Week 14: The influence of anime and manga in the west

The Text I read was Annarasumanana by Ilkwon Ha. I'm honestly really surprised how unique and different the manga is in terms of hows its illustrated, how the comps are layed out, and how the use of variety in the media capitalizes in the humor and severity of the story told.  I think it was a very dramatic, and cinematic comic and takes its self very seriously through its usage of sparce dialogue and using the environment to communicate empty or loneliness.

I think the story connects to me through the main character. I think in the story, her main goals initially were to push past her past and to get her degree while support her sister. I think the difficulty she felt was it was hard for her to relate to most of her class mates because her priorities were much more different and were further past school. I think for me I can relate to this because I am trying to balance my personal life and my school life, while worrying about the unknown certainty of my future life. I think that its very relatable that she was yearning to relive a past experience at the carnival which sparked a new life in her. I look back to my past and find elements of what I want to relive and reflect on to help better my self in the future. 

I feel like the best change for this type of story could be translated into a TV series directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, the guy who made Samurai Jack. I think that he would be the only one to really give the series justice. I think the changes I would make would be to add more multi media in the story like stop motion and matte paintings.  I would also want it to be colorized, but also have it be black and white for certain moments. 

I think because of the minimal use of words and the capitalization of telling story through action and a dynamic composition that a video format would be a really amazing way to tell this story, and would be the best way to communicate the adaptation. 

Week 13: Oishinbo

This manga makes me want to fly to japan more and more. Something that I thought was really cool and unique which sets its self apart from other manga is in between chapters it gives you recopies to make your own food at home. I think its really awesome because it allows people to who arn't Japanese to really understand the culture further, in my opinion, I think the food of a country tells a story in its own way and I like how this book gives back an extra step by allowing the reader to apply real world knowledge. It encourages me to read further so I can learn more recipes. Fianlly, another thing that I thought was pretty cool was the art style, so far this is also one of the more unique styles, I feel like its a mix of the old school Akira Toryama style, and a mix of a cartoony One Piece vibe as well.

Week 12: contemporary manga

A silent voice

This Manga is a really beautiful, well written slice of life manga. Im not entirely sure what the genre of contemporary manga is exactly, but based off of reading this I would assume its very conservative, and feel good. I think it explores interesting topics and scenarios however it dosn't get into too much of the genres like horror or drama, and just plays up the elements of the simplicity of life. I think the biggest message I got from reading this manga was the struggle of acceptance. Communication is one of the biggest faults in our society and it this book really shows the difficulties of how a def person could establish emotional connections to her classmates. I feel like it especially resonates with people who have been bullied in school in thepast. It really looks at both sides and shows ultimately at the end of the day that we are all human and need to take the time to understand that we are all equal and should be accepted for who we are regardless of our flaws.

Week 11: Horror

Manga horror is just odd

There were so many surreal, gross, stupid, and trippy stories that I read. I don't understand how some of them are even considered horror. I think each one of these stories is very unique and explores a niche type or morbid curiosity. For example, the Fixed Face story is very psychological. The woman destroyed her ears because she feared nobody in the world would help her, but in reality she should have just waited until morning for an assistant to check the room. I really liked the over exadurated emotions portrayed in the comics and the sunken in eyes really played up the emotion of helplessness and pure stress. The weirdest one was for sure the shit one. I felt like it didn't take its self seriously. Something that I did think was super weird about it was the boy rather than what the vendor was selling. He was always in silhouette and had a very weird shape to his head almost as if he was some sort of crazy person. I don't know how to entirely describe it but It was just comedicaly unsettling.

Week:10 but in the future! Isekai

That Time I got Reincarnated As A Slime

So far this is my favorite manga I read during the class. I pays a lot of homage to some of the classic RPG games I used to play when I was a kid like Dragon Quest. Especially the fact that he turned into a slime is hilarious. The Slime is known as a the weakest mob in most Japanese RPG's and I find it comedic genius that the protagonist managed to charm the most powerful dragon in the realm and absorbed its power as the first enemy he "fought". The transporting to another realm was a very intresting sequence at the beginning of the story because it first focuses on the protagonists friend, and watches as he leaves our world from the random stabbing, and is transported into a game like reality. My assumption is he uploaded his consciousness into his PC or something. The thing I disliked about the read was it felt very cheesy. There are a lot of shows like this, and unlike Satellite Girl and Milk cow, the plot of a young man becoming an underdog in a fantasy realm is overdone and generic. I think overall, this was a very entertaining read although I personally think theres better stuff out there, but it certainly appeals to my aesthetic stylistically and the funny and self aware themes of the manga which I find my self reading for long periods of time.

Presentation Link(download drive)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iea3P-qSMBU6oN-oDASiZmoRgHJ13SKr/view?usp=sharing

Manga: My "secret" confession (not clickbait)