Well look, another summer’s almost over and I’ve still not fully recovered from my bad case of blogging fatigue caused by writing too much in other places. But today I come here with something slightly more substantial than nothing, something which doesn’t even require that many words.
Of course I can’t stray too far from the area that has pretty much taken over my real life – literature. Hence this post shall be a TV pop culture meets literature sort of collection:

1. American Writers on Gossip Girl: A Deadly Adventure?

Last September, Gossip Girl came back with its second season in which Dan Humphrey landed himself an internship with a famous writer played by none other than Jay McInerney. How fitting for all parties involved!

But then a few months later, I started to have doubts about what exactly fate might have in store for writers who appear on that show, even just indirectly. Because in “You’ve Got Yale!”, episode 16 of season 2, our budding writer Dan Humphrey could be spooted reading an old paperback of John Updike’s Rabbit Redux in a trendy coffee house.

Now, in any other case I would have said ‘Congratulations, great product placement!’ or rolled my eyes and thought ‘OK, Humphrey’s the quiet, intellectual guy of the show, I get it (only he’s not)!’. But this whole thing seemed completely bizarre because this very episode was aired on January 19, 2009 and only a little more than a week later, on January 27, John Updike died…! When I heard the news of Updike’s death, that image of Humphrey holding Updike’s novel in his hands flashed up in my mind and I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s really safe for a writer to be featured on Gossip Girl… (Insert thoughtful silence here.)

2. Murakami, Murakami everywhere

Look who was scheduled for an operation at Seattle Grace in episode 18 of season 5 of Grey’s Anatomy (airing date March 19, 2009):

Richard Powers? And Murakami Haruki? Seems like the set designers were getting a little too carried away with their love for certain writers… Or maybe there is no such thing? Anyway, I sincerely hope the operation was a success and they sewed up Haruki properly again!

Speaking of my favourite portrayer of the Sheep Man:
I saw the anime movie Kumo no mukou, yakusoku no basho (The Place Promised in our Early Days) the other day and while I was watching it I couldn’t help but notice certain similarities to Murakami Haruki’s works – the atmosphere, the parallel reality issue, the tower, the way the protagonist expressed himself in the monologues etc. Afterwards I saw the interview with the director Shinkai Makoto that was included on the DVD, which was shot in a place that looked like his work office. There were two screens in the background which showed important scenes and background designs for the film and then yes, I noticed in stack of two books drawn for the film one book I actually own:

The blue book at the bottom is the Japanese hardcover edition of the first volume of Murakami Haruki’s Umibe no Kafuka/Kafka on the Shore complete with its obi and everything. I’m not sure if the image of the two books was used directly in the movie itself at some point because I’ve watched it only once so far and saw the interview afterwards, but expressing your love for literature and your favourite authors in every possible way, across all media, is simply admirable and obviously a pleasure for everyone involved ;)

During my research on Murakami Ryu I realized that Murakami’s been observing both mass culture & subculture phenomena from an almost outsider’s point of view while at the same time he himself is part of this mass media monster, this huge machinery (with both positive and negative qualities) in which everyone seems to be influenced by everyone in their output and instantly influences others the second they publish their ‘product’/output. As controversial as his thoughts and works might be, Murakami has already influenced a flock of younger writers, some of which have paid homage to his works through tiny details in their own works. As an example for that, here are a few connections between Murakami and anime:

1, The naming of a handful of (minor) characters from Eva was apparently inspired by character names from Murakami’s novel Ai to Gensou no Fashizumu (1987) as Anno Hideaki, the director of the anime, later wrote in an essay.

For example, there’s Suzuhara Touji (鈴原トウジ) whose name was “borrowed” from the protagonist of Fashizumu, Suzuhara Touji (鈴原冬二). His friend Aida Kensuke (相田ケンスケ) also has a doppelganger – by name, at least – in the novel (相田剣介). The surname of their friend Hikari, Horaki (洞木), is used in the novel for a male character called 洞木紘一.
One person appearing in the novel called Yamagishi Ryouji (山岸良治) might have been a source of inspiration in the naming of Kaji Ryouji ( 加持リョウジ) and Yamagishi Mayumi (山岸マユミ), the female main character from the Sega Saturn game Evangelion 2nd Impression, though Anno said the ‘Ryouji’ came from a character in a Narita Minako manga, so who knows… There’s also a bunch of very minor characters whose names can also be found in Murakami’s novel, like Tokita Shirou (時田シロウ; inspired by Tokita Shirou（時田史郎）in the novel), and Manda (万田), Yasugi (八杉) etc.

The Murakami/Anno connection continues. In 1998 Anno Hideaki made his non-anime directorial debut when he had the chance to adapt Love&Pop, Murakami’s short novel about enjo kousai which was published in 1996, for the big screen.

2, And then there’s Eureka seveN (2005), the current generation’s Evangelion, which I admittedly quite enjoyed, though not nearly as much as Eva. It was written by the highly celebrated screenwriter Satou Dai, who also wrote (episodes of) other brilliant anime series such as Cowboy Bebop, Wolf’s Rain, Ergo Proxy and Terra e…, to name just a few. He apparently made a cross-reference to Anemone, the female protagonist in Murakami’s Coin Locker Babies (1980) by naming the pink-haired Anemone, the oh-so-tormented pilot of the Nirvash LFO TheEND, after her. In the book, Anemone has an alligator called Gulliver and in the anime, Anemone’s pet is this weird mixture of a duck, a sheep and something indefinable that is called Gulliver, too.

Oh geekiness!

Done with the website project, finished one paper – one more 10-pager left! Ah, I wish I had a bit more time for myself… I’ve also been doing some translations so I can at least pretend to be preparing for the JLPT.

Anyway, I had a tiny bit of time to watch anime which means I’ve finally managed to finish Jyu Oh Sei! *applauds* Last year, my crappy old laptop’s CPU wouldn’t allow me to play the files so I’m really late with this one… But, it was worth the wait, at least partly. Watching the manga of one of your favourite artists (Itsuki Natsumi, in this case) come to life is always a great experience so I did enjoy Jyu Oh Sei when it comes to seeing those characters animated and hearing them talk and everything. The settings, BGM and colour schemes perfectly matched and created this really great bleak atmosphere. The animation itself was done really well (it’s an OVA anyway). The one aspect that really disappointed me was the pacing of the plot, though. Sometimes the narration would drag, whereas at other times they were obviously trying to put too much into one episode… It’s a shame really, because the whole series with all its interesting themes (cloning, gender roles/expectations etc.) suffered so much because of it!

But the one thing that made me cringe the most was that Saado’s/Third’s voice actor was Oguri Shun. He has this really distinctive, husky voice so that every time Saado was talking, that mental image of Oguri Shun in that white host-y suit he’s wearing in Hana yori dango (the complete opposite of what Saado looks like) kept popping up in my head.

vs.  

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the early 90s feel of the show which made me feel quite a bit nostalgic… (And for some bizarre reason, it made me want to watch Zetsuai and Bronze, not because of any BL hints of course o_O;)

Damn, I need to finish my 12-page paper before it finishes me off for ever. Damn you, Meiji peasant rebellions.

That was enough cursing for a pure young girl like me. Yes! I’ve temporarily left Berlin to be able to concentrate better on my paper but did it work? No, very obviously not. I’ll be back in the city for Popkomm, though! So many cool bands to see! Seachange is going to play in a club right across from where my new apartment is. Oh the joy. I might run over in my pajamas. Or not. (Not that I even own a pair of pajamas.)

Moving to the new apartment was a physically quite demanding job because it included getting all my furniture and belongings from my old third floor apartment into the car and then back up into our new fourth floor apartment. But I haven’t regretted moving in with my friend one bit because I hated living on my own, it made me feel almost suicidally lonesome sometimes, it wasn’t funny anymore. And now I live in just about the most interesting, most inspiring neighbourhood imaginable. Describing it would mean having to resort to all the usual clichés about Prenzelberg (wiki German, wiki English), and they’re all true but they fit me wonderfully so I don’t care.

Hm, I don’t know but I feel like seeing some band but the only band I’d be remotely interested in that’s playing in the city would be The Automatic next Monday. It would be just right, though, in one way because I had Raoul playing in my head when we went to look at the apartment for the first time and it was such a brilliant day and then we even got the apartment…

But for the moment, I’m just enjoying being back with my family and all the boredom that comes with it. (Wait, I shouldn’t say I’m bored because then I might as well go back to writing my paper!) I’ll try and finish watching Eureka seveN, only twenty-something episodes to go -_- No but seriously, I’m glad I’ve kept watching it this far. Around episode 30, it had that enlightening, extremely rewarding moment when all the very very veeerrryyy slow character and plot development paid off because it really made you feel like you came all this long way with the characters. It’s hard to explain, it’s just something personal I suppose.

My almost 2-year struggle for finding the right MP3 player is slowly reaching it’s last stages. Which means – I’m just as indecisive as ever -_-;; But I’ll really need one once the semester’s started again because the train rides to uni will be super long since our new apartment’s pretty much on the other side of the city. I might take the newspaper with me on the train, or a book or some manga, and it might keep me occupied in the afternoons/evenings on the way home; but I surely won’t be able to read in the morning on the train to uni as it makes me even more tired so I just need something to keep me cozy and awake and music softly playing from an MP3 player could do just that :) I need to stop babbling, it makes me sound like an idiot.

I’m reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never let me go at the moment and it has to be one of the most precious books I’ve ever read. It’s indescribably beautiful and filled with so many details, scenes of human interaction and dialogues written in such a warm, realistic way it’s sometimes painful, and there’s a protagonist I can identify myself with so well, I know it’s going to be hard to finish reading the book. I know it because I’ve been putting off reading the last 50 pages or so for a couple of days now. I just don’t want it to end even though it’s been so melancholic and heart-breaking and even terrifying in a very subtle way…

This is such a great season for shoujo anime fans! The TV anime adaptation of Ouran Koukou Host-bu is excellent, I like it a lot more than the manga (which I thought was rather boring when I was still reading LaLa) because it’s so explosively fast-paced and funny. And colourful and heart-warming. Aww. I’m usually not that fond of comedy but this I like, yes.

And Bokura ga ita! One of the few Betsucomi manga I like. So far I’ve only seen the first episode of the anime adaptation but it seemed pretty well done.

There’s NANA, of course, which I’m still following, of course, because the anime doesn’t disappoint at all, of course. The runner-up for this year’s most hyped shoujo title must be Nakahara Aya’s Lovely Complex because of its movie adaptation. I hope I’ll get to see the film soon (most definitely when the DVD comes out), for now I’ll have to be content with the cool furoku in Betsuma *_*
(And then there’s also the HachiKuro TV anime II and the HachiKuro movie. Great year for Shueisha, ha.)

I’ve also been watching Jyuohsei, the adaptation of the same-titled manga by one of my personal mangaka goddesses Itsuki Natsumi (♥).

And then from autumn on, there’ll be TV anime adaptations of Kin’iro no Corda (another bishounen title running in LaLa, I’ll only get to see it if I survive the cuteness and sheer silliness of Ouran Koukou!!) and Yamada Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (which I, admittedly, don’t like all that much as a manga).

Speaking of the latter: one of my favourite Betsufure series, Life by Suenobu Keiko, received the Kodansha Manga Award. So happy!! I felt even more glad when I read some of the members of the jury’s notes explaining they’d voted for Kawahara Kazune’s Koukou Debut and that it was a tight decision between those two titles in the shoujo category. I was a huge fan of Kawahara’s Sensei! but Koukou Debut turned out to be such a huge disappointment to me that I’m sort of twice as glad Life got the award ^^; But no really, Life’s such a brilliant series. It embodies so much of ‘classic’ shoujo, the drama, the emotions, the style, I’m glad it’s been getting all this recognition!

OMG, semester break. I’d be all hyper and jumping all over the place with joy if only the massive heat wasn’t getting me down so much. Consider me one giant sweatdrop.

But yes, semester break. I shall get back to my habits of getting up late, watching anime and dorama, reading (oh yes!) and going out till early in the morning. Getting up late was what I did today, anime and dorama will be watched in a few minutes, as soon as I finish this. I have so much to catch up with: Mushishi, Eureka SeveN, Ergo Proxy, .hack//Roots, Ai no uta. I’m pretty much stuck in the middle of almost all of them. Then I’ll need to find out what the summer season has brought us anime viewers. Ah, so nice to back to doing nothing particularly productive :)

…Even if it’s just for a short while. I’ll be moving to a larger, nicer apartment with a friend at the beginning of August and I also have one report to write and a few smaller things to get done for school. I’m quite happy with my academic progress and I think I did pretty well on all the semester finals.

June was my favourite month of this year so far. The World Cup was absolutely brilliant, the city was brimming with people, the atmosphere was just amazing. I also saw the Arctic Monkeys on June 24. It was only so-so, the monkey boys were late and drunk and their performance seemed quite uninspired but loads of fun was had nevertheless. We even missed the second half of the Germany-Sweden game to get to the venue. Oh well. My World Cup experience pretty much ended on July 1, when England lost to Portugal. I was with Germany from then on but they didn’t survive much longer either. *sighs*

I’ll probably be uploading new songs tonight. Expect updates on a more regular basis from now on. Oh yes, I’ll be back whenever boredom strikes ;)

The new anime season started off for me with NANA, which was also my personal most anticipated new series for spring ‘06. This being the adaptation of one of my favourite shoujo manga, my expectations were extremely high.

The animation is being done be Studio MADHOUSE, who did a great job at Paradise Kiss, another adaptation of a Yazawa Ai manga, in the second half of last year.

And they did not disappoint me with NANA. Luckily, the first episode proved that the TV anime is not a pannel to frame adaptation but takes a bit of artistic freedom here and there by leaving things out, adding short scenes and showing scenes from a different angle than in the manga, so it doesn’t give the avid NANA manga reader the feeling they’ve “seen” it all before.
(Which is what happened to me with the NANA movie last year where some scenes seemed all too familiar, especially the scene on the train, the two Nanas’ first meeting, because it used the same angles as the manga and seemed to follow it pannel by pannel.)

The character design of the anime is good, but by no means as cute or beautiful as in the manga. Especially the profiles tend towards the ugly side of things, and a lot of times the full body proportions seem too stretched, even for a shoujo series.

The animation itself is quite decent, including the CG sequences which blend in rather well with the traditionally created scenes.

The music fits pretty well; the opening theme by Tsuchiya Anna and the ending theme by Olivia set the mood for the respective bands and these two vocalists symbolize the fact that NANA (like the original manga itself) is not about authentic (indie) rock or punk but just their mainstream versions (or how the mainstream perceives these genres).

What I’ve noticed after the first 5 minutes already, is that the TV adaptation relies heavily on comedy scenes, more than the manga. The background music (which sometimes reminded me of BGM to be heard during a circus show) emphasized that effect. There were more melancholic and quieter scenes but they definitely were fewer (and shorter) than those slapstick comedy scenes.

I am satisfied with the way they condensed the story, though Hachi/Nana doesn’t quite come off as the bad girl she really is as they left out a lot of her past (her affair with the married man etc.) but this was only the first episode and they might fit in bits of the background story at some later point.

The first episode aired late this past Wednesday so naturally, there aren’t any fansubs out yet. However, if your knowledge of (modern, everyday) Japanese is at a medium degree, you’ll be able to follow the dialogue pretty well. And if you’ve read the manga in Japanese (like me), you won’t face any difficulties at all because all the lines have been used in the manga and you won’t hear anything new.

Ah, I almost forgot: the voice acting! I love Oosaki Nana’s voice *_* Last year, I took really long to get used to Nakashima Mika’s voice who played Nana in the movie adaptation. Her voice sometimes seemed a bit too weak. Not with Paku Romi, the voice actress of the animated Nana :) She has this ultra deep, manly voice which is how I imagine it when reading the manga. And it’s when she speaks softlier that she sounds irresistibly sexy! So far, I really really like her. Hachi’s voice is alright and there’s nothing to be said about the rest of the cast because besides Shouji and Junko, no other main characters have appeared yet. Can’t wait for next week’s episode~

Here are some screencaps: