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rainsometimesOnwards to M! Oh, my... this is going to take a while.
Maison Ikkoku by Rumiko Takahashi
Initially envisioned as a collection of stories each centred on different people living in the same run-down apartment building, this seinen manga quickly turned instead into a romantic comedy focused on just two of the inhabitants. (Meanwhile, the rest of the house do their best to interfere in various ways, mostly just for their own entertainment.) One of those two are Yusaku Godai, at the start of the story a penniless ronin who comes across as pretty self-centred and immature, with an indecisive streak that he'll retain for a long time even as he slowly grows into a much more mature, kindhearted and responsible person. The other is Kyoko Otonashi, the apartment manager of the building, who at the start of the story is a recent widow and five years Godai's senior. While Godai soon gets a rival in a good-looking rich guy (while, to be fair, other women also get interested in him), the chief obstacle lies in Kyoko's inability to get over the memory of her dead husband. (Well, that and not being sure Godai can be counted on.)
Maison Ikkoku is unique among Takahashi's longer works in being entirely realistic, with no supernatural elements at all - but that's not why it's my favourite of hers. (I'm quite fond of fantastical elements!) I just really appreciate the slower pace, the theme of change and growth; while there are many common sitcom tropes and certainly an abundance of coincidences, it also feels more realistic in how people react and the consequences we see. Granted, the story does have a fair number of repetitive incidences, and I suppose in real life the same changes in the characters would probably not have taken as long as seven years. But I don't mind some sitcommish chapters myself, and I feel that precisely because Takahashi takes her time with the story, we get to know the characters even better and feel with them more than we might have otherwise. There are many moving moments, and the eventual resolution and payoff is very satisfying. (I cannot re-read the proposal scene without tearing up, at least a little!)
I also really liked to be able to read the series at about the same pace the stories were happening to the characters - seven years for them, seven years for the readers. (That is, both for the original Japanese readers and those who read the original American translations in comic book pamphlet format, two chapters an issue.) Though I guess since I didn't come aboard until a bit before the halfway point it was more like four years for me... well. Anyway. Much recommended.♥
Mermaid Saga by Rumiko Takahashi
There is a legend that eating mermaid flesh can give you eternal life: this horror manga adds the vital fact that most people die from eating the flesh, and of those who don't die, most turn into awful, mindless beasts - a dreadful kind of immortality. Fisherman Yuta was one of the very few who ate mermaid flesh but retained his humanity, centuries ago: now he walks the earth to find a mermaid that can turn him mortal again. Then he happens to finally run into another immortal, a teenaged girl named Mana, and they start to travel together, meeting new horrors as a result of humans' quest for immortality on the way.
A four-volume series that's quite unusual for Takahashi in that it features very little humour, this title uses the horror-supernatural mystery set-up with much grisly death and sad life-stories, but it's not dark all over. (And this is another one I seriously need to re-read.)
Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (also spelled Moyashimon) by Masayuki Ishikawa
After only two volumes out in English, this manga wound up in license hiatus and there's no telling when/if we'll see a third volume. Which is a crying shame if you ask me - I want more adventures at the agricultural university with student Tadayasu Sawaki and friends! The son of a yeastmaker, he's got the ability to see germs with the naked eye - and hear them talk, too! - which naturally attracts interest in the setting. Lots of stuff is learned about the uses and dangers of bacteria (always depicted as rather cute little creatures of various sorts) while the students and their teachers do their best to get by in their daily life and studying.
Mushishi by Yuki Urushibara
Another manga of the "supernatural procedure" kind, this one is set in an alternate world reminiscent of pre-industrial Japan, though never clearly shown as such. Here are strange life forms called mushi, who most people can't even see: most of them are harmful to humans but in quite different fashions. It takes a mushishi, an expert on mushi, to recognise them and to - sometimes - be able to proscribe the right treatment for them. Main character Ginko is a mushishi who never stays long in one place, always travelling from village to village and helping people along the way. Sometimes there are happy endings, sometimes not, and there's always something poignant in each story. The tone is quiet, gentle, a little melancholy; the artwork - landscapes particularly - breathtakingly beautiful. (Granted, the art is shakier in the first volumes: it improves by leaps and bounds.) The central image of the "River of Life" where the mushi flow is near-transcendent.
My Heavenly Hockey Club by Ai Morinaga
Unpretentious cracky fun that parodies common shojo manga tropes in a set-up reminiscent of Ouran High School Host Club (girl from ordinary background who's uninterested in romance gets forcibly recruited into a club full of eccentric, rich, and good-looking boys), though Ouran is better at making memorable characters and developing them. My Beautiful Hockey Club, which really doesn't do much of any hockey*-playing to speak of, is more frenetic and relentless in its storytelling. Personally I find it hard to resist a heroine who's only truly passionate about eating and sleeping, making her pursuit of those two interests her main goal in life. Meanwhile, the putative love interest is a rich idiot who thinks he really is the glamorous, cool-looking shojo guy he's a parody of, while in reality his peers are less than impressed.
This title too seems to be in translation hiatus at the moment, though I haven't looked into it. But it was a suspiciously long time ago there was a new volume translated.
Land hockey to be more precise, using balls instead of pucks.
******************************************
Creators
Yuki Midorikawa (Natsume's Book of Friends)
Hayao Miyazaki
Shigure Mizuki (NonNonBa)
Kaoru Mori
Ai Morinaga
Yusuke Murata (Eyeshield 21, art)
Takashi Murakami (Star-Gazing Dog)
Favourite characters
Miroku (Inu-Yasha)
Monta a.k.a Taro Raimon (Eyeshield 21)
************************
Anime corner
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit A 26-episode adaptation of a fantasy YA novel which veers quite a bit from the original plot to build a longer, more densely structured story that explores the characters further while keeping to the spirit of the original work. The experienced mercenary Balsa agrees to protect the life of a young prince who's threatened at court for mystical supernatural reasons, and it turns out the life of the whole kingdom hangs in the balance. Hard choices must be pondered, old knowledge is to be sought out, there are travels to a mystical other world and lots of hard travelling in the regular world, along with dazzling action scenes and quiet character moments. Notably, there aren't any true bad guys, only misinformed parties.
Balsa herself is a very neat character, usually calm and levelheaded even though she does realise there's a lot of things she doesn't know about this. She has a heavy history on her own that led her to take on the mission. Her love interest is a healer named Kanda who wishes she would take it easier and be more careful out there, but is ready to wait for her if that's what it takes - a lovely reversal of the usual gender roles.
Now... I have to confess I haven't seen the series to the end yet (couldn't get ahold of the final DVD), though I have read the whole original book. I'd be very surprised if the final episodes disappoint me enough to want to take back this recommendation, though. So far I found it a most excellent and refreshing series.
Millennium Actress A beautiful movie where filming a documentary about the life of an actress soon leads to blurring between reality and fiction, between past and present, as her life and the scenes she's played over the years blend together. It's hard afterwards to say what really happened and how, but Chiyoko's story (also a tour through Japanese history as seen through movies) is entrancing nevertheless and rewards many reviewings. And again, so pretty! Also the music is great. Directed and co-written by Satoshi Kon. ;_;
My Neighbours the Yamadas An episodic movie based on a newspaper family strip in which director Isao Takahata forgoes the usual Ghibli look for a cool blend of cartoonishness and watercolours - quite expensive to do but not all that appreciated by the moviegoing public, sadly. Mixes longer storylines with shorter gag takes, always with an everyday feel and a humorous and largely unsentimental blend. Nevertheless has some rather evocative and touching movements - even a little bit of wisdom in it, maybe (plus a stylish and hilarious fight for controlling the TV programming!). An interesting sequence where the father confronts some motorcycle-driving youngsters changes the style into something more realistic, and feels all the more threatening for it. Also has my favourite rendition of "Que Sera, Sera" at the end. Both the Japanese and the American voice cast do a great job.
My Neighbour Totoro
Not just one of the fluffiest animated movies I've ever seen, but also, for me, one of the absolute best. Not sure if I can explain why... I think it's got something to do with the incredible, near-tangible presence the film conveys, evoking not just childhood memories but the very intensity of how you experience the world as a child to an extent few fictional works manage to do. Everything is magical.
Maison Ikkoku by Rumiko Takahashi
Initially envisioned as a collection of stories each centred on different people living in the same run-down apartment building, this seinen manga quickly turned instead into a romantic comedy focused on just two of the inhabitants. (Meanwhile, the rest of the house do their best to interfere in various ways, mostly just for their own entertainment.) One of those two are Yusaku Godai, at the start of the story a penniless ronin who comes across as pretty self-centred and immature, with an indecisive streak that he'll retain for a long time even as he slowly grows into a much more mature, kindhearted and responsible person. The other is Kyoko Otonashi, the apartment manager of the building, who at the start of the story is a recent widow and five years Godai's senior. While Godai soon gets a rival in a good-looking rich guy (while, to be fair, other women also get interested in him), the chief obstacle lies in Kyoko's inability to get over the memory of her dead husband. (Well, that and not being sure Godai can be counted on.)
Maison Ikkoku is unique among Takahashi's longer works in being entirely realistic, with no supernatural elements at all - but that's not why it's my favourite of hers. (I'm quite fond of fantastical elements!) I just really appreciate the slower pace, the theme of change and growth; while there are many common sitcom tropes and certainly an abundance of coincidences, it also feels more realistic in how people react and the consequences we see. Granted, the story does have a fair number of repetitive incidences, and I suppose in real life the same changes in the characters would probably not have taken as long as seven years. But I don't mind some sitcommish chapters myself, and I feel that precisely because Takahashi takes her time with the story, we get to know the characters even better and feel with them more than we might have otherwise. There are many moving moments, and the eventual resolution and payoff is very satisfying. (I cannot re-read the proposal scene without tearing up, at least a little!)
I also really liked to be able to read the series at about the same pace the stories were happening to the characters - seven years for them, seven years for the readers. (That is, both for the original Japanese readers and those who read the original American translations in comic book pamphlet format, two chapters an issue.) Though I guess since I didn't come aboard until a bit before the halfway point it was more like four years for me... well. Anyway. Much recommended.♥
Mermaid Saga by Rumiko Takahashi
There is a legend that eating mermaid flesh can give you eternal life: this horror manga adds the vital fact that most people die from eating the flesh, and of those who don't die, most turn into awful, mindless beasts - a dreadful kind of immortality. Fisherman Yuta was one of the very few who ate mermaid flesh but retained his humanity, centuries ago: now he walks the earth to find a mermaid that can turn him mortal again. Then he happens to finally run into another immortal, a teenaged girl named Mana, and they start to travel together, meeting new horrors as a result of humans' quest for immortality on the way.
A four-volume series that's quite unusual for Takahashi in that it features very little humour, this title uses the horror-supernatural mystery set-up with much grisly death and sad life-stories, but it's not dark all over. (And this is another one I seriously need to re-read.)
Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (also spelled Moyashimon) by Masayuki Ishikawa
After only two volumes out in English, this manga wound up in license hiatus and there's no telling when/if we'll see a third volume. Which is a crying shame if you ask me - I want more adventures at the agricultural university with student Tadayasu Sawaki and friends! The son of a yeastmaker, he's got the ability to see germs with the naked eye - and hear them talk, too! - which naturally attracts interest in the setting. Lots of stuff is learned about the uses and dangers of bacteria (always depicted as rather cute little creatures of various sorts) while the students and their teachers do their best to get by in their daily life and studying.
Mushishi by Yuki Urushibara
Another manga of the "supernatural procedure" kind, this one is set in an alternate world reminiscent of pre-industrial Japan, though never clearly shown as such. Here are strange life forms called mushi, who most people can't even see: most of them are harmful to humans but in quite different fashions. It takes a mushishi, an expert on mushi, to recognise them and to - sometimes - be able to proscribe the right treatment for them. Main character Ginko is a mushishi who never stays long in one place, always travelling from village to village and helping people along the way. Sometimes there are happy endings, sometimes not, and there's always something poignant in each story. The tone is quiet, gentle, a little melancholy; the artwork - landscapes particularly - breathtakingly beautiful. (Granted, the art is shakier in the first volumes: it improves by leaps and bounds.) The central image of the "River of Life" where the mushi flow is near-transcendent.
My Heavenly Hockey Club by Ai Morinaga
Unpretentious cracky fun that parodies common shojo manga tropes in a set-up reminiscent of Ouran High School Host Club (girl from ordinary background who's uninterested in romance gets forcibly recruited into a club full of eccentric, rich, and good-looking boys), though Ouran is better at making memorable characters and developing them. My Beautiful Hockey Club, which really doesn't do much of any hockey*-playing to speak of, is more frenetic and relentless in its storytelling. Personally I find it hard to resist a heroine who's only truly passionate about eating and sleeping, making her pursuit of those two interests her main goal in life. Meanwhile, the putative love interest is a rich idiot who thinks he really is the glamorous, cool-looking shojo guy he's a parody of, while in reality his peers are less than impressed.
This title too seems to be in translation hiatus at the moment, though I haven't looked into it. But it was a suspiciously long time ago there was a new volume translated.
Land hockey to be more precise, using balls instead of pucks.
******************************************
Creators
Yuki Midorikawa (Natsume's Book of Friends)
Hayao Miyazaki
Shigure Mizuki (NonNonBa)
Kaoru Mori
Ai Morinaga
Yusuke Murata (Eyeshield 21, art)
Takashi Murakami (Star-Gazing Dog)
Favourite characters
Miroku (Inu-Yasha)
Monta a.k.a Taro Raimon (Eyeshield 21)
************************
Anime corner
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit A 26-episode adaptation of a fantasy YA novel which veers quite a bit from the original plot to build a longer, more densely structured story that explores the characters further while keeping to the spirit of the original work. The experienced mercenary Balsa agrees to protect the life of a young prince who's threatened at court for mystical supernatural reasons, and it turns out the life of the whole kingdom hangs in the balance. Hard choices must be pondered, old knowledge is to be sought out, there are travels to a mystical other world and lots of hard travelling in the regular world, along with dazzling action scenes and quiet character moments. Notably, there aren't any true bad guys, only misinformed parties.
Balsa herself is a very neat character, usually calm and levelheaded even though she does realise there's a lot of things she doesn't know about this. She has a heavy history on her own that led her to take on the mission. Her love interest is a healer named Kanda who wishes she would take it easier and be more careful out there, but is ready to wait for her if that's what it takes - a lovely reversal of the usual gender roles.
Now... I have to confess I haven't seen the series to the end yet (couldn't get ahold of the final DVD), though I have read the whole original book. I'd be very surprised if the final episodes disappoint me enough to want to take back this recommendation, though. So far I found it a most excellent and refreshing series.
Millennium Actress A beautiful movie where filming a documentary about the life of an actress soon leads to blurring between reality and fiction, between past and present, as her life and the scenes she's played over the years blend together. It's hard afterwards to say what really happened and how, but Chiyoko's story (also a tour through Japanese history as seen through movies) is entrancing nevertheless and rewards many reviewings. And again, so pretty! Also the music is great. Directed and co-written by Satoshi Kon. ;_;
My Neighbours the Yamadas An episodic movie based on a newspaper family strip in which director Isao Takahata forgoes the usual Ghibli look for a cool blend of cartoonishness and watercolours - quite expensive to do but not all that appreciated by the moviegoing public, sadly. Mixes longer storylines with shorter gag takes, always with an everyday feel and a humorous and largely unsentimental blend. Nevertheless has some rather evocative and touching movements - even a little bit of wisdom in it, maybe (plus a stylish and hilarious fight for controlling the TV programming!). An interesting sequence where the father confronts some motorcycle-driving youngsters changes the style into something more realistic, and feels all the more threatening for it. Also has my favourite rendition of "Que Sera, Sera" at the end. Both the Japanese and the American voice cast do a great job.
My Neighbour Totoro
Not just one of the fluffiest animated movies I've ever seen, but also, for me, one of the absolute best. Not sure if I can explain why... I think it's got something to do with the incredible, near-tangible presence the film conveys, evoking not just childhood memories but the very intensity of how you experience the world as a child to an extent few fictional works manage to do. Everything is magical.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-26 10:51 pm (UTC)Actually I did have an "M" suggestion - not as strong as some of my others, but still enjoyable.
Mahou Tsukai Tai! (Magic User's Club) started off as a shoujo manga, got an OVA, then a series, and finally a shonen version based on the anime was made.
The story of Sae, who, as the result of a very strange dream she had as a child that left her with magical powers (of a sort) and a mysterious teddy bear, joins a Magic User's Club at her school. President is Takeo, a studious and sometimes hilariously horny nerd who develops a crush on Sae; Aburatsubo, the school tennis star and "prince" who has a hopeless (and often expressed) crush on Takeo; Akane, the spacey girl with erratic powers who generally is always going off with older boyfriends, and Nanaka, a somewhat tsundere tomboy who becomes Sae's best friend (and who has a hopeless crush on Aburatsubo).
The anime's dub is excellent, the general tone is goofy and sweet, and it has some of the most side-splitting laugh out loud moments (most involving Aburatsubo and Takeo) I've ever experienced in an anime.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-27 06:20 pm (UTC)How many episodes are there? You certainly make it sound entertaining!
no subject
Date: 2012-09-29 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-29 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-29 08:03 pm (UTC)Oh, I'd also, for anime, recommend Mononoke.
This stylish dreamlike series (a spinoff of one of the three tales sold in the series Ayakashi Bakeneko), tells of a mysterious itinerant Medicine Seller who contends with various lingering spirits he meets on his travels. The bulk of each story (most are 2-3 episodes long) has ..well, might as well quote the wiki entry -
"The Medicine Seller always proceeds in the same manner, using his knowledge of the supernatural to fend off the mononoke until he can learn the spirit's shape (Katachi), truth (Makoto) and reasoning (Kotowari). Only then can he unsheathe his sword and exorcise the demon. The English subtitles translate these three necessities as Form, Truth, and Regret."
This entry at Anizen has a number of pictures. (The embedded OP also gives you a good sense of the visuals as well) ~ though unlike the jaunty, jazzy song used in the OP, as I recall most of the episodes have no BG music.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-29 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-29 08:59 pm (UTC)