Willpower Redux

[petronia]

So I said the library only had GB up to #18. Today I went in for #17-18, and they'd just had #19 shipped in. It's sitting on my table still in the plastic wrap. Also, Saiyuki Gaiden. Also, Wasim came back from Japan and gifted me with the Chobits postcard book.

*insert maniacal laughter fading into the distance*

(Sorry, the only thing it works for is attracting manga. It's like how I only get prophetic dreams about future blog entries.)

***

Ongoing not-very-spoiler-rific conclusions:

Bunny-hakase == Bene Gesserit

Kadzuki == former current p1mpmeister

Teshimine and Yamato in the Honky Tonk, drinking coffee side-by-side at the bar and making gnomic Hemingway-esque statements while staring into the middle distance == pastfic that needs to be written

Comments

[starlighter.livejournal.com]

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I'd rather torture myself than be left behind in the spoiler-dust. Getting left behind kills my love for a series - it's what happened with Angel Sanctuary. (I see a trip to the NY Kino in my near future.) And I <3 Minekura's dystopianism and am looking forward to reading the damned thing in a language where I can understand political maneuvring. >_>

...Are you making Ginji Sihaya? XD;; Our character similes are getting odder and odder.

I'm actually still halfway through the Juubei vs. Toshiki duel, aka Girly-Boy Is *MY* Seme fight. Was reading it on the metro. With any luck Kadzuki will do the only thing there is to do, really, which is scream "MERCIFUL GOD I WILL LOSE THEM BOTH" and throw himself into the attack trajectory like one of the Sabine women - oh, oops, here we go.

I can buy Ban and Ginji being Just Good Friends. But this? Sensei-tachi are so good at straightfaced denial they should be working as Hollywood publicists.

Re pastfic: I'd write it, if there were any other point to the concept other than me taking the piss, the way I do with every series I get into. ^^;

Teshimine: This is a good café. Clean, well-lit.
Yamato: *smokes cigarette* *puff*
Teshimine: ...
Yamato: ...
Teshimine: ...
Yamato: ...
Teshimine: ...
Yamato: ...Yes. A good café.

Library?

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I've heard you mention this library thing before? How does it work? I've never used or seen a private lending library, only state or school ones.

Re: Library?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

It's a shop that sells Sanrio toys and jpop/cpop CDs and anime posters, all that, and also has a roomful of shelved manga. You get a card to take out books, same as any other library, except you have to pay 1$CAN per volume. (2$CAN for some of the really big 'n' fancy ones, like Five Star Stories.) The lending period is 1-2 tankoubon per day, so if you get a 14-volume series you get to keep it for a week. They get in new stock every month or two, and sell off the old.

I don't particularly want to own most of the manga I read, so it works out well. There's actually two-three of these places in Montreal alone; I'm given to understand that in Taiwan or Hong Kong they're gigantic, and let you sit and read for a flat rate, and serve you drinks.

Re: Library?

[(Anonymous)]

Manga in Chinese or Japanese? If the latter, I'm moving. Our only Japanese manga library has nothing later than Garasu no Kamen.
-mjj

Re: Library?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Chinese. The Japanese cultural community in Montreal is close to non-existent, outside of McGill foreign exchange. ^^;

Depending on the series, though, the quickest way to stay abreast is often to pick the latest tankoubon up in French, as the library stock lags for months behind the Chinese publication date anyhow.

Re: Library?

[(Anonymous)]

Depending on series indeed. Anything I'm following in French seems to come out at a snail's pace. Or maybe that's the fault of TO bookstores. Fruits Basket is only up to vol 3 here.
-mjj

Re: Library?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Furuba is past vol.3 here. But I'm not reading it, so memory is iffy. ^^; (Could check today, if I'm passing by. Any others you're looking for?)

Re: Library?

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I guess English speakers will just have to wait to get to the point where manga translations in English equal manga translations in French.

I guess this is a uniquely Chinese institution, the comic-book coffeehouse? Can't see the Japanese doing something like this, because the publishers would scream. I'd like one of those too; sometimes you just want to read a book once or twice. I suppose in the US it's called Borders? Only you don't have to buy a drink.

Re: Library?

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

I walked by a manga cafe everyday in Yokohama (I can't say if Japan started the institution, but any store beyond the speciality ones didn't tend to bother plastic wrapping the manga, either, despite rampant, and I mean rampant, tachiyomi. Even so, the manga floor of Yurindo wasn't ever as populated as the tiny Animate in the city, so.)--it was right by the Curry Museum, in fact. Never had the chance to go inside, alas.

Re: Library?

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Huh, I didn't know that. In the states, every store that I've gone into that wasn't a used manga store had them shrink wrapped. I wonder why?

Re: Library?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

They never come shrink-wrapped in the stores here. Not the French ones in Renaud-Bray, not the Tokyopop ones in Indigo, not the imports in the comics shops either. Chapters keeps them behind the counter, though.