anime and manga

Shoujo For this week I revisited Princess Tutu along with other shoujo classics. In class we were talking about what makes the average shoujo girl, a shoujo protagonist?  Here is our list of qualities Kind beautiful Independent   broke Flaws (tone deaf, clumsy, awkward) Innocent   One obsession   Dead parent Doesn’t know she’s pretty I really like shoujo because its what I grew up with when it comes to anime.   Other greatest hits for the shoujo genre in my opinion would be maidsama, fruits basket,  and cardcaptor sakura but that is more of a magical girl anime/manga. When it came to the in class activity, we recommended our neighboring group to read Maidsama, and they recommended to us that we read Princess Tutu. Now I have never read the manga, and going in I was assuming it was going to be a bit convoluted. My partners were talking about how they couldn't understand the pacing and awkward transitions, I was try...

Romance Manga I think one of my first experiences with Manga and anime overall was with Shoujo. I personally don't think you can go wrong with Shoujo, the more the merrier. I loved Ouran High School Host Club, and Princess Jellyfish. I remember watching PJ a while back on youtube for free. It was so wholesome and fun. I liked how the show/manga didn't focus on trying to make Tsukimi prettier, and the audience grew to love and root for her and her otaku friends. Ouran was my first big dive into anime and manga, I bought the manga after watching the anime and I really liked how the author interacted with the audience, even providing some silly fan service of tamaki in a maid outfit. I wish I had the picture I'm talking about but basically its a little prelude before the chapter starts and the author is talking with their audience and how some of them requested to see Tamaki in a maid outfit. Aside from that tangent, I just love how romance manga is usually quite in...

Add caption I saw my first Ghibli film around the age of 5 or 8, and I loved every second of it. My favorite part about Ghibli is that they don't dumb down stories for young audiences. Children can understand and enjoy complex stories and tough subjects, even though we often don't think they can. When I saw Spirited Away for the first time, I saw a real depiction of myself: an awkward, whiny young girl. It was a story I was looking for. Chihiro didn't become heroic all at once, or even after 30 minutes like Hercules or some other American cartoon protagonists. She always felt fear with everything that she was doing, and gradually learned to overcome it and deal with it. Plus, Chihiro and Haku's relationship wasn't overtly romantic, if not completely platonic. It was a story centered on Chihiro finding her way back home and coming out as a confident and strong young girl. Along with Miyazaki's other works Nasuca, or The Cat Returns, I cannot express ho...

Gekiga For week three I decided to read Cigarette Girl. Just from appearances, it looks award and earnest. Kind of reminds me of something out of the "As Told By Ginger" style. I love it when art is just as awkward as the message its trying to convey.  I relate to how grandma bosses our two protagonists around, simultaneously helping them out here and there but complaining and judging them along the way.  I love this slice of life approach to the stories, I feel like I just jumped into their world.  indie film. Each chapter tells quiet stories of people interacting in each others lives and the solitude and isolation that can be felt even in a crowd of people.  This gives you a perfect look inside the awkward in-between stages of becoming and being an adult.  In reference to Fransis Chicote's log about cigarette girl, I agree that some of the stories and relationships in them can get a little hard to decipher, especially how a majority of the ...

Tezuka For this week I read Phoenix issue 1 Dawn. Overall the whole manga was very whimsical, and I'm a total sucker for the nostalgic retro anime style that is both used in Astro Boy and Phonenix. It livens up the pages so much, and does give off an early mickey mouse vibe too. Another thing about the style is that I always thought limbs that widen towards the end was more of a contemporary choice of the 2000's to 2010's. But seeing it drawn out in Phoenix proves otherwise.  Nagi's proportions in this scene (girl looming over her sister) are awkward, but still cute nonetheless. I as loved Nagi's spunk, she doesn't take any smack from anyone. (Still talking about style here) I loved how Tezuka used crosshatching for texture and flow in panels as well. The use of crosshatching, dotted lines, negative space, it all really shows how he can make the environment dynamic against the simplistic blocky characters.