Forum - View topicRiichi Ueshiba
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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For those who've never heard of him
I've heard of Yume Tsukai in Spring 2006, but it was completely overshadowed by Haruhi, despite of its stellar seiyū cast. However, after being "moe-ed" by the female protagonist in Nazo no Kanojo X, as well as its gorgeous background art (anyone else heard of Empire Boy?). Luckily, I found 13 volumes of Discommunication ("original" series) in a manga rental and finished them in 4.5 hours. What a wonderful tour: it's existentialistic, it's occult, it's sweet and romantic, and it's ecchi.  From a male (author)'s point of view, it described many teenage fantasies in a way that arguably only those who have passed the age can understand and find it extremely nostalgic. Furthermore, girls Ueshiba created are rarely gorgeous babes; most of them are just above-average girls-next-door, but they are very attractive, due to both charismata and enigmata. Hey, this guy has been serializing in Afternoon for the past 16 years; that's not an easy task.
I've just placed an order to all his tankōbon published in Taiwan. Hopefully those old Discommunication volumes are still available, or I'll have to go auction. 
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psygremlin
 Posts: 9 |
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Thanks for the link!
I'm busy with Nazo no Kanojo X (as you guessed from the ava) at the moment and finding it a delightful read. I've also heard good things about Discommunication, but alas it would appear as if very little of his work has been licensed (or translated for that matter). Hopefully that's something that will redress itself over time. Wasn't aware he did Yume Tsukai too. Might have to track that down, although I have to say I was less tan taken with th coupe of episodes of the anime I saw (but I know you shouldn't compare). |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Right now I'm fortunate enough to own all his published manga except 1) the "lost" chapters 83-85 of Discommunication that have never been published in tankōbon 2) Discommunication CD book and drama featuring Hiro Yūki as Takaomi Matsubue and Megumi Hayashibara as Arika Togawa 3) artbook CG Iroha no I. I don't think I can or will acquire Yume Tsukai novel though.
As far as I know no North American edition has ever been published, and I wouldn't bet my money on it. However I do remember that in my early days as a 4channer I saw a manga picture of a lolicon saying "girls older than 13 are middle-aged; >20 are old hags; boobs are the smaller the better." Back then I had no idea who he was; turned out to be Hajime Tachibana of Yume Tsukai.
The manga contains much more depth, yet unbelievably short (six volumes for just 2.5 story arcs). The final arc was too short (2 chapters) and can't compare to the previous two; I have a feeling that it was butchered. This and forbidden subjects of manga (spoiler[dismantling human bodies, incests, homosexualities, drinking minors, etc.]) forced the anime version to rewrite much of the main plot and became a rather mediocre "monster of the week" series, a pity for its stellar cast. However, I do learn a great deal about ancient Japanese mythology thanks to Yume Tsukai acting as an introduction and precursor. FYI: characters from Discommunication and Yume Tsukai often make guest appearances in the background of Nazo no Kanojo X. Example: spoiler[the movie tickets of "Science Boy and Magic Girl" that Akira Tsubaki tried to invite Mikoto Urabe for a date have Matsubue and Togawa on them.] |
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Swissman
Posts: 819 Location: Switzerland |
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Aw, come on, if many teenagers would have those fantasies like the ones displayed in Discommunication (tie up your girlfriend, shut her for hours in an empty room, licking her teardrops, smelling her body odors, ectcetera) I'd prefer not to have children for the future 
Let's face it. Riichi Ueshiba is kind of a sic pervert, and the female body is a wonderful fetish object for him around which he can expand the story 
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Yet he could deal with these objects nicely, without causing me to cringe; that alone is an achievement. Plus Matsubue was designed to be a weirdo in normal people's eyes from the very beginning.
Well, many readers have asked him "are you a lolicon?" Of course he denies it, yet at the same time he admits that he "has no feeling when seeing gravure idols' big boobs; rather, young girls (read: loli) in vintage magical girl titles are always cute" and adores Ochamajo Doremi to the level of illustrating them in the background many, many times.
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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A LONG time ago (at least a decade) there was a fan group here in the US that self "published" some copies of a fan translation of Discommunication. It was only the first couple of chapters and included the ISBNs for all the tankouban in the book (their stated goal was to get it published for real in the US). AFAIK, that's as close as Discommunication has been to being published in the US. I probably still have a copy somewhere. Ueshiba is kinda "out there", I liked what I saw of Discommunication, but Yume Tsukai would be a VERY tough sell in the US. As someone who has copies of some of the Afternoons with Yume Tsukai in them (bought em for A!MG), I gotta say finding THAT niche market would be very hard indeed.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9903 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Yome Tsukai is extremely difficult to translate to any language other than Chinese, for its first arc has extensive Japanese mythology and ancient literature references, including Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, and Man'yōshū. While a native Chinese speaker with good high school education or above can understand much of those ancient texts even without translation, I don't believe it can be easily translated to any other language without losing much of its essence and entertainment value. |
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