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This blog is a storage space for various thoughts, observations and musings centering on shōjo manga (少女漫画, Japanese comics for girls), josei-oriented manga (Japanese comics for women) and manga created by women (in the widest sense). Topics from other fields of relevance, such as music, art, literature and film may be discussed here as well.

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For the most part, Japanese names appear in their original order - surname first, followed by the given name.

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Viewing all posts in category: Various



Murakami Ryu & Anime: The nomenclature of EVA plus Anno Hideaki, EurekA

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 doppelgänger – 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 Horaki Kouichi (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).

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 Ryu’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, the geekiness!

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Categories: Anime, Books/Literature/Writing, Film/TV, Japanese Literature, Various.
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Posted on Dec 21, 2007 (Fri, 5:47 pm). .

Jyu Oh Sei

I had a tiny bit of time to watch anime which means I 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;)

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Categories: Anime, Film/TV, Various.
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Posted on Sep 14, 2007 (Fri, 8:00 pm). .

Autofiction

The English translation of Kanehara Hitomi’s novel Autofiction is going to come out in just a few days through Vintage UK. I’ve already preordered my copy :) To celebrate the occasion I spent this afternoon re-reading her debut, Snakes & Earrings (which I’ve sort-of-reviewed here). This time I found it so much easier to relate to the three main characters and found the writing a lot more reflective than the first time. I think it has a lot to do with gained personal experience, my current mind set etc. And with that, my hopes for enjoying Autofiction just as much are extremely high.

Just by skimming through the reviews on Amazon Japan it becomes pretty clear that lots of readers seem to have difficulties with categorizing Kanehara’s writing. Is it pure literature? Is it entertainment meant to shock and sell? Is it literature at all or just plain trash? I’m not a friend of categorizations at all. Different pieces of art/culture/literature appeal to different people, you can love something and relate to it and feel that it reflects your own way of life and thinking, or you simply don’t. Kanehara’s stories truly aren’t made for a wide range of readers. (Though at least her debut was a huge commercial success after it received the Akutagawa Prize.) Only a small fraction of people probably can fully relate to her characters because not everybody is trying to find alternative ways of living or to take things to extremes. It is a kind of “alternative” literature that’s very controversial but definitely deserves to be called literature. (And that shocking, provocative nuance of her works definitely isn’t new to Japanese literature anyway, think Akutagawa, Tanizaki, Dazai Osamu, Murakami Ryuu etc.)

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Categories: Books/Literature/Writing, Japanese Literature, Various.
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Posted on Apr 29, 2007 (Sun, 4:01 pm). .




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