March 13, 2007
Yotsuba&!
Yotsuba&! is a manga by Kiyohiko Azuma about the adventures of the six year old girl. The story begins when Yotsuba moves into a town with her father. Before that, Yotsuba had lived in the countryside. Her adventures revolve around exploration and discovery of these new surroundings. She quickly makes friends with her neighbors and they become a important characters in the series.
What makes this series so appealing is the absolute adorableness of Yotsuba. In each volume, Yotsuba will encounter new obstacles and adventures. She will then trample through them with the charisma and delight that only six year olds have. Her father has a laissez-faire attitude toward Yotsuba's upbringing. Luckily, Yotsuba appears to be indestructible.
ADV Manga was selling Yotsuba volumes one through three back in 2005. You should be able to find these at any book store that caries manga. Since then no other volumes have been released in English. However, it is easy to find scanlations of many more volumes with some googleing.
I highly suggest reading these if for nothing more then having your heart melted by a little girl named Yotsuba.
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February 27, 2006
Wise words of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (ED) #2
Perhaps I might have, but I don't remember at all.
If you ask why, it's because I only do things that look fun...
And even with boring things, I find something a little fun in them and get excited.
But if it's still boring, I go to sleep.
When I'm asleep, it's fun rolling around dreaming.
The end.
I try to live my life by this simple philosophy. It keeps life enjoyable.
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February 26, 2006
Wise words of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (ED) #1
There is a 27th episode of Cowboy Beebop that not many people know about. It is a series recap with some final lessons from the main charters of the show. Quite frankly it is my favorite episode. It can be found on any P2P tracker just look up "Cowboy Beebop Session XX Mish-Mash Blues." Just do not be expecting any new story line.
In the narration ED says something profound in her free spirited way:
Space is very vast.
Ed is traveling to find the truth of space.
The network sea is so spacious, that there are lots of fish.
...
When I think there is truth and look for it, I can't find it...
But when I don't think there is a true, I can't find it either.
I can't get a hold of what I want, but I did get a hold of what I need.
-- Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, (Cowboy Beebop Session XX Mish-Mash Blues)
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November 29, 2005
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - 2nd Gig
The last episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - 2nd Gig showed up on the digisubs last night. I can not wait for the box set comes out for this series.
I found it interesting that the very last scene of the 2nd Gig was matched up to the first scene of the manga. I took some screen shots, take a look for your self.
Compare that to the scan of the beginning of the manga.
I wonder if this could be a segue for a 3nd Gig. Perhaps it will lead into the puppeteer story arc from the original.
One of the biggest differences between the manga and the tv/movie series is Major Motoko Kusanagi. In her on screen verstion, she is 100% serious and totally professional all the time. In the manga, the Major is a much lighter character. She drinks, dates, take vacations with friends, and picks on Batou. The manga Major is much easier to relate to and is a more complete human being. Even if she is 99% cybernetic.
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November 18, 2005
Manga: Planetes
At the last comic con, Cap picked up a copy of Planetes. I had enjoyed watching the anime series and jump at the opportunity when he offered to lend it to me.
Planetes takes place in the year 2074. Mankind has brought industry into space. The story follows the lives of three blue-collar employees of Technora Corp. Their job is orbital debris retrieval; in other words, space garbage collators. Their jobs are not as mundane as you may think. Every time they go out they must deal with the dangerous environment of outer-space. Solar radiation, high velocity debris, space terrorist, and horrible astronaut food are just a few of daily hazards of life in space.
That is what sets this manga apart from other space based mangas, the realism. Everything is based on real-world designs, technology and known concepts of stellar environments. Reading Planetes is like a primer in outer-space life.
The manga differ quite a bit from the Planetes anime The story manly revolves around Fee Carmichael, Hachirota Hoshino, and Yuri Mihairokoh in this first volume. There is more focus on space technology then then inter character development. It has a lot in common with Homer Hickam's Back to the Moon. Where the people take a back seat to the technology and action.
However, technology and action are my bread and butter, and I really enjoyed Planetes. I will have to read the rest of the series when it come out.
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August 17, 2005
Managa discussion group, part 2
What if you had a discussion group... continued.
I am happy to announce that the second meeting of the Barnes & Noble of Manchester NH Manga reading group was a success. We got the required six people to continue this monthly reading group.
The topic of this month was Cowboy Bebop. These groups are supposed to be centered around the books, but because Cowboy Bebop is a franchise we expanded our dialog to include the television series and movie. We had lively discussions about favorite characters, why the series is so popular, and the greatest Bebop mystery of all; what was Spike's fate at the end of the series? Overall it was a lot of fun and I can not wait to do it again next month.
I found the age ranges of the participants involved to be interesting. They ranged from a pair of high-school freshmen to 28 year old working class guys. Manga's diverse appeal becomes obvious when common ground can be found amongst these people. This broad range is the factor that is allowing manga sales in the USA to skyrocket. It is easy to track these types of marketing trends just my watching the week to week content if the shelves. For example, I recently counted the the number of CLAM titles on the manga shelves. I found no fewer then ten series being sold from this one shouju publisher. For this I can ascertain that the greatest buyer of manga are female. This is not a terribly surprising statistic. It is just interesting to see it reflected by the market so quickly.
So speaking of shouju manga, next months topic of discussion will be Saiyuki. It is a little outside my usual reading habits, but I think I can wing it. If any one is interested in attending just be at Barnes & Noble of Manchester NH at 7:00 PM on September 21. Everyone who is interested in manga is welcome.
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July 22, 2005
What if you had a discussion group and no one came?
Wednesday saw the first manga discussion group at the Barnes & Noble in Manchester NH. The manga chosen to discus was Ragnarok. In attendance was Yomiko, myself... and no one else. But it only takes two people to have a discussion, so we discussed our hearts out and kept it up for nearly the entire hour.
The discussion group was official Barnes & Noble event with a cool sign and everything. Being a sanctioned discussion, I felt no need to quell my volume and at some points people overheard us and came over to make there own interested interjections. But still, no one would come sit at the table.
Sigh.
Yomiko felt pretty beat, the discussion group was her idea. I told her to not give up and later her supervisor came over and said it usually takes three meetings before anything gets going. We are going to make two more attempts.
Next time, we will pick the Cowboy Bebop, a story any anime watcher would be familiar with. We will also position the discussion table within eye and earshot of the manga shelves. Perhaps that way we can pick up customers who are passing by to pick up a manga.
So if you are interested in manga and live anywhere near Manchester New Hampshire, please come by. We are very friendly and need people for the group. The meeting are every third Wednesday of the month in the Barnes & Noble in Manchester NH.
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October 26, 2004
Anime eyes: Observations and Analysis of visual appearance
The following is a piece I wrote examining the nuances of the way eyes are drawn in anime characters.
Figure 1 demonstrates a standard eye drawing style. What is not clear from the figure is the left and right sides of the eye are not clearly defined by a contrasting shape like the top and bottom are. The eye it self has only the minimal requirement needed to identify it as a eye. These parts are: a upper eyelid (1.1);a iris(1.3,1.4); a inner pupil; and a lower eyelid(1.5). For this demonstration a female eye type was chosen. The primary gender difference between male and female eyes is the length of the upper eyelid, female eyelids are portrayed with a extension towards the outside of the face symbolizing greater length of the eyelash as can be see in 1.1. The upper eyelid in general follows the contour if the top of the eye. The shape of the contour can have shape corners as seen in 1.1, or it could be more soft and rounded. The type of eyelid can be used to chow the type of personality of the character, hard or soft. The lower eyelid(1.5) is very similar to the upper eyelid with the exception of it being smaller.
The color palate used in Anime style is usually very limited. This limitation can be seen in the iris portion of the eye (1.3,1.4) Note that only two distinct colors are used, a midrange(1.3) and a shadow(1.4). Using these two colors, the illusion of the eye having depth is achieved. It appears that the iris is behind the upper eyelid, and its shadow is cast upon the iris.Between the shadowed iris and the eyelid a hard shadow is formed. Because the a darker color is needed beyond the shadowed iris, black is used.
At the very center of the eye is the pupil. as with any normal human eye, it is completely black. This shows a example of the limited complexity allowed in animation. Instead if attempting to separate the pupil from the upper eyelid, it is simply smeared together making a single continues shape.
One of the defining hallmarks of anime eyes is the use of large highlights(1.6). It is very unusual to see a eye of this complexity with out one or more highlights over the iris and pupil. These highlights create the illusion of a smooth wet surface. By adjusting the size and number of the highlights, the wetness level can be changed. To maintain scene coherence the locations of the of the highlights is the same on both eyes, even though all other attributes have been mirrored(reversed) on opposite sides.
Emotional expression and cultural ambiguity:
In human physiology, tension levels can be seen the in the size of the pupil and the amount Sclera(the white stuff the outside eye is made of) visible increases. A good example of this is when you are surprised, you momentarily open your eyes as wide as possible, this is part of the “fight or flight” instinct that is associated with the Sympathetic nervous system. For reasons I will get into later, in most anime the distance between the upper and lower eyelids must change as little as possible. This is accomplished by changing the size of the iris and pupil in relation to the eyelids. As you can see, figure 2 has a appearance of surprise due to the large amount of Sclera(white) visible above and beneath the iris. While figure 1 has a greater look of relaxation where there is no Sclera(white) visible. Figure 2 has all the same characteristics of shading, coloring etc. but the size of the iris and pupil are smaller. This can also be used to portray gender differences. Female characters are usually softer and in many cases more venerable this leads to eye types similar to figure 1. Male characters tend to be stronger and irises are very small, to none existent.
As I stated earlier, the distance between the upper and lower eyelids must change as little as possible. This is not to say that distance of the eyelid never changes, but never for any extended period of time. The reason for this, I believe is to maintain a level of cultural ambiguity, where as the viewer can not tell the ethnic background from the eye shape. If the eyelids whereto rest closer together, depending on the distance, you could tell if the character is of Asian or European descent. By avoiding ethnic background, characters can be unencumbered by racial stereotypes.
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