The Garden of Discordia

So I was totally planning on going to bed early tonight, but instead I stayed up far too late discussing shoujo manga. Whoops.

This makes me realize how much I miss my geeky friends ;_; Internet discussions are great, but RL talk over tea and anime is also quite, quite good. COME VISIT ME SOON GIRLS!!

To comfort myself, I shall post a pretty image behind the cut. While I can't buy this figure right now, I can at least drool mightily and hope to one day find it second hand or something

( Indecently expensive (but hot) P.O.P 'Sailing Again' Zoro figure )

Also good is that I cleaned up the apartment today, and packed my school bag while I was at it. I think 15 minutes for a shower + toothbrushing will have to do tomorrow morning, yeah?

Every spring, there comes about two and a half weeks when everyone I know who is involved in the fanzine and small press comics world goes into some kind of work-related hysteria slash coma. That means I need to start keeping an eye out for Stockholm's Small Press Expo, which is pretty much The opportunity to find fanzines, meet comics creators and perhaps even hear several interesting international guests at Kulturhuset.

This years panels and talks aren't super hot for me, though that's mostly because I've focused my interests rather narrowly lately (lack of time for anything else). But if I have the energy to go in on Sunday, I'll definitely attend this:
14:45 - 15:30 Galago presenterar: "Feministiskt självförsvar i serier". Panel med Gabrielle Bell, Kati Rickenbach m fl. Övriga deltagare meddelas senare. Moderator: Berit Viklund. *
Var: Studio 3 (Kulturhuset)
(Feminist self-defence in comics)

Kulturhuset also lists all the other comics-related stuff that'll happen in Stockholm about now and it's a lot!

I'm so bloody tired these days, but this sounds kinda too awesome to miss, eh?
"Ladies Drink'n'Draw"
Vad: Separatistiskt ölhäng för kvinnor och transpersoner som tecknar. Träffa seriefestivalens internationella gäster. Umgänge och teckning utlovas! Öppet för alla efter 21. Arrangör Berit Viklund.

Ahhh, and then there's the thing at Atelje Otecknad which I have managed to miss every bloody year and I'd really like to go so much happening so little time and energy ;_;

Oh, and the Scott Pilgrim guy is coming. That's fun, I know my friends like him a lot :3

Last but not least: Stef, who will sit at Snyggbordet during the market (which is totally the high point of any SPX =) posted this link a while ago. Epic markers of seventies shojo manga!

In conclusion: Epicest epic comic weekend, coming right up!

Koji Nanjo

Totally tired right now. But the TVTropes Yandere entry (The "I am c-r-a-z-y for you" stereotype) lists Koji Nanjo from Zetsuai as an example.

Or, well, to put it plainly most of the people who feel love/lust/obesssion in Zetsuai and Zetsuai Bronze fit this trope...

You won't understand what I like if you watch that old OAV, btw. The animation is rather horrid, though I liked the music. (Watch the music videos on youtube)

However, if you enjoy a tragic boy's love story with a plot of near operatic proportions (Especially in the sequel, Bronze. Put it like this, there are arms cut off - as an expression of devotion) the Zetsuai mangas are good. I like the art style too, very messy and just on the edge of scribbly but much more dynamic and, well, artistic than most of the bland drivel produced today. Alright, the first books are pretty choppy in style (especially the forehead of the women, holy beehive, Izumi's sis!!)

Koji Nanjo is a rock singer. Interesting tidbit: His visual performance borrows in part from the band BUCK-TICK, who were pretty big back then. Minami Ozaki and Kaori Yuki are among the few manga artists I know that have specifically mentioned visual kei (and related styles) artists as inspirations for their characters.

Anyway, Koji sees Takuto Izumi, a young football player traumatized by having witnessed his mother murdering his father in a fit of jealous passion, and falls into... obession? They do actually begin to love each other after a while, even share a rather cozy apartment for a while (then it all goes to hell - again) but it definitely doesn't start out in a healthy way.


Takuto Izumi

The problem with the love in Zetsuai is, I'd say, that both the protagonists are so horribly damaged by their families and that they can both be incredibly stubborn. Izumi cares for his little sister, Koji for nobody at all. They act self destructively (Koji smoking, drinking, fighting and driving with a death wish, Izumi not taking care of his body despite grueling football practice) and when they fall together it begins a spiral of obsession, violence, self-hatred and burning passion. That Koji has two plain crazy brothers and that their fans and the media aren't exactly welcoming the (after a while) prominent gay couple doesn't make things better.

Make no mistake, Zetsuai is melodromatic and tragic. But it's still very gripping and the art grows into something absolutely fascinating. Abstract, almost breaking free of the pages in violent b/w smudges to then fade away in rare, sunlit scenes of tenderness.

I (lazily) collect the Zetsuai artbooks and soundtracks. Own three so far, Zodiac, Puff and God as well as some doujinshi. Ozaki started out in the amateur scene and she kept doing (might still be for all I know?) doujinshi to her own work for quite a while.

Fyi, if you ever offer me one of Minami Ozaki's Sailor Moon doujinshi, I might just pay you with my soul.

( oh, one more pic... )

Entire anime meme here

Today I should post about my Favorite tsundere. The problem is that I don't really like the tsundere stereotype. It's only pretty recently that I've got some kind of a handle on the term at all, in fact.

To quote TVtropes:
The Japanese term tsundere refers to a character (usually female) who "runs hot and cold", alternating between two distinct moods: tsuntsun (aloof or irritable) and deredere (lovestruck). Claws out, then cute like a kitten, a friend once described the character type. If anything, I prefer the yandere trope (I think it's called "ax-crazy for love" or something like that in Western fandom?), at least as expressed in Higurashi no naku koro ni. Because little girls and a boys going frightfully insane in a "Groundhog Day" style universum was just amazingly creepy.

But apparantly Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion qualifies, so let's go with her. She's severely messed up in the head, but then, who in NGE isn't?

So for her, have the best - and probably one of the oldest too - anime music videos ever made:

Neon Genesis Evangelion - Engel


You go, Asuka ^_^

Nanne Grönwalls Avundsjuk + Umineko no naku koro ni = AMV

Eh? Eh? Tell me it couldn't be brilliant, I dare you!

Day 2 - Favorite anime you’ve watched so far

Oh dear, that's a tough one... Hmmm. I really like the Nausicaä manga, but the anime is too short to do it properly justice. Utena is a strong contender too. My current favorite fannish series is Hetalia, but I'm not going to claim that it's the best thing evah omg!!1 because it's not. Also, manga tops anime in this case too. Maison Ikkoku is an anime series that I also remember as very well-done, but it's been so long since I saw it and I only ever finished the manga, so I guess it doesn't fit on any top list. I can think of a few other titles off the top of my head, but none that really feels like a sure winner - possibly Monoke Hime, but even that didn't quite catch me as Utena.

So let's go with Revolutionary Girl Utena, the most psyched-out, queer, wonderful, epic and kick-ass school girl/fairytale/fantasy deconstruction-anime in the world. Oh, it also has the most amazing soundtrack ever aaaaand - it'll be re-released in a remastered DVD box soon! Already out in Japan, coming to a anime store near you with subtitles sometime not too far off (I hope)

Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku.