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I've finally caught up with Silver Diamond by reading volumes 15-20 today. Oh my. It's gotten heavy and heavy. The plot is twisty! And people have dark motives! Even good people! I really like the blurring of good and evil, as well as just how complicated everyone is...

spoilerish babbling )
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The December 2008 Pafu has an interview with Sugiura Shiho. Some of the interesting tidbits:

-When asked if the story is proceeding as she'd planned initially, Sugiura-sensei responded that things were going smoothly. The only problem she has is that there are so many characters she needs more pages than expected (such as one chapter's worth of story taking three chapters to draw out).

-According to Sugiura-sensei, Rakan sees Chigusa as "honest" and "open," a "friend" (as opposed to "pervert" or "weirdo" like the other characters XD). She plans on developing that relationship further, so stay tuned.

-When asked if there was a significance in Rakan wearing a gakuran instead of a blazer-type school uniform, Sugiura-sensei responded she wanted to connect the reader to reality in some way. A gakuran immediately conjures up "school uniform." She also just likes gakuran. She likes manga in which the characters fight in gakurn. She'd always wanted to draw someone fighting in a gakuran at least once.

-Rakan is supposed to be the most powerful sanome (ever?).

-Chigusa can't read people's minds, but he can sense the aura or atmosphere around people. He puts that aura together with a chart in his head that associates certain auras with certain emotions and figures out what a person is feeling. It's something all people do, he just can do it much better.

-Sugiura-sensei finds characters with no darkness, who are only happy or cheerful or gentle, to be rather unnatural. She thinks that having a negative side along with that positive side is more balanced. She likes to see people who lack something realize that emptiness and fill it.

-There is no connection between the "thousand" character in Senrou and the practice of giving names with numbers in them to extraneous children. She hadn't even realized it until after she'd established the numbered children idea.

-Until chapter 35, the Prince had never been interested in Kinrei. He'd only thought of Kinrei as someone who did what he was told to do. Sensei compares the Prince to a hamster that becomes attached to the person who feeds it...

-When asked which character is the stupidest, Sugiura-sensei responded with two characters. Hakubi in an adorably stupid way, Yoruaki in a pitiful and unfortunate way. When Hakubi turned out the way he did when she'd tried to write a smart enemy, she realized she can't write a smart character...

-The Prince's "voice" in people's heads essentially sounds like Rakan's voice, with differences in tenor due to their differing personalities.

-The interviewer points out that none of the characters can be described as pure bad guys. Sugiura-sensei agrees, as she prefers stories that do not feature black and white good and bad and thus seems to write that way as well. She does try to write truly bad guys, but she can't get their personalities down and has a hard time with them.

-Things Sugiura-sensei would like to do with the various cute animals that appear in the manga: She'd give Kou a fast-moving, furry toy to play with. She'd ride Kuro. And she'd like to brush her. Give the birds fruits and take a picture of them. She'd like to wet the stone creatures with water...

-Sugiura-sensei does love her characters but they don't hit her moe points (if Rakan's grandpa had been completely bald he would've done it, tho). Instead she gets excited over things like futon. If she could've made it work within the story, she would've liked to have Rakan and company have a big pillow fight. Just thinking about the pillows filled in with cute tones excites her.

-Sugiura-sensei's favorite character is Rakan since she created him when she was in high school.

-Yoruaki makes Sugiura-sensei feel sorry for him. His name is "night," he's into a blond, he speaks politely...He reminds her of Nei from "Koori no Mamono."

-When asked if there were characters that "acted on their own" or wouldn't easily get moving, Sugiura-sensei mentioned the Prince and Chigusa. She hadn't planned on the Prince cutting his own throat, but when it happened she agreed that he totally would've. Chigusa often ends up looking out quietly from behind in everyday life, but when she makes him say something he never says something reasonable...

-Sugiura-sensei apologizes to each of the four main character: Rakan, for not drawing him in cooking scenes more. Chigusa, for writing him as more like a chick (baby chicken) instead of the black panther she'd intended to. Narushige, for turning him into a mother-in-law type instead of the cool, gorgeous, smart young man she'd meant to. Touji, for intending to have him teased from the beginning and actually going through with it. And as a bonus, Kinrei, for always putting him in the same clothes. She'd wanted to put him brighter colored clothing, but he is laughably unsuited for such things.

-Sugiura-sensei's favorite scene so far is the entire latter half of the last story in volume 4 (I don't have my manga so I don't know what happened). The scene she'd most wanted to write is yet to come.

-Sugiura-sensei thinks Chigusa is the character that's grown the most, even though he's still incomplete as he's without his memories.

-Sugiusa-sensei has drawn storyboards up to volume 17. She feels the series is about 75% complete. She hadn't taken into account the sheer number of characters she'd have to give some kind of end to...In any case, the manga has entered the final stage.
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I love three day weekends. Even when filled with packing and carrying boxes, not having to go into work is just awesome. ^_^

For some odd reason, I feel a proprietary pride and joy when I see a good review of the English version of Silver Diamond Volume 1. I'd forgotten that the first volume was good but not wow to me as well. It really got going in the next several volumes, IMHO. I'm glad to hear that the production values are nice. Now I want to check it out at the bookstore.

Relatedly, I finally got and read volume 14. It felt like a things are going along as usual volume. The good guys are adorable as usual, everything feels fluffy. I'm hoping that this is just the calm before the storm. XD

I skimmed Toiki Yori mo Yasashii by Minase Masara and was once again disappointed. Minase-sensei really likes pining and misunderstandings, doesn't she? Too bad she can't come up with characters I could actually care about. This was not bad but was so by the numbers I was bored very quickly. Oh well.


Been catching up on podcasts, and laughed my head off over two segments of the wonderful show This American Life titled "A Little Bit of Knowledge". The first is an "investigation" of mistaken ideas children keep into adulthood...Such as a belief that unicorns are real. The second is a hilarious yet touching story of the convoluted reasoning by the son of a gay couple on why or why not they should or could get married. You can listen to it in streaming format on the show's website, but I uploaded it here (before I realized they had streaming on their website).
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The one thing that Silver Diamond 13 needs more of is close-ups of Chigusa. XDXD I totally enjoyed this volume, as I do with every volume of this series. I love the oddly leisurely pace...among other things. )
insaneneko: (Default)
Star Trek XI Teaser Trailer...Completely uninformative as usual for a teaser, but....WOW. The Enterprise!! *_*

One Pound Gospel j-drama? Put me to sleep already, the manga managed to bore me as few manga have. Or maybe they put some pizzaz into the drama?

Some manga I read and wrote about a long time ago but forgot to post:

Silver Diamond 12: Overall a slower volume, but it did feel like things were actually leading up to something. The friendship of the four are adorable as always. I love the extra bits at the end with the hair touching. XD minor spoilers )

Asterisk 2: Pretty, pretty art. Really cute young angels. Really hot adult angels. Battles! Cats with issues! Angels with issues! Loving this series quite a lot. I like having an angel bureaucracy that isn't fucked up like so many in manga. Please don't turn into a procession of "heartwarming" stories about all the gay guys a la G-Defend and remain a cohesive narrative with an end like Jinju Horetsuden.

Kuroshitsuji 2: Pretty cross-dressing! Love the women's outfits very much. Sebastian looks GOOD with a cravat. REAL GOOD. Maybe when I'm feeling less lazy I'll scan some pics of the prettiness. On the downside, I fear a degeneration into fighting and power-uping and all that crap. What I loved about the first volume was the balance of the perfect and elegant butler with the kick-ass demon...I'm hoping it doesn't tip too far over to the kick-ass because that's a recipe for boring repetition. ;_;
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Hakkenden drama CD coming out 9/21! The cast is as follows:

Inuzuka Shino: Paku Romi
Inukawa Sousuke: Morikawa Toshiyuki
Hamaji: Kobayashi Sanae
Satomi Riou: Narita Ken
Osaki Kaname: Miyano Mamoru

I was actually kind of disappointed that Paku Romi was cast as Shino initially, but after some thought I'm taking a wait and see attitude. I think Paku Romi is very talented, but I have a negative impression of her because I don't like her singing voice. I figure she won't be singing on the drama CD, so...

All the others I approve of wholeheartedly. I am not familiar with Narita Ken...I know he played Sesshoumaru, but it's been so damn long since I've watched Inuyasha I don't remember his voice. ;_; Miyano Mamoru of course playing the botchan! XD Morikawa Toshiyuki playing the ever-patient (except when he gets pissed off) guardian type! I have no idea how Kobayashi Sanae will play Hamaji, but I trust her considerable talent to do justice to the part.



And on the subject of drama CDs, the next Shonen Bride one comes out on 7/25. (I don't think I've mentioned it before, but the first two are available at [profile] bl_dramas  here and here). Initially, I was very taken aback by Suzumura Kenichi's voicing of Shinobu. His voice was not even close to what I imagined Shinobu would sound like, but after a while it grew on me. He's talented, I'll give him that. ^^; Toriumi Kousuke was dead on as Kohji.

These drama CDs were very enjoyable to listen to because there's a lot of action and adventure and not too much sex to skip. Yeah, it's not going to be for a lot of fangirls (who seem to be into the hot and heavy?) but for someone like me it was perfect.


What totally needs a drama CD is Silver Diamond. I'd love all the fun gags and the touching and silly interplay between the four come to life! Who'd voice the different characters? Hmm...
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I finally got Hakkenden volume 3 and Silver Diamond volume 9, months after their publication. ;_; But they have both provided me with great amounts of joy so I guess I shouldn't complain too much (better late than never, right?). I love their combination of very detailed and pretty art with interesting and compelling characters and story lines. (My intro posts of Hakkenden and Silver Diamond from oh so long ago. )

First off, Silver Diamond. I love the mix of the slightly off humor (that comes from slightly off sensibilities) and drama. Rakan breaking into a huge lecture about being faithful to one person to Chigusa and Touji and completely forgetting the slightly dangerous situation they are in? Chigusa and Touji seriously taking Rakan's words seriously while the manga makes asides about the absurdity of a situation where a high school student lectures two grown adults? Chigusa, following Rakan's words, choosing to be faithful to one person, who subsequently has an "invisible" arrow pointed at him which Touji and Narushige sense? So funny and so cute!

I love the way Sugiura-sensei expands on Chigusa's basic ability to "see well" into such things as spying and seeing into dreams. It's logical and really trippy. I love how Chigusa misunderstands Rakan's attitude (it's so cute though logical!), while Rakan is embarrassed at his own thoughts (I can't tell three grown men not to fall in love because it'll be an inconvenience to me!).

Love the sakura in full-bloom. So pretty!

I can't wait for the next volume! What will happen to the two conscious guys with elf-girl plotting their demise? What will happen to the two guys in dream-land? I want to know!!!!

I'm very happy to see that this title has gained a lot of popularity since that first post I made about it over a year ago. I suppose it's only logical because it has so much going for it. Now this series deserves to be licensed!

On to Hakkenden...it's a denser story, so I had to really take my time to wade through it. Also, I had to reread the first two because when I started reading volume 3 in earnest I realized I had been a bad girl and had only skimmed volume 2 and would have to go back...so I figured I'd reread it from the start. Um, wow? It's been a while since I've taken a look at Hakkenden, so it was wonderful to submerge myself in such pretty (and detailed!) art. As for the story...it's going to be of epic length (at least, it feels like it should be of epic length), thus a lot of slow progression and occasional revelations is par for the course, unfortunately. I am still trying to puzzle out a historical time period to stick this manga in, and how things have changed from real history. When and how did the Church gain such prominence in Japan? Does it mean they were never suppressed in this world? And why are they so openly tied to supernatural elements (well, this last bit I can chalk up to the tendency of Japanese manga to ignore the realities of Christianity)? But besides questions on the setting and background of the world, I am filled with questions as to exactly what kind of story this is going to become. A quest? It the story just going to meander around or will it become focused in some way? Is this going to end tragically (I don't know if the original Hakkenden has a happy ending or not)? And of course, ultimately what will happen to Shino and Sousuke? Particularly Shino, as he will be left behind if things keep going the way they are. But there are hints about Sousuke that I find extremely unsettling....I like him, I don't want something bad to happen to him! I do like the relationship between Shino and Sousuke. It's odd and layered and very very complex.

I'm glad that Abe-sensei is once again providing us with an interesting variety of females, from the strong (but not bitchy) to the weak and tragic (though only mentioned, I found Nui to be an interesting contrast with the very strong-willed characters that dominate the manga).

I look forward to seeing the rest of the eight dog people. I assume that they will all turn out to be people who have been taken out of the cycle of normal human life because of a brush with the supernatural and their own powerful desire to live. What will happen to them all, and what kind of connection do they have with Mr. attached by Inu-gami hot young priest dude Satomi? And what connection does he have with Shino? GAH. Questions, endless questions.

I don't think this series is being scanlated, which is a pity if true because it's really damn cool.
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Being insane as usual, I translated the Sugiura Shiho interview that was in the November 2005 Pafu. Well...I only translated the first half that was of interest to me. The second half was about the artist, and I frankly don't really care about personal details. :P At least...not enough to translate it. I worked on this for the last couple of months at work and finally gave up on it. I could work on it forever. I don't think I'm really meant to translate interviews...In any case, some cool insight into Silver Diamond, as well as some references to Koori no Mamono no Monogatari. XD

the interview )

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