Sun, 3 Nov: Weekly Review 34 (Halloween edition)

My sister Glenys and her family are planning on celebrating Halloween this year. I had to explain to them they need to put a pumpkin out so people know they’re celebrating and can get goodies there. They had the very bad idea of just putting out a bowl of lollies on their stoop for people to take. I told them these would all be gone within half an hour if they don’t supervise it or at least include a note asking people to only take one or two. Really, they haven’t got a clue. Glenys had her daughter buy a copy of the Sunday Herald Sun today too. Why on Earth does she want to read that hack rag? The Sunday edition is even worse: it’s Murdoch shitfuckery on steroids. Why? Her house has no books, but she at least has a library card, which she uses.

Started reading Rumiko’s Maison Ikkoku manga Vol 3. Manager Kyoko is still in a huff over Godai going to his girlfriend’s for dinner. Some of the dialogue, especially from Mrs Ichinose, is surprisingly salty. There’s a scene in the showers at the tennis club where she peeks over her cubicle wall at naked Kyoko showering and talks about her ‘needs’. Later, there’s a story about MC Godai and the possibility of him ‘going all the way’ with his girlfriend. It’s revealed here he’s a virgin – not ‘in the club’. While her other manga are classed as shonen, this one’s definitely seinen – ie, for adults.

I then read some more of the Maison Ikkoku manga. Godai has left the place because of a rumour that Kyoko, the beautiful house manager he loves, is getting married to tennis coach Mitaka. He moves into a seedy apartment above a pachinko parlor but then has to contend with the previous tenants, an opportunistic deadbeat couple, who refuse to leave and instead exploit his good nature. Meanwhile, Kyoko and the other tenants of Maison Ikkoku speculate about Godai’s whereabouts, wondering if he’ll ever return – because, of course, the rumour was only that (though Godai didn’t know that). Kyoko in particular feels enormous guilt. Mangaka Rumiko escalates the situation to wonderfully absurd heights before Godai makes a very undignified return to his apartment at Maison Ikkoku. As usual, I’m loving this, even though sometimes I think Rumiko’s art in this title is a little sketchy.

Allkpop has had an interesting series of articles about Incheon Airport in South Korea. First reports were that it was going to open a special sealed off section of the airport for celebrities to enter and exit without being hassled by crowds. Despite its elitist overtones, this actually makes sense to me. I’ve seen and been annoyed by many clips of the Twice members making their way through the airport whilst being hassled by photographers and fans. They’re always polite, but it never looks like they especially enjoy it. I’m always conscious of how the photographers are getting in close, persistently dogging their movements. It’s not fun for me and I usually stop watching after a few seconds because it’s such an invasion of privacy. But anyway, the twist in the story was that, due to public complaints, these plans have now been put on hold. The letters section of the article looks at the issue from a lot of different thought-provoking angles, both pro and con, but I stand by what I said here.

I bought the latest copy of Neo, the British mag dedicated to all things anime, Asian film, manga, J-culture and music. The cover features a new show called Akiba Maids War, which looks fantastic. The basic premise is maid cafes as a battle ground for Yakuza-style battles with lots of violence. It’s a combination of blood and frilly skirts, and I am so there for its dark-humoured fun. It combines ideas in some of my favourite anime, like Girls Und Panzer and Black Lagoon. Bring it on! There’s also articles about the bluray release of Ghost In the Shell SAC_2045 part one, that I so want, and another intriguing new show called Jellyfish Can’t Swim In the Night. It’s set in Shibuya and is about four schoolgirls aspiring to be in a successful online band. Sound familiar? The girls all have multi-media talents (drawing, animation, singing, piano) and intriguing back stories. There’s also a nice article by the magazine’s resident tourist guide, Mark Guthrie about Japan’s castles called Do You Know Your Jo? (Jo is Japanese for castle). One of the castles he and his wife visits is Himeji-Jo, which I also saw on my Japan travels. I agree with Guthrie in saying it’s one of the most ‘picturesque’ of Japan’s castles. And it’s quite an adventure climbing up those narrow angled steps to the top floor!

Finished Neo mag. Good article about Ninja Scroll and Anime Sequels, how the TV series films are often non canon and very different from the series. But I think this is true of almost all films based on anime TV series. Famously, the Urusei Yatsura film Beautiful Dreamer veered far away from the series with a time or dimension loop scenario that made it one of the best anime films ever. Mangaka Rumiko even said, annoyed, it was not her vision of Urusei, but Director Mamoru Oshii’s vision. The article cited other films and series like One Piece and the film I saw recently in Japan, Red. The basic point was that a lot of these films are seen as opportunities by the film makers to highlight or fill out other aspects of a series and their characters that haven’t been highlighted in the series run, which I think is a good thing. Other films, like the Bocchi the Rock film I saw recently, are straight movie-length edits of the series that give no new material or storylines, which is also okay, but I prefer it when they do something new.

On Youtube there was another terrific vid by Choujimi about the Twimeline: sorting Twice’s discography in chronological order based on lore. The idea here was he took their Korean singles and sorted them into a relationship story line that progresses from Origins, through Signal era Confessions era, Say It Back era, In Love era, and Self Discovery era. This is something I myself have done especially with the Kinks discography, which lends itself to multiple story lines. The Twimeline story line starts, according to Choujimi, with What is Love then ranges back and forth throughout their discography where needed. I’m thinking I’ll make a playlist based on this order, see how it works.