Sleep Is For the Weak

Or not so silently, in this case, since Bad Jew and I got back to our non-Canadian roots and wrote two mini reviews that basically accuse every person of being an idiot or a sexist asshole if s/he’s not on board. Yes, this is how we return from a many-week hiatus. Sleep is for the Weak clearly cares for and respects our repeat readers.

In better (?) news, we got some shit sorted and now we’re back. Updates will start landing every week or two. We spent a LOT of our time off catching up on reading/watching new stuff so we can actually reviews things now. Imagine that (gasp)!

The FUNimation release of Romeo x Juliet finally hit Western shores, like, this week, and guess what we have for it? A full review of the series by Orange Skirt. That’s right - an actual review that actually matches an actual release. Note that it took a recurring contributor sending me that review a month ago for this to have happened. No staff keeping up with the times, no sirree.

I wrote a mini review of Romeo x Juliet ages ago, but this one is much better, and actually covers the entire series. I will add that I got the FUNimation box set a few weeks early because I pre-ordered it, and the dub is…not so good. Weak script and acting that probably could’ve been better had there been a better script and voice director. Dammit, FUNimation…you raised all of our standards since the Ouran dub. Seriously.

Today we have something a little different on Sleep is for the Weak…something thoughtful, something almost academic. Bad Jew wrote an article on comics from North Korea. I was thinking of maybe just posting a review of some terrible yaoi or even just a picture of stick figures making obscene gestures at each other, but this is probably a better idea.

First, on the update front: I posted a Mini Review of Kuroshitsuji/The Black Butler anime, since I watched pretty much the entire series on Saturday during my exhaustion-spurred protest against Getting Off the Couch. I also updated the Reviews and Mini Reviews archives because that was super overdue.

Second, come to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival next weekend, Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Bryan Lee O’Malley are going to be there as well as about a billion other people who are cooler than both you and me, Toronto is nice this time of year and it welcomes you, etc. The staff of this site (sans Amethist) will be working the festival, since anyone who works in the comics industry and lives in Toronto has to officially sign the accomplice registry of The Beguiling, which happens to run TCAF, and which calls out all the troops when it’s time to run an international event. (On that note, we’ll also be representing at Anime North in a few weeks.)

It is TIME for COMICS.

What’s this? Did I spend weeks writing a full review of a series nobody will probably ever read? Why, yes! Yes, I did!

And I have two things I’d like to comment on:

1.) OMG

and

2.) WTF

The Internet and I…well, I figured I should tell you all that we broke up for a while. Some hurtful things were said on both sides, but we talked it over and decided that we had too long of a history to let a few bad weeks end things once and for all. We’re back together now and I’m hopeful that a bright future awaits us.

If he would only do the dishes once in a blue f*cking moon. Yes, I know you heard me!

Here are Mini Reviews for Oishinbo and Antique Bakery. Now I’m going to Mother’s because at least there the words “I love you” can be spoken without it being some giant f*cking issue. Yes, I know you heard me!

I wrote and posted a Mini Review for the Earl and the Fairy anime about a week ago, but then never did this post to mention that. Genius = me.

Most everyone has already talked about the new license announcements by now, and how Yen Press is going to make a million billion dollars on Yotsuba 6 because nothing sells more comics than all-ages stuff that still appeals to adults, and then there’s a Fumi Yoshinaga book dominated by female characters coming out and that makes everyone happy, and Natsume’s coming (whee!), and another book by the solanin guy is sure to please, and more Taiyo Matsumoto is always a good thing, and this is all lovely, lovely news. My personal favorite (other than Natsume)?

The English-speaking world is getting its first taste of josei sex comedy mangaka Yuki Yoshihara (link kinda not safe for work). I have a special dance for Yuki Yoshihara. You can’t see it, but I’m doing it right now. It’s sort of a hoola-hooping movement of the hips accented with jazz hands.

If you like shoujo satirist genius Ai Morinaga, but you want to turn your brain off a little and just bask in crude lady jokes, read Yuki Yoshihara. She makes me laugh so hard my uterus hurts.

Recently I’ve been wondering how to structure our series of shoujo essays, but then luck struck and Tokyopop released a book with a deep-seeded girl background: the action title Togainu no Chi. The Mini Review gets to explain a little bit about girl media in Japan that hasn’t made it over here, while simultaneously revealing that I play/watch/listen to some pretty embarrassing shit in my free time. I’d like to stress that no one under the age of 18 should ever, ever press [enter] while playing Togainu no Chi.

Now I’m off to play video games. Er…normal ones. Kinda.

Bad Jew’s resolution for 2009 is to write more for the site, so his first Mini Review is of solanin, the manga every critic loves with the fire of a thousand hot Latin suns. It’s got indie appeal, is about 20-somethings who don’t know what to do with their lives, and features a not-very-good amateur band. It does NOT feature its hero gaining experience points for going to work.

My resolution for 2009 is to stop pretending I can run this place and let Bad Jew and NotHayama handle their own updates. They can fix their own grammar at this point. (And if not…I maintain the right to go to the dashboard and fix it in the dead of night so my nightmares go away.)

See you soon. And read Volume 16 of Skip Beat, because it will destroy you with romantic awesomeness.

P.S. - Despite a black-out in release dates that scared the bejeezus out of me, the CMX schedule seems back on track now…and we’ll get more Apothecarius and more Young Magician in a few months. Thank God, because SERIOUSLY.

It’s Geek Current Events time!

1.) I still haven’t been laid off from Tokyopop, huzzah. I even got a new series from them, one with VAMPIRES IN IT. Mweh heh heh.

2.) Speaking of vampires, for any of you who heard the scream of a thousand fangirls this week, that’s because there was a climactic kiss in the most recent chapter of Vampire Knight in Japan. If you want to spoil it, here you go. And let me just say that printing the kiss horizontal in the magazine to the point that it was practically upside-down was a stroke of genius on Matsuri Hino’s part. Agh…she’s so good at what she does! *wipes squee-induced tear*

3.) Both Bad Jew and NotHayama liked the seinen Solanin. Since they never agree on anything, it must be a pretty impressive comic. I’m also considering that the copy they shared had money tucked between its pages.

4.) After reading the most recent (and interesting) ladies-only roundtable at Anime News Network, NotHayama and I are starting to think most people don’t read enough girl-aimed media from Japan to really “get it.” Everyone knows Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket and Ouran and maybe Hana Kimi, but shoujo smut, otome games, BL drama CDs, josei porn, etc. are all part of the bigger picture, the defense against the common claim that Japan is a “sexist” society when compared to our “liberated” West. Japan splits its media almost down the middle so half of it can specifically be aimed at females, yet Hollywood critics seemed completely confused that Twilight did well and that female viewers come in more than The Three Types: tweens who like sparkly things, petty housewives, and bitchy career women. I think a well-rounded discussion of feminism, media, the East-West clash, etc. really needs a full exploration of girl-aimed Japanese media, and thus we’re going to write a series of essays on “the lesser-known sides of shoujo” on this site. And now I’m going to have to write the article I swore I’d never put on a PG-13 webpage: Porn For Girls. *sigh* I’ll keep it as classy as possible. And yes, Porn For Girls isn’t just yaoi (16+ link; click on MOVIE tab at the top, then take your pick)

We’ll be back soon. May Snowflake Jake shoot a cannonball of spices into your loving home, arr.