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NEWS: 12th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Nominees Announced




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Kagemusha



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:13 pm Reply with quote
Daisuke Igarashi AND Naoki Yamamoto getting nominated for the Tezuka prize? That's two kinds of awesome right there. Haven't read Red (wonder if its as depraved as Yamamoto's usual fair) but its great to see Children of the Sea getting some mainstream recognition.
But for a more realistic (and equally deserving) pick I'll root for Yotsuba&!.
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luhead



Joined: 04 Oct 2004
Posts: 151
PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:06 pm Reply with quote
I'll probably get trashed for this, but I can't hold it back any longer--what is so fricken great about Nana? It has every bad cliche from every goofy soap opera my grandma used to watch. Cheating lovers, unplanned pregnancy, scandals, betrayal, and worst, deeply stupid women etc. etc...

Where is the great artistic merit in this tripe? Why does it keep winning awards? Please help me understand.
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:08 pm Reply with quote
I think NANA is great because it has all the soap opera elements yet, IMO, it still manages to feel real so people can relate to it. From my own experience, there isn't much in NANA that I think couldn't actually happen.

Also, Ai Yazawa doesn't shirk from showing relationships go bad (because most of them do not work out) or from showing unhealthy relationships.
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Kagemusha



Joined: 20 Feb 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:42 am Reply with quote
luhead wrote:
I'll probably get trashed for this, but I can't hold it back any longer--what is so fricken great about Nana? It has every bad cliche from every goofy soap opera my grandma used to watch. Cheating lovers, unplanned pregnancy, scandals, betrayal, and worst, deeply stupid women etc. etc...

Where is the great artistic merit in this tripe? Why does it keep winning awards? Please help me understand.


Well it IS essentially a soap opera, but its also a particularly well-written soap opera. Regardless of how you feel about the plot twists and extreme emo-tenancies (which try my patience as well) Nana has some of the most well-developed characters out there, especially the two leads. Are they "deeply stupid"? They often are, and they're all the more human for these significant flaws. People screw up and do stupid things and sometimes even hurt their loved ones; Nana captures this aspect of human drama surprisingly well. The majority of popular shojo manga (manga in general really) offers characters who fairly flat and one-dimensional, so having people who actually act like real human beings can be very refreshing and absorbing.

That said, I can understand I agree that it shouldn't be nominated. It is a very good example of mainstream shojo/josei, but not a perfect one. My criticism of it is actually pretty similar to your own. But given the seemingly mainstream nature of the Tezuka's and Nana's insane popularity it isn't surprising it got the nod. Might even take it, though based on past winners I'd expect the all-encompassing charm of Yotsuba&! to win the day.[/quote]
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