Such as:
“When someone with an incompatible ideology or belief resorts to the usage of power against us, there is already no longer any room left for things such as discussion. It is basic to respond to power with either the same usage of power, or negotiation with power as a support. That certainly is the truth of this world.”
Yue, genius and mage, Mahou Sensei Negima
Sometimes, manga really surprises me…
Wonderduck’s mother passed over the weekend. Please stop by his place and leave your condolences.
Negima ch. 264 is out. No great shakes. Evangeline is getting together with some other heavy hitters on Earth. In the Magic World, Negi’s getting his meeting with the jackass-in-chief,
Other stuff I’ve read lately below the fold:
Still on the manga binge, and guess what: Sturgeon’s Law applies to manga also. Reviews below the fold.
Well, it’s not looking good for quality anime anytime soon. I say that based on the theory that in bad times, “quality” = risky, and “lowest common denominator” = higher likelihood of sales.
On Tuesday, the Japan Video Software Association announced its survey results on Japanese video software sales for the first half of 2009. The overall market, which includes DVDs, Blu-ray Discs (BDs), UMDs, and video cassettes, amounted to 127.731 billion yen (about US$1.381 billion). That is 90.3% of the sales in the same period last year — a drop of almost a full tenth in sales. Despite its declining sales, the DVD format is still the overwhelming bellwether with 93.1% of the video software market.
The sales of Japanese animation DVDs for general audiences was 22.447 billion yen (US$242.6 million), or 91.2% of the sales in the same period last year. This is the latest annual drop in the segment; sales in the first half of 2008 had been 88.1% of the sales in the first half of 2007. Still, anime continues to be the largest segment of overall DVD sales, with 30.4% of the yen spent and 24.1% of the raw number of releases sold. However, less anime DVDs were rented — 88.1% of last year’s total.
Now that last year’s Blu-ray Disc/HD DVD format war is a fading memory, BD sales jumped 386.8% to 8.443 billion yen (US$91.2 million). 1,744,105 copies were sold — an increase of 312%. BDs now represent 6.6% of the overall video software market by yen spent, and 4.5% by copies sold. Anime dominated BD sales with a 56.6% share; last year, it was only 20.9% of the market. However, only 32.7% of the BDs rented were anime.
So, more Akikan, less Shinigami
Several months ago, I read the first issue of a manga called No Bra which sounds like it ought to be about a sexually liberated woman… but it’s not. Not even close. Somewhat squicked by the content, I ignored it until a few days ago. After reading all of the Ah! My Goddess chapters and over 100 of Negima, I was looking for something else, and discovered that the translations were now up to chapter 22. So I checked it out again, and ended up reading them all.
The reason there’s no bra, is that there’s no there there. But there sure is down lower. In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar, “It’s a trap!” We’re talking past Otoboku level here, only flat chested. Yuki’s act is perfect, right down to the shrieks when Masato walks into the bath while she — uhhhhh, he is in just a towel; Yuki never breaks character, not in the least. Of course, the manga-ka ignores little details like an Adams apple, and the fact that her, uh, sorry, HIS panties (!) have no bulge.
The poor guy in the middle of his very own sexuality crisis is Katoka Masato, a freshman in high school when this begins. He’s living by himself in Tokyo, when his absent father mails to inform him that an old childhood friend (whom he doesn’t remember) will be coming to stay in order to attend school in Tokyo. This is what shows up. Hilarity ensues before the misunderstanding is sorted out.
Masato spends several days being whiplashed by his hormones and knowledge, suspecting (despite talking to Yuki’s parents) that Yuki might really be a girl. But when they go to school (s/he’s attending the same one, in drag, of course…) the teacher takes one look, misunderstands Masato’s explanations, and changes the “obvious error” in the records to indicate Yuki is a girl. Worse, personality-wise, s/he’s Belldandy lite and becomes an instant hit at the school. Anyone Masato tries to tell the truth to, thinks he’s just making a bad joke. Somehow, no one ever notices Yuki is really a boy; things like P.E. get handwaved.
What makes it really difficult is that Yuki is really attracted to him, owing to memories from 10 years ago, when they were pre-schoolers. Memories that Masato doesn’t seem to share, though he conceals this to keep from upsetting Yuki. And so Yuki is constantly flirting with Masato, cooking him dinner, giving him massages, basically, being a live-in girlfriend, which just confuses the hell out of Masato, because she (argh!) is so damn cute. Believe me, the reader can sympathize, because Yuki is one big bundle of fanservice (NSFW), despite the lack of a bust.
Now by itself, this would be a one trick pony, and it would get old after a bit, or turn into slash porn — although it technically flirts with it on several occasions, it never quite demands the brain bleach because Yuki is such a girl… Naturally, that means things are going to get more complicated… boy, howdy do they ever!
And the rest is pretty spoiler-ish, so it goes below the fold.
Ok, I hit the TV Tropes site entry on this series, and it’s a lock, I’m not bothering any more with it…
How bad?
Mind Screw (Everything in the series can qualify if you think about it.)
Um…
Not Blood Siblings (Inversion; Nanami loves her brother (If You Know What I Mean), but is crushed after finding out they are both adopted and not blood related after all. This is then subverted when it turns out that Touga was just playing with her head — while they are adopted, they were adopted from the same family and thus actually are blood siblings. For the record: This is the Double Subversion of the Inversion of a trope — a prime example of how Mind Screwy this show is.)
But the one that really did it was:
Love Dodecahedron (*Deep breath*: Utena idolizes Dios and loves Anthy but gets tempted by Touga and Akio, the latter who is engaged to Kanae. Anthy mourns Dios, has love/hate feelings towards Utena and Akio, and is pursued by Saionji and Miki. Saionji, who may-or-may-not return Wakaba’s feelings, may-or-may-not love Touga, who may-or-may-not love him back, but seduces hordes of schoolgirls anyways and attracts both Keiko and Nanami. Tsuwabuki loves Nanami just as creepily as Kozue loves Miki and willingly sleeps with Akio. And Mikage once loved Tsukiko, who was seduced by Akio, and now loves Mamiya, who is Anthy in disguise. Meanwhile, Juri, Shiori, and Ruka have their own love triangle all to themselves, but Juri may-or-may-not love Miki in the movie, and Akio manipulates the emotions of all of the above to keep them in the Duels.)
AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
I should have realized it when one troper mentioned that this series had a Gainax ending… and a Gainax beginning to go with the Gainax middle.
I’m outta here…
