week 9

I don't really have a whole lot to say on this subject. Like many young kids in the US trying to find anime content, magical girl shows were inevitable. Where America had its own style of magical girls in the 70s-80s like SheRa, WonderWomen,etc, it was still the same basic formula that was anime, magical girls. 

A super outfit change

A magical item 

A magical creature or side kick for comedic value

A magical quest 

A set of quirky character flaws

As a kid, and even now as an adult, I appreciate the aesthetic and value what the magical girl genre has contributed to the anime/manga community. I just cant pay attention to it for very long. I don't know what it is but the adventures are just never enough to pull me in and keep me reading. However, what the magical girl anime formula has given, has helped create some really wonderful Modern western magical girl shows. Star VS the forces of evil is a thrilling adventure set in multiple dimensions and times and holds little bits of the same formula. She has a magic wand, can change her magical outfit(s) at a whim but doesn't need a full 15-second animation for it. She just has friends throughout all the dimensions and the need to stir up trouble to find her own adventure with her best friend from the earth. SheRa remake is also a great example of modern Magical girls i can actually watch. It does contain every single piece of the formula that a normal magical girl anime gets, but they don't make things fem or masc appearing for social standards, they designed the characters based off their written character personality alone which really makes the show stand out. The plot line is straight forward but it is quick and easy to consume, and the characters make a lot of mistakes, and even fail a good bit, and we also get to know our villains and their motives so no one is just rooting for the magical girl because of shes the main character. People root for the villains too which is really interesting. The omages they make towards the original SheRa is also a fun bonus

week 8

I remember being middle school and learning what Yaoi was from girls at the lunch table. I did not really understand the appeal and was even more confused going into high school and seeing more and more straight girls fetishizing Yaoi stories that were just plain abusive relationships. I remember hunting for Yuri manga or anime and always being so disappointed. I was too young to understand that these queer mangas were not written/ made for, or by, queer people. Finding LGBT manga that was quality was just impossible. Hell, I remember watching Ouran High School Host Club and being so star struck by a genderfluid main character, just going through weird high school shenanigans, I was not even processing the yaoi implications (to be fair I was also around 13). Princess Jellyfish was another gender exploration story I just could not get enough of but also did not understand the social stigmas within it until later, and was really educated on Japans history of erasing/fetishizing queer people. I still don't get the hype behind unrealistic/abusive yaoi/yuri or gender-exploring anime in people today and why its still so popular/acceptable?
My Lesbian Experience with loneliness really is something that stands out against almost anything I've read. I don't relate to it much, but it's refreshing to see such a narrative that talks about these issues, even when the truth of it is depressing. Japan needs more stories like MLEL, and I'm happy that the creator is creating more and that the fan base is going strong.

week 6

Studio Ghibli will flourish even after Miyazaki is gone, (if he ever *actually* leaves!)


Studio Ghibli's characters and stories are almost as iconic as Micky mouse (and that's before Disney bought their licensing) Unlike Micky mouse, characters like Totoro, Ponyo, Kiki, are more than adorable and silly. They contain actual plotlines that are more relatable to many people. Not one of Ghibli's main characters is perfect, and their choices and reactions are more relatable and set better examples. They also explore the typical villain character type, by showing likable villains, and that some are just people trying to do what they think is best. These complex ideas of right and wrong are constantly explored and challenged in Ghibli films, but somehow always are able to be gripping, enchanting films with beautiful colors and distinct design.
I remember seeing spirited away for the first time flipping through channels and was completely heartbroken I couldn't find it again online or at a movie rental store (i was too young to remember the name of it and explaining the movie to people was hard) but I rediscovered it was by Ghibli later in life at some slumber party because we were all huddled up, glued to the screen watching spirited away, howls moving castle, and what I found to be the most magical was Ponyo. Ponyo gets a rep for being low-quality writing because it was meant for a really young target audience, but Ponyo explores so much more than just the perspective of a child, it is artistically one of the most impressive films I've ever watched. However, it is not my dear favorite of the Ghiblis magical animations.
I was 14, and i had just gotten out of the hospital for a major surgery that would leave me bed bound and mouth wired shut for several weeks. If i wasn't sleeping off pain medications, i was looking for anime or manga. I will never forget my dad offering to pick up movies from the nearest Block Buster (yeah our town still had one) and giving him a list of films by Ghibli. He returned with only one they had at the time, Princess Mononoke. To summarize my love and passion for that film will just say, I watched it on repeat until I was able to go to the BlockBuster my self to obtain more. That store came to know me pretty well after that. The hardest film for them to get for me was surprisingly Totoro, and when it came into the store it was scratched the hell out of, so the manager put it in some machine to buff it out, a minute later the machine was smoking and you could hear the disc crunching within it. Needless to say, i was almost fully healed when they got another copy of this film. Was it worth the hassle to finally see?....eh? I think i was hoping for something more when i watched it for the first time. I had built up some greater expectation after watching Mononoke so many times. I like the film, its fun, bright and whimsical, and something about having a movie starting a small electrical fire in a blockbuster just kind of gives it a special place in my heart.
I dont know how i passed over Nausicaa of the Wind for so long, it wasn't until my senior year of high school i saw it and fell in love with its story and world build (im a sucker for any story that confronts humanity relationship with nature). I really wasn't aware there was a manga until this class, and i wish i had more time to read it thoroughly.

Week 4

I Saw It by Keiji Nakazawa is a story about the survival of one of the modern humanities most gruesome tragedies. The writer/comic artist was brave to illustrate his first-hand experience with the bombings in Hiroshima, Japan. When he was just a small child, a bomb was dropped on his home, and everything he knew in life came to a completely changed for the worst. It must have been difficult to explore his own emotional relationship with the tragedy, and the gravity of this kind of trauma, through creating a comic about it. It's strange to view his child perceptions and coping methods, and how a child was able to overcome it against the odds. In this comic, we see his tragic loss of family, home, and how quickly he was forced to grow up in a dying environment. The viewer goes through his painful experiences and an internal crisis of why he made it out alive, why not his father or anyone else. He grows into someone that resents the dead, and those who did not experience the bombing, and those who support any form of war. But he also grows into a comic artist, one that creates powerful stories that warn people of the price of war.

yonkoma

http://totsukuninoshoujo.wikia.com/wiki/Manga

a link to The Girl from the Other Side

would love to hear peoples thoughts on this