Forum - View topicThe Shojo Beat discussion thread
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GATSU
Posts: 15306 |
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marie: Actually, I think they ended Crimson Hero a year ago, so it should be done in a year here, too.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2607 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Fair enough. I was speaking from an MFA program point of view, and as we have all experienced at some point or another, academia is very far from the real world! (I was also thinking of some of Hino Matsuri's freetalks, when she insinuates that she was under pressure to make MeruPuri "steamier," though of course it's likely that she was joking and I totally missed it.  )
I thought there was an article on ANN a few months ago saying that Crimson Hero was ending? Is all hope lost? |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Yeah, looking at the Encyclopedia entry is looks like that's right. This will teach me to double-check that before taking Wikipedia's word on anything 
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GATSU
Posts: 15306 |
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So I'm officially done with Nana. For a "mature" shojo series, it plays it more safe than the fluff titles! Every time you think there's gonna be some tension and/or sparks between two or more characters, the tone of the friggin' story deviates back to "mellow". It's getting boring, and I'm sick of Yazawa playing the "Will they/won't they?" paddle-ball to get me to keep reading. Furthermore, five years into the series, it's still stuck in 2001, for eff's sakes! It's ridiculous to be moving each volume only 1-3 months ahead, if there's nothing going on in-between each period. I mean, at one point, they spend a page talking about installing curtains. I don't feel like reading a book padded with that kind of pointless minutiae. So fooled me once, I guess...
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GATSU
Posts: 15306 |
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So I'm officially done with Nana. For a "mature" shojo manga, Yazawa plays it too safe. Every time there's tension or sparks b/tw two or more characters, the tone immediately goes back down to mellow. And it's still stuck in 2001 after five years, for eff's sakes! This ain't M*A*S*H*, dammit! I don't want to see a slightly different change in the story after only a few months have passed.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2607 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Yeah, I gave up on NANA too. Partially because it was dull in places, like you said, Gatsu, but also because I found Hachi to be so depressing and pathetic. I just couldn't stand to watch her screw up her life any more.
Wow, I really don't have any tolerance for slice-of-life-angst, do I? 
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Surprisingly, I like NANA. I wouldn't say it's the best thing ever, but so far it's kept me intrigued. And I normally hate chick lit/movies/shows. But I think NANA is better than most, especially when compared to American chick lit. Maybe because I don't read tons of stuff like that, it stands out to me.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2607 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Oh, I agree that NANA is better than most American chick lit. None (or at least less) of that brand-name dropping that saturates the American genre and more likeable characters. (And no vampires. Ok, I know vampires are in romance novels not chick lit, but I am SO SICK OF VAMPIRES!!!!!!!
)
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rinmackie
Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Actually, there's seems to be a lot of vampire chick-lit, (or what I'd call chick lit) at least in America. I love vampire stories but most vampire romance novels are dreck. However, I love Vampire Knight but there's a bit more to it than just romance.
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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Not really a shojo fan but I've been reading some shojo manga lately. I started Ouran High School Host club last week, and got about half way through the US releases of Lovely Complex.
I only started reading Ouran was because I'm a fan of the anime series so I wanted to take a look at the manga as well. So far I'm liking it. I can see where some changes from the manga occur from the anime spoiler[Like how Suoh finds out Haruhi is a female. The manga version wasn't as funny as the anime version.] Another example I can think right off the top of my head was spoiler[About when Honey's rabbit gets stained with the tea, how in the manga it doesn't go off and explain about him supposedly beating 2 platoons of Green Beret soldiers.] Lovely Complex was more or less a random but one day. I decided to try something different and after reading a volume I was hooked. I really enjoy the fact that the stereotype things in shojo manga is not present so it turns out to be great. I'll probably get the rest of the current US releases in a future date once I get some more money or when TRSI does another VIZ sale. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2607 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Vampire Knight and those terrible Lynsay Sands romances are my last vampire reading. I still love those. 
I tend to see more vampire stuff in YA novels (pre-chick lit?), like Tantalize and the infamous Twilight Saga. Of course, it really depends on where you live and how the bookstores shelve things - where I live, Charlaine Harris goes in fantasy and Stephanie Meyer in YA, but I've seen the former in romance and the latter in the adult fiction section in other places. Don't you love subjective shelving and genre semantics?
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BunnyCupCakes
 Posts: 224 Location: The Sunshine State |
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Also I heard for Vampire Knight, she originally wanted it to start in a middle of a war but her editors wanted her to do a school-story instead. That ticked me off for some reason but in the end, VK still ended up being good so far. She handled it pretty well. :] |
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rinmackie
Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Yeah, as much as I love Vampire Knight, I find myself wishing that the characters were a little older and the setting a bit more adult. More josei than shojo, I guess. But that's probably because I'm one of the seemingly few older, adult fans.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2607 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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That makes two of us, then, Rin. I'd love to see more josei in English, actually.
Edit: This month's Shojo Beat mentioned an upcoming josei title - I'm going to guess it's Butterflies and Flowers by Yuki Yoshihara, since that was announced as a Viz license. (SB declined to say the title.) I'm really looking forward to it - not only is it josei, Yuki Yoshihara is very funny. (Chibis just shouldn't show up in sex scenes...) |
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marie-antoinette
Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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The April issue arrived on my doorstep a few days ago, finally finished reading it.
I have to say that I still really would like Viz to publish the Yuu Watase how to create manga guide in it's own volume, once it's done. I really enjoy it and it's interesting to look at the process, even though I personally have no interest in creating my own manga. Anyway, didn't bother with the preview because I don't really care about Tale of the Moon. Though it did look like quite a long preview, which was nice for those who would be interested. Vampire Knight just kept moving right along. It was interesting once again for me to see the manga chapters that correspond with anime episodes I've watched recently. Still a lot of set-up for things to come, but exciting set-up. Also, I love the cover image for this issue, especially because it's one I haven't actually seen before (which is rare with this series). Sand Chronicles made me happy because I actually do quite enjoy the spoiler[Ann/Fuuji] relationship. I also do like seeing Ann try and spoiler[find a way for memories of Daigo to be good, but I think it's definitely too early for that right now]. I do wish that the whole love triangle part would be played down though or at least let them move past it. Hopefully that will happen closer to the end of the series. Didn't bother with Crimson Hero or Haruka, shock. Honey Hunt was decent. I actually really like the relationship between the twins (who, if not fraternal, are at least different enough visually to easily tell apart). Dysfunctional families seem to be the main theme of this series which I hope will be a good grounding for the celebrity hijinks that are sure to come along the way. Honey & Clover was actually a little weaker than usual for me. It just seemed a little too all over the place, maybe. Also it definitely was a time when spoiler[Morita's insanity went a bit too far and just became annoying.] But I still really love the idea of spoiler[Takemoto's journey - and sometimes wish I was able to do something like that, except my cat would starve and my bike was stolen  ].
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