Dude why does the narrator for the Kiki audiobook sound like stitch from Lilo and stitch
3 Likes
I know itās quite a bad thing that the roads arenāt safe but I canāt help but be jealous of cosy house time!! I wanna come hang out and read too!!
What were your impressions of them? In terms of the actual content, I mean?
Iām sorry to hear about your eye woes. I hope that they get sorted out soon!
1 Like
The news from the books this week. Finagled my way through a few more pages of girl speaking to animals. Its randomly difficult imo since it seems to use Grammer is ways that is just a tad but odd. The main one, which I got used to relatively quick is using ćØ after a verb. But it still throws me off.
Other than that, not to much reading in general from me. I was busy prepping for Uni entry and it was preoccupied in the back of my mind all week. I did stress buy every Gundam Card starter deck and took a leap of trying to read the rules and cards. I didā¦ decent? I think. I vaguely understood a fair amount.
1 Like
Hope any US-ians are doing okay with the weather. May you at least get some nice reading time out of it 
And hope your eye/glasses stuff sorts out okay, @obscureniche
I got a little bit more reading done last friday, but then wound up in bookoff over the weekend and picked up the ććŖććÆ series. Honestly I donāt even feel that bad about it because itās an old favorite that Iāve been keeping an eye out for, but it does still add to the pile.
As for reading todayā¦Iām ~100 bunpro reviews into a 300+ review pile that accrued over the weekend and my accuracy rate currently has me feeling like the worst sort of stupid. I want to try and keep my reading streak from last week going, but Iām not sure if the motivation is gonna survive the rest of these reviews /shrug
Good luck with this weekās reading, folks.
4 Likes
Hahaha itās not as bad as I was imagining, but I just went and listened to the preview and I can definitely hear it!
Other than reading the next section of Kiki, I didnāt manage to do much this weekend, other than doomscrolling the news, which I donāt recommend.
I did wake up a bit early today and managed to squeeze in a few chapters of vol 5 of ć«ć¼ć7åē® though, so hoping to keep up momentum on it and finish it by the end of this week.
3 Likes
č¦ććåć”ćć has had a bit of a deeper story development in this third volume. A character from volume 2 comes back and we get to learn their actual backstory and why they are the way they are. I really hope they keep going in that direction. The first couple of volumes felt a bit aimless.
å°ęć®ćć©ć“ć³ ended up just being okay. Itās only 4 volumes long and it seems like a story that needed more volumes to tell. Each volume is a different life stage, so there are fairly big time skips between volumes. I thought it was going to be more of a slice of life deal, similar to another series I read called ēµććć®ć”ćć¢ćµćć®ę®ćć, but it gets political in the second half, which I didnāt expect or particularly like.
Itās 9pm where I live right now and so far so good! We still have power and my husband turned on the emergency heat to our heating/cooling unit before it froze over. We have had our central heat, the big heater downstairs, and our heated blanket on pretty much all day though. Electric bill is gonna be through the roof this month. 
1 Like
thank you for validating me HAHA
Itās not soooo bad but a bit of a thicker accent than I was expecting so not sure how Iāll go with it but we persevere. Interesting also hearing how the narrator controls the story flow. Sometimes it even sounds like the JLPT lmao.
oh damn, thats disappointingā¦ the premise looks so fun. What kind of political direction did it go in, dare I ask? Maybe it will still be someone hereās cup of tea.
2 Likes
Itās set in eastern Europe in the 1980s and involves whatever politics were going on there at the time. Seemed like a civil war/revolution situation? Iām not even going to pretend like I actually know. I enjoy history, but also have no brain space for it. Itās not delved into deeply, which just makes it seem weird that itās included at all.
1 Like
After likeā¦6 months Iāve finally buckled down and started to finish ęØęę„ć«ćÆć³ć³ć¢ć.
I promised myself Iād finish this and then wouldnāt buy anymore. Then I saw a bunch of used books for cheap on Amazon and bought emā.
Oops!
1 Like
that does seem rather haphazardā¦ like either buy into it properly or dont? IDK, weird!!
well, Iāll forgive you once you finish it 
So, I bought 25 volumes of Hayate the combat butler- and I donāt like it. I read the first volume, and half of the second. Itās not too hard, itās just not interesting to me. What do?
I bought it like 3 years ago. Please forgive me 
1 Like
lol thatās such a blast from the past. I never really understood what that manga was about or what the appeal was, but it was one of the few manga my library had in abundance so I read it anyway. Canāt say it was my cup of tea, either.
Are there any other learners in your life you could give it to?
1 Like
kinda a weird post maybe butā¦
has anyone else noticed the art in flying witch is kindaā¦ weird? like kinda sexualised? characters are often in weird poses that emphasise their bodies in weird ways. I dont know if the author is just supremely manga brained or maybe draws racier stuff on the side, but it really keeps putting me off. Why is Makoto bending at a 90 degree angle so you can fit her whole body in the frame when sheās just standing talking to her sister.
Tbh itās kind of putting me off the series which is a shame, but Iāll finish what I own at least.
1 Like
Honestly, I feel like this is 90% of the manga and anime out there at this point. Itās definitely sexualised and done so on purpose. Sometimes I can kind of look the other way. There really is a lot of slop out there nowadays though.
1 Like
Oof yeah ironically I watched the entire anime and read some of the manga like 10 years ago. I didnāt entirely āget itā either, but also it was a hot series at the time. Loli boys or whatever I guess. 
I vote to either watch the anime to try and get yourself more in that vibe to read the manga, or maybe just read a few more volumes and see if it gets you anywhere. I really donāt remember the story, other than that I think it does actually get better as it goes on? Donāt quote me on that though.
Ive never seen it but it was also obsessed over by the ladies. I just assumed they all lusted over Hayate, the Combat Butler.
Noticed ART is kinda sexualized
Fixed that for you. Gotta sell those books to get an anime, and then the anime gotta sell merch and the merch gotta get popular so more manga can be made so more anime can be made so more merch can be made ect.
On a more serious note I also think many Mangaka start off with it being quote unquote sexy so that it sells and gets people invested. Ive certainly seen a few anime and manga where the first several episodes or chapters hit pretty close to softcore and then a shift happens and its never touched on again or spoken about.
I also think I read an article, granted like 5 + years ago, but it stated that like 50/60 % of mangaka are drawing doujins on the side and that about 90 % started their career that way while they worked on smaller comics to make a name for themselves. This is of course those in the more modern era with digital artwork. Im sure many did in the paper age as well but not as many people were probably trying to do that line of work as a living.
1 Like
I think a lot of us here can sympathize with this 
I vaguely remember seeing that around when I was younger, although it never really caught my attention. I think Iām with @cafelatte - see if thereās anyone you know who might want it for practice, or maybe see if thereās any groups or secondhand shops in the area that might want foreign language materials?
I got wordy about my thoughts on this.
While Iām certainly not going to argue that over sexualization isnāt a problem in manga and anime - it is, and quite a widespread and frustrating one - I do think itās important not to overgeneralize in the other direction, either.
I canāt speak to flying witchās art, since I havenāt read it, but I wouldnāt be surprised if it had poses that were deliberately including/emphasizing female charactersā bodies in ways that are more sensual than necessary. There have historically been and continue to be many series that do that, because of an artistās style or for popularity or merch or any slew of reasons.
And I recently tried watching Fire Force because I was thinking fondly of how I enjoyed Soul Eater, and then very quickly remembered the parts of Soul Eater that I didnāt enjoy: the āha ha groping women is a funny gagā and ānaked cat witch lady everywhere yay!!ā and other similar moments that made me uncomfortable. I wasnāt able to keep watching, personally, although Iāve been told that it tapers off a bit the way @Special_Guest was talking about.
And Iām an unironic fan of One Piece, which started at Nami being too skinny to have organs but at least wearing like, t-shirts and shorts, to Holy Sh*t How Are You Not Falling Out Of That Bikini in any given outfit. Not to even mention the running gag with Sanji.
I know that a lot of it stems from cultural differences in how that sort of art style is viewed between Japan and the western sphere - I actually designed a survey about the topic a few years back to ask locals, although unfortunately I donāt have that data to hand anymore - and yes, it is certainly also intertwined with some of Japanās own societal issues regarding womenās treatment, roles, equality, etc.
All of that said, though, I still think itās important to remember that thatās not just an inherent aspect of all manga and anime - thereās a ton of series weāve mentioned just here in this thread that really donāt involve that sort of art or over-sexualization at all.
Treating manga and anime like that sort of sexualization is just a baked-in part of the artform is how you wind up telling someone you like manga/anime and having them go āisnāt that all just porn?ā because thatās all they ever hear/see about it.
Also, as a thread full of folks who historically have put our money where our interests are, we can always choose to support mangaka who donāt contribute to that trend.
Anyway, I hope this doesnāt come across as lecture-y! Again, that kind of art is definitely very widespread among manga, and I do find a lot of that sort of art to be really uncomfortable and I do think itās something that Japan needs to address as part of their conversation about the historical and modern treatment of women. I just know that we know that thereās more to manga than justā¦that, and I think itās important to remember that.
Anyway! No reading update so far this week - Monday and Tuesdayās bunpro reviews had me whammied real bad and I probably would have needed to scream into a pillow if I tried to tackle reading on top of that. But I think Iāve got those under control now, so hopefully Iāll be able to get to a little bit of Vanitas later today.
First: interesting discussion, and Iāve enjoyed reading everyones takes.
But, hmmmm I think I kind of disagree here. What I meant when I said the author was āmanga brainedā is that so much manga IS sexual that it bleeds into many innocuous places because artists learn from other artists without thinking critically about what they are copying. Itās not that manga IS sexual, but itās that artists tend to imitate a lot of the leading artists who DO sexualise characters. This leads to a lot of unintentionally sexy media in addition to a lot of intentionally sexy media. I think in Flying Witchās case, itās like that. A lot of the poses are awkward, which also leads me to believe they are not a veteran artist and have carried over a lot of influence without having a strong foundational base themselves.
I think this happens frequently with beginner and intermediate artists in the manga genre, even outside of people who actually create manga. Again, itās not because manga is inherently sexualised as a genre, but because manga is highly influential, attracts a lot of beginners, and most of the leading mainstream manga that influences artists is in fact sexualised. Itās just inexperienced people learning the wrong things or not having enough experience to discard and add their own flavor. Itās the same thing with pixar bean mouth art style. Itās not that bean mouthes are inherently baked in to western animation, but they spread so rapidly because of the mix of influential artists using it and beginners wanting to emulate those artists.
2 Likes
I think this undersells the mangaka EXTREMELY and kinda portrays them as someā¦ idiot who doesnt know how write or draw a manga. Which I dont think is the case at all. Unless they are starting the career in highschool, they would have been casually writing and drawing manga for a while. I would argue its the publishers pushing it into the manga because again, they know the between two manga one with sexualized art and one with out, the sexualized one is probably gonna sell better. Even if its only by an extra single copy.
And thats why, only AFTER becoming popular that the mangaka can remove it from their series. So if its awkward its probably close to that. There are of course genres where it doesnt work and even mangaka that can not do that based purely on ability or name alone, but I think they are the exception and not the current rule.
Again, I think this gets baked up to the suits. The suits are fucking idiots, so they think success is solely based on the visuals and not the underlying fundamentals of the story or characters. So they see one or two wildly successful animations and go āWell, it must have been the art. Everyone copy that knowā because suits cant think logically.
Even then, the reason the sexyness didnt sell at strongly in the states is because of Christian morals. The people still wanted it but it had to be a ācertain wayā and it was still āimmoralā yada yada. But thats another tangent.
What Im boiling down to I oppose your statement of
Its all intentional. I dont think anything in art can be drawn unintentionally.
Now I wish I knew how to do the spoiler tag because that is quite the tangent and for that I apologize.
However
Reading/Watching the fight scenes in Soul Eater
Watching the rest of Soul Eater
But thats a whole other tangent on Soul Eater and Fire Force
Idk man as someone who once held aspirations of being an artist, I have to agree to disagree. Iām not saying artists are idiots, but I think there is a lot of unintentional stuff going on in drawing and character design. And I am gonna again say I absolutely think the author of Flying Witch has poor fundamentals and suffers from this. Flying Witchās problem is not so egregious that I think the editor is even saying āmake it sexy.ā Its more like an unintentional side effect of being exposed to artistic tropes.
Also, it really doesnāt matter how long youāve been drawing if you donāt make an effort to improve your art outside of manga style. If an author only draws manga art, they are more likely to retain strange habits and style errors from other artists they like.
Artists make weird unintentional āchoicesā all the time. Itās not because theyāre dumb, but because they are synthesising and recreating thousands of influences in their work. Thatās why even manga artists need to learn to draw from life and do āboringā drawings and figure work. When you lean into a style, your chances of making poor choices in order to emulate that style are heightened. When you lean into the style using the basis of your own fundamentals in reality, you tend to make less mistakes.