Placeholder (Again)
Sep. 23rd, 2006 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedSorry I haven't been around much, I've been been pretty busy. (This will be an ongoing theme of posts here for the next few weeks.) If you are overcome with curiosity, you can read the rl journal.
Above all I don't, don't, absolutely don't have time to attend talks solely because they remind me of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. -_-; it's terrible, last week there was one on the Attica prison uprising of 1971 I thought I'd go to for part 6 (though this is also a fascinating event which, more than anything else, is responsible for current prison conditions in this country). And next Wednesday there's a kind of mock-pilgrimage through the Arboreum meant to mimic the Camino de Santiago, of course this reminded me of Steel Ball Run.
Saw two Japanese movies this week. The first was the animated Tale of Genji, this would make such a good drug movie. I MEAN. Start with the Tale of Genji. Take out all the parts that explain how all the scenes and actors are related to each other. Then take out all the funny parts. Then take out all the parts where Genji shows human emotion. What you'll be left with is something like this movie, a very beautiful, very stylized exercise in aesthetics that doesn't make any sense. Watch as Genji runs prettily through the fields, Murasaki in arms! Watch as he attempts to exorcise his inner demons through traditional archery! Watch twenty-minutes of fan dancing, again a symbolic representation of...you know, I'm not really sure. Oh yes, and! Cherry blossoms. LOTS AND LOTS OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS. (I laughed. Then I felt bad. Then I laughed again. Really, everything is so serious in this movie, it's hard not to laugh.)
The other one was Moon and Cherry. The description of this is totally wrong, actually it's a comedy. ^^; Tadokoro, the main character, finally gets into college on his third try. He joins the erotic literature club, which has six male members and only one female. But Mayama totally makes up for this by being amazingly forward and accomplished, the only one of them who's a professional author. She starts sleeping with Takadoro as research for her new book, which is about a defenceless 14-year-old virgin who is seduced by an experienced older woman. XD these scenes are so hilariously gender-reversed, even including the nervous, skitish way Takadoro clutches at his towel, and his facial expressions during the act.
Although Takadoro is only being used, under Mayama's instruction he becomes a master in the art of the bedroom, totally in contrast to his un-preposessing appearance. He then gets a cute normal girlfriend, who I liked mainly because she was very easy to understand. XD Meaning, she doesn't use big words and only speaks in simple sentences. Her actions are completely incomprehensible to Takadoro, who wonders why there isn't more to her? He finds out that Mayama has slept with every member of the erotic literature club (except Sakamoto, who's 57 and a grandfather). After she finishes her serialization -- culminating in a scene where she hires a call girl and then watches from the closest as she and Takadoro have sex -- she dumps him, but naturally he wins her back in the end. SORT OF. (Their relationship is based entirely on sex. And porn writing. IT'S KIND OF HILARIOUS.)
The thing that really stumped me about this movie was the Japanese erotic literature industry. Apparently it's dominated by men? Women authors are seen as totally strange, which is why Mayama writes under a male psuedonym. It also seems to be written mostly for men. Coming from the US, where 99% of romance is written by women for women, I found this pretty strange myself.
So that there will be more fandom content in this post, here are my answers to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
worldserpent's Jojo survey.
1. How did you get into JoJo?
Following the posts of livejournalers who got into it after![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jokersama's fst post, especially petronia and worldserpent. I also sometimes read angrybabble's Jojo-related posts. The final straw was when canis_m started reading Part 3 -- if she could do it, I could do it.
2. How much of it have you read so far?
Parts 1-4, 5 as far as it's been scanlated (13 volumes), 6 as far as it's been scanlated (two volumes), Steel Ball Run blah blah you know the drill (17 chapters). I've also read Sabina's summaries of part six to almost the end, and Charmian's of Steel Ball Run to volume 5.
3. Favorite series/part?
Four. This is supposedly the most "normal" arc, but I don't care, it's still my favorite. I think this is because I used to read a lot of horror manga and four has this horror-manga, Strange Things Are Afoot vibe to it. It's also strongly fannish, in that it takes characters who had larger-than-life adventures in their own arcs and sticks them in this small town full of total weirdos.
Also, HEART JOSUKE.
In order, I liked
-Four (*g*)
-Two (♥ Joseph; Robot Nazis vs. Aztec Vampires; CEASAR!!!; training island of doom; fights are genius)
-Five (Stand powers in this arc are really fucking cool)
-One (one part soap opera, one part epic fight against evil)
-Three (my feeling on this arc are well-documented)
Six and SBR are excluded from the rankings because I haven't read far enough to form solid opinions of them.
4. Favorite Jojo?
Josuke. OBVIOUSLY. He's so easy-going -- until pushed too far, when he becomes totally unmoveable. He's also really smart, with an irreproachable grasp on best to use his stand (possibly this is because he's had the longest -- he's the only Jojo to grow up with a Stand). What I really enjoy is his friendship with Oyasuke, they're such huge dorks, it's great. :D
In order, the rest:
-Joseph. Such a dork.
-Jolyne. SHE KICKS ASS OKAY.
-Giorno. Well, I don't exactly like him, but cult leaders, before they become really big, but you can see the foundations being laid? I eat that stuff up.
Jonathan. DORK DORK DORK.
-Jotaro. Insanely cool as a bit character, but SUCH A FREAK, honestly in his own arc it was a bit much.
-Johnny. Least like the others. Maybe if I read further in SBR, he'll grow on me.
5. Favorite 'best friend'?
Oyasuke. (HE LIVED!!!!) But I really liked Ceasar Zepelli too. On thrid thought, does Bruno count? Because he's definitely my favorite supporting character.
6. Favorite arch-villain?
Dio Brando. I MEAN. King Crimson/Vinegar Doppio ranks up there pretty high, though. It's practically a tie! Now that's the kind of psychosis I enjoy.
7. Favorite pairing?
Judging frompetronia's summaries, it'll probably be Jolyne/Annasui. But right now it's Kira/not!wife, there was something about them that was really, really hot and really, really disturbing. ^^; I like Bruno/Trish too. Nonsemi-canonically: Gyro/Johnny, Jonathan/Dio, Joseph/Caesar. UM. And Jotaro/Jolyne. THOUGH ACTUALLY, all of these are better as weird slashy not!pairings than as pairings per se.
TO BE CONTINUED, right now I'm heading out into the rain for Big Ten Burritos (actually, I don't care about the burritos, but this is an excuse to walk around with people (person) and I should really get back to homework anyway ;_;).
Above all I don't, don't, absolutely don't have time to attend talks solely because they remind me of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. -_-; it's terrible, last week there was one on the Attica prison uprising of 1971 I thought I'd go to for part 6 (though this is also a fascinating event which, more than anything else, is responsible for current prison conditions in this country). And next Wednesday there's a kind of mock-pilgrimage through the Arboreum meant to mimic the Camino de Santiago, of course this reminded me of Steel Ball Run.
Saw two Japanese movies this week. The first was the animated Tale of Genji, this would make such a good drug movie. I MEAN. Start with the Tale of Genji. Take out all the parts that explain how all the scenes and actors are related to each other. Then take out all the funny parts. Then take out all the parts where Genji shows human emotion. What you'll be left with is something like this movie, a very beautiful, very stylized exercise in aesthetics that doesn't make any sense. Watch as Genji runs prettily through the fields, Murasaki in arms! Watch as he attempts to exorcise his inner demons through traditional archery! Watch twenty-minutes of fan dancing, again a symbolic representation of...you know, I'm not really sure. Oh yes, and! Cherry blossoms. LOTS AND LOTS OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS. (I laughed. Then I felt bad. Then I laughed again. Really, everything is so serious in this movie, it's hard not to laugh.)
The other one was Moon and Cherry. The description of this is totally wrong, actually it's a comedy. ^^; Tadokoro, the main character, finally gets into college on his third try. He joins the erotic literature club, which has six male members and only one female. But Mayama totally makes up for this by being amazingly forward and accomplished, the only one of them who's a professional author. She starts sleeping with Takadoro as research for her new book, which is about a defenceless 14-year-old virgin who is seduced by an experienced older woman. XD these scenes are so hilariously gender-reversed, even including the nervous, skitish way Takadoro clutches at his towel, and his facial expressions during the act.
Although Takadoro is only being used, under Mayama's instruction he becomes a master in the art of the bedroom, totally in contrast to his un-preposessing appearance. He then gets a cute normal girlfriend, who I liked mainly because she was very easy to understand. XD Meaning, she doesn't use big words and only speaks in simple sentences. Her actions are completely incomprehensible to Takadoro, who wonders why there isn't more to her? He finds out that Mayama has slept with every member of the erotic literature club (except Sakamoto, who's 57 and a grandfather). After she finishes her serialization -- culminating in a scene where she hires a call girl and then watches from the closest as she and Takadoro have sex -- she dumps him, but naturally he wins her back in the end. SORT OF. (Their relationship is based entirely on sex. And porn writing. IT'S KIND OF HILARIOUS.)
The thing that really stumped me about this movie was the Japanese erotic literature industry. Apparently it's dominated by men? Women authors are seen as totally strange, which is why Mayama writes under a male psuedonym. It also seems to be written mostly for men. Coming from the US, where 99% of romance is written by women for women, I found this pretty strange myself.
So that there will be more fandom content in this post, here are my answers to
worldserpent's Jojo survey. 1. How did you get into JoJo?
Following the posts of livejournalers who got into it after
jokersama's fst post, especially petronia and worldserpent. I also sometimes read angrybabble's Jojo-related posts. The final straw was when canis_m started reading Part 3 -- if she could do it, I could do it. 2. How much of it have you read so far?
Parts 1-4, 5 as far as it's been scanlated (13 volumes), 6 as far as it's been scanlated (two volumes), Steel Ball Run blah blah you know the drill (17 chapters). I've also read Sabina's summaries of part six to almost the end, and Charmian's of Steel Ball Run to volume 5.
3. Favorite series/part?
Four. This is supposedly the most "normal" arc, but I don't care, it's still my favorite. I think this is because I used to read a lot of horror manga and four has this horror-manga, Strange Things Are Afoot vibe to it. It's also strongly fannish, in that it takes characters who had larger-than-life adventures in their own arcs and sticks them in this small town full of total weirdos.
Also, HEART JOSUKE.
In order, I liked
-Four (*g*)
-Two (♥ Joseph; Robot Nazis vs. Aztec Vampires; CEASAR!!!; training island of doom; fights are genius)
-Five (Stand powers in this arc are really fucking cool)
-One (one part soap opera, one part epic fight against evil)
-Three (my feeling on this arc are well-documented)
Six and SBR are excluded from the rankings because I haven't read far enough to form solid opinions of them.
4. Favorite Jojo?
Josuke. OBVIOUSLY. He's so easy-going -- until pushed too far, when he becomes totally unmoveable. He's also really smart, with an irreproachable grasp on best to use his stand (possibly this is because he's had the longest -- he's the only Jojo to grow up with a Stand). What I really enjoy is his friendship with Oyasuke, they're such huge dorks, it's great. :D
In order, the rest:
-Joseph. Such a dork.
-Jolyne. SHE KICKS ASS OKAY.
-Giorno. Well, I don't exactly like him, but cult leaders, before they become really big, but you can see the foundations being laid? I eat that stuff up.
Jonathan. DORK DORK DORK.
-Jotaro. Insanely cool as a bit character, but SUCH A FREAK, honestly in his own arc it was a bit much.
-Johnny. Least like the others. Maybe if I read further in SBR, he'll grow on me.
5. Favorite 'best friend'?
Oyasuke. (HE LIVED!!!!) But I really liked Ceasar Zepelli too. On thrid thought, does Bruno count? Because he's definitely my favorite supporting character.
6. Favorite arch-villain?
Dio Brando. I MEAN. King Crimson/Vinegar Doppio ranks up there pretty high, though. It's practically a tie! Now that's the kind of psychosis I enjoy.
7. Favorite pairing?
Judging from
petronia's summaries, it'll probably be Jolyne/Annasui. But right now it's Kira/not!wife, there was something about them that was really, really hot and really, really disturbing. ^^; I like Bruno/Trish too. TO BE CONTINUED, right now I'm heading out into the rain for Big Ten Burritos (actually, I don't care about the burritos, but this is an excuse to walk around with people (person) and I should really get back to homework anyway ;_;).