Paprika

Finally saw Satoshi Kon's latest (I think?) movie Paprika...Huh...I don't know how to react to it. I absolutely Millenium Actress, but this one left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was an amazing visual feast (though all the Akira-esque grotesque fantasy elements completely creeped me out--I almost had to stop watching at the beginning because the parade thing was all so gross). On the other hand, the story felt a bit muddled. Like the guy tried to shove too much into one film? I like the personal elements, like Chiba's and Kogawa's developments. But the entire conclusion felt...overblown. I think it didn't help that the villain just annoyed the crap out of me. Could he have been just a little more two dimensional? Then they could've just substituted a cardboard cut-out with random villain lines thrown in every so often. And his minion...YUCK. YUCK YUCK YUCK.

Enough grousing, I'll just talk about what I liked. Paprika is cool. She's wild, independent, smart, and utterly sensual. She's the one character I liked completely. I liked that Chiba had loved Togita, who is so completely unattractive. The moment after she pulls him out of the elevator was adorable. I actually liked how child-like he is. While I admit that it's a rather annoying quality in a full-grown adult, but compared to the shitty adults with their shitty adult desires he came out looking pure and sweet. Er...Sadly, I don't have anything more to say that's purely positive. Too many qualifications needed to go on...So I'll just stop here. :P

Mokke

I've recently been reading the manga Mokke by Kumakura Takatoshi after finding the volumes my friend had left me quite a while ago--talk about finding treasures under piles of crap. XD In any case, I had a hard time getting into the series. It had a lot going for it--nice art, pleasant and engaging characters, interesting stories--but I had to force myself to keep reading (just to see if I'd get into it or truly find it not-my-thing). The problem with this manga series (click on the link above for the summary) for me is that it's very episodic. I prefer series that tell one continuing narrative instead of tons of small slice-of-life pieces, and I just don't love the characters enough to keep caring in the face of that fact. Also, it can get too bogged down in explanations. But the story about their pet cat in volume 3 changed all that. I loved that story. It made me care. Then reading the story about the daimanako soon after just cinched it. While I still can't quite *love* the manga, I certainly like it now. I've been rereading from volume 1--while I still lose focus at times I am enjoying it a lot more. I need to see if my friend has volumes 6 and 7 and borrow them. ^^;

I decided to try watching the anime to see if the stories were more engaging--wow, talk about a big mistake. I saw two episodes and they were bad. I think the multimedia experience and expanding the stories into full episodes just killed the spark of the series. Ugh.

There was also an interview with the artist in a recent Pafu as part of a horror manga special. Unfortunately, the interview started talking about specific mononoke that I couldn't remember off-hand so it quickly became confusing. One interesting tidbit I did pick up before giving up is that the artist has a hard time limiting himself to mononoke from the correct geographical area. He can't have a mononoke from Okinawa showing up in the Tohoku region, and the only way he can have it is if the characters travel down to Okinawa. But he said that because there are regional versions of each mononoke type, so he just has to research about which ones would work for him.

To summarize my feelings:

MANGA = ENJOYABLE THOUGH NOT QUITE *LOVE*
ANIME = SUCKS BEYOND ALL BELIEF

i want to flail like a japanese fangirl....

Initial D Stage 1 Gumtape Death Match:

Takahashi Ryosuke: ヤツは間違いなく進化している。

Thank you Koyasu for playing this role. You and Seki's 「ふざけるな！」 truly bring me great joy every time I rewatch this series. XDXD

(Koyasu needs to say something perverted in that tone of voice, with that deadly serious expression on his face. Then Seki can scream 「ふざけるな！」because his image of his brother has been utterly destroyed.)

I need to learn Japanese emoticons. My meager range is inadequate to render my glee.

books *every* child should read?

100 books every child should read by the Telegraph UK...Wow, I've never heard of many of these books. Some were not surprising yet completely repellent to me, some were very surprising. They chose Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones--why *that* particular one out of her many excellent books? I was happy to see that one, as well as Anne of Green Gables, Little Princess, To Kill a Mockingbird and others on the list. It was odd seeing Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials but NOT Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. They also chose the third book of the Harry Potter series...I suppose that is the strongest book in the series...The comments are fun to scan through as well.

I wonder what I'd put on my own list of books every child should read...The thing is, I don't believe that there really are a set of books every child should read. After all, everyone's tastes are so different.