Manga and other picture books

[petronia]

I decided I was going to make icons tonight, lots of them, to fill up my 30-plus empty slots with some to spare for friends and passers-by. This noble resolution foundered for the same reason as all previous instances when I'd decided I was going to make lots of icons; to wit, I frittered away several hours reading the picture books I planned on scanning. Books! They destroy productivity, and I keep buying them. >_> Got some Akutagawa, and Nana #8, and Le Pierre et le sabre which is what they call The Musashi Novel in French. Nana makes so much more sense in French. T_T Of course I'd skimmed the Japanese pretty fast (and never bothered to read through it slowly because the plot made me go WARGH), but wah. What business have I translating when I can't read a comic book nominally for grown-ups? It's not a fluke. I don't understand Trigun Maximum either. In both instances it's colloquial speech that does me in, unlike PMK where I can at least resort to the dictionary.

The thing with Nana - I don't say problem - is that you know Yazawa-sensei has no idea where the plot is going to end up. She can't. ^^; I'd be astonished if she did. She wrote short story A, followed by short story B, and then she (or her editor, or somebody) thought it would be an idea to dump both casts into the same social space and see what these kids made of their lives. That and great clothes is really all there is to it. What makes it readable is how spot-on the characterisation is: everyone in this manga is a friend of yours, or a friend of a friend, or the ex-girlfriend of this guy you used to know (the one who totally had issues like that). The drama is compelling because you buy in. I could draw parallels with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. And there's the elegiac framing narration, all bittersweet understanding gained through inevitable distance, so you have to wonder what happened - Nana K.? Elegiac understanding? Well, life happened, surely. But one wants to know. In vol.8 Nana O. has narration as well, but hers is present tense. (And you know it's femslashy when the adoring boyfriend sees fit to inquire politely whether you want to sleep with this friend of yours or what? He's probably turned on by the idea, bastard.)

...And of course the good old-fashioned soapy dorama elements. XD Are the record company execs nefarious? Is Shin an illegitimate child? Who does Reira really love? WHOSE BABY IS IT? WILL THE PAPARAZZI DISCOVER ALL okay sorry got carried away.

Have said that I'm going to - am making - a FST for Nana. But the standards to which it has to live up are daunting. Not to mention slightly nonsensical. (I mean look, right off the bat, bless Yazawa-sensei's soul but Blast is supposed to sound like the Pistols? OKAY NOT GOING TO HAPPEN KTHX. And what about Trapnest? Some sort of cross between Evanescence and the glossiest j-rock on the market?

...I can do better than that. All right, that's the proper attitude. XD)

Went (biked!) to a party and saw Shrek II, by accident as it were, in a very pirated home edition. ^^; Totally worth the money I didn't spend on it. Am also as impressed with Samurai Champloo as everyone else (though I may have known about it for longer than most? XD), but cannot talk more about anime as have spent most of the evening reading books about Kay Nielsen and Modernist Chinese calligraphy, as previously intimated. Also, must to bed or sororial unit will be up at unholy hour to practice piano. Rather, she will be whether I get any sleep or not, so the rest is up to me.

Comments

[serendip.livejournal.com]

I rilly need to make more icons and to read Nana, damnit, come out in a language I can reeead.

The thing about Yazawa is she's still a fangrrl, albeit a more coherent and intelligent one. XD The fact that she happens to fangrrl things that are considered "cool", like the Pistols and Brit 70's punk, sort of warps it a bit, but not really XD But not using the Pistols would be okay, etc. Just because the series is about music doesn't mean you have to stick to the music Yazawa was thinking of/influenced by. It's highly selective/stylised influence/borrowing, anyways, so irrespective of whether or not authorial intent is your thing, I think creative license is assumed.

Take Parakiss, which is essentially AU/doujinshi inspired by mad Velvet Goldmine fangrrling. A Velvet Goldmine-influenced work would have dunno, some Bowie in it, mebbe? XD (Which is actually not necessarily true, since if you look at the Velvet Goldmine ST, there isn't any Bowie on it, I think they hadn't gotten the rights/permission, and a lot of the stuff on the ST is covers of stuff from the "glam" era XD)

Actually, now that I think of it, STing isn't really that different from ficcing. ^_~

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I know - it's just that the hints she drops don't always build up to a coherent picture of what the music is like. And the mood of the series doesn't at all equal to punk in soundscape, even if the band is. And I haven't got any Pistols to put on the thing in the first place, because my copy of Never Mind The Bollocks... is a cruddy tape that was stolen off a public library in England some quarter-century ago, as I may have mentioned? XD And all the shouty girl-led punk bands I can think of have piercing vocals, and that's just not what I think Nana O. sounds like. (I think she's pitched fairly deep and throaty, a bit Shirley Manson, not always tuneful but always interesting - except the overall effect of the music in my head is pretty much, well, Elastica, and I'm a bit embarrassed by that because it's obviously just me on crack. >_>) Trapnest OTOH you get a very good idea of: hard j-rock, darkly romantic but in a mainstream sort of way - it's got to be something Nana K. would fangirl XD - and with the band image tightly focussed on the vocalist. Reira has "high pure soprano" stamped on her. Lots of high-flown emo love songs. So... it's basically a Japanese version of Evanescence, without the piano. =_=

[serendip.livejournal.com]

It's shoujo punk, hence problems. XDXDXD Hmm, let me think on it. I don't really like/listen to punk, cos no synths XDXDXD, but I might be able to come up with something. The little I know of Nana O., comparisons to Shirley Manson and Elastica are apt. Hmm, maybe I should point you to Asobi Seksu. People have called them a mix of Cibo Matto and My Bloody Valentine, so it's not really right, but closer. XDXDXD

I know nothing about hard j-rock, so it's all j00, baby ^_~

Ewww, me no like Evanescence. I don't even think their lyrics are particularly special. The woman's voice annoys me, as well as her attitude XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Not hugely huge on Evanescence either - I like it but I would've liked it a lot more five years ago, if you see what I mean. Which is why I'm a bit conflicted about tossing'em on the mix, which otherwise is going to be s00p3r Brit and pop-indie-tasteful by thematic necessity. XD Nevertheless I can't think of a band that sounds more like Trapnest in my head.

Ah, vell, they're the Evil Band We're Competing Against anyway. Even if we're all sort of s3kkr1tly sleeping with them, oh the angst.

Anything that sounds like a cross of Cibo Matto and MBV should be right up my alley, regardless of whether it makes this particular mix or not. XD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

I would have never liked Evanescence, but that's just me. My tastes run more towards ghei man than girly. ^_~

Nothing wrong with super Brit and pop-indie. I always temper my mixes with like TEH Brit or Nsync, so XD Hee, sleeping with, ANGST. <3333

Asobi Seksu just released an EP/album. I think they are semi on the up and up. I actually heard about them because they were opening for Bis, who was totally brill <3333

Man, don't make me feel bad for not having webspace to pimp mp3s. Is Candian mail really that wretched? eve always gets my CDs and things when I send them to her.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

That said, yeah you're totally right about the creative license. XD But this is going to be one of those "what would the music sound like if I were personally scoring the live-action dorama adaptation" STs, not image STs like the other two. So I have to do things like tear my hair out over the tragic fact that no direct equivalents of the fictional bands exist in reality. XD

[serendip.livejournal.com]

Which is why I want to be Yoko Kanno and just write out and then perform or force other people to perform my music. But I honestly am not that creative nor am I really trained to do shit like that, ignoring resource issues. Ah well. XD

I figured you were trying to ST a live-action d0rama version, but you're really just crazy, babe. ^_~ Should see if harpy-kun can help j00, since she's read the series and she's prolly one of the few people that j00 could brainstorm this with anyhoo.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Harpy would be able to do this with much more exactitude than I would, I think. So I should prolly grab and shake her shamelessly. XD

Thing is I don't ever try to "score" something that already has one, like if it's an anime already. What's the point? But Nana doesn't - isn't - and it really really should.

[serendip.livejournal.com]

h-kun can do a lot of things better than most, damn over-talented whippersnapper XD It's unfair, really. XDXDXDXD

So are you saying you're not itching to ST Cowboy Bebop? XDXD I did ST CCS with qualms, cos I like the original STs, but I haven't really watched enough anime/read enough manga to volunteer many other series. I though it was blasphmeous and yet still, B&S got 99 downloads, bastids. Am still bitter, yesh XD

[dipping_sauce]

Dark Horse is putting Trigun Maximum out in English (volume one was supposed to come out this month).

If you want, I can lend you the volumes as I get 'em.

(You've really got to lend me some of that Nana -- I'd really like to read it. And I've got some Amecomi I want you to check out.)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Nana? Sure, why not, I'll schlepp it along next time we meet. As for Trigun Maximum - well, wait 'til vol.2. That's about as much as I've managed to slog through on my own. x_x I'm just annoyed that I can't seem to read it on the metro.

[dipping_sauce]

(... Guh. According to Previews, vol.2 isn't coming out until August. Damn you Dark Horse and your slow release schedule! I want my manga now!)

You doing anything this Sunday? I want to make you watch Futurama!