Sleep Is For the Weak

Still not entirely sure what happened to the past few weeks. Sorry for the black-out; I’ll have an update on Thursday, promise. And then we’ll be back on a more regular schedule.

In the meantime, it’s a great time to be a geek (especially a female one) BECAUSE:

1.) Antique Bakery is being made into a 12-episode anime faithful to the original work. Korea’s doing a live-action movie, too. Oh, man. If Fumi Yoshinaga translates well to the screen, she will officially DESTROY ALL COMPETITION in yet another medium. Watch out, every other anime that ever tried to be good ever. By the way, she’s doing a seinen now. The woman can’t be stopped.

2.) The new Violinist of Hameln manga series looks awesome. I sincerely hope it’s about Hamel’s army of children…and based on that familiar-looking blond, I’m guessing it is. Who here hasn’t read the awesomeness that is the Hameln manga? Shame!

3.) Like Yuu Watase? Absolute Boyfriend is getting a drama in about a month, and Watase actually did a shounen short story for Weekly Shounen Sunday. That’s so badass, seriously. Be warned, though–her first trip into BL territory, Sakura-Gari, is beautifully drawn but really crappily written.

4.) They’re animating more Slayers and Trigun. Can you believe that?

5.) It’s a good month for girl gamers in Japan–some big, if disturbing, titles land this March. I’d say what they are, but then people will know what kind of crazy, embarrassing shit I play for my girly geek kicks. Well…maybe just a hint. Don’t watch that if you’re at work.

6.) Even Itazura na Kiss is getting animated! Dude!

Unfortunately, there is a bit of bad geek news today as well…Moyoco Anno’s health is taking a dive, so she’s going on a possibly permanent hiatus from making manga. Since she’s much, much cooler than any of us could hope to be, this is totally sad.

See you in a few days.

…this week’s update will be on Thursday instead of Tuesday. Sorry.

In other news: NotHayama practically didn’t move all of Sunday, since she was curled up in a chair with a DS and a new copy of Professor Layton. I take it that means the game is as addictive as claimed. She had to charge the DS twice while playing.

I opened my e-mail the other day, and what did I find? A mini review from Bad Jew! No scrambling for a quick update today, no sir! So now you can hear Bad Jew talk about Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society and I can go get my real work done.

We’ll be back next Tuesday. ‘Till then. (Orange Skirt gave me an awesome full review awhile ago, too…expect it next week or the following.)

I know we don’t talk much about yaoi/BL at this place, but I just heard that 801 Media bought the license to Uki Ogasawara’s Black Sun.

When I first read Black Sun, my heart sunk to my stomach. I stared at the floor awhile, then I went out for a walk, but ghostly images of the comic kept reappearing in my head. It’s that insidiously sad.

The plot is about a Crusades-era-ish monastic knight who falls into the clutches of an unpredictable middle eastern war general. The sex is sudden, plentiful, and extremely graphic. But more than anything, the way war and rape and punishment are handled is downright traumatizing. During one scene, the main knight has a flashback to his long-missing army superior, and how before a big battle, the knight asked to sleep in the same bed as this superior because that sort of affectionate comfort would help him better face death on the battlefield the next day. The superior gently reprimanded him that such a thing would be a sin for holy knights, and the knight immediately felt embarrassed. This flashback is happening while the knight is being repeatedly raped in order to save the lives of his troops.

This manga is in no way for the young or weak of heart. It’s one of the most gorgeously drawn BL you’ll ever read, and the plot was more interesting than I imagined. But DO NOT READ IT IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING INTO. I never thought it would get licensed - I didn’t think anyone would dare. Now that this book is going to be on bookshelves, it’s going to haunt me more than ever before.

Dammit.

I had grand plans for this, my first newspost update, but unfortunately I am the slowest writer ever and couldn’t get my act together in time. Now it’s almost 1 am and I have to trudge through snow banks to work in less than 7 hours, so I think I’ll save it for next time. A few things of note:

1. Despite how it may seem, I don’t hate all comics. Really.

2. Here’s my bitter, angry review of Mushishi.

3. I swear to God, my next review will be a positive one.

4. We’ll be back with another update next Tuesday. A happy, light, fluffy, non-confrontational update.

Yeah, we’ll see how this goes.

Here you go - Bad Jew’s Review of Love Roma, which has been sitting on my computer for awhile. Since he talked about Scott Pilgrim in it, I’ve been quoting that damn comic all day. I can’t pick up a piece of bread without saying, “Bread makes you fat?” In other news, I have more comic books than friends.

NotHayama’s going to handle next week’s update, which is scheduled for Tuesday. Happy Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras. (Those were this week, right?)

I’m afraid NotHayama and I aren’t big fans of most of the high-profile josei titles these days, so we’ve decided it’s time to explain why. Part one of this rather angry little series is my rant on Honey and Clover. NotHayama is working on her piece on Nana (not a josei, but close), and I’ll probably follow up with my complaints on Nodame Contabile. We hope to break these Mini Reviews up with positive reviews of other stuff, though. I’m sure you don’t want all your reviews to be “This sucks! We’re angry! GRAH!”

Anyway, next update is going to be next Thursday instead of Tuesday, but it will feature a POSITIVE, FULL review of a SEINEN by BAD JEW. Ooooooh, man…those are all things this site has been lacking in lately.

See you then.

Slim pickings this week, but I have a Mini Review of Pearl Pink and an update to the Mini Review of Let Dai for you. I also updated the out-of-date Reviews and Mini Reviews archive lists. Against all reason, I’m back in school this semester, so the hellish existence known as “grad student” has sucked me in once more. Expect at least a few slim update weeks while I get my shit together. Bad Jew and I should both have our Masters this May, so maybe we’ll update more then!…or get better jobs. I think he plans to go after a PhD, though, which means he won’t get a job until he can get his grubby mitts off school. I expect he’ll be living in my basement soon. I may instate a system where he writes for this site in order to get fed.

Anyway, long story short - I’ll be back next Tuesday with something. After that, we’ll see. Also, physical organic chemistry at the graduate level is like walking through fire.

I’m having a busy week, so right now I offer you two things: a mini review of the Gin Tama manga by NotHayama, and the promise that I’ll try and update again before next Tuesday. I need to update the review and mini review list archives at the very least. But if I can’t find the time, see you next Tuesday. (And your review is coming, Bad Jew…the Sailor Moon one predated yours.)

Responsibilities suck! That is all.

I guess I’ll do a review or essay or something on Death Note now; I’ve practically written one in the comments section of last post already, but that’s lame - I need something more organized. Time to replace my mouth with money, or however the expression goes.

I’ve also read a lot more of Let Dai this week, and I think I can now say that the comic is strangely brilliant. Volume 8 pushed me over the edge of “I like it”/”it’s actually good” that some comics keep me straddling for a while (like INVU). That’s not to say Let Dai isn’t interesting from the beginning - I was pretty intrigued by Volume 2, really. But I think Volume 8 proves that the manhwaka knows exactly what she’s doing, and that the craziness that proceeded it was entirely intentional. Yes, Let Dai is batshit insane. But it’s batshit in a good way, and it goes down these roads that most shoujo are too scared to. For example, rape is handled realistically. Pushover characters actually suffer because they can’t stand up for themselves - and I don’t mean in the cliche way of some girl getting picked on in class for no reason and her love interest saving her, I mean a pushover character not standing up for the right thing and then being hated by the people who once admired him. Also, the beautiful anti-hero Dai IS OUT OF HIS MIND. He’s uncompromisingly, unapologetically, and unashamedly out of his mind. And I really like that. Like Carno from The Young Magician, I admire characters who are thoroughly insane, and not just insane when the plot dictates that that would be cool. If you’re nuts, you’ve gotta stay nuts. And Dai is so, so nuts. Another sign that the manwha is good - the manhwaka keeps telling the audience that Dai changes whatever world he steps into, that people either love him with everything they have or hate him with the fire of a thousand hot Latin suns. That sort of character is almost impossible to write realistically. But…I really do think I believe in Dai. He bothers me deeply in a way that very few other fictional characters can. He’s actually made me stay up at night and stare at the ceiling while I wondered about him.

God, I love good comics.

Anyway, so Death Note and Let Dai updates will be coming soon, and NotHayama’s got some stuff coming as well. See you Tuesday.