bad bl

Thanks for the congratulations on my last post! I got a HUGE basket of tea from my loan officer, which totally made my day. I love thoughtful gifts where the giver actually notices something the person seems to really like and gives an appropriate present. XD

I thought I wouldn't be posting much because of the move and work, but it seems my neighbors conspire against me. They are making such a racket I can't possibly sleep (even though I fell asleep at work today, I was so tired). Instead of fuming over the lost sleep I decided to post something.

An interesting sidenote to the Nitta Youka tracing blow-up is the number of people I've seen preface their comments with a "I'm not into her..." or "I don't like her...." While personal taste is, duh, personal, it's still so interesting to see who doesn't like this or that popular artist. I thought I'd talk about the reasons why I don't like artists (or aspects of their work).

Top of my list is Naono Bohra. OMG her art repels me. I've seen her reccomended so much, but I...just can't get past her art. It's primarily the eyes. They are droopy and sickly and just plain icky. I've yet to get through a single manga of hers, so I can't judge her for the story or characters, unfortunately.

Next is Shimizu Yuki. I like her art, but her stories and characters often annoy the crap out of me. My dislike for her is qualified, in that she annoys me when she does serious angst. I like her a lot when she does comedy or happy couples, but when she goes for drama she completely loses me--which is why I stopped reading Ze (and didn't read a huge chunk of Love Mode).

I've grown to dislike Koujima Naduki a lot. She draws cheeks too round...and the bodies! They contort so strangely! My eye is invariably drawn to the oddly placed shoulder or hip, and I think how they must be gummy people to be in that position....But what's really turned me off of her is her stories. They are stupid. Her characters (especially the ukes) are stupid. They act in ridiculous ways. Even the novels she illustrates tend to be this way! I know that in many ways what she does is very typical BL...but I've come to feel that she just takes it a step too low.

Though I like her manga, I find Kada Michiru's art rather disturbing. Especially the eyes, which look like a bunch of lines drawn in an eye shape. The noses and mouths are odd, too, but I can live with them. Or is it that the eyes are so weird everything else doesn't look so bad? ^^;

I get distracted by the proportions of the bodies Kodaka Kazuma draws. Somehow they just don't seem...right. Are the heads too big? I've never figured out what bothers me about her art. Sadly, I've come to dislike some of her most famous works. Ranmaru and Kei from Kizuna bore the crap out of me. Kusatta Kyoushi no Houteishiki pissed me off. Midare Somenishi is massively cliched (especially the story about the younger brother--I was happy when he died), but in the end I can say I like it because the main two kept fighting each other to the end. I think I found Not Ready Sensei and Mezase Hero boring, but I don't remember enough to say anything solid.

You know, I think I own Hikaru no Go and PoT doujinshi by her because friends bought them for me as omiyage. I wonder where they went to...

Misara Minase has been such a disappointment...empty heart was so lovely, but nothing else of hers has really worked for me. I'm coming to associate her art (especially those distinctive eyes of hers) with pointless cliched nothing stories featuring empty characters trying to convey a sense of having real feelings and failing...

Takaguchi Satosumi's manga (the ones she wrote and drew) have been big disappointments for me. I appreciate that she does different stuff, but they just fail to draw me. It's odd how I end up disliking almost every light colored long haired kid that appear in her stories. The biggest disappointment for me is probably Utsukushii Otoko. I stuck with it for four or five volumes, hoping for...something. What, I'm not sure. Maybe to care? Didn't happen. That pilot kid was totally annoying and the unfrozen pilot was bland, bland, bland. Even the whole affair with his father (or whatever that was, I no longer remember very clearly) came off so bleah. Maybe I'll track down the last volume or two and find out what happened, just for closure. I don't have much hope that it kicked ass.

I'm amazed at how fugly Kotobuki Tarako's art is every time I pick up Sex Pistols. She needs to up the crack factor to keep me interested in the series, though.

I love Yamane Ayano's art, but I wish she'd stick to hopelessly sappy/silly/fun or over-the-top insanity. I think the latest chapters of Viewfinder AND Crimson Spell have fell into the utterly conventional, which is making them less interesting. I'm now longing for that short story series about the two high school students who suspect that their fathers are lovers, or something similarly silly. I'd rather have mindless smut over Yamane-sensei taking her story and characters too seriously and crushing the life out of them. :P

There's this one artist that does really pointy chins whose name escapes me...Arg. I dislike her so much I avoid reading novels illustrated by her, so I suppose I just blocked her right out of my mind. I can't overcome my distaste and just ignore the art to read the story, no matter how interesting it seems. I know it'll come to me in the middle of the night, right before I fall asleep...

Hm...Sounds like my neighbors have quieted down a bit? I think I'll try to sleep now. Please keep quiet, people. Please.