Manga Alphabet: G is for Genshiken
Sep. 18th, 2012 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesI've only got one manga entry for G... does anyone want to add more? (I've heard some good things about Glass Mask for instance, but I haven't read a thing of it myself.)
Genshiken by Shimoku Kio
The story of a tiny otaku club at university, whose members are too offbeat to fit in with the regular, much bigger manga club, this took me a little while to get into. The meta references were so thick on the ground, and at the start, the only girl around was Saki, the non-otaku who's only around for her boyfriend's sake. (I like Saki, but I still wanted a better gender balance.)
Once the girl otakus turn up I started to like it more, particularly with the introduction of sullen Chika Ogiue, who turns out to be a passionate and talented wannabe-mangaka. The characters feel more and more real and fleshed out for every volume, and the final volumes in particular have some genuinely tense and moving scenes between them, as well as more atmosphere and being even more funny. (Madarame, the sarcastic and committed über-otaku in particular impressed me with the amount of character exploration he gets.) There's incessant meta talk in the group about popular tropes in manga/anime and what would have happened if they were in a manga, which is pretty fun as well as realistic.
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Anime corner
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time A fun and thoughtful movie that starts off very mundane with the life of an ordinary high school student who feels a little overwhelmed both with everyday things and her friends acquiring romantic feelings. Then suddenly, things change as the main character quite by happenstance acquires the power to go back in time through literally leaping in air. Now she keeps reliving her days to do over mistakes, ace tests, avoid uncomfortable conversations, maybe even help friends a bit... until things take a sharp turn for the serious and it may be a question of life and death. The movie flows really well, the animation is well-done, and the plot twists are genuinely surprising.
Grave of the Fireflies
TV Tropes call this story from the end of World War II "one of the most heart-twisting films to ever be produced, animated or otherwise" - I would rather say heart-breaking, but yeah. I'm glad I was so forewarned about this movie, and I do my best to be clear about it to others, because I really think it's not the kind of thing you should be seeing blind. It might not affect everyone the same way (though if you spend a lot of time getting mad at Seita for his unwise choices, that's actually just what the director wanted), but it seems more common than not to be devastated by this tragic movie that was based on an autobiographical short story. I certainly wouldn't want to show it to a child, even though it's originally intended for a young audience due to being educational - it was a double feature with My Neighbour Totoro. It is beautifully drawn and animated, though, and the voice acting is fantastic.
Whew, the anime entries are supposed to be quite brief, but I guess they ballooned a bit this time!
Genshiken by Shimoku Kio
The story of a tiny otaku club at university, whose members are too offbeat to fit in with the regular, much bigger manga club, this took me a little while to get into. The meta references were so thick on the ground, and at the start, the only girl around was Saki, the non-otaku who's only around for her boyfriend's sake. (I like Saki, but I still wanted a better gender balance.)
Once the girl otakus turn up I started to like it more, particularly with the introduction of sullen Chika Ogiue, who turns out to be a passionate and talented wannabe-mangaka. The characters feel more and more real and fleshed out for every volume, and the final volumes in particular have some genuinely tense and moving scenes between them, as well as more atmosphere and being even more funny. (Madarame, the sarcastic and committed über-otaku in particular impressed me with the amount of character exploration he gets.) There's incessant meta talk in the group about popular tropes in manga/anime and what would have happened if they were in a manga, which is pretty fun as well as realistic.
***********************************
Anime corner
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time A fun and thoughtful movie that starts off very mundane with the life of an ordinary high school student who feels a little overwhelmed both with everyday things and her friends acquiring romantic feelings. Then suddenly, things change as the main character quite by happenstance acquires the power to go back in time through literally leaping in air. Now she keeps reliving her days to do over mistakes, ace tests, avoid uncomfortable conversations, maybe even help friends a bit... until things take a sharp turn for the serious and it may be a question of life and death. The movie flows really well, the animation is well-done, and the plot twists are genuinely surprising.
Grave of the Fireflies
TV Tropes call this story from the end of World War II "one of the most heart-twisting films to ever be produced, animated or otherwise" - I would rather say heart-breaking, but yeah. I'm glad I was so forewarned about this movie, and I do my best to be clear about it to others, because I really think it's not the kind of thing you should be seeing blind. It might not affect everyone the same way (though if you spend a lot of time getting mad at Seita for his unwise choices, that's actually just what the director wanted), but it seems more common than not to be devastated by this tragic movie that was based on an autobiographical short story. I certainly wouldn't want to show it to a child, even though it's originally intended for a young audience due to being educational - it was a double feature with My Neighbour Totoro. It is beautifully drawn and animated, though, and the voice acting is fantastic.
Whew, the anime entries are supposed to be quite brief, but I guess they ballooned a bit this time!
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 08:13 pm (UTC)I've heard good things about Great Teacher Onizuka ... I've not read the manga or seen the anime, though. (The dorama was fun. Even my generally disinterested spouse enjoyed it.)
But, my top additional recommendation for G must be GONZO's award-winning anime Gankutsuou: the Count of Monte Cristo (sometimes abbreviated by fans as GKO) and the 3 volume manga that supplements it.
As I'm pressed for time this afternoon, I'm going to cheat and re-direct you to the page I've been writing about GKO (it has SFW pictures). Although out of print for a time, I was happy to see recently that the series has been re-issued in thin-pack. (The dub is, I think, available via Netflix, while the original was on Crunchyroll at one point.)
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 08:29 pm (UTC)*looks up the link* Now, that sounds really promising! And 26 episodes isn't too much, either! Is the manga translated, too?
no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 09:14 pm (UTC)