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petroniaFirst of all:
It'll be on the userinfo if you want it. XD (NB: I have heard that fabulous Oliver Cheatham disco number way more than four times in the past week, since it's on my mp3 player and it makes me laugh because it reminds me of those awesomely ridiculous pictures![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jokersama showed me of the JoJo characters dancing - four about corresponds to "number of times I've played through the GTA Vice City OSTs on Winamp while reading manga scanlations," though, which is also why Dio's theme song is now Laura Branigan. If you can't beat'em, join'em.)
While we're at it, let's make this "the thread where you tell me what your stand would be in JoJo-verse, what it does and what band/song it's named after" (ILX-stylee). [1]
Although I occasionally point out bits of Bleach that remind me of JoJo [2], KT and Araki have vastly different philosophies w/r/t visuals. KT thinks all the storytelling should be done through foregrounded human figures, shoujo style, and you won't catch him inserting backdrops when white space will do. When backdrops are unavoidable he takes pains to make them as unadorned/non-distracting as he can get away with. However this in itself becomes a stylistic trademark - the monumental severity of "Soul Society architecture" is definitely not generic. Araki meanwhile isn't happy unless the page is filled with inked detail from top to bottom; the granularity is how he grounds his stories. This applies to character designs as well as uber-realistic physical setting - can you imagine how his assistants must adore having to complete the pattern on Hierophant Green? Or, say, Bruno Buccellati's suit? XD
A typical page of Bleach seen from afar is white. A typical page of JoJo seen from afar is black. ...A typical page of GetBackers seen from afar is middling-grey, because although Ayamine likes to build with minuscule detail as much as Araki he does it with screentone shading and thin lines. Bleach looks more 'right' in tankoubon than the magazine, with GB it's vice-versa. The thought of reading GB in bunko makes me want to lie down immediately with a cold compress over my eyes. JoJo... I'm not sure. ^^;
Part 4: this is the other kind of shounen manga, the one that takes place in a fictional town where half the high school kids have superpowers.It's like Smallville in a way. The storytelling is a lot more leisurely and episodic, not so much rambly as it just takes a long time introducing the cast and crew, compared to parts 1-3. I guess the Kira storyline could be considered the main plot, but it doesn't proceed sans interruption - I've just finished volume 37, which is devoted to how Yukako and Koichi finally get together (!? she's not actually any less of a crazed stalker, she's just... hawt to him now. >_> Well, maybe she's supposed to have learnt a lesson re impetuosity from that beautician. But it's still kind of disturbing because Koichi is supposed to be 16 but he's drawn chibi-sized as if he were 6, so it comes across as shota. Like when Yukako picks him up his feet don't reach her knees.) Actually, the lesser characters and townspeople etc. spend nearly all their time in bizarro superdeform, and meanwhile the major characters get slimmer and not so muscular. XD Jotaro also changes his clothes - several times! - but I have to get back to my computer to document exactly.
Josuke comes across as more of a Human Boy than the other JoJos - not so much anything else as because the story itself is on a less mythic, more everyday scale. Your typical part 4 evil character is someone who could conceivably be thrown in jail, unlike Dio and his ARMY OF DARKNESS. Then you have a classic readerly self-insert in the form of Koichi (the normal and well-behaved schoolboy who is really v. courageous under fire and develops nifty powers and is friends with all the heroes who think he's a great person), and an authorial self-insert in the form of, well, Rohan (who is a freak. And an ARTIST. But mostly a freak).
The storyline begins to remind me of Death Note. ^^; Dunno, I think it's because DN is practically the only other shounen manga I can think of where the 'battles' consist of continual mental oneupsmanship, countering the opponent's plan B with your plan C etc., and when the focus of the story suddenly switches to hunting a serial killer named 'Kira'... er. Kira Yoshikage isn't the same brand of psychopath as Raito, apart from being a yuppie, but sometimes the narrative follows his POV in a very similar way.
Between this and the basso manga I have to review I'm on an Italian food kick again. :P Man, I totally sympathized with JoJo in that episode - it was 2AM and I wasn't all that hungry either, but watching Okuyasu orgasm repeatedly over his salad was just :O~.
Okay, now I have to perform the much-needed maintenance activity of retagging my LJ for "BL manga". :P
[1] This hardly bears mentioning, but (as with SSBB) points are awarded for awful puns.
[2] Without touching on the BIG OBVIOUS ONE.
It'll be on the userinfo if you want it. XD (NB: I have heard that fabulous Oliver Cheatham disco number way more than four times in the past week, since it's on my mp3 player and it makes me laugh because it reminds me of those awesomely ridiculous pictures
jokersama showed me of the JoJo characters dancing - four about corresponds to "number of times I've played through the GTA Vice City OSTs on Winamp while reading manga scanlations," though, which is also why Dio's theme song is now Laura Branigan. If you can't beat'em, join'em.)While we're at it, let's make this "the thread where you tell me what your stand would be in JoJo-verse, what it does and what band/song it's named after" (ILX-stylee). [1]
Although I occasionally point out bits of Bleach that remind me of JoJo [2], KT and Araki have vastly different philosophies w/r/t visuals. KT thinks all the storytelling should be done through foregrounded human figures, shoujo style, and you won't catch him inserting backdrops when white space will do. When backdrops are unavoidable he takes pains to make them as unadorned/non-distracting as he can get away with. However this in itself becomes a stylistic trademark - the monumental severity of "Soul Society architecture" is definitely not generic. Araki meanwhile isn't happy unless the page is filled with inked detail from top to bottom; the granularity is how he grounds his stories. This applies to character designs as well as uber-realistic physical setting - can you imagine how his assistants must adore having to complete the pattern on Hierophant Green? Or, say, Bruno Buccellati's suit? XD
A typical page of Bleach seen from afar is white. A typical page of JoJo seen from afar is black. ...A typical page of GetBackers seen from afar is middling-grey, because although Ayamine likes to build with minuscule detail as much as Araki he does it with screentone shading and thin lines. Bleach looks more 'right' in tankoubon than the magazine, with GB it's vice-versa. The thought of reading GB in bunko makes me want to lie down immediately with a cold compress over my eyes. JoJo... I'm not sure. ^^;
Part 4: this is the other kind of shounen manga, the one that takes place in a fictional town where half the high school kids have superpowers.
Josuke comes across as more of a Human Boy than the other JoJos - not so much anything else as because the story itself is on a less mythic, more everyday scale. Your typical part 4 evil character is someone who could conceivably be thrown in jail, unlike Dio and his ARMY OF DARKNESS. Then you have a classic readerly self-insert in the form of Koichi (the normal and well-behaved schoolboy who is really v. courageous under fire and develops nifty powers and is friends with all the heroes who think he's a great person), and an authorial self-insert in the form of, well, Rohan (who is a freak. And an ARTIST. But mostly a freak).
The storyline begins to remind me of Death Note. ^^; Dunno, I think it's because DN is practically the only other shounen manga I can think of where the 'battles' consist of continual mental oneupsmanship, countering the opponent's plan B with your plan C etc., and when the focus of the story suddenly switches to hunting a serial killer named 'Kira'... er. Kira Yoshikage isn't the same brand of psychopath as Raito, apart from being a yuppie, but sometimes the narrative follows his POV in a very similar way.
Between this and the basso manga I have to review I'm on an Italian food kick again. :P Man, I totally sympathized with JoJo in that episode - it was 2AM and I wasn't all that hungry either, but watching Okuyasu orgasm repeatedly over his salad was just :O~.
Okay, now I have to perform the much-needed maintenance activity of retagging my LJ for "BL manga". :P
[1] This hardly bears mentioning, but (as with SSBB) points are awarded for awful puns.
[2] Without touching on the BIG OBVIOUS ONE.
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Date: 2006-04-18 02:08 pm (UTC)(totally not smooshing two comments into one but) Re: the visuals in manga, I agree (again)! But I think that Ayamine's art, out of the three, is from a different school - KT and Araki rely on lineart, while Ayamine relies on screentone/shading. I used to read the local translation of GB, which had lousy print quality, and I have to say that the print quality really makes a difference in anyone's enjoyment of GB. When I went to Japan I bought a few volumes of GB in Japanese - think it was 15-19 - and it never occurred to me that his art might be more than something to put up with before I saw the originals, but I was impressed with how pretty it was after that.