Reading and the Like

[lydamorehouse]

Image: A very sacked out big orange boy on the couch.

I have not been doing a ton of reading of anything 'normal,' like a novel. But, I have read a bunch of manga. For some reason, I've been on a yuri kick and so I have read (or am in the middle of reading):

• Even If It Was Just Once, I Regret It  / Ichido Dake Demo, Koukai Shitemasu by Miyahara Miyakon (yuri)
• Today, We Continue Our Lives Together Under One Roof by Inui Ayu (yuri) 
• That Girl Through the Viewfinder / Fainda-goshi no ano ko by Kabocha (yuri)
• Super Cub by Kanitan (shounen, slice-of-life)

I have not finished the first one and some of the rest are still in the process of being scanlated by the various pirate sites that do such things, alas. I have written reviews of all of these over on my manga reviewing site, if anyone is actually curious what I thought of them. (You can find that site here: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/)

On a side note, I started Mangakast when I thought Mason and I might record silly little podcasts together several years ago. (His voice hadn't dropped, so listening to it now is kind of a trip.) We never had any intention of having any kind of real production value, but we had a brief moment of fame when we came in second on a Bleach trivia contest run by a fairly popular (at the time) manga review vlogger, Tekking. We had one day of over two thousand hits. Beyond that one blip, however, I've never had much traffic. We gave up on the weekly podcast idea, but I continued to use the site to review anything manga related that I read.  Like, anything. If I read it, I wrote something about it. I've just kept that up over the last several years mostly imagining myself talking to myself, you know? Kind of like here, a reading journal of sorts.

Lo, I just crested 200 subscribers.

Which maybe still doesn't seem like a lot? But I really very much do this thing as an afterthought. I pander to no trend. I don't know why, but I find it kind of charming that this stupid little site has slowly gained even this much popularity. 

Anyway, the things I'm watching are probably more interesting.

• "Super Cub" (simulcast on Funimation). The ridiculously slice-of-life story of a "nothing" girl who discovers freedom and friendship after she spontaneously buys a scooter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Cub_(novel_series)  Possibly my current favorite thing.
• "Those Snow White Notes" (simulcast on Crunchyroll)  An anime I swear was invented to drum up interest in the traditional Japanese, three-stringed instrument called a 'shamisen,' only they accidentally made an AWESOME  story.  The music, in a surprise to no one, is pretty damn amazing. The opening song kills. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Those_Snow_White_Notes
• "Odd Taxi," (simulcast on Crunchyroll). I don't even know how to tell you what this is, but remember, like, a hundred years ago, when there was a brief trend to take weird things people said and film animals who seemed to be saying them? "Odd Taxi" is kind of like that, only animated. It follows the life of a taxi driver who is a walrus for no apparent reason, and who picks up random passengers, and it shouldn't work but I am tuning in weekly, help. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Taxi
• ."Tokyo Revengers," (simulcast on Crunchyroll). A fairly straight-forward time-travel crime solving anime with yakuza. For reasons I do not fully comprehend, insanely popular in Japan right now. It has a live-action TV show and anime running concurrently.  Why? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Revengers
• "Joran the Princess of Snow and Blood," (simulcast on Crunchyroll). A weird post-apocalyptic shifter assassin story? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joran:_The_Princess_of_Snow_and_Blood
• "Tsurune," an anime that is 'Free," except with Japanese archery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsurune

I am behind on a number of these because I did not intend to be watching so many things that were releasing weekly. 

Anything of interest that you're watching or reading or otherwise consuming lately?

Comments

[pameladean]

Sweet little Buttercup, I!

Not that he's little. But perhaps it may pass as a mere endearment. His face looks quite a bit like my Ari's (muted orange floof I had from 1995 until 2013) in that photo. Such a long nose.

P.

P.

[lydamorehouse]

Regal. He looks like a lion to me!

I figured I might summon you with a picture of Buttercup. :-)

handy expert

[minnehaha]

Can you give a rec for anime for a 12-y-o person who is exploring gender and boundaries related to gender issues?

K.

Re: handy expert

[lydamorehouse]

The best gender exploration I've read (I don't think there is an anime) that would be very appropriate for a 12 year old, is OUR DREAMS AT DUSK by Shimanami Tasogare. Tasogare-sensei is themselves, non-binary, which in Japan is identified as gender x.

I will put my mind to others, but that would be an excellent start.

Re: handy expert

[hippogriff13]

There actually is an anime of Takako Shimamura's "Wandering Son" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_Son). This series could be described as an earlier, more exclusively MTF- and FTM-focused forerunner of "Our Dreams at Dusk" (which spends more time focusing on teenage or twenty- something cis characters who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual), but with protagonists who start out as elementary school kids. It's also by a cis woman who's apparently straight, although she's also done at least two yuri series, "Sweet Blue Flowers" and "Even Though We're Adults." This may partially account for what some critics have described as a certain lack of realism in some aspects of the story. For example, the fact that even after the tween protagonists wind up becoming friends with an adult trans woman, the trans girl never asks her anything about how she navigated the eventual shift from presenting as male to living full-time as a woman (at least, not in the anime or the first eight volumes of the manga). The trans boy does find out about chest binders thanks to Yuki the trans woman's help. But this is presented so subtly that the kids' first trip to a specialist store that sells such items could be mistaken for their discovery of the existence of sports bras (as opposed to the more overtly sexy/bow-trimmed, "feminine" kind).

Unfortunately, the "Wandering Son" anime was just taken down from Crunchyroll about a month ago, and, as far as I know, it isn't currently available anywhere else at the moment. There's an English translation of the manga (by Rachel Thorn, who subsequently came out as trans herself) published by Fantagraphics. Unfortunately, it apparently didn't sell that well, so the publisher cancelled the series after volume 8 (of a total of 15, according to Wikipedia). The volumes that were translated are out of print and reportedly unavailable, although it might be worth checking to see if you can get them via your public library system. (I know the Queens, NY, Public Library System has volume one, at least.)

There's also a manga series from Kodansha called "Boys Run the Riot" whose first volume is supposed to come out at the end of May. Here's the website plot summary: "A transgender teen named Ryo finds an escape from the expectations and anxieties of his daily life in the world of street fashion." (The creator is also transgender.) A fifty- or sixty-page preview is available at https://kodansha.us/series/boys-run-the-riot/ . It looks pretty good so far. However, some readers may be put off by the fact that sixteen-year-old Ryo's new classmate/friend/partner in creating a new T-shirt brand is repeating the second year of high school, but has a goatee and a generally gangsta-ish look that would lead most people to assume that he was more like nineteen or twenty at first glance.

Re: handy expert

[hippogriff13]

Actually, I just checked the RightStuf anime distributor's website https://www.rightstufanime.com/search?keywords=Wandering%20Son ), and they allegedly do carry volumes 5 through 8 of the "Wandering Son" manga. Unfortunately, all four volumes are listed as out of stock, but they claim to be expecting more copies to come in. (This usually does happen eventually when they list something as "out of stock, expecting more." If they really think they can't get something, they'll usually say "no longer available" or not list it in their online catalogue at all.)

Re: handy expert

[lydamorehouse]

Wandering Son is available at the Ramsey County Library system. So, no need to buy it, necessarily. You can still read it.

Re: handy expert

[lydamorehouse]

I should have remembered "Wandering Son," I loved the manga... though the ending less so. Even so, it's great up until the very end.