Quick how-to for this while I write a longer response that will probably wind up using one: if you press the little gear icon above the text area, then click “hide details”, it will insert a set of bracketed commands for you to write your spoiler/extended commentary between. Have fun!
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Oop I got wordy again.
I’d say this is a fair argument, for sure - like I said, I haven’t read flying witch, so I’m not really familiar with what level of sexualization the poses and art are taking. But manga and anime, like any given art form, absolutely wind up inspiring people to mimic and learn from popular artists or artists that they admire, unfortunately in both good and not so good ways.
And sorry if my original comment was confusing - I meant to address more of the “90% of manga” or “almost all manga/anime these days” way of thinking, because I feel like those sorts of generalizations are a bit of a misnomer and disservice to the sheer breadth of stories being told, plenty of which don’t suffer from oversexualization, even if many of them also do.
I think there are both points to be had here!
Becoming a professional mangaka is a pretty hefty task, and there’s a lot of skill and knowledge involved in being able to draw and produce a story on that scale. Some of these folks may have become authors through self-taught methods, some of them may have gotten formal education in it, but either way it’s good to remember their experience in the field.
That said, while I am not artistically inclined on the drawing side of things I do have a background education in writing, and one of the things I was literally taught in classes is the importance of being intentional. Because it is way wayyyyyy easier than you’d think to make something with Accidental Implications™. I absolutely read pieces by fellow classmates where one of my questions during our workshop was “Hey did you mean to write this as a dick joke/other implication? Because it feels like one.” Obviously drawing is a different kind of art, but I imagine the same sort of unintentional decisions are just as easy to make.
Now I do think that editorial/production pressure plays a role in these things - I’ve seen enough author commentaries in tankoubon that mention “Well originally my idea was x but my editor told me y would be better” to know it’s reasonably widespread. I’ve seen comments about editors pressuring an author to make a character’s design younger/prettier/more handsome/etc. But art is also something that a lot of people get into because they’re inspired by those around them, so I don’t think that influence should be entirely discounted, either.
Anyway, I still haven’t read - had a class after my last message, and then came back and wrote up this response instead because this is an interesting conversation.
My friends may have also talked me into a minor crime…involving the bookoff app…
But the day is young! Ish. 
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100% on soul eater. I loved it when I was like 10, and decided to re-watch it now that I’m learning japanese and just 
still gotta special place in my heart for Paper Moon.
(When I was 中二病I made a “mix tape” for my first crush of Anime OP that I then burned, traced the creepy moon from soul eater and titled Luna 
y
y There’s great anime that isn’t sexuallized.
Fullmetal Alchemist,
Freiren,
Dungeon Meishi,
Kotaru Lives Alone(there was one cringy- line),
Somali to Mori,
Spy Family(mostly- there was an episode I couldn’t watch)
fragrent flower blooms with dignaty,
sweetness and lightning 甘々と稲妻,
JujitsuKaizen
and Buddy Daddies are all anime I’ve watched that don’t include sexual harrasemnt or jiggle physics - the two things that I didn’t notice when I was ten, but I loath now.
Keep watching the anime, buying the books and posters, of the stories you do like. Yeah, Nurahion (I hope) isnt selling any wifu pillows, but I bought a calander and a poster.
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I’m not going to get too much more into the conversation of sexualization in anime/manga. I’m really over it when it just doesn’t feel like the series shouldn’t have it.
There are certain series that I don’t mind it in, which for some reason are all post apocalyptic and/or survival ones. Highschool of the Dead, 自殺島, Cage of Eden, and one I just started called Mother Goul. Don’t ask me why that is, because I really don’t know. Brain says 
so I go with it.
On another note- I started reading マグメル深海水族館 1 for my prettiest book cover bingo square. Fun fact about me, I love fish and the Oarfish has been my favorite for many years. (I genuinely may be on the spectrum just fyi) A long time ago I did an oarfish oil painting, but I wasn’t liking it anymore. Last summer I used the covers of マグメル as my inspiration to repaint it with some bright blacklight paints. I’ve really loved it since.
I wish I could find a picture of how it originally looked, but I’m not sure I have one. It used to have chrysanthemums and little spirit orb type things floating around. Sounds weird, and it was, but looking back I feel like Inuyasha may have inspired that.
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Quick week wrap-up:
Finished
- Flying Witch 2
Progressed
- Associate Professor whatshisface - still tough, it takes me about 4 minutes to read one page, but I want to keep reading
Started
- Shirokuma cafe melon flavour, since I am also borrowing that and want to clear it off my shelf and conscience.
On hold
- I think Kiki is on a break with me right now, but I hope to revisit it later.
- Zenitendou vol 2, I just haven’t really had time for this week, but I’m nearly finished so I’ll try to clear that next week.
Reading hasn’t been crazy this week, but now I’ve passed N2 I’m keen to start consuming my backlog of “easier” books a bit faster to try and improve my reading speed.
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Here’s my check-in!
I did in fact manage to get some reading done on Wednesday after my criminal behavior - about a third of a volume of Vanitas, and then I finished that off yesterday, which makes me officially done with all 11 volumes currently available!
Was taking care of some work prep today so I didn’t have tons of downtime, but I got about a quarter of the way into the first volume of 青の祓魔師, although I’m not sure if it’s going to be my next hard focus or if I’m gonna switch to something else. Might try the first volume of a few things and then see how I feel.
Here’s to a good weekend, everyone!
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A few days ago I mentioned I wanted to finish vol 5 of ループ7回目 by the end of the week, which I’m happy to say I did! I also finished the next section of Kiki for book club and started vol 6 of ループ7回目, which I’m hoping to finish this weekend.
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I’ve been reading a lot, but still haven’t quite finished anything else yet. 
Nancy Drew is really eating up my time. I can read for like 2 hours and only make it 5% further.
Magmell Deep Sea Aquarium has been wonderful so far. I can definitely see it becoming one of my favorite manga ever. When I first found out about a few years ago I knew I was the audience for it. Each chapter focuses on a different deep sea creature. So far we’ve done giant isopods and frilled sharks.
When you look up the definition of a word and still don’t know what it is.
Apparently these creatures are what chapter 3 is about.
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How are you finding 骨ドラゴン?
It’s on my list for later but it looked a bit overwhelming compared to some of the other Manga I have.
NB: TIL what a frilled shark is, thanks to you 
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been a bit since last time, I’ve not bought any new japanese books, but I haven’t read any either. Only quiet time I get is after 9 pm, and by then already tired. At least I’m digging through this children’s dictionary i borrowed from the library, still on the あ words though. (My logic is, and I’ve heard this from someone else a youtuber or something, but studying an entire children’s dictionary makes sense because that’s what children are expected to know, getting a very solid base line of words albeit not the most fun way.)
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Sound logic there. Some of the kids dictionaries have diagrams and such in them and the language used is certainly easier.
I’ve got a few for different things (a kanji one, vocab one and I think a Thesaurus). I liked the extra stuff in them like showing stroke order and diagrams for explaining certain things etc. I’ve used mine while reading if I don’t want to use my phone (helps me to not get distracted).
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If you mean difficulty wise- so far so good. Not too hard or too easy. Upon peeking ahead I think the difficulty might be lower than 25. I’m honestly kind of bad at judging manga difficulty, especially when compared to chapter books.
Enjoyment wise- I’m not necessarily a big fantasy book kind of person, but I like it so far. The artwork is initially what sold me on joining the book club. Once the book club is finished I did plan on continuing the series.
Wouldn’t it make more sense then to just read children’s books?
That way you have context to words and it seems more fun than reading a dictionary. Though I’m one who actually likes children’s books quite a bit. I know for some people they’re just as boring as a dictionary.
Forgot to mention in my last post that I bought a Kobo Libra Color that has yet to arrive. I have a Pixel tablet that I read with Firefox and Yomitan on right now, but it’s an 11" tablet, which is kind of big and heavy for reading. I thought it’d be nice to get something smaller and easier on my eyes that I could also use for English books.
Oh speaking of eyes! I finally got the left lens of my new glasses fixed so I can see perfectly now! You don’t realize how much you take your vision for granted (even if you have glasses) until you’ve been seeing double for like 6 months straight.
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Cool, it should be doable for me when I reach it then. I tend not to rate Manga against books just because they are so different but I have noticed a few Manga that were lower levels when I tried them originally have now gone up a few difficulty levels.
Didn’t know there was a book club for it though so will need to check that out. Thanks for the heads up 
Fantasy tends to be my go to in English and this had a dragon (which is kind of what sold me on it tbf 
).
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The book club is over on WaniKani. We’re only in week 3 if you still want to hop in. 
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I’m in the middle of a series atm with a short one lined up for afterwards but will jump in once I’m ready.
Thanks for the link
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It’s somehow Friday again…
This weeks progress:
Finished:
- Shirokuma Cafe Melon Aji
Progressed:
- Associate Professor Takatsuki Akira’s Conjecture (Is what I think it’s called? LMAO) - now at 29% (page 85 out of 293). It is a novel/light novel (idk how you tell the difference to be honest) and my first time reading something of this density and complexity, but it’s going okay still. The plot is engaging enough that I want to keep reading, but it takes me about 4 minutes just to read one page (just realising I said this same thing last Friday, so good to see my pace is consistent lol)… That said, even though I struggle, I feel like I am getting less tired and can read for longer and more often, which is good. I was really hoping my speed would have started to pick up around now though, but I guess it takes longer than I thought.
On hold:
- Fushigi Dagashiya Zenitendou 2 - just haven’t picked it up, but now I’ve finished Shirokuma Melon I’ll hopefully finish it soon
- Kiki’s Delivery Service - again, haven’t picked it up, but I want to get back on it soon so I can catch up with book club aaaaaaaaa
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I really don’t like most children’s books/ graded readers lol. and the dictionary I use does have example sentences, images, synonyms and antonyms so it’s quite in depth. plus despite being 200 pages, there’s only about 1,000 words, skipping super common ones like watashi (I hope most children know what watashi means) and focuses more on pretty common, but not every day words.
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ngl that does sound pretty interesting
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You got a link for the one you use?
As for my weekly update, not to much. Ive been focusing on a few other things this week so outside of vocab my heavy studying/reading took a sideburner. Still did it, but only a little and in my textbook.
In other news, I was accepted into the Masters program of a University in Tokyo so I will become SUPER busy. Which means I may actually read on the way to and from the city on the weekends, so maybe more reading? Who knows but Ill do my best to keep everyone informed on my reading habits.
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Congratulations!!!
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