Stuff: the post about anything

[azurite]

Another successful day in the city. This was another shopping day with "the gals," this time with Crystal, Eva, and Steph; yesterday was Steph and Mom; the day before that was Rochelle, and I've had a great time on all days. With Rochelle, we covered downtown and Stonestown; with Steph, downtown, and with the girls today, Stonestown and Serramonte. In all cases, I was pretty much out all day, except with Steph, because I supposedly had to be back home for an East Bay dinner with Gary's daughter and grandson... but that fell through due to traffic. In fact, we were supposed to make up for it today by going shopping in Berkeley, but THAT fell through, too. But I was glad to go shopping with the girls-- I got Mom's gift (technically a 2-part gift from Baba & Grandpa, because they have me money to buy her something with), had a nice shrimp primavera at Olive Garden (which my stomach is now apparently revolting against and GAWD I HATE MY ORGANS SOMETIMES), and got myself a cheap "Family Fun" DVD edition of "Anastasia," one of my favorite animated movies of all time. The weird thing is, there were two different kinds of box art, but there was NO REASON for it. One wasn't a special/limited edition, one wasn't widescreen vs. full screen... it was just two different box arts, one which was weird (Anastasia looked like Celine Dion) and one was normal (Anastasia looked like she did in the movie), so I got the second one.

As for other presents (for most people besides Mom, Gary, Dad, Scott, and Special Random Someone), by the looks of things, it'll be "time well spent" and "cookies." I bought M&Ms for my special Spritz cookies that have been a tradition for years now, though I'm sure there have been some years when it wasn't always done. Tomorrow's mini-golf in the evening, so if I get the last of "my" shopping (I kinda want this coat that's at H&M downtown) done, I can bake the cookies in time to meet the girls before we go to MGL.

I've already gotten a few gifts my way, too: Mom got me the iHome dock I wanted, which lets me charge my iPod, play music from it on a nice speaker system, listen to both AM and FM radio, and use any of the sources (radio, iPod, or line-in device like CD/Cassette player) as an alarm. Very nifty. But what ruined the fun is that she was genuinely serious that she had NO CLUE what to get me for Christmas, and she kept asking me and asking me and it was awkward! I never want to feel like I'm selfish and just WANT WANT WANT... I tried to think of something I need, so the first thing I named was that coat, but Mom was already super-stressed from work when she tried to go to H&M to find it, and she had no luck. :( I feel bad for having made her do that. She felt obligated to get me something, but hates shopping downtown in crowds, especially in the holiday season.

This season moreso than a lot of others, she seems like a real Grinch, and it makes me sad. I hate to say it, but she hasn't been much fun to be around. I know she's very stressed from work and a bit sick... so I hope she'll rest and think of this as a vacation and time to rest, not time to do things (even though there ARE things to do... like, oh, clean up the living room, which is packed with the dining room's furniture, countless boxes, bikes, etc. and therefore has no room for a stocking, let alone a Christmas tree).

Yeah, we're late in all we do-- at least when it comes to the holidays.

What else? Still haven't gotten my Chase check or any word from my school, according to Baba. Chase last contacted me and said that they were waiting for some sort of certification from my school before they could disburse the money. Well, they probably tried to contact the school as it closed, and my money is "on hold" until 1/2, at least. Technically not a big deal, since the WII representative I've been with isn't back in the office till then, either BUT that obviously presents a problem with:
a) tickets to SF for Macworld (which I can technically only go to if I go to Washington because I have the loan money from Chase)
b) getting tickets to D.C. in the first place, because it's SO LAST MINUTE!

Plus, Bowen didn't get back to me on Monday like she said I would, so I have NO idea about the academic credit! While technically stuff like that CAN be arranged after the semester, that's only what happened for study abroad-- I think for this to count, I NEED to do it beforehand, because I need it to count for an internship AND an independent study. I just hope Bowen's back on campus or at least checking her CSUN email starting 1/2...

I hate relying on just one person to get things done.

So yesterday I swung by the Borders in Stonestown (of course; Borders anywhere is like my second home), and I happened to glance at the latest volume of Dramacon, from Tokyopop.

Now, let me preface this with a few things: Dramacon is not done by a Japanese author or artist. But I struggle to find an appropriate word to call it if it's not "manga."

See, here's my conundrum: in Vol. 2, a bratty kid causes a bit of mayhem in the artist's gallery of the con (obviously, with a title like "Dramacon," the action takes place at an anime convention; I'm hoping you didn't REALLY need that explanation, though) when he yells that a particular artist's creation isn't manga. The girl looking at the doujinshi she's penned is confused: she insists it is; "See, chibis!"

Anyway, the kid ends up getting dragged off by his mother, who is embarrassed that her child is apparently racist, saying that manga is a Japanese creation, and therefore, if you're (the creator, that is) not Japanese, it's not manga.

Well, for a long time, I kind of agreed with the brat, so reading that shook me up a bit. I don't think I'm racist, and in fact, try very hard to make sure I'm understanding of other people-- as best I can be, at any rate.

But I do stand firm (for now) on a few things:
Anime means animated. You can't have a "prose" anime. (There was some nitwit in beta_readers who claimed her original fiction about a magical girl was "prose" anime. Uh... no. It's fiction. Period.)

Now, by that standard, Mickey Mouse could be considered "anime." I guess by the literal definition of the word, it is. But beyond being a word with a literal definition, anime has transcended that meaning, and is now also a genre (don't believe me? Go to your local chain video store and see if they have an "anime" section, right next to "drama," "sci-fi," and possibly "children's." My Blockbusters do).

Thus, calling anything that is animated "anime" is kind of a misnomer. It's not really true. Sure, Popeye and Sailor Moon are both animated, but they have completely different styles, methods of storytelling-- the works. Even if you compare two animated shows:
* From the same time (e.g. the same year, the same decade, etc.)
* In the same genre (e.g. "magical" stories)
* Aimed toward the same target audience (girls vs. boys, age ranges, etc.)
You'll likely still find some very significant differences.

The same holds true with manga, I feel. Look at a lot of Korean manhwa- but don't call it manga. I know that the words SOUND and even LOOK very similar, but they're not. And let's face it-- the Korean style that is most prevalent (in manhwa) is very different from the most prevalent Japanese style.

Here's the thing: the concept of "manga-style" art (like Archie Comics' "Sabrina," which is done "manga-style") focuses on the generic stereotypes of what manga "is," assuming you can define it so easily. But you can't-- not anymore. It's not always "big eyes, small mouth," as GoO tried to make it with their RPG system.

Sure, Sailor Moon fits the "BESM" genre, but does Death Note? No. Many artists draw manga, but it's more realistic than the huge eyes, long fingers, and flowing hair you see in manga like Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, etc. Some might argue that's due to the difference in sub-genres: shoujo vs. shonen, and girls just tend to like more detail (shiny, sparkly, pretty) and guys like more action (action lines, punches, kicks, sound effects). But again, that's generalizing.

Target audiences aren't always who end up reading and enjoying series; while Sailor Moon was enjoyed by tons of girls (of all ages) around the world, look at Yu-Gi-Oh-- clearly a shonen series, aimed toward boys, but it has a MASSIVE female audience of all ages around the world. Yet, go to one of the card tournaments, and anyone with a pair of breasts is the oddball out.

Funny how fandom works.

One thing that has consistently pissed me off through the years is the genre of "how to" art books about drawing manga, done by Western comic book artists who, frankly, know next to nothing about the genre (though it seems some of them have actually bothered to read manga and perhaps even go to anime cons). Their idea of "how to draw manga" is to draw a big-breasted girl with an hourglass figure-- not all that different from "American" comic book figures like Supergirl or Wonder Women, but this time, give her huge eyes and a tiny mouth (no lips).

One particular artist was Christopher Hart-- he has book like this one. But it surprised me when I looked him up on Amazon, because not only did he go to an anime con, but he has some sort of work in progress with Tokyopop.

I suppose what I especially hate about Hart's books is that they're chock full of generalizations-- for example, any book about Shoujo, well, there've got to be big eyes, small mouths, lovely figures, magic, sparklies, mascots, etc.... Er, no! That's like saying all boys' comics have to look semi-realistic (er, Yu-Gi-Oh? Dragonball?) and must feature LOTS. OF. ACTION! (Er, Death Note was suspenseful, but you didn't see Light getting into ninja fights or anything)

Now, as with all stereotypes, there's a seed of truth in all of them; Naruto is unquestionably shonen, and features a lot of those "stereotypical" shonen aspects, from fights and "more sound effects than speech," but every stereotype out there is ironically multi-faceted, and no one series can really meet every requirement.

Now, Tokyopop is where this all starts and ends, because unquestionably, they STARTED with manga, but then they started to pull in other artists and call their stuff manga. That's what Dramacon is. I didn't (note the past tense) like them calling that stuff manga; I didn't like their contest being called the "Rising Stars of Manga," because I felt that people essentially copying the style of their favorite Japanese artists wasn't real manga. Generalizing manga as "big eyes, small mouth" didn't strike me as manga, either. Also, it seems stupid that, even if a story is going to be penned in manga-style (not just the method of drawing, because that has as many varieties as the stories themselves; also the length of the story, continuity, etc.), to put it right-to-left. The only reason why Japanese manga is that way is because that's how they read: right-to-left, top-to-bottom. Manga that were originally in English... well, it makes more sense to do it left-to-right, IMO.

While I am glad that plenty of great artists are getting the chance to get recognized and put their "manga-style" art out there, I'm not sure if I'd always flat out call it manga, anymore than I'd call doujinshi "manga."

I think what my opinion now is that manga is many things: a Japanese word with a literal definition that is similar to Western "comics" or "comic books;" a genre with a style that typically pertains to art and stories originating from Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, and so forth; an art style that, while liquid in form and definition, is particular in some aspects (for example, the continuity of it, the mode of storytelling, etc.) and can therefore be imitated and expanded upon, the way Dramacon and other Tokyopop "Western" manga titles do.

So while I suppose I don't mind calling "Dramacon" manga, there's no way in hell that "Sabrina" is. Dramacon at least makes the effort-- Sabrina just imitates, and poorly, at that. Manga is more than a stereotypical art style. Sabrina is still done in a thin, paper-bound comic, chock full of ads. To me, it seems the only thing that has changed is the way Sabrina looks-- big, sparkly eyes, small mouth, and the occasional "traditionally Japanese" manga-esque elements, like sweatdrops, anger lines, chibis/super-deformed characters, etc. But just because you have all those things doesn't mean you have a manga.

Put it all in a 200+ (or so) page book (and since it's Western, make sure it's read left-to-right) and make sure to have continuity between each act/episode (and that includes continuity in ART style, something that most comic books FAIL at, which is why I don't read most of them anymore), and sure, it might be manga.

But just because something has "big eyes and a small mouth" does NOT make it manga.