I don’t want to think about how the artists have to limit or edit themselves because some editor is focused on a formula. A SIMPLE FORMULA!!!
Ritsu is easily manipulated...
Also something that was interesting to me was how much work goes into a manga before one picture is even drawn. I guess that makes sense. You need to know where the story is going before you start the real work of drawing everything. I don’t know why this is interesting to me. For some reason I thought they had an idea in their head and moved with the pen. That would probably be disastrous though.
But I guess he suffers a lot too...
As much as I like Ritsu I do find him making so many corrections on an established manga artist a bit hard to watch. He has been trained to follow a formula though and I wonder if that really will help him in the long run. Maybe readers find these scenes easy to read because they have been trained to expect those type of scenes. Sorta dumbing down the readers if you would. Cutting jokes when he is a newbie was a bit rarw to me. But since Takano went through and made similar changes I see why Ritsu did it.
I am not sure why I am so blah about that. It just seems wrong and as an established artist I would be insulted if some new kid went through and killed my paper with red ink. I don’t care how many formula storyboards that kid read in one night. If I had a vision and it was basically thrown out and tossed aside I would be upset. But in the end the manga business is just that: business. Just readers aren’t stupid. I rather something be creative than predictable.
Well that part was not ninja like...
Moving on from the technical stuff of the show WOOHOO Ritsu has lasted an entire month at Shoujo Editors are all Men. And he hasn’t moved away from Takano which is surprised. I think I would have liked a scene of him getting turned down by various other places to move or at least him attempting to move. That is too big of an issue for him to avoid. XD
Speaking of avoid….XO how did Ritsu avoid Takano for so long? Well obviously he can’t avoid him at all costs but how did he avoid being ALONE with him? They do live in the same area and there is probably one easy way to get home. And there is the elevator of looooooooooove. Ritsu must be a ninja or something. He needs to get out of the book business and be a spy or something.
Stop having fun!!!!!!
Takano better not being having relations with Yokozawa or I will be pissed. I mean….he could have had past relationships with Yokozawa and that would be fine. But in the month that he has known Ritsu and said his little thing about you will love me again he better not have been riding the Yokozawa train. Or Yokozawa riding the Takano train. Because that would piss me off and make Ritsu’s little heart hurt.
Of course this is all probably smoke and mirrors. They are probably just friends, this will make Ritsu jealous, and Takano will smirk over the fact he got to Ritsu without really doing anything. I am not really sure how to explain the 3 am visit from a friend…but you know….whatever. Just no more sex with Yokozawa! You are supposed to love Ritsu.
Oh hi forced love!!!
I would like to take this time to acknowledge that if a man forced a woman to kiss her and sexually molested her it would not be hot or funny. I would be upset and pissed off at the show. Sexual harassment is not funny or sexy. And the fact that the person getting molested will eventually fall in love with the person molesting them is not romantic. I acknowledge all of this.
Must not enjoy.....
And yet….I have been brainwashed. Because I am dumb and read formulaic mangas. Is formulaic a weird? It looks dumb. But yes. I am a hypocrite because of the sexy boy on boy action. I think Takano had no right to touch Ritsu like that and that Ritsu is going to be a moron who falls in love for falling back in love with someone who touches him without permission. But….:( It was hot. I am a bad human being.
I approve of the stick people though XD
Just….just poor molested Ritsu. I am sure next week there will be more suffering. Ritsu will be pissed about being molested but jealous over Yokozawa. All the while Takano will be thinking he is the man. Oh and I am sure next week I will learn something else about the manga business that will make me :( But then I will get on a plane to Japan and be XD so it’s okay.
2 comments:
CHRISTINA! Congrats on your trip to Japan! I feel like you won first place in your soccer tournament or something... YOU'RE NUMBER 1!
I like learning about the manga production biz. Though I wasn't surprised at how formulaic it is. I know how different the final movie is from the original writer's vision, and even the director's vision, into the homogenized focus group tested end product. I figured it would be the same for commercial manga.
Also as Western readers, we aren't trained to have the same expectations from comic books. That's why it may be easier for us to step back and go WTF, why do you *have* to create a mood or show a love scene that way... but we have very similar cues that we're trained to understand from western TV shows and movies, so we're the same in that respect.
I like the manga's version of the rape. Seriously this is classic NO MEANS YES BABE frat boy rape: http://www.mangafox.com/manga/sekaiichi_hatsukoi/v01/c002.2/4.html
Frape!
Rey- Late comment is late because I fail to delete any read comments in my inbox.
But thank you for the kind wishes about Japan. I hope everyone who wants to visit Japan can do so one day.
I suppose it really is culturally based, expecting something in a manga. But that is a good comparison, how movies are tested in front of audiences and then the ending might be changed. I just feel like maybe mangas run the chance of becoming TOO formulaic. Many people find shojo mangas predictable so I can't see why artists can't be allowed to switch it up.
Post a Comment