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you know about the voices that speaks in your head?i listen to them somtimes. most of the times. sometimes they tell me good things. sometimes they make me wish for bad things. |
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it's basically the inside of sakinah's brain.but mercifully edited, censored, and anaesthesised with a heavy dose of prozac. tagboard
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NERDITY AHEAD
Lately, I haven't been able to bring myself to blog about the melodrama currently plaguing my brain. It would appear I prefer to block out the confusing philosophical/political nonsense with happier stuff. Unfortunately, I don't keep a tight rein on my happy level, thus making it very easy for 'happy' to jump to 'excessive-hyperactivity-that's bound-to-get-me-sent-to-Tanjung-Rambutan'.Shhh....my door is creaking sign language to me again. And I'm still using the new glasses that are constantly making my eyes water. And I need to give the chocolates to Som. I feel like kacau-ing her. SO ANYWAY. Have just finished watching Eva 1.0, and I've decided to come out with a list of manga that I thought was good! Something like what I used to have over at my LiveJournal account (before I deleted it), but hopefully with shorter summaries this time. I hate writing summaries anyway. And for the record, Eva 1.0 was awesome. Neon Evangelion Genesis drawn by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki. Sadamoto-sensei's contribution to the .hack series is staggering. He's like Silent Hill's Yamaoka Akira, but with a G-nib pen instead of the kick-ass electric guitar. By that, I mean his artwork gave NEG its distinct feel, despite the fact that Hideaki Anno is the real Dr. Frankenstein behind the creation of NEG. The artwork was maintained surprisingly well throughout its 16 years of serialization. Clean-cut, detailed, somewhat typical shounen with the fanservice here and there but what the hey. The story is well-paced; and it managed to portray the psyche of the Eva pilots and their haunts seemingly effortlessly. One favourite scene of mine is the time when Akari Shinji discovered Rei's secret. Mmm, I was pleasantly creeped out by the sight of the countless floating bodies. Ookiku Furikabutte by Higuchi Asa. BAAAASEEEEBAAAAAALLLLLL! At times like this, I wish I have ESPN. The highlight of this manga series has got to be the nervous, timid pitcher who's obsessed with pitching, and the mound. He also thinks that his catcher is God Almighty (HALLELUJAH) which gives the manga some strong shounen-ai flavour, but I'm all for that. Seriously, this guy makes some of the funniest faces I have ever seen. In fact, this book might have won the Kodansha Award simply because of him! Other than that, Oofuri- as if it is fondly known, shows in-depth baseball strategy planning. There's a lot of baseball jargon in here, most of which I don't understand. What really impresses me is the amount of psychological play that goes in the game. The little things that run in each player's minds affect their gameplay, their teammates, and consequently, the game itself. For a shounen sports manga, Oofuri is rather touchy-feely, but that's what makes it interesting. Ooku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga. In this imaginative retelling of Japans' history, a contagion known as the redpox has claimed the lives of men- and only men; drastically changing the male to female ratio and endangering the way of life as we had all known it. The scarcity of men has forced women to join the workforce and hard labour, and soon, threatened the social order of organisation that had long been the custom of the not only Japan, but the entire human race. Males as the authoritative figure has somehow become like a hereditary knowledge bred into everyone; men and women alike. Yoshinaga-sensei challenged this perception by crippling the male population, and Ooku became the stage in which she portrayed the economical, political and social consequences. This ordeal is particularly problematic with a country like Japan and her customs. Men are the warriors upon the battlefield, the farmers that work the land, the head of the family, the heir and the supreme ruler. Take them away, and you're left with a void caused not only by their deaths, but by mindset and tradition. The story is skillfully told in no way other than Yoshinaga-sensei herself could have managed. The art is simple, and to people unaccustomed to her style, may take insult at the awkward angles. As a saving grace, more attention has been paid into the background, successfully bringing out shogunate life in each panel. However, the panels are continuous with one another, like the negatives of a film reel. Panel after panel that gives way to page after page and finally volumes that tell the story as effectively as a real live action film. That, is story-telling. Other manga that deserve the same credit but lack the space; Axis Powers Hetalia by Himaruya Hidekaz Pluto by Urasawa Naoki and Tezuka I ended up nerding out on Ooku and Yoshinaga-sensei. Ahahhaha. But she is just that awesome. Labels: manga |