#junji ito did a manga adaptation of it!! that’s how I read it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mejomonster · 3 months

Text

Manga I'm reading or will read (so I guess if you have similar tastes check some out):

Death note (im not still reading, I read it long ago, still one of my favorites)

Hikaru no go (LOVE this artist, loved the cdrama adaptation, still need to read the original)

Billy Bat (i love everything naoki urasawa has ever made. If you like mysteries thrillers and wild plots? You'll probably like everything this author made too. In this particular case, billy bat is like if Kingdom Hearts crossed with Beyond Evil and was global scale centuries scale murder world control plot, full of references and a good evil mickey mouse spoof and an evil disney and comic artists as the protagonists and a lot to say about creation and stealing ideas and originality and transforming what already exists and like. If youre both into murder mysteries AND an artist then the themes are very fascinating. Urasawa also seems to make many manga that take place in multiple countries and characters of varied backgrounds, and I appreciate the global scale of the stories and the particular perspectives it offers. Some other manga by urasawa on my to read list: Pluto, Master Keaton, 20th Century Boys, Monster)

Tomie, and anything by Junji Ito (i love junji ito! I read Remina and LOVE IT, highly recommend for horror and sci fi lovers its a short good read. Read his cat manga for some comedy and zero horror. I find his horror manga oddly comforting. I also read Lovesick and adore the way the stories end up much more about personal fears manifested as monsters while the personal fears continue as the true plot, my favorite kind of horror. Junji Ito did a manga adaptation of No Longer Human I may eventually check out, but since the original novel was written by another person im not sure I'll click with it as much)

Dungeon Meshi (to read, self explanatory, its a very kind story in terms of how you feel, nice art and characters)

Golden Kamuy (to read)

Vagabond (to read)

Devilman (reading, feels oddly like old mickey mouse and xmen comics which is pleasant, it is as gay as youve heard)

Berserk (reading, i love it to pieces and take gratuitious breaks because it clicks Too much for me. The character and world designs are very close to how i usually design fantasy worlds, including the gratuitious faerie designs im always doing, so i try not to read this When im writing as its just too close to what i click with lol. I highly recommend if you like fantasy and solid characters)

Tokyo Babylon and X by Clamp (to read)

Banana Fish (to read)

Revolutionary Girl Utena (to read)

Vinland Saga (and the animal version, to read)

Beyond the Tricornered Window (i started, its surprisingly lust filled for a ghost finding story)

One Piece (reading)

Urusei Yatsura (i love everything by rumiko)

Ranma 1/2 (ive read and watched many a time, just my absolute fave. Do you like gender shennanigans, action and romantic comedy? Well i happen to love romantic comedy, IF its bisexual and filled to the brim with action scenes and ridiculous moments. Ranma 1/2 perfectly fits that niche. So lots of fun fights, off the wall moments like a baby pig being actually a teen boy adopted by another boys fiance, a girl who turns into a cat and wants to marry Ranma when he looks like a guy and kill him when he looks like a girl, 2 anime villain level dramatic siblings in a mess with ranma and his fiance akane romantically, a rich preteen girl who kidnaps pig boy, a guy named moose who turns into a goose, its just great)

Trigun (i want to know why people love this manga)

The Drifting Classroom (i just like horror manga a lot can u tell, to read)

School Rumble (another romantic comedy slash ensemble slice of life, where ranma plas with gender and comments on societal biases, school rumble instead keeps it lighter and plays with the usual romance teen manga tropes and both uses and breaks them a lot. The lead is in love with an alien boy who does not get crushes, and is the only alien in the plot. The guy who loves the lead is a delinquent manga artist and that gets meta at points. The leads sister is the more likely usual Protagonist type but shes just into helping animals and avoiding ppl and is very similar to Komisan, one of the leads friends is like Girl James Bond. The characters all read stereotype in early eps then actually get explored in ways you wouldnt expect and wouldnt assume to go that deep. Its very much ensemble about friends, and the romance is not actually main stage despite all the crushes, so a bit like Ouran Host Club in that way. I like romances and slice of life best When they subvert tropes and do the unexpected with them, and school rumble does fun things in that way)

All the Kingdom Hearts manga (i just like kh and love the artist and little side scenes the manga adds that the games dont have. Id love to read the novels one day if i could find them translated)

Innocent (i got an ad that recommended it but it looks scary so im probably in)

Homunculus (looks scary, of course its on the list)

Detective Conan (to read, my friend LOVES the anime)

Arcana (genuinely no idea what its about, i just gave it one look and made a judgemeny guess itd be my kind of story. Ill find out)

Brutal (looks scary, so of course i added it to my to read)

Erased (my friend loved the anime so ill probably like it)

Inuyasha (i figured maybe i should finish the manga since ive Watched half the anime back in childhood)

Seven Days (theres a jdrama bl adaptation)

Takara Kun and Amagi Kun (theres a jdrama bl adaptation)

Ultras (ill be real it looks super gay but also romance heavy only and i dont care much for Only romance usually, if u like gay sports stuff this looks like REAL gay sports romance drama for adults)

Witch Hat Atelier

#rant #to read #manga #manga rec list #rec list

3 notes · View notes

ancestorlegacy · 4 months

Note

HELLO. About those tags on my Frankenstein post..

What do I think about it?

Book? Second favorite book ever, plan to reread it soon and I adore it. The only book I prefer over Frankenstein is the count of Monte Cristo, which is another can of worms entirely.

I think Frankenstein is good and a must read for everyone. Obviously yes the story is good but the sheer amount of misinformation about it pisses me off so very much and that would be fixed if reading the book was mandatory for living /lh. There's two (main (don't worry about the rest)) versions, 1818 and 1831. 1831 is the more famous one, basically Shelley just made some minor edits to things she didn't like. Best (and biggest edit) is that she removed the incest.

Sorry I am going to talk about multiple versions of the story.

Musical? There's two, iirc. There's 'Frankenstein: a new musical' and 'young Frankenstein'. I have only listened to the former one because I am scared to learn what the latter is. All I know is that it uses a design for the monster that I hate, which is 97% of my reason for not listening to it.

The former is from 2008 and not very famous. The actors have absolutely AMAZING voices, like genuinely words cannot describe my love for Victor, the monster and Elizabeth's singing. The rest are good too, but it's those three that especially stick out to me.

It doesn't have a single bad song. Vibe wise, I'd say it's a bit like Jekyll and Hyde and Sweeney Todd. Lots of bangers but obviously only listen to it after reading the book. It's also a fairly faithful adaptation. There's only two major changes from the book and I like both of them.

Junji Ito manga adaptation? Ough. I'm only 50~ pages in so far but WOWZER it's amazing. Junjo Ito is the perfect mangaka for adapting Frankenstein. I was super excited to read it because I like some of Ito's other works so I'm very pleased that this one is good (so far (I've heard the entire thing is good though))

1931 movie? UGHH. I think it's good on its own. Completely divorced from the context of the book, it's good. Compared to the book though, absolutely dreadful.

Order you should consume them in?

1931 movie first so you can enjoy it properly, the actual book and then it doesn't matter if you do the musical or manga next. Also there's a 2004 two episode long mini series that I have not seen yet but supposedly it's a very good and faithful adaptation.

Would I recommend original language?

Idk. I've only read it in English but I'd imagine there's good French translations. It's one of the most famous books ever so there's absolutely a French fella who did an absolutely amazing and flawless translation. I'm sure there's also versions in English with updated more modern language but I think that classics should always be read in a version as close to the original as possible to preserve artistic intent.

I hope you enjoy it :3 it's so good :3

I'm glad to see how much you like it! I was planning on reading it sooner or later (and I'm doing an English licence, so I probably will have to), but you are selling it very well. Thanks for the order by the way!

#asks #pieadvisor #le comte de monte Cristo #it was written by Alexandre Dumas right? the guy who wrote the Three musketeers?

2 notes · View notes

pinkiepiebones · 1 year

Note

Dear Zombie, we meet again. (I'm trying out new catch phrases, but it is still I, your old friend, Robbie) I am still recovering from the flood of feelings the Little Bit story caused, but I would hate to leave my friend in need. On a tangentially related note, have you read Junji Ito's The Spiral (a.k.a. Uzumaki)? Upon reading it, I would not recommend spiraling to anyone. Don't do it!

To the prompt: Would you please tell the world about that time I got Dracula to watch a "Dracula" adaptation? Your friend, always, Robbie

You try out as many catch phrases on me as you want, bud. And I'm sorry the story made emotions happen, but, like- she loved you, man. And you loved her! If you didn't you wouldn't have placed her somewhere you knew she'd be safe and happy and spoiled. You're a good person. Little Bit had a wonderful life thanks to you. ❤️

I read Uzumaki a long time ago. Heh, didn't take you for a manga guy- a horror manga guy at that (though I guess after Dracula, most horror would be... not so bad?). Really I know I should go give it a reread someday but I keep thinking of the last Ito story I saw, all I remember from it was this gross guy who's face was like one giant zit UGH I feel my skin crawl just thinking about it!! Can't deal, won't deal.

... Oh, the movies! Yes yes.

The legend of Dracula inspired imaginations throughout the decades. Films, books, television series, even video games, all existed simply because of the allure, the gothic romance of Count Dracula.

Renfield scoffs as he eavesdrops on some young men discussing something called Castlevania. As if a whip could do anything to Master...

Dracula never spoke much of his storied past, nor did his doting familiar Renfield ever ask. Sometimes, usually after he had fed on a few drunk sorority or fraternity kids, Dracula would sometimes stare contemplatively into the fireplace and mutter about someone named "Bram." Renfield never asked. It wasn't his place to ask.

Renfield picks up a video cassette as he stalks the woman in the rental store. He starts to pretend to read the cover but then actually reads it because it sounds too preposterous to be real- "'The Satanic Rites of Dracula'?" he asks aloud. The woman he's stalking looks over at him. "Oh, that's a sequel, if you can believe it" she says.

The turn of the century was a thrilling thing to Renfield. He was born close enough to 1900 that the change over from the 1800s was not in even his earliest memories. But this- 2000! He wanted to celebrate, somehow. People were buying supplies and he kept hearing something about a virus and why two kay. All that mattered was food for master, and, maybe, just maybe, he could take Master to a theatre to show him a film. Maybe if Master eats really well...

Renfield frowns at the bookstore display. VAMPIRE ROMANCE is written in sparkling letters on a posterboard situated atop a shelf on wheels at the store's entrance. A young woman shoves past him to pull one off the shelf. "Oh, I want a vampire boyfriend so bad" she sighs. Renfield makes a choking noise as she walks away; he's not sure if he's trying to laugh at her or at himself.

At the height of his power, Master was known to have a disposition that was downright cheery. Renfield had shyly showed him the newspaper advert for the film, and the title alone piqued the vampire's interest.

"Dracula 2000." Dracula folded the newspaper and Renfiled flinched, anticipating the paper either being thrown at him or rolled up and used to hit him, but Dracula does neither; he sets the paper on the arm of the plush armchair he's claimed as his and says "well, how does one go about purchasing theatre tickets in this day and age?" Renfield was giddy with delight.

Renfield glances at the poster gracing the wall of the victim's bedroom. Dracula 3D. Renfield chuckles as he ties the unconscious man's arms. "I suppose that's fate, or something," he says to himself.

It was Christmas Eve and Renfield sat right beside Master in the middle of the auditorium. Master had 'convinced' the ticket taker that no no, we don't need tickets, thank you so much darling. We! Renfield dared to think about the early days when Master wined and dined him, seduced him... held his hand and touched him and bit him and pulled him down into bed and...

Dracula 2000 was fucking awful. A descendant of Van Helsing owned an antique store built where Carfax Abbey had once stood. A group of thieves broke in and found the coffin, Dracula's coffin, inside an underground vault. Some of the thieves died and the remainder decide the coffin must be valuable so they nick it and head to New Orleans but Dracula woke up and killed everyone, causing the thief's plane to crash in a swamp. Dracula then wandered the modern world a bit, and a record store was featured quite prominently. Somewhere in the nonsensical story they proclaim Dracula was Judas Iscariot, and this was given as reason for Dracula's hatred of symbols of Christianity. And Dracula died shortly after freeing the leading lady from the curse of vampirism. The movie was atrocious, with an agonising rock and roll soundtrack and nonsensical action sequences. Renfield felt sick when the credits started rolling because he knew Master would take out his aggression on him. Perhaps Master would pull all his teeth out by hand? He hadn't done that one in a decade or so.

"That-" Dracula growled. He couldn't finish his thought. He threw his head back and- and laughed! He laughed, loud and genuine, and Renfield chuckled nervously along with him.

"That was absurd!" Dracula said, giggling. "An utter farce. It was- oh, what's the phrase, Renfield? 'So bad it's good'?"

"Um, yes, I think that's it, Master."

Dracula was smiling and staring at the credits as they continued to roll. "I didn't catch the name of the actor who-" He chuckled- "so valiantly attempted to portray me."

Renfield glanced up, pretending to see the name (he had committed it to memory in case Master wanted to find the actor and kill him). "Gerard Butler?"

The vampire clucked his tongue. "They could have chosen someone more in line with my good looks." He stroked his chin. "What was the movie we saw on television a few years back, when we were staying at that hotel?"

Renfield's eyes were big. He never imagined that Master would care to remember little things. "Um, I think it was Face/Off?"

Dracula grinned. "Yes. I think the actor in that one would play a good 'me.'" He turned to look at Renfield. "What do you think?"

"D-do you mean Jon Travolta or Nicolas Cage?"

The count frowned and turned his attention back to the winding down credits. "Surely you should be able to tell," he sighed.

Robert is perusing an estate sale with Rebecca. Ideally, he's hoping to find a tableware set more in line with his, what Rebecca calls 'retro kitsch' aesthetic. He opens a box and sees a pile of DVDs and video cassettes. One is labelled "Dracula 2000."

"I'll take a dollar for that whole box," the man running the sale says. Robert carefully closes the box.

"Ah, no thanks."

#Robbie's journal

8 notes · View notes

eyedelater · 1 year

Text

junji ito post

this is a diary post of my thoughts while reading various works by junji ito.

i found the beautiful hardcover edition of GYO at my local library, so i borrowed that on a whim. i read that. then i thought i would watch the movie version because i wanted to see how they would tackle, you know… all aspects of the work. the movie was so lousy i quit watching less than halfway through. maybe i'll pick it up again sometime. but i'm a stickler for honoring the source material, and they inserted so much weird and dumb fanservice, it was intolerable. then i wondered what other anime adaptations existed of junji ito works. so i watched the 2022 netflix series JUNJI ITO MANIAC. i thought it was, on the whole, somewhat weak, but i did watch every episode. then i got more junji ito books from my local library, including TOMIE, UZUMAKI, DESERTER, LOVESICKNESS, REMINA, and VENUS IN THE BLIND SPOT. i also watched the series JUNJI ITO COLLECTION and read more stories online. i wanted this post to encompass all of ito-sensei's works, but after reading most of them, i decided to read the rest some other time. you can scroll to near the end of this post for an incomplete list of ito-sensei's works that i find to be worth reading. this post contains some spoilers, but i think spoilers don't matter too much for horror manga, as it's the visuals that really count.

i should preface everything by saying that i have known of junji ito for many years. when i was in high school… well, a short summary would be that in 9th grade, i saw a traumatizing gory video that messed me up and made me afraid of the dark despite being 14 years old, and i was especially afraid of dark spaces like the cracks between things. i slept on a mattress pressed into the corner of a room, and i was still afraid of the gap between the mattress and the wall. i wouldn't face my back to it all night. the cabinet door under the bathroom sink didn't shut all the way, and i would watch that dark gap through the clear shower curtain for 100% of my time in the shower to make sure nothing came out. (i made my dad get a clear shower curtain for that reason.) i was mentally ill, you see. did you know that sometimes, knowing a fear is irrational does nothing to make you not afraid? (i'm better now.) so there's the baseline, and then, due to the whims of my internet friend group, i felt compelled to read junji ito's THE ENIGMA OF AMIGARA FAULT. it struck the worst possible chord with me: now i knew that what could be lurking in the dark cracks between things is a stretched and disfigured human body being blissfully, eternally compelled through its own personal tunnel. THAT is what's in between my mattress and the wall. THAT is what could slip through the crack in the bathroom cabinet door. can i put into words how awful it was to think about? but of course, being rational at the same time, i acknowledged even then that the manga itself was kinda good. to come up with such an unpleasant idea is worthy of praise in itself. so i came to respect junji ito. but i haven't read that story again, and i won't. (they had the nerve to stick it in as a bonus story at the end of the GYO hardcover. i didn't even flip through. i will not read that story again.) several years later, i read UZUMAKI and thought it was good. and i think i read one or two TOMIE stories and then lost interest. (oh and i read the cat diary with yon and mu with no hesitation because i knew it wouldn't actually be scary. it was fun.)

so i had the impression that junji ito was very powerful and worthy of my respect. that's why i picked up GYO at my local library. i was pretty sure it was going to be good, and there was also a distant element of facing my fears.

GYO was pretty good. the way humans became disfigured after infection reminded me of Mermaid Swamp, an RPGmaker game i played a while ago and lost sleep over. i can't say i recommend it, but i do like RPGmaker horror games… anyway, GYO was well-composed and certainly Extensive in Scope. you know, it just keeps piling on and on. but it all came together… kind of. but when we got the circus part, i had to be like, "seriously?"

then i watched JUNJI ITO MANIAC. i find that netflix-produced animes have a certain flavor, a tinge that says, "netflix execs really really really really want to make money from this!!!" so to the extent that there is production value, it feels like it has been expended for the sake of making it Look like the anime is good, and not for actually making the anime good, if that makes sense. i feel that there is some heart missing… some loving devotion to the source material. at least some of the time. after watching the whole series, i came across many of the source stories in the short story collections i read. the anime adaptations were generally faithful to the short stories, and i appreciate that. but there is a difference between "turning a manga into an anime" and "turning a manga into a good anime." it is the difference between "this manga scene is now happening in motion" and "the tension and emotion of the original scene has been successfully translated into motion." and actually, it kind of felt like… for some of these… we didn't need to animate them? the thing about horror manga is that your own feelings of horror set the pace. maybe you are pulled quickly forward by suspense, but your eye lingers on the most hideous pages against your will. if the scariest part flashes up too briefly when translated into anime, it won't have as much of an effect. so it felt as though the timing for the scariest parts was weirdly rushed in some of the anime episodes. even watching without knowing the source material, i got the distinct impression that the manga had to be much better than this. [note added in later: sometimes, they actually weren't much better.] they got some of the faces wrong, too. you know how junji ito has his distinctive style where sunken eyes are expertly depicted with many small lines? it's a striking look. it looks great. classic. the way they showed those sunken eyes in the anime was unbelievably lame. it was an airbrushed look. i know they couldn't have animated it with many small lines, but shading it with a harder edge would have looked a thousand times better. or cel shading. come up with a creative solution to capture the effect. also, some of the voices were really annoying. i mean, i guess souichi's voice being annoying is appropriate. (what is souichi's deal? isn't he just really annoying? i haven't read any of his short stories yet.) anyway probably the best story in this series was the hanging balloons. i haven't read that story yet either. i have a feeling the manga is much scarier. but the anime has the advantage of showing the movement of the balloons. the way it will loop around your neck and fling you away in a second was well done.

(revelation) i see… so basically… the JUNJI ITO MANIAC series was the second junji ito series netflix made. so these are all the second-tier stories that they didn't care to animate in the first series? is that right? that makes sense. i'll have to watch the other series soon. [note added in later: wrong. JUNJI ITO COLLECTION was about the same.]

some of ito-sensei's stories are bizarrely anticlimactic. because it is horror manga, i set aside my usual expectation of a happy ending; i am expecting an ending that is either disastrous or faintly hopeful despite everything. but i was expecting an ending, and some of these short stories don't have much of one. like "the bully" (ijimekko). i thought it wasn't very good. i thought it was a miss. i think maybe that one didn't need to be animated, for that reason. but after reading several, i have come to accept that an anticlimactic ending is standard for his short stories. i got used to it. i guess his intention is to end a scary story without much denouement, before the terror fades away, so as to leave a stronger impact. [note added in later: it turns out that in an interview, he said pretty much exactly that.] but i think it wasn't executed successfully every time.

i read the LOVESICKNESS collection of short stories. the story of the beautiful boy at the crossroads was pretty good. i find it kind of strange how romantic love is a strong and frequently recurring theme in ito-sensei's work, and not just in this particular collection. well, the whole way he depicts women has a certain flavor, doesn't it.

i read REMINA. i don't have very strong feelings about this one except that remina the girl sure doesn't have very much agency as a character. all she does is get pursued and picked up and pulled around by everyone on earth. i thought that as a climax, there might actually be some fun and exciting link between her and remina the planet, since at first that it seemed to attack the most when she was being crucified or whatever, but there was no such thing. remina the planet just made a beeline for earth and then started taking its time on the devouring part for no reason.

i spent my whole saturday reading TOMIE from cover to cover. it was pretty good. i think it's really funny how tomie herself evolves (in terms of character development) to be such a needy brat. and i think it's funny how all the tomies want to kill each other. i like how a tomie regenerating under certain circumstances takes on some characteristics of her surroundings, like the ashes tomies and the sake tomies and the carpet tomie. i also think it's really funny how tomie really doesn't want to split into more than one but she's sooo prone to it and she haaates it. overall, i was more amused than really scared by TOMIE. important note: there's probably quite a lot to be said if you read these stories through an explicitly feminist lens, but i don't care to do that right now.

i'm looking at wikipedia now and realizing there is a nearly endless supply of junji ito short stories. my local library does not have all of these. they have six or seven volumes, which is a ton given the extent of their manga collection, and i kinda thought that was all, but it's not. i'll have to read some of these online. however, there is a dilemma. given my history of getting afraid of the dark and its debilitating effects on my life, i want to avoid giving myself that feeling again (and i know it is possible), so i never read or watch anything scary at night. but i don't read manga online unless it is on my laptop or ipad. and i don't have my laptop or ipad with me in the daytime, only in the evenings… maybe i'll bring my ipad to work…? [note added in later: i made it work by reading in the early evening. this is the kind of thing i really worry about.]

i guess i've had a complicated relationship with horror media in that i like it, and most of the time it doesn't Hit in a bad way, but i need to make sure to take precautions when i consume it or else i could seriously lose a lot of sleep. even just typing out that paragraph about my ordeal in high school left me with a terribly nervous feeling because i wrote it at night and relived unpleasant memories. but i can still turn a lightswitch off and then walk out of a dark room without pressing my back against a wall. so i'm miles ahead of where i was back then. that's a relief.

i will note that this whole time, i kiiinda thought junji ito's "ito" miiight just be ito 糸 (thread). i mean, i knew his name (romanized) long before i ever learned that "ito" means "thread." it's only natural that in my ignorance, i might form some association between them. but it's totally not thread. who would be named that? (there's probably somebody.) it's actually itou 伊藤. junji itou. itou junji. but no one romanizes it like that. it's the same itou as the itou in delicious ITO EN jasmine tea, which goes really well with unfrosted blueberry pop tarts. if you're planning to try it with frosted pop tarts, don't even bother. oi ocha is good too.

while watching MANIAC, i was like, what is souichi's deal…? now i'm watching the first episode of JUNJI ITO COLLECTION and i've realized that souichi could be an enjoyably ridiculous character but they gave him a completely insufferable voice actor and thus made him insufferable. i wonder if they had the perfectly reasonable thought, "we can't make his voice nice or else he could become sexy to teen girls, and that idea is apprehensible," and then they overcorrected. perhaps they could've made it less awful and safely unsexy by giving him a realistic teenage boy voice. they could even make it appropriately obnoxious without going too far. i have to read the souichi series and then i'll be able to love him. i can't love him with this shitty voice <3 [note added in later: it turns out souichi is in 6th grade and 11 years old. he's not even a teen. that means my sexy voice hypothesis, by all rights, ought to be moot. i still think they made the wrong voice actor choice. i mean, not that the actor didn't give it his all. but he sounds like an annoying man or teen, not an annoying kid. souichi needed a kid voice.]

JUNJI ITO COLLECTION failed to successfully adapt the story of the beautiful boy at the crossroads. as a multi-chapter story with a relatively strong narrative, it should have been given at least a whole episode or an OVA-length animation to tell the whole story at once, but instead, they abbreviated it and never followed up with the rest. that being said, the main problem was that they didn't make the narrative as clear as in the manga. well, whatever. i'm going to watch through COLLECTION even though it's lousy.

i read the compilation book entitled VENUS IN THE BLIND SPOT. apart from noticing that they had the audacity to include the enigma of amigara fault again, none of the stories especially stuck with me except the cute love letter manga to kazuo umezz. i'll have to read some of his stuff next. speaking of other horror manga, i bought and read the english translation of "inuki kanako no daikyoufu" (Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki!) by inuki kanako because i wanted to support my local comic book shop. i kinda picked it at random based on the cover and paid full cover price. i kinda didn't like it. i don't have much to say about it except that her perfectly neckless art style is fun. maybe i'll read her tatari series sometime.

i'm remembering that when i read UZUMAKI for the first time, despite having watched many horror movies, i failed to consider the narrative expectations for works in the horror genre; that is, i had not resigned myself to a bad ending, which i now understand is very much to be expected. so i was really rooting for kirie and shuichi the whole time, and at the end, when they fail to escape the spiral, i was like "ok fuck me then i guess." i was pissed. but what i'm saying is that i was wrong to be pissed because my expectations were unreasonable. in retrospect, it was an appropriate ending.

there's that one tumblr post making fun of kirie and her fucked up boyfriend. it has a couple of panels where shuichi's looking deadened and she puts her head on his shoulder. i think that post is mean. i'm on shuichi's side! be nice to him! you saw what happened to his dad! have a heart!

JUNJI ITO COLLECTION episode 7 was probably the best so far, just because they did a pretty good job with the used record one. if the singer hadn't done a good job, it would have flopped. the song adds so much that is impossible to portray in the form of manga. it spooked me enough that i'm not going to watch any more episodes tonight, which did not happen with any other episodes of COLLECTION or MANIAC.

i was right. manga souichi is much more lovable than anime souichi, because though their faces are equally obnoxious, manga souichi has no obnoxious voice. the souichi stories are kind of refreshing because we get to see junji ito's strange sense of humor without anything too scary happening. my first souichi exposure was the 4 walled room episode in MANIAC, meaning i missed his introduction that appears in COLLECTION, so i was like "who the fuck is this? our protagonist, kouichi, is going to die in the gap between these walls. what? nothing in particular happened at the end. (souichi appears in another episode) this guy's in more than one??" but in the end, i kind of like how he's in 6th grade and his main powers are supercharged annoying personality and also being able to administer real curses. and despite the horrible voice, most of the souichi segments seem to have been adapted with incredible accuracy. souichi's recurring associated sound effect in the manga is "gachu gachu," the slightly clankety sound of him sucking on nails. one scanlator translated it as "munch munch;' another as "nom nom." i've never seen "gachu gachu" before.

ito-sensei's art peculiarities: he is the master of the "lovely face looking concerned." great skill with sunken eyes looking upset and exhausted. in the profile view, everyone has that distinctive frown. poses are sometimes a little awkward as if drawn from a clumsily posed posable model. chins sometimes don't make sense if the perspective isn't straight on or in profile. occasionally, his unique sense of humor shines through in the facial expressions. he's very good at drawing cutely styled hair and plain, elegant clothes. he also draws scary things.

the short story "fashion model" features fuchi, the fashion model. she debuted in the souichi story "rumors." i love fuchi. i'm on her side. when she's riding in the car with everyone much shorter than her and politely excited to go to the deep woods, that's cute. i like when she hitches up her long dress to run quickly in the woods. in "fashion model: cursed frame," fuchi appears in a magazine shot with two other models smiling happily, and that's cute. i want more fuchi content. (also, fuchi is pronounced the same as huci, the ainu word for grandmother. irrelevant.)

junji ito short stories are really hit-or-miss, i've decided. UZUMAKI, GYO, and TOMIE are essentially hit, and that's why he's popular, but a lot of these one-shots, they do not hit.

many of the strange evils in ito-sensei's works seem to be town-restricted. it seems that in most cases, if you get out of town, everything's fine. town where bodies turn into tombstones. town where everyone needs maps to navigate. town where it's foggy and everyone does fortune-telling. town contaminated by spirals. let's all exit towns.

i think ito-sensei can tell when an idea is good and when an idea is bad. generally, the better ideas are longer stories, and the worse ideas are shorter stories. i guess an exception would be hell doll funeral. that one was short but good. another exception is the bully. that one was bad but long.

i think ito-sensei's stories would be better if he applied his skill at drawing unique face shapes to drawing main characters instead of using unique face shapes only for the sake of showing "ugliness" in comparison to the uniformly beautiful main characters. as if ugliness is horror.

most of the characters in his stories are very shallow, but that's okay; they are only here in service of the narrative, to react to whatever hideous sights are laid before them... or to take part in them.

he is really a master of rictus...

it's funny, i just read a ton of ito-sensei's works from the 90s and very early 2000s, and then i accidentally jumped to one from the past few years because the entries on his wikipedia page aren't in chronological order (someone fix that), and now youtubers are appearing and twitter is a plot point. also, the quality of the work is quite visually different, as he switched to digital. it feels very, very polished now. i wonder why they don't have these at my local library.

here are the junji ito works that are worth reading, in my view (not in any order) :

the hanging balloons - this vision is truly inspired. you can also read "return of the hanging balloons," but it's hardly anything.

souichi's series, including: fun summer vacation, fun winter vacation, souichi's diary of delights, souichi's home tutor, mannequin teacher [probably the best], souichi's birthday, souichi's selfish curse, the room with four walls, coffin, rumors, souichi's beloved pet, secret of the haunted house, and the souichi front [also known as secret of the haunted house: souichi's version]. - not every single one of these is fantastic, but some of them are quite good. if you only want a little taste, read "souichi's home tutor" and then "mannequin teacher," as they distinctly go together. you can also read "souichi possessed," but it's hardly anything.

splatter film [also called smashed] - another truly inspired vision. if you don't get it, the joke is mosquitoes.

used record [also called secondhand record] - read it and then watch episode 7 of junji ito collection.

fashion model - get to know my girl fuchi. you can also read "fashion model: cursed frame," but it's not much.

village of the siren - this one has a unique feeling, i think.

gyo, tomie, and uzumaki are all about as worthwhile as each other.

lovesickness is slightly less good than the three listed in the previous bullet point, but still pretty good

the chill [also known as coldness] - if you want to experience trypophobia hell. don't take that warning lightly.

groaning drain pipes - just because the perfectly anticlimactic ending cracks me up

blood bubble bushes - uhh something also similar to trypophobia in this one, but it's striking

oshikiri's series, including hallucinations, bog of the living dead, pen pal, intruder, further tales of oshikiri, and further tales of oshikiri: walls - some of these are pretty good.

house of puppets - it's a house of puppets.

the town without streets - goes in an unexpectedly atmospheric direction. interestingly a mishmash of many different ideas, unlike his usual one-note short stories.

gravetown - another inspired idea.

the story of the mysterious tunnel - can't decide how much to like this one.

frankenstein (adaptation) - very well done. there's a scene where victor and the monster make eye contact and then the monster immediately turns around and scales a sheer cliff face. you made his body really strong, victor. he can scale a sheer cliff face. i should note i only read around the first half of frankenstein the novel. i know, it's a failing on my part. so i can't judge the accuracy. i don't know if the monster scales a sheer cliff face in the novel. anyway someone should cosplay as reanimated justine. you just need to really build up your limbs onto some stilts and stuff.

hell doll funeral - it's a hell doll funeral

fixed face - ending cracked me up

weeping woman way - i like this one. it's so wet.

madonna [also called the witch] - i enjoy a story that offends the church.

spirit flow of aokigahara - this one is really good. i love their bodily transformation.

sensor - the first chapter makes you envision getting hairs in your mouth so you go "pfuh! pfuh!" and the rest is like, oh, so god really does exist. i really appreciate how much he wrung out of the creepy natural phenomenon of volcanic hair, which i didn't know about before this.

i wanted this to be a comprehensive list, but i'm sick of reading these for now. maybe i'll read the rest of his works some other time.

in conclusion, despite the inexplicably strong urge i felt to read as much of junji ito's body of work as possible, i'm not in love with his stuff. i certainly don't care enough to compare any translations. however, i do really respect his art skills and horrific ideas, and i enjoy his inscrutable sense of humor.

(i am really looking forward to the black and white uzumaki anime if it ever comes out.)

#junji ito #ito junji #this post is about horror manga and contains some potentially upsetting things.#i'm not giving you a trigger warning for each and every junji ito work discussed in this post.#please look up trigger warnings for each individual work before you read them if you're worried.

9 notes · View notes

beneaththetangles · 2 years

Photo

Reader’s Coffin: Junji Ito’s Black Paradox, Zombie Makeout Club, and Kaiu Shirai x Posuka Demizu: Beyond The Promised Neverland

Welcome to a special Reader’s Corner—or should we say, Reader’s Coffin! As Halloween looms, we dive not only into the usual fray, but also the unusual: series with titles like MonsTABOO and Zombie Makeout Club; a collection of one-shots from a series that is perhaps best described as horror, The Promised Neverland; and a classic work newly released in North American by Junji Ito. Did we enjoy the macabre and spookiness of it all? Scroll down into our crypt to find out!

Black Paradox • Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke (Vol. 2) • Kaiu Shirai x Posuka Demizu: Beyond The Promised Neverland • MonsTABOO (Vol. 2) • My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected (Vol. 14.5) • Sasaki and Peeps: That Time I Got Dragged into a Psychic Battle in Modern Times While Trying to Enjoy a Relaxing Time in Another World ~ Looks Like Magical Girls are on Deck ~ (Vol. 1) • Zombie Makeout Club

-----

Black Paradox, One-shot Manga

Have you ever tried to describe a Junji Ito story to someone? It’s not an easy task. Take Black Paradox, for instance—is it a horror story? Cautionary tale? A philosophical take on the nature of humanity and the soul? Are we supposed to sympathize with the group of four main characters who originally assemble to commit suicide together, or are they villains as much as later character who takes advantage of the mystical situation they happen upon? A final few frames cause the reader to wonder what we should ultimately think of the story, which veers from horror toward sci-fi as it progresses. However one describes Black Paradox and the four deeply flawed characters it focuses on, there’s no doubt that (as is true with so many of Ito’s works) this is a masterpiece. Grotesque enough to get readers in the spooky mood, but thoughtful enough to read (and reread!) in any season, Black Paradox is discomforting, enthralling, and creepy, and it’s also one of the best reads of the year. ~ Twwk

Black Paradox is published by VIZ Media.

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, Light Novel Vol. 14.5

When I reviewed volume 14 of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, I noted that it was the concluding book of this wonderful series. But I was wrong. I’d forgotten about this slim, actual final volume (maybe—more on that below) consisting of side stories that complete the main storyline. Some Oregairu fan I am! And even at less than 150 pages long, there’s a lot to enjoy here, though less so in the first half, which features four side stories of varying quality and importance to the main tale, including an adaptation of the Fes. FINAL event and a short Irohas / I LOHAS collaboration chapter. The final part, though, which fills the other half of the volume, shows the service club trio in their third year, now with Komachi attending their high school and Iroha continuing to ask for the group’s assistance. Komachi and Iroha play a major role in the chapter (we even get to read a section from Iroha’s point of view!), though the emphasis is really on wrapping up this tale for the service club. These last few pages really feel like the closing I wish we had received from volume 14, and so despite the oddity of having a half-volume after a more traditional concluding work, I’m glad for it. I’m not sure if we’ll receive official translations of any of the additional works that have spun out since this was released in Japan, including “Shin” (which continues the story) and “Ketsu” (the alternate Yui timeline)—and judging by the reactions across the fan community, we may not want them—but if the final chapter of 14.5 is how Oregairu more or less concludes, then I’m walking away a happy fan indeed. ~ Twwk

My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected is published by Yen Press.

READ: My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected Reviews (Vol. 7.5 // Vol. 8 // Vol. 9 // Vol. 10 // Vol. 10.5 // Vol. 11 // Vol. 12 // Vol. 13 // Vol. 14) and Light Novel Club (Vol. 1)

Sasaki and Peeps: That Time I Got Dragged into a Psychic Battle in Modern Times While Trying to Enjoy a Relaxing Time in Another World ~ Looks Like Magical Girls are on Deck ~, Manga Vol. 1

Sasaki is a lonely corporate drone closing in fast on his forties when he decides to take the plunge and…adopt a pet! He can’t afford a cat or a dog though—the initial payout is too high—so he settles for a (suspiciously?) cheap Java sparrow that just happens to be able to talk. Which is cute, right? And perfectly normal too…right? Once Sasaki gets his new feathered friend home, though, it turns out that the sparrow can say an awful lot more than just “Pick me!” and is in fact a powerful mage reincarnated from another world. The two form a contract, and—hey presto!—cue the world-hopping shenanigans! What follows is part lesson in comparative economics and trade, as Sasaki and Peeps (or Piercarlo, as he calls himself) play carpetbagger between worlds, and part isekai slice-of-life, as Sasaki sets his sights on making enough money to finance extended vacations in both the other world and Japan. Temporal mechanics and magical training montages fill out the bill, while the Psychic Battle and Magical Girl of the subtitle don’t show up until the final two pages. But there is also another girl, a middle-schooler neighbor who is always huddled against the cold outside her apartment door… The tone of the volume is light-hearted and informative, and the dynamic between the two main characters reminds me of Pinky and The Brain, if Pinky was a bit cleverer and The Brain more stable and less evil—so far at least (I wouldn’t put it past Peeps to have a nefarious hidden agenda). The volume sets this tale up as an antidote to manga readers’ isekai-fatigue, claiming to be a refreshing new take on the genre, but apart from a modest degree of self-awareness, I can’t say that it’s hit that note yet. If anything, it seems to be replicating the usual mix of tropes, including disappointing traces of lolicon. Although there is nothing untoward with the neighbor girl in the manga itself, a bonus short story from the author of the original light novel at the end of vol. 1 has a palpable Lolita vibe to it. So, we’ll just have to wait and see where Sasaki and Peeps goes with things. Here’s hoping it stays cute and gets a little more creative too. ~ claire

Sasaki and Peeps is published by Yen Press.

MonsTABOO, Manga Vol. 2

At the conclusion of volume one of MonsTABOO, the “middle-schooler-paired-with-familiar” manga that mixes in some adult elements, it appeared that the story might move into a gaming direction, in which the characters find themselves involved in a competition to knock off one another. Volume two dives fully into this storyline as Maruka and her groan-up familiar, Mochizuki, are drawn into a mobile app in which players can earn money as they kill off other groan-ups. Of course, Maruka wants to protect her “boyfriend” (and he her), but they’re drawn into the game anyway, as players from other schools engage them in combat and one university student takes a particular interest in Maruka. If volume one was intriguing because of the uniqueness of Mochizuki’s character design and relationship with the oddball Maruka, volume two is entertaining because of multiple other engaging elements. It reads like a high-paced but well-plotted film, non-stop in both the action scenes and the relationship and school life panels. The new characters are also a lot of fun, with some who are rivals now showing signs of becoming allies in the future. Of course, part of the engagement in this series, also, is the “taboo” elements, which are mostly related to the creepy relationships between the middle school girls and their sometimes much-older groan-ups. It feeds the entire tone of the series. While I find this volume to be a lot of fun, readers should weigh this difficult material when deciding whether to dive in. ~ Twwk

MonsTABOO is published by Yen Press.

READ: MonsTABOO Vol. 1 Review

Kaiu Shirai x Posuka Demizu: Beyond The Promised Neverland, One-Shot Manga Collection

Honestly, I was surprised when I heard that this compilation volume was going to be released in English a few months back. But I’m glad, as it gave me the opportunity to briefly talk about the one-shots that I hadn’t had the time to in the last two years. First, reading the behind-the-scene omakes sheds light on how and why the stories came about (especially Spirit Photographer Saburo Kono, We Were Born, and DC3, whose initial drafts were actually created by Kaiu Shirai before The Promised Neverland was published in Weekly Shonen Jump). Next, there’s also a deeper appreciation for Posuka Demizu and her drawing skills that bring each of these stories to life, a fact which Shirai constantly emphasizes in the omakes. Third, given how well-received it has been in the past few years since its release, I’m glad that the Poppy’s Wish one-shot (the first story which the now famous Shirai-Demizu duo worked on together) finally got its official English translation. Then there’s the TPN post-canon chapter, “Dreams Come True,” which I’m guessing was the main pull for getting this book licensed in English in the first place. Knowing the struggle it took for them to get their happy ending in the main series, it was fun to see the Grace Field kids each get the chance to do the things they wished to do back in the GF House. It does feel a bit bittersweet near the end, though, considering what Emma had to give up to bring them to the human world. Reading it also makes me wish that the TPN side-stories previously published, plus the ones Shirai once said would come out in the future, would also get the same treatment and be released in their own volume. Finally, there’s the “Takashi and Poppy” bonus chapter, which surprisingly ties in all the stories in this volume together and shows how much some of the characters have grown from their previous struggles. Overall, I would say this collection is worth picking up, regardless of whether or not you were a fan of TPN before. ~ thathilomgirl

Kaiu Shirai x Posuka Demizu: Beyond The Promised Neverland is published by Viz and releases on November 8th.

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke, Manga Vol. 2

I tend to not read book blurbs before I start reading, but I think this would have been a good time to do so. Volume two of Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke continues where the previous volume ended. Vik and Claire’s earlier plans have come to pass, with Claire now officially enrolled in the magic academy and learning how to grow her magical abilities. When she’s not learning new skills, she is at home fulfilling her role as governess by teaching Isabelle. In between, she continues to “hang out” with Vik, but she wonders if her visits with him are about to end as Vik will soon have to choose a fiancée. I didn’t find this volume quite as exciting as the first volume: I’m not sure why, because I continue to really, really love Claire’s character. She is so admirable and strong, and I have enjoyed seeing her offered a chance at the academy to develop her magic. I think I came in with different expectations because one of my favorite parts in the previous volume was Claire becoming a governess. While she still is, and we see some of that, this volume does focus more on Claire being at the academy. For some reason, I wasn’t quite as excited about that as I thought I would be, even though I still found it a good read. Even if I feel this volume went in a slightly different direction than I expected, I am very much looking forward to seeing what happens next, especially regarding who Vik will choose as his future fiancée. ~ Laura A. Grace

Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke is published by TokyoPop.

READ: Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke Vol. 1 Review

Zombie Makeout Club, Manga Vol. 1

Zombie Makeout Club is a popular apparel brand that I would describe as “punk meets macabre.” This OEL manga release of the same name features a collection of webtoons that are an extension of the property, and which are also developed by its creator, Peter Richardson. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from such a project: full of creativity and artistry, but roughly crafted. For instance, the panels themselves each resemble creative designs that could easily translate to a sweatshirt or sticker (though perhaps gorier than the rest of the brand—”DEATHWISH,” the main story, is full of gore and splatter violence) as they show a zombie adventure story. After committing suicide, Yume is resurrected as part of an experiment mixing “science and the occult.” She’ll team with her also-deceased sister and another ally to try to fight back and escape this living hell, where “escape” means permanent death. “DEATHWISH” isn’t easy to follow; I never quite knew what was going on or who most of the characters were (sometimes confusing them for one another), and the resolution didn’t particularly feel like an ending. But I think it’s a solid beginning and an expression of the talent that Richardson possesses. There’s a reason that fans gobble up his work and buy his clothing from major retailers—the character designs are appealing, some sort of mix of cyberpunk, manga, and Ilya Kuvshinov-style artwork, and they capture a certain mood that engages youth. I think we’ll be seeing more from Richardson, and I’m eager to see him mature as a storyteller and mangaka as he continues to perfect his art. ~ Twwk

Zombie Makeout Club is published by ABLAZE. It releases digitally on November 9th and on paperback November 22nd.

=====

“Reader’s Corner” is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works they’re reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works, and those older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

19 notes · View notes

valleyfthdolls · 1 year

Text

My opinions on every horror film I’ve seen so far

The Ring was pretty good. Samara was an interesting mystery and it was sufficiently dark, but not super disturbing. There were a few plot beats that felt dull, irrelevant or weirdly placed, but the aesthetics and atmosphere carried it really well. Similarly to Smile, I found myself bizarrely intrigued by the scene where the horse falls off the ferry and dies. It’s disturbing and strange but its portrayal is atmospheric and tense to the point it becomes intriguingly beautiful.

Recommendation: Watch it.

Rating: 9/10

The Blair Witch Project was alright. It wasn’t particularly atmospheric like The Ring was, but it was engaging enough to finish. I was really losing interest about halfway through, but the pacing wasn’t bad enough for me to give up.

Recommendation: Watch it just to have seen it.

Rating: 4/10

Smile was good, I liked the story, and I found myself so intrigued by the story that I just replayed the opening scene in the psychiatric hospital a dozen or so times after finishing. It’s an interesting take on using horror in a way that represents mental health, and I even enjoyed the themes around the stigma against mental illness and how it dooms those who need help. But it’s not really exceptional. It’s just kind of… a horror movie.

Recommendation: I don’t have strong feelings on recommending this one.

Rating: 7/10

Friday the Thirteenth I didn’t even finish it was SO boring. I’ve been told I dropped just before it got good but if your movie only gets good in the last thirty-five minutes it needs some rewriting.

Recommendation: Don’t bother.

Rating: 2/10. The scene where the guy takes an arrow through the throat and chokes on his blood is the most interesting thing there.

Uzumaki was a mediocre adaptation of a great manga series. However, I also think there’s only so much you can do to adapt Junji Ito’s work to live action. It had the same atmosphere heavy focus as The Ring, even if imperfectly executed. I guess I really like the sickly green visual of both.

Recommendation: If you want to watch this, just read the manga instead.

Rating: 4/10

The Shining wasn’t scary to me, but it was extremely engaging. It also has my favorite old timey song in it. I think I’m probably just stupid and unobservant enough that most of the subtle horror tricks did not work on me because I didn’t even see them. Oops.

Recommendation: Forewarning that the main character is a fucking racist and an abusive parent and shitty husband

Rating: 7/10

Insidious was pretty good. But I think as it began to explain the story more it lost its footing as it wasn’t totally able to live up to what it built up around, like, the demon in particular. It was underwhelming and took away a lot of suspense.

Recommendation: I wouldn’t really recommend this one, but it’s not because it’s a bad movie.

Rating: 6/10

Before I Wake is my favorite movie. I love the atmosphere, the set and character designs, the monster, the use of butterflies and moths which I am notoriously afraid of AS something bizarre and unnerving- and the way ALL of it is used to further the narrative. Everything is crafted around the story the movie is telling in a way that even makes up for what initially appears to be a clichéd monster design that isn’t as scary as its presence- like Insidious- because of what the monster represents and the way it plays into the role it has in this story. It’s a great story in a movie that’s not terrifying or nightmare inducing but certainly is uniquely unnerving and really makes you feel the true discomfort of the situation.

Recommendation: If you’ve experienced loss of a loved one, this movie portrays that in a way that could really resonate with you. I think it’s absolutely worth a watch. Heck, even if you haven’t, you may not connect to it but it’s still a good story.

Rating: 9/10

Shōjo Tsubaki, I did not realize was a horror movie. I knew what content was in it when I started and it certainly is disturbing, but I didn’t realize it was classified as horror until I was done with it and saw someone call it a horror movie weeks later. Regardless, I… actually enjoyed the movie. I found much more artistic merit in it than most seemed to, and actually enjoyed the truly disturbing way it told its story without holding back. The art style is both visually appealing and rather grotesque, which serves well for a dark interpretation of a stock story of a little girl forced to join a circus to make money that shows off how deeply inhumane those industries can be. However, the story is a LOT to take in. Rape, abuse, grooming, pedophilia, animal cruelty, gore and body horror, and suicide- it doesn’t shy away as it basically deals this little girl the worst hand imaginable all because of the circus.

Recommendation: I genuinely wouldn’t recommend this one to anyone. If you want to watch it, know what you’re getting into and watch a few scenes on YouTube first so you’re prepared and preemptively informed.

Rating: 7/10

Bonus:

Final Destination I actually didn’t watch but I’ve seen clips and fuck if there’s a better definition of mindless, stupid, unrealistic and visually awful gorefest disguised as a movie and not something you’d find on a shitty porn site, I don’t know where it fucking is. It’s so unbelievably stupid in that it doesn’t even try to hide its fucking gore fetish. It’s disgustingly gratuitous with the amount of blood, shit just drags on and on to get the most dead bodies, dismemberment, disembowelment and unrealistically, unbelievably bloody death scenes imaginable. The fact that there are FIVE of these movies is appalling. It’s no better a movie than Guinea Pig which is basically a movie length torture and gore fetish porno. Hm, sound familiar?

Recommendation: You’d get more enjoyment out of a traffic cone up the ass.

Rating: Get fucked/10

3 notes · View notes

thelovelyghostwriter · 3 years

Text

Non-anime Asian TV Shows that I liked

This is just a short list of some Asian TV shows I liked, list is not exhaustive. Thank you @cautionworksstuff for encouraging me to do this since you wanted to know more about other foreign TV shows other than anime.

When I say non-anime, it means shows that are not Japanese animated series.

1. Kingdom [Netflix] (South Korea)

This series hits HARD. It’s an original Korean Netflix series. Now, there’s a lot of shows/movies that are named “Kingdom”, so let me clear about this one: this is the one that is set with a Zombie apocalypse during the Joseon period.

It follows the story of the Crown Prince who is being framed for treachery by his evil stepmom (the Empress) and her clan, as soon as his father died. In the midst of that, a disease outbreak happens that turns everyone into zombies, and the Prince struggles to avoid being defeated by the corrupted government officials as well as to save his people from the zombie apocalypse.

What makes this one stand out from series/movies like The Walking Dead are two things: 1) the political setting - while there is a zombie outbreak, it’s also the battle for power, 2) the historical setting - the guns used here are very limited, and the science/medicine explained behind this outbreak is not like “oh due to biotech experiment gone wrong”, 3) unlike Walking Dead, they actually explained the cause of the illness, the cures and the weaknesses.

They are going to come up with a new one-episode spin-off(?) this month.

2. Girl from Nowhere (Thailand)

This is also available on Netflix. This series follow a character named Nanno, who goes to various schools as the new girl. In the second episode, she’s revealed to be some sort of immortal entity that goes on to expose the sins and wrongful acts of parents, teachers and students. She then punishes them as some form of karma. Beware, some episodes are downright disturbing and only for mature audience.

I don’t have a confirmation of this, but according to Wikipedia and actress Chicha Amatayakul, the character Nanno draws inspiration from Junji Ito’s Tomie, and the similarities are very obvious. From the way the people react to her, the hairstyle and the even to the beauty mark near the eye, the similarities are very obvious.

One difference though, I must say, is that Nanno is an extremely charming character as compared to Tomie. You will really root for her and can’t help but like her presence, even if she’s a little scary. When I read Tomie, I didn’t exactly felt the same magnetic pull as Nanno did for me. Season 1 was really good. Season 2 was more brutal but I think Season 1 was slightly better.

3. Trese (Philippines)

This was actually based on a Filipino comic series, with the same name. I had actually waited for this series to be animated. This series features Filipino supernatural beings. I had always wondered how it’ll be like if there was a cool anime about Filipino mythological creatures, such as the manananngal, aswang, tikbalang etc. I think their designs and stories are interesting and not very talked about in the media.

I had once complained about this. We have so many interesting Filipino mythological creatures, but why do we focus on mostly drama series on love and family, and not come up with a horror series featuring them?

This one’s available on Netflix as well, and it’s in three audios: English, Filipino and Japanese. I do recommend the Filipino audio because the pronunciation of the creatures are better. But that might be just me listening to my native language.

Although, just a tiny criticism - there are only six episodes so far. All in less than 30 minutes. This was an issue for me and also my family who had watched it because we felt the pacing was too fast. They didn’t explain what the creatures were, what they do, which can be confusing for people who are not familiar with the mythology. Yeah, I really think it’s because the pacing was fast due to the small number of episodes. If they slowed down, it would be great. Hopefully we get more episodes the next season.

4. Meteor Garden (Taiwan) [2001] OR Boys over Flowers (South Korea) OR Hana Yori Dango (Japan)

This was adapted from a manga called “Hana Yori Dango” (Boys over Flowers). It has been adapted in numerous shows, with Japan doing the first live action film in 1995.

The one that I had watched is the Taiwanese drama version, Meteor Garden (2001 version). There was also a Korean drama adaptation called “Boys over Flowers”. I didn’t watch that one but quite a number of my friends did. There was also the Japanese adaptation, as well as Thai and Chinese adaptation of it. I can’t say for sure which one is the best because I only remember watching the Taiwanese (2001) version and it’s close to my heart. The Taiwanese (2001), South Korean and Japanese drama versions are often being compared. I’ll let you guys decide based on this information.

I don’t remember much from the plot, although it was this drama was very hyped back then.

This was the summary on Wikipedia:

It tells the story of Tsukushi Makino, a girl from a middle class family, whose mother enrolled her in an elite high school to compete with the families from her husband's company. While at Eitoku, she encounters the F4, a gang of four young men who are children of Japan's wealthiest families, and who bully anyone that gets in their way.

5. The Little Nyonya [2008] (Singapore)

Saving the last for the one that resides a special place in my heart, and perhaps for a lot of people in Singapore.

Words cannot describe how much this was well-liked in Singapore. I remember everyone praising this. This was hands-down one of THE BEST drama ever produced in Singapore. I remember coming home, waiting at I think 8pm? Just to tune into local TV and then watch this show for a good 40minutes. I know they did a remake in China, which I didn’t watch, but I highly recommend the Singaporean version (since it’s the original and the setting is in Singapore/Malaysia anyway).

This series really introduced the Peranakan culture to the Singaporean audience. I like to think this story has two parts where it follows the story of a Nyonya (Peranakan Chinese woman).

The first part’s setting is during WW2. Huang Ju Xiang, a woman born into a Peranakan family and her mother was a 2nd wife. Because of her mother’s status, she’s been ostracised by her family and is tasked to do the household like a servant. She meets a Japanese man and yeah, since it’s in the midst of WW2, their love story was kinda “forbidden” too. The first part is actually my favourite.

The second part follows the story of their daughter, Yue Niang Yamamoto. This story is longer and Yuening has to face the same type of ostracisation her mother had endured by the Huang family.

#kingdom netflix #girl from nowhere #nanno #trese #meteor garden #boys over flowers #the little nyonya

59 notes · View notes

charlemange1 · 4 years

Text

Ranking adaptations of Victor Frankenstein from least to most evil

The character Victor Frankenstein has been adapted many times over the years. Sometimes he’s a heroic YA protagonist while others have him using his clone army to wipe out humanity and take over the world. But which Victor is truly the worse?

After reading several adaptations, I’ve decided to rank Victor’s morality in each one and find out! The gothic lit community doesn’t talk about these adaptations much, so hopefully this list can introduce the fandom to some of the lesser-known interpretations out there!

This is part one, which ranks printed retellings only. If people enjoy it, I’ll do a part two and merge the films into the mix!

Disclaimers (please read):

SPOILERS! Victor’s actions in these adaptations will be thoroughly analyzed with no regard for the spoiler tag.

Some of the more evil Victor’s get into dark territory, and while I will not go into extensive detail (lest I go insane) if mentions of abuse, sexual themes, possessive behavior and murder bother you, don’t make my mistake and turn back! (I will leave an additional reminder when said parts come up)

This list centers on Victor’s actions and NOT the quality of the books themselves—so if you see your favorite title getting a low score it’s not because it’s a bad book—it’s because Victor is a jerk.

This list is by no means complete, just the ones I’ve read personally.

These are my silly personal opinions and if you disagree with my ranking that’s perfectly fine!

Ranking: On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being fantastic and 0 being “run if you see this man in a dark alley.”

10/10 Perfect Sunbeam. Overall great, wholesome guy!

*crickets chirp in a serene backdrop of a Romantic field*

Good dude

Junji Ito’s Frankenstein: 8.5/10

Props to the master of manga monsters for making the twist be that Victor is not secretly evil/insane.

Not only does Victor pity the creature and agree to create a mate for him—but he keeps his word! This is especially touching when you consider how the creature treks alllllll the way to Switzerland to dig up Justine’s head as a face for the bride. (Henry says he probably didn’t know it was Justines, but come on, you just happened to pick up the head of the girl you framed and carried it for miles across land and sea to deliver it to Victor instead of stopping somewhere closer? I don't buy it.)

Victor even goes the extra mile, kindly stating:

Yet the bride rejects the creature (not Victor’s fault) and in revenge, the creature kills Henry, Elizabeth, and Alphonse. In retaliation, Victor follows him onto the ice and relates his tale to Walton before dying.

Victor's actions are nothing heroic, but what more could he have done? He didn’t break his promise and kill the bride like in the original novel and he clearly cared about reanimating “Justine” as shown in the above image.

And did I mention this manga was done by Junji Ito? Would YOU stay in the same room if you created a Junji Ito monster? Didn't think so! After the initial mistake of abandoning his monster, this Victor did the best he could to make amends and protect his family--making him an overall good person.

Decent guy

This Dark endeavor by Kenneth Oppel: 7/10

Serving as a prequel to the original novel, This Dark Endeavor tells the untold story of what leads young Victor Frankenstein to create his monster.

While Victor very much struggles with his angsty dark desires (bad), he tirelessly searches for the alchemic "Elixir of Life" to save his twin brother (good). A brother who is more talented than Victor, has the heart of his love interest, and Victor believes everyone prefers over himself.

Good on you, Victor, for letting the love for your brother override understandable sibling jealousy. If that wasn’t enough to make him decent, letting a few fingers be cut off to save his twin definitely does.

What brings Victor down to a 7 is his relationship with Elizabeth. It’s born out of jealousy from her loving his twin rather than genuine affection. Even if this retelling makes Elizabeth a feisty, pants-wearing independent female (to lessen the possessive undertones Victor exhibits, I presume? Read it and judge for yourself), the relationship does nothing positive for his character. Tricking someone into kissing you is a jerk move, bro.

Ok I guess….

Such Wicked Intent by Kenneth Oppel 6/10

The sequel to This Dark Endeavor loses Victor’s careful balance of good and bad traits its predecessor boasted. Victor wasn’t perfect in TDE, but the majority of his negative actions stemmed from trying to save his ill brother and were mostly forgivable. In Such Wicked Intent, his understandable sibling jealously now comes off as petty since Victor’s twin is already dead.

Victor trying to bring his brother back to life (good) is undermined by his growing reliance on supernatural butterflies that increase his abilities despite other characters pointing out the obvious danger. Victor is also not the greatest parent to Twin 2.0 and the previous issues with him and Elizabeth from book 1 don’t improve. He’s the same Victor from TDE, but the plot focusing on his selfish desires makes him more flawed as a result.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (the original novel): 6/10

Depending on how you interpret the events of the original novel, Victor is either a college Dad in over his head and trying his best after an initial mistake, or a misogynistic, irresponsible jerk only capable of thinking of himself. There are enough professional articles to support both interpretations, and I’m not the person to pick one over the other.

However, if the narrative he tells Walton is to be taken as truth (and the creature not correcting Victor's account tells me it is), Victor spent most of the novel trying to fix his mistake (intentions may vary)—and isn’t too bad as a result.

Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel: 5/10

Despite being a crossover with Pride and Prejudice, Kessel tries to be as faithful to the original Frankenstein as possible. However, the few changes he makes hurts Victor from a moral standpoint.

Victor’s not the greatest guy when handling the romantic gestures of both Mary Bennet and Henry. Also, murdering his creature's mate with poison right before they leave to start their happily ever after is awful, but understandable from his point of view.

Then there's P&P's ending, where Walton describes meeting Victor on the ice. It’s revealed that Victor left killing the creature's mate and the Bennet’s out of his narrative. While this is probably Kessel justifying why Jane Austen’s characters and his changes weren’t mentioned in the original text (and who can blame him?) it does make Victor a liar. In the original, the creature never called Victor out for omitting anything—so altering the story on his deathbed places P&P’s Victor a rung lower than his original counterpart.

Ehh….

Frankenstein According to Spike Milligan: 4/10

As a nearly-word-for-word retelling with minor, humorous changes by the comedian Spike Milligan, Victor is more pathetic than anything. He’s a harmless, pathetic, hilarious jerk.

Some quotes:

"I bounded along with feelings of unbridled joy and hilarity. From a great distance my family could see me bounding with unbridled joy and hilarity." (53)

"'I tell you,’ I said, ‘that murderer had his trousers down, was eating fish paste sandwiches and traveling 100 miles per hour.’" (59)

"‘I can offer you no consolation,’ said he.

‘Then piss off.’ said I." (54)

Here’s his jail visit with Justine in animatic form (and me shamelessly plugging my other creative endeavors)

Monster by Neal Bell 3.5/10

Warning: contains mentions of animal abuse

On one hand, Victor wants to conquer death to save his family and is clearly disturbed over Justine's and his mother’s death. However, the man expresses little concern at the possibility of William getting struck by lightning with his kite in front of his mother who had already lost 9 children.

He can also talk to dogs and cats (for…some reason?) who are portrayed as intelligent beings with feelings—yet that doesn’t stop him from eating said dogs in the Arctic and killing said cat after threatening her with a knife. He also flings around Bible verses while being painfully egotistical about “being God”.

Using Henry’s romantic affections toward him to his advantage, briefly forcing himself on Elizabeth, and tenderly caring for his monster only to abandon him after the creature expresses a want to die just makes him an awful person all around. The fact he doesn’t do these things with clear malicious intent saves him from being any lower.

Quotes:

ELIZABETH: A bone. A brittle bit of skin. A tooth—

VICTOR: Would you not be womanish now?

Be useful. Here—hold the Leyden jar,

While I attach the string…

VICTOR: A satisfactory morning, then, Mister Puss—tormenting the dogs?

CAT: God gave me a duty. I fulfill it.

VICTOR: Papa says there is no God.

(He takes out a knife)

Pretty bad dude

WARNING: Please note that some of these Victors get into unsavory territory. If the mention of sexual themes/abuse/murder bothers you turn back:

The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd: 3/10

This one was tricky. The narrative chugs along with Victor being an intelligent, thoughtful guy with only a few obsessive tendencies. He’s chilling with the Shelleys, talking to the poor in the streets and financially supporting Fred’s family along with giving out generous tips. He’s a cool guy. He’s a great dude! He’s….revealed in the final 2 pages to be recounting everything from a mental asylum, the monster was in his head, and he’s actually the one that committed the murders.

Alrighty then. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Having his insanity revealed in the final pages, it’s hard to judge whether there was genuine malicious intent or if Victor truly thought he created the creature and believed he was doing good in trying to “stop” it. No matter his intentions though, the body count remains and a child strangler has no place being anything higher than a 3.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White: 1/10

We all knew this one would make the list. Elizabeth’s first flashback sets up Victor as having serious issues—the question becomes how low will he go? Turns out pretty low.

He’s the one who killed William and framed Justine along with murdering his father, brother Robert and various people at Ingolstadt.

What really makes him despicable is that Elizabeth is the novel's main POV character who only sticks with Victor so she’s not thrown out on the streets. He’s abusive, controlling, dominating, and so possessive that he’ll perfect reanimation so that not even death can take her away from him! Yikes. I can’t stress enough how being in Elizabeth’s POV makes these actions all the more menacing.

Quote:

“There was never another path for you. Consider how much worse it has all been for me. How much I have had to suffer. And how much of that suffering has been caused directly by you!” His face twitched, and his fingers tightened on the pistol. Then he sighed. “It does not do to dwell on it. There is no point in fighting. This is your fate, Elizabeth Frankenstein. I will let no other claim you—not man, not death, not even God.” (279)

Nice guy.

Despite his terrible actions, Victor is trying to "save" Elizabeth from death. In his mind, he wants what’s best for her. It’s a crazy mind that mixed up domination and love, but the fact that his evil actions come from wanting to keep someone he wants to control cares about safe vs. other versions where his crimes stem from wanting to rival god and rule the world, this version isn’t THAT bad. At least his hearts in the right place—even if his mentality is utter garbage.

The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Theodore Roszak 0/10

*insert my screams of insurmountable anguish here*

Caroline: Hey son, you should do NSFW things.

Victor: Sure. I will now do NSFW things.

Victor: *proceeds to do NSFW things*

The reprint of this novel mentions on the cover it’s erotica, but the copy I bought (and to this day have not finished) had no such disclaimer. I’ll break my rule and speak on the quality of this book: there is none. For an alleged “pro-feminism” novel everyone is terrible—and Victor is no exception.

Literally Satan.

Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein Series: -∞/10

So you’ve read far enough to join me in Hell.

Where do even I start? This is a Victor who extended his life to the present day. Who worked with Hitler, Stalin, Castro and regretted the fall of the Third Reich. Who created an army of emotionally deprived “new race” creations to kill people and assume their identities so he could ascend the ranks of politics. Who, once he has enough of his new race integrated into society, desires to commit mass genocide on humanity and establish himself as supreme ruler of the world—only then can he conquer the cosmos as well because why the hell not?

Oh, and he’s a wife-beater/murderer too! Which isn’t a problem, considering he can create a new wife whenever he sees fit (he was on Erika 5 by book 3). The sheer lack of any positive traits in this man is laughable. Koontz really, REALLY wants to get across that Victor is a bad guy.

And if you’re somehow not convinced by the above description, here are some quotes I pulled from the first 3 novels as a bonus to reeeeeally sell how despicable this clown is:

Regarding Elizabeth:

“Victor had not loved Elizabeth. Love and God were myths he rejected with equal contempt. But Elizabeth had belonged to him. Even after more than 200 years, he still bitterly resented the loss of her, as he would have resented losing an exquisite antique porcelain vase if [his creature] had smashed that instead of the bride,” (3.97).

Regarding Mary Shelley:

“When Mary Shelley took a local legend based on truth and crafted fiction from it, she made Victor a tragic figure and killed him off. He understood her dramatic purpose for giving him a death scene, but he loathed her for portraying him as tragic and as a failure. Her judgment of his work was arrogant. What else of consequence did she ever write? And of the two, who was dead—and who was not?” (1.79-80)

(Author Note: For your information, Victor, The Last Man is considered by some to be the first dystopian novel)

His…ah…"friends”:

“Fire was featured in some of his less pleasant memories. The great windmill. The bombing of Dresden. The Israeli Mossad attack on the secret Venezuelan research complex that he had shared with Mengele in the years after World War Two. Nevertheless, he liked to read to the accompaniment of a cozy crackling fire,” (1.76).

“Victor admired Hitler. The Führer knew talent when he saw it.

In the 1930s and 40s, Victor had worked with Mengele and others in Hitler's privileged scientific class. He made considerable progress in his work before the regrettable allied victory…the problem with the Führer had been that his roots were in art and politics…The future did not belong either to artists or to politicians,” (2.24-25).

Dat ego tho:

“When I die, those cells will be capped descend a signal that will be relayed by satellite to everyone made of new race flesh, to every meat machine that walks. And you will fall down dead,’…Victor smiled, anticipating triumph in spite of their silence. ‘Did you think a God would die alone?’” (3.345).

Civilization would not be remade or sustained by Christianity or by Islam. Neither by Scientologists nor by the bright-eyed adherence of the deliciously solipsistic paranoid new religion encouraged by The Da Vinci Code. Tomorrow belonged to scientism. The priests of scientism were not merely robed clerics performing rituals, they were gods, with the power of gods. Victor himself was their Messiah,” (2.25).

“With Victor's unstoppable drive for power, with his singular intellect, with his cold materialism and his ruthless practicality, and now with synchronicity on his side, he had become untouchable, immortal.

He was immortal,” (3.329).

“How they goggled at him, abashed by his wisdom and knowledge, mortified by their ignorance, over-awed by his godlike power,” (3.330).

“’Murder,’ said the caller. ‘murder…excites me.’

Victor kept the growing concern out of his voice. ‘No, your mind is fine. I don't make mistakes.’” (1.156)

Oh yeah, he has a wife, doesn't he:

“This is why Victor requires …the cruel humiliation of his partner. He has long ago transcended the guilt that committing acts of cruelty might spawn in others...the exercise of raw power thrills him,” (1.244).

“I have given you a life…remember that. I have given you a life, and I will choose what you do with it,” (1.464).

Wives view of him:

“She owned literally hundreds of outfits. Having been created to his ideal measurements, Victor had purchased everything…She hoped that someday she would be allowed to shop for herself. When Victor allowed that, she would know she had at last met his standards and earned his trust. Briefly, she wondered what it would be like not to care what Victor—or anyone—thought of her. To be herself. Independent. Those were dangerous thoughts. She must repress them.” (1.107)

And those are just the PG bits, he does much, much worse.

In conclusion:

So yes, Spike Milligan made Victor a pathetic jerk, Casebook made Victor a madman, Memoirs made him an erotic predator, Dark Descent had him as an abusive boyfriend ruthless in possessing “his Elizabeth”, but nearly succeeding at worldwide genocide while abusing/murdering/manipulating people to achieve his goals makes Dean Koontz’s Victor Frankenstein the worse, more morally despicable Victor Frankenstein of them all. At least from what I’ve read.

Annnnd that’s it! If you want me to make a part 2 and add in the films/plays let me know! Hopefully at least one of these peeked your interest as something to check out during spooky season.

Shameless plug-in: here’s my own Frankenstein adaptation

Bonus!

Ranking the books on how much I liked them personally!

Great:

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein: Nice to see Victor’s villainy stem from family relations and not ego and wanting to defy God for a change.

Junji Ito’s Frankenstein: Phenomenal artwork, fairly faithful adaptation, and the changes serve to put Victor in a better light—which I love! The master of manga monsters himself made the right choice in keeping the creature more monstrous in this version instead of focusing on his humanity.

This Dark Endeavor: Frankenstein characters go on a Harry Potter styled adventure. Need I say more?

Average:

Such Wicked Intent: Victor’s character takes a dip, and pit monsters/life-absorbing butterflies don’t quite fit in a Frankenstein prequel.

Frankenstein According to Spike Milligan: It’s a silly, stupid comedy. Got a few chuckles out of me.

Pride and Prometheus: The concept works way better than it should. However, it follows the original text to a fault and can be boring at points.

Bad:

Warning: contains mentions of suicide

Monster: Victor’s character was far too inconsistent to be likable. He can talk to animals why, exactly?

Casebook of Victor Frankenstein: So, Victor is revealed to be crazy in the final 3 pages? So, the monster was in his head? Alright. But other characters throughout the book SAW the monster and described him like Victor did. So, there’s no way to separate Victor’s POV from reality and that kills the reread value and makes this a waste of time. Don’t get me wrong, the creature being symbolic for Victor’s inner demons is a fascinating direction if done well—and I recommend the essay “Frankenstein: The Man and the Monster” by Arthur Belefant if you want a much shorter exploration of this concept. It’s not perfect, but beats Casebook by a longshot!

Also, taking the real-life suicide of Percy’s wife Harriet and turning it into Victor murdering her and framing it on someone else to mimic Frankenstein’s Justine/William scene is just wrong. You made a woman’s suicide a cheap plot point in your fanfic of the mistress’s novel. That is what you did, author.

Dean Koontz Frankenstein: It starts out good and has great suspense—too bad the actual plot is awful. Victor’s so painfully evil it comes off as comical, the characters are bad/bland, plot holes abound (they state Mary Shelley’s novel is canon, then mention the windmill which was only in the films—so who even IS this Victor? Book or film?). The conclusion in book 3 is one of the most underwhelming finals I’ve ever read, and the creature “cures” a kid of Autism in the final chapter. No really. How this is a book series/comic series/movie is beyond me.

So atrocious I couldn’t bring myself to finish:

Warning: contains mentions of sexual themes

The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein: It claims to be pro-feminist, but the women “good guys” blatantly state they are grooming children for sexual rituals and Victor and Elizabeth are coerced into doing NSFW things by Victor’s mother in the name of “women’s rights”. Here’s the kicker: these awful actions are framed as being positive. I—a woman—loath this novel. Maybe things got better by the end (and if there was some plot twist that changed the entire setup, I apologize for ranting about nothing) but I’m not reading to that point to find out! This will forever stay both my first and last experience with erotic literature. Thank goodness The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein exists to give us a decent feminist take on Frankenstein!

#THIS TOOK OVER 5 YEARS AND I'M FINALLY DONE!#victor frankenstein #frankenstein #halloween #gothic literature #classic literature #frankenstein adaptations #frankenstien au #frankenstein memes #the casebook of victor frankenstein #the dark descent of elizabeth frankenstein #frankenstein according to spike milligan #dean koontz frankenstein #Monster neal bell #this dark endeavor #such wicked intent #pride and prometheus #charlemagne1

118 notes · View notes

teamseaslug · 3 years

Text

My review of Vanitas episode three (and a blurb about episode two) under the cut.

I didn’t write a proper review for episode two as I had found it a bit underwhelming with not much to comment on. The combining of the chapters didn’t bother me too much as I didn’t think too much significant was cut out, but I did have a few pointers that I had typed out after watching the second episode. They were as follows:

-the Louis scene felt completely off. The tone was different, and I think Noé's expression was off entirely and it felt not at all the same. It was also WAY too long. They cut small details out of this episode but made this scene unbelievably long. -They cut out Luca implying that Vanitas is being controlled by the book, which I think was strange. I know it's fluff but I think there might be a nugget of significance in that later. - why was Riche just STANDING THERE!!!!!!! I know I complained about characters not fucking moving with the first episode but it’s going to drive me insane. -They removed Riche’s dialogue :( -Jeanne was lovely. I understand them cutting out the scene with the muggers, that’s not important at all, but I always thought it was a cool scene. I’m content to part with it, though. -Noé nonchalantly knocking Vanitas back when Jeanne was attacking fucking killed both my SO and I, I wasn't expecting that at all and my SO seems to like watching Vanitas ragdoll -SLOW MOVEMENT STRIKES AGAIN the scene of Vanitas flinging open the doors and then being threatened. He literally stood there for 2 seconds before they attacked. Why was there a pause. Please. -They also cut out Vanitas using the flashbang that the Paladins use which, of all of my “they cut this out” nickpicks this is probably the most important, as this hints at the past of Vanitas- and is relevant if this anime will go to the Catacombs arc.

Those were my notes of the second episode, everything else will be about the third.

The third episode by far has been my least favorite episode, and let me initiate this by saying I *do* like Vanitas as a series and I’m not just here whining about it not being absolutely perfect. However, I am still going to engage with the adaptation of something that I like with a critical viewpoint that isn’t “well it’s better than the ph anime”. I should also mention that I watched this with my SO who has never read Vanitas and is sort of acting as a fresh take on things, an outsiders opinion.

The episode was about three chapters long and it noticeably felt a little choppy, as even the person I was watching the episode with mentioned that if there were just more details it could have been two episodes instead of one. It feels like the anime is rushing a bit, while at the same time the animation for the fight scenes or physicality is incredibly lacking and really distracting.

Jeanne, by far, was my favorite part. I think she was done pretty well and I don’t have much else to comment on it. Her voice acting was good, she looks good, I like the gauntlet. The scene between her and Vanitas gave me the same reaction as when I read the manga, which was the intent. I liked that they didn’t change the tone of that scene too much.

I had felt that in the manga Amelia felt more like a plot device and less like a character and in the anime it feels like she has that stamped all over her. She has no sort of individuality to her and might as well not exist, and I felt that way even more so when watching the charlatan scene.

The charlatan scene I think was probably the biggest disappointment, I was not fond of how it was handled at all. It was very lame, not at all creepy or eerie, and I think that adding to it more or making the animation more fluid instead of just a flat scene would’ve really heightened the experience because this is the first time the main character comes into some contact with one of the most important antagonists currently. I felt like more of an effort could have been made to make it feel impactful but it came across as still and flat, like the Junji Ito anthology adaptation anime. Yes it’s *correct* to the manga, but it’s not good to look at in an anime.

That’s one of my biggest complaints- it feels like the anime is trying to be almost too accurate to certain scenes but it isn’t utilizing any tools that make anime adaptations good and thus comes across as incredibly flat and still. It’s focusing so much on getting it frame perfect but it loses all of the charm and fun.

Dominique is another disappointment that I am hoping very desperately gets fixed. I’m obviously not the first person to point out that she looks very low quality. I had joked before that “Domi in the anime feels like she was made by people who don’t like Domi” but that almost feels true here. She was completely rushed, chopped up, never shown with any amount of detail despite being a frequent character. The :3 face she made was cute but they cut out her flirting, any of her charm seemed to be washed away.

I’m not gonna whine about how the women should be cuter in the anime but I do think they should be more charming? Domi is a flirt who flirts with women but that wasn’t included, Amelia’s cleavage was removed in ep1, Jeanne’s appearance is inconsistent with the manga in ep2, but we get plenty of shots of Vanitas looking cool or whatever and Noé being a bit sexualized. I’m not saying go full ecchi with fucking panty shots or whatever but it feels weirdly sexless in a way that’s completely lopsided, no girls allowed. The two male characters can be as much eyecandy as they want but by GOD none of the women. I like women! Are you going to cut out Naenia kissing Chloe, too?

At the rate this is going I’m concerned the entire masquerade will be a single episode, lmao.

I enjoyed the scene of Noé submerging to read Amelia’s thoughts, though the blood splatter was.... weird. Where did it go? Where was it... supposed to be?

The music still holds up, Altus looked good. I liked the detail of all of the bats. I was massively disappointed of Domi’s “I came because I was worried about you” was just an aside piece of dialogue but again, that can go with my complaint about how Dominique was handled. The anime took Vanitas’ “you’re just a convenient female” to heart, it feels like....

Also, the OP is now on Spotify and I like listening to it still. My SO, as a newcomer to the series, pointed out the pacing felt a bit rushed, all scenes with Murr were VERY cute, the gauntlet was incredibly cool, and they enjoyed the scene of Noé going into Amelia’s memories. They reacted with pretty big disgust to Vanitas which was expected in this episode and called him a bastard. It’s nice that’s still the same lmao

#the case study of vanitas #long post #sydney talking

6 notes · View notes

ram-reads · 4 years

Photo

It’s always enlightening when you realize how different genres are between cultures. While it’s common for horror in the United States to have a lot of violence and gore, classic Japanese horror is more subtle and it’s not uncommon for them to feature yokai (creatures from Japanese folklore). Manga Yokai Stories: Ghostly Tales from Japan is, like the name suggests, a collection of Japanese short stories focused on yokai. The stories are based off of Japanese stories collected by Lafcadio Hearn, a man who moved to Japan in the late 1890s. I’ve always enjoyed reading folktales and mythological stories from other countries because they are a fun way to learn more about a country's history and beliefs; this book was no different. While these stories are by no means a complete history of Japan they still gave me an inkling of what life was like for Japanese people back then. I believe I’ve read some of Lafcadio Hearn’s collected stories back in college, but I didn’t read many and I couldn’t tell you which (though I’m pretty sure I read “Nuke-kubi” which is featured in this collection because I kept on getting a strong sense of déjà vu as I was reading it). Because of this I can’t say whether this manga adaptation is true to his work, but I do feel like it would be hard to get short stories wrong. There are seven stories total and I enjoyed every single one. Not all of them I would classify as horror. The first two stories featured are more in line with the paranormal genre than the horror genre because, while they do feature nonhuman beings, the stories themselves aren’t creepy. Only three stories felt like they were horror, and even they were pretty tame. These are more so horror stories that are meant to leave you with a sense of unease instead of full blown terror. There isn’t even a lot of disturbing imagery, the worst it gets are a few decayed or decapitated bodies. Even though most of them did feature yokai there was one that confused me a bit as to why it was included. While I understand that yokai is a broad term that encompasses many creatures like ghosts, monsters, and gods the short story “Riki-baka” didn’t seem to feature any of these. I did enjoy the story — it was the shortest in the collection — but I just found it weird that it was included when there were probably many other stories to choose from that did have yokai. I would say my favorites are “Before the Supreme Court” and “Reconciliation”. I enjoyed the Japanese mythology that was present in “Before the Supreme Court” and also thought the resolution was clever. I found “Reconciliation” to be the most disturbing of the bunch and I thought the ending was fantastic. The artwork, which was done by a Japanese artist, was well done and really lent to the atmosphere of the time period. It gave me nineties manga vibes because it’s slightly more realistic in nature than a modern shoujo manga would be. Manga Yokai Stories: Ghostly Tales from Japan is a super quick read and I recommend it to anyone who likes Japanese folktales or horror. If you’re looking to branch out from Junji Ito maybe give this manga a try.

#manga review #manga reviews #book review #book reviews #horror manga #paranormal manga #manga yokai stories #lafcadio hearn #manga adaptations #2020 reads #my reviews

3 notes · View notes

deltaengineering · 5 years

Text

Fall Anime 2019 Part 4: also, he has a gun for a head

Beastars

So here’s the CG anime that everyone for some reason decided way in advance would be the best show of the season, more or less by default. I was very skeptical of this for a multitude of reasons. First of all, that is a bad name for a show and you can’t convince me otherwise. It’s actually even worse because you’re supposed to write it in all caps, but I refuse. Second, it has a terribly on the nose conceit in which all sorts of animals live together in a high school setting and it’s all metaphorical ‘n shit. The main character is a wolf but get this, he’s actually all sensitive and quiet! Yeah, this is definitely rated D for Deep. And finally it’s by Orange, the CG studio that got an inordinate amount of acclaim for making Houseki no Kuni, the show that everyone thinks looks great and finally made CG anime worthwhile (actual real fact: HnK does not look great most of the time and CG anime was worthwhile well before it).

But enough about my preconceptions since Beastars is... pretty good, actually. If you ignore the setting, which is indeed terribly on the nose. And there’s not much else to say about the story so far besides it. However, it looks significantly better than Houseki no Kuni because it actually has really good character animation throughout instead of a one-minute action scene with flashy spinny camera tricks every other episode. The directing’s strong too, even if the show conspicuously mainly consists of obvious manga panels. I’m still not too hot on the animal stuff but the general writing seems to be sufficiently competent it would work simply on a character level. So I don’t love it, but it seems solid enough to see if it goes somewhere with its “Zootopia but also Beverly Hills 90210 but also they eat each other sometimes″ plot.

Rifle is Beautiful

Remember the whole “anime about some assorted anime girls joining a club doing an oddly specific activity” thing? This is another one of those, and now it’s about air rifle sports shooting. Except it’s not about air rifle sports shooting because that’s apparently way too violent, so they use rifles that look like exactly like air rifles but are actually based on lasers or really bright flashlights (they can’t keep their bullshit straight between scenes, sorry) instead. I just don’t think “girls doing activities” anime should blatantly misrepresent their subject matter like that, you know? With the possible exception of idol anime that is, ain’t nobody who wants to hear about that shit. Apart from that it’s nothing special, so if you are really into air rifles and wish to watch an anime that’s not about those, knock yourself out. It goes through a whole “club needs 5 members” arc in the first half of the first episode, so I really can’t say where it goes next. Nowhere much, I would guess.

Oh right, there’s one more thing: They frequently render the bodies in CG and the heads in traditional drawings, and they do it every time when they’d actually have to draw a rifle otherwise. It’s a weird effect that I think I haven’t seen anywhere else before, and it’s not great but also not terrible. And it’s the most interesting thing about the entire show.

Kabukicho Sherlock

“Let’s take a bunch of public domain characters and put them into a hip modern setting” seems to be its own genre at the moment, and not only because the BBC did that with S. Holmes, Esq. already. Obviously this show is influenced by that (besides other public domain namedroppers like Bungou Stray Dogs), mostly in Watson and his relationship with Sherlock, but Sherlock-san is rather different here; he’s neither the classic Victorian bohemian nor the abrasive sociopath of the BBC version, and tends more towards a bumbling 90s pop culture version of autism and/or general wackiness here. These two are surrounded by a bunch of campy transvestites for some reason, and I’m not quite sure whether I’m supposed to find this particular stereotype offensive or empowering this week, but it sure is annoying. And it has the same character designer as Joker Game, so if you like chiseled, angular anime men, you’re in for a treat here - even if they tend to wear a lot of makeup and dresses sometimes. I don’t know man, it seems sort of okay-ish for the most part but it’s neither as funny as they think, nor as weird as they think, nor is the murder of the week intriguing at all. Oh yeah, he’s hunting noted public domain character Jack the Ripper. Because of course he is.

Shin Chuuka Ichiban!

I am told this is the sequel to episode 19 of a 52-episode anime TV show from 1997. Okay. I am also told to not dare watch this without the important setup therein, which makes me think I should pay less attention to what I’m told because understanding Shin Chuuka Ichiban and its backstory is not hard at all. Kid is superawesome cooking champion in ancient China and goes around clowning on lesser cooks, got it. It’s not a complicated setup and it’s not a complicated genre either: This seems to be mostly about sick shounen cooking duels. Besides the setting, the main difference between this and Shokugeki no Soma seems to be that SnS goes for ridiculous and Chuuka Ichiban goes for epic - which is to say that it fancies itself emotional as well. Apart from that it’s what you’d expect from a cooking shounen, big moves, big reactions, huge twists and so on. One notable thing is that this show looks really, really nice. Production I.G seems to be establishing a sideline in taking stuff from the 90s and updating it with smoother animation and shinier lighting, while keeping the overall look intact; They did it for Mahoujin Guru Guru, and this looks much the same. Still, I’m just fundamentally not really interested in what appears to be a very straightforward cooking shounen from the 90s.

Assassins Pride

Straight from the Department of Chuuni, we have this light novel masterpiece about a cool as fuck teenage assassin who teleports behind u and nothin personells fools all day. He then meets a princess he’s supposed to off but just kinda decides not to, probably because she seems to be smitten by his m’lady act. Now he has to use his sick skillz to keep them both alive. It’s awful and terrible and no good and also kind of adorable. This truly is the most 13 AND A HALF MOM years old anime in a while, and it’s not even isekai! The writing’s just so amateurish and corny you can’t help but smile when princesses exposit their backstory for no reason while being accosted by pumpkin monsters (without knowing that Awessassin McCooldude happens to be listening in, which is certainly convenient). Or when the episode ends with the man just reading the synopsis of the show out again, in case you were too fascinated by this plot to pay attention to what it’s about. Yeah I’m not going to watch this in a thousand years, but it sure made me chuckle. Your mileage may vary.

Mugen no Juunin - Immortal

Speaking of 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔢𝔡𝔤𝔢, another anime adaptation of Blade of the Immortal appeared! You know, the manga for the cultured and historically minded guro fan. The first episode of Blade of the Immortal runs with this and is an arthouse production that someone most definitely directed the shit out of. I don’t think I’ve seen this much directing since, well, Sarazanmai, but “Ikuhara amounts of directing” is pretty much the idea here. And most of the time it even works! The quickly edited, disorienting style gives episode 1 a feeling closer to horror than to a cool swordmen action show, and that really brings out the best in the material, which is grotesque splatter bordering on the comical - It’s somehow a better Junji Ito anime than the actual Junji Ito anime. I think it tries too hard in a few places, but at least it does try.

But then I watched the second episode and that one’s a fairly conventional splatter-comedy swordin’ anime. I am not at all pleased with this development. The third episode was better again and seemed to split the difference between 1 and 2, even if it mostly uses the tricky editing to save on effort in the action – I would much prefer actually readable fights and the wacky mannerisms in the more psychological stuff, thank you very much. Based on episode 1 I thought we might have something special here, but as of episode 3 I’d already merely call it pretty decent. I guess I’ll still stick with it but man, that’s a real bummer.

No Guns Life

No Guns Life is a neo-noir thriller about a guy who has a gun for a head. That’s fuckin rad and exactly the kind of silliness I am totally down for. He also has a gun for a hand, and there’s also some battle nun’s who carry revolvers with two cylinders, so in short I think the title is false advertising. This sounds very wacky (and it is), but it also takes its noir very seriously, down to details more wannabe neo-noirs tend to neglect (like being set right after a big war). The look and feel is pretty excellent, with sharp design and high-contrast artwork, and the music goes all in on the moody saxophone as you’d expect. And there’s some really adorable “look mom, I’m writing” stuff about how Man With Gun For A Head really “needs someone to pull his trigger” and so on (which is, as the astute reader might remember, at the back of his head). It feels like a throwback but then I can’t really think of many 80s/90s shows like this, so it’s actually more like the sort of faux-retro idea Trigger/Imaishi would come up with on a lark. Trigger/Imaishi would, of course, make a far worse anime out of it, so it’s all good. Well, it has some pacing problems and as always it’s a fine line between amusingly camp and not so amusingly camp anymore, but No Guns Life seems to have enough real qualities that it can probably stand on its own even when its conceptual gimmick eventually doesn’t suffice anymore. I give it a two gun’s up.

Hoshiai no Sora / Stars Align

And finally, here’s an anime about middle schooler softboys playing a tennis just as soft as themselves, while being henpecked by the elites on the girl’s team. This is not an “actual” sports anime though: for starters, it’s not based on some shounen manga and is an anime original with quite some staff pedigree instead. It’s also more of a character drama that already goes to some surprisingly real places by the end of episode 1, reminiscent of the recent and quite good Run with the Wind. Furthermore, it looks delicious, with minimalist but distinctive and varied character designs and animation that’s both extremely detailed for a TV anime and also not trying to shove that fact into your face with flashy stunt cuts. In short, this show seems very simple at first glance but every aspect of it just oozes quality. If nothing else, it’s already worth watching just for the excellent ending sequence where the characters show off their “best” dance moves and the chunky student council president dunks on everyone. This one caught me by surprise and it’s an easy pick for most promising show of the season.

#anime #impressions #Beastars #Rifle is Beautiful #Kabukicho Sherlock #Shin Chuuka Ichiban!#Assassins Pride #Mugen no Juunin - Immortal #No Guns Life #Hoshiai no Sora #stars align

63 notes · View notes

junji-info · 5 years

Photo

More from Minovsky’s Twitter on Junji Ito’s visit to TCAF 2019:

“Junji Ito: ‘Sleep is very important. Everyone get enough sleep. Many manga artists die young and it’s because they don’t sleep. Your best ideas will come to you when you’re sleeping. Please everyone get some sleep.‘”

“For awhile Junji Ito thought he would be able to balance a career as a dental technician and a manga artist at the same time. He had an understanding boss who adjusted his schedule, but he had stopped consistently sleeping and eating and lost 50 kilograms to keep up.”

“Junji Ito: ‘I’m 55, so the horror I enjoy is classic horror with a dreamy feel.’ The horror that pains him are real life tragedies like ‘terrorism and holocausts.’“

“Junji Ito [was] asked if his wife gives feedback on his stories: ‘Yes. I wouldn’t say that she knows a lot about horror, but she has a very good sense of what horror is.’“

“Junji Ito prefers short stories because he still doesn’t feel he totally knows how to write long form. If possible, he would only do shorts. With long form stories like ‘Hellstar Remina’, he once story-boarded everything before he drew a page. Now he goes ‘wherever the wind blows.’”

“Junji Ito still has a lot of anxiety about how a story will end up.“

“‘Did working as a dental assistant influence your tendency toward body horror?’ Ito laughs.”

“Junji Ito did not realize that people considered his work to be body horror until he read his own Wikipedia page. ‘Yeah, I guess that fits.’“

“While taking anatomy classes in college, Junji Ito considered the human heart to be the scariest thing in the world. The most useful thing he learned as a dental technician was how to modify his artistic tools to make it easier for him to draw like he did with his dental tools.”

“Junji Ito was primarily published in a horror magazine aimed at girls, ‘Halloween’. He would study fashion magazines to use as reference. This character [Fuchi, from “Fashion Model”] was inspired by a striking model he’d seen once that made him pause. ‘She has a fearsome power to get work.’“

“What does environmental horror mean to Junji Ito? ‘I’ve lived for 55 years now. It is clear that climate change is happening. Will we end up like Mars?’“

“Where ‘Gyo’ came from: ‘Sharks are scary. If they came onto land, they would be very scary.’“

“Junji Ito on writing comedic horror: ‘I write down every idea. Sometimes I write down little jokes. It would be a shame not to use them. I like to use comedy as a breather in-between scares. I say that, but I just want to write little jokes.’“

“Junji Ito loves, loves, loves Kazuo Umezu so much.”

“’My wife is scary. Please don’t tell her that. We share a lot of interests, we find the same things scary, there’s a lot of overlap between us.’“

“What scares Junji Ito has changed as he gets older. ‘I used to be scared of other people’s gazes. As I get older the world seems narrower. I’m still scared of cockroaches and things like that.’“

“Does having children change his perspective as a horror creator? ‘It hasn’t made my work kinder or softer. I have to take my kids to cram school and things like that, so I can’t dive as deeply into my work as I used to.’ He jokes, ‘I kind of wish they’d hurry up and grow up.’“

“’What is the scariest thing that ever happened to you in your life?’ Junji Ito: When I was a kid, I was walking with my aunt. There was a dirty old guy walking nearby. My aunt said to me “run” and it scared me a lot. We ran away. He didn’t chase after us or anything.”

“’You’re drawing today with a pen and nib, but is true that you work more digitally now?’ Junji Ito: ‘I’m fully digital these days. Drawing on paper is still much more fun for me.’ He transitioned to digital because the process is so much easier than dealing with screen-tone.”

“’In your work, cats never seem to come to any harm. Why is that?’ Junji Ito: ‘I’ve never actually thought about that. It’s a coincidence. Maybe it is because I don’t want any harm to come to my own cats.’”

“Junji Ito was asked about which of his own stories are his favorites. He answered ‘Amigara Fault’ to loud applause. ‘Hanging Blimp’ and ‘Long Dream’ are also favorites.”

“Junji Ito’s favorite horror films are ‘The Exorcist’, ‘Suspiria’, and classic ‘Hammer Horror’ productions. He first saw ‘The Exorcist’ on TV in sixth grade.”

And finally, “Junji Ito adapted Osamu Dazai’s ‘No Longer Human’ because he was to be published in a magazine for middle aged men. He needed a source material different than what flies in the shoujo magazines he is usually hired to work in, and knew Dazai appealed to an older male demographic.”

203 notes · View notes