nerikoki

🎧 hyperventilation - radwimps

[nerikoki]

no cause why are we fighting about if satosugu are best friends or lovers like... it literally does not matter...

i think the beautiful thing about their relationship is that goes beyond what we might consider platonic and romantic love in certain aspects; it's a raw expression of love itself

and the beautiful thing about art is that it has multiple interpretations, and these interpretations shift depending on the viewer. if you want to call them best friends or you want to call them lovers, that reflects what you got out of the story; neither one is the absolute truth (even if "gege said so"). canonically, you might say well they're nothing more than best friends, it's just a deep bond (i personally view them as soulmates since for me that perfectly describes the deep bond they have without limiting it to platonic or romantic). and yes there is nothing explicitly romantic in the story (even if you might read that between the lines) but i think that many people forget that we have the ability to separate fantasy from reality in the first place which is something we can easily do with stories too. someone can ship two characters and be wholly aware that they "don't make sense" canonically but it doesn't matter if they make sense or not it's literally just for fun!! 😭😭

just let me enjoy my doomed yaoi in peace 😔

[nerikoki]

we needed more human inuyasha... like where was the new moon at the whole show...

i feel like it could have added so much more to his and kagome's relationship too.. ☹️

[nerikoki]

the ability for people to create such cohesive and distinct albums like haechan's and jaehyun's solos needs to be studied

for that matter, all of the nct member's solos so far have mastered a distinct sound that is so representative of each member; it's truly amazing

[nerikoki]

can we talk about how the first novel is about a guy with an oedipus complex...

[nerikoki]

when i read hamlet in highschool i really didn't like it tbh. a big problem for me was ophelia and hamlet's relationship; they never really felt like they were together. however i think that if they did have a stronger bond, hamlet could have used ophelia to his advantage in his plans (distracting polonius) and it would also easily highlight the fact that he's a procrastinator.

this is towards the beginning when hamlet is going to meet the ghost of his father. horatio notifies hamlet that the ghost has appeared and hamlet starts running to the spot frantically -- huge ghost reveal scene. on the way back he bumps into ophelia.

this part sets up their relationship dynamic, hamlet's cheekiness and immature nature (especially as ophelia is the one person he will be vulnerable with), and a bit of foreshadowing for ophelia's flower scene.

"Ophelia!" Hamlet exclaimed, taking a chance to catch his breath.

"Hamlet? Why are you in such a rush?"

"Oh, Ophelia, you wouldn't believe what I just saw!"

"What? What was it?"

"It was magnificent, it was spectacular, I couldn't believe my eyes!"

"Oh, what is it Ham-"

Ophelia is cut off as Hamlet quickly swoops in for a kiss.

"Oh Hamlet, you're such a tease!"

"But I haven't even started."

Hamlet pulls Ophelia under the small torch mounted on the stone wall of the corridor.

"There's more where that came from."

"Oh, stop it," Ophelia laughed.

Hamlet placed his hand on her side, taking in her form as clay takes the shape of its mold. He pictured the feeling of her delicate skin as he ran his fingers along the fabric of her bodice, pausing at the center of her lower back -- the seam which marked the transition to skirt -- taking the chance to stare deep into her brown eyes full of warmth and wonder.

"Hamlet!" She said sharply.

The sound of footsteps drew nearer, quickening with each step, echoing off the walls of the corridor. Hamlet quickly shushed Ophelia as he heard Horatio's voice.

"Hamlet!" Horatio exclaimed as the two came into his view. His eyes scanned over the two -- Hamlet's hand clasped over Ophelia's mouth, her face furiously red, their bodies pressed tightly against each other.

"What exactly are you doing?"

Hamlet quickly dropped his hands to his side and stepped forward towards Horatio.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hamlet shrugged, turning back quickly to whisper in Ophelia's ear.

"I'll find you later, Ophelia," he said, handing her a daisy.

Ophelia exits.

[nerikoki]

Portrayal of Female Characters in “Manly” Manga (Bakuman, JJBA, and a little bit of Death Note)

(Part 3/3)

Finally, discussing JJBA. First of all, I have not yet read part 6 but I do have high hopes for it as it is centered on a majority female cast (from what I understand), which already gives this series an advantage (although it is obvious that JJBA is pretty masculine overall). Therefore, I will be discussing female representation in other parts of the series; comparing another male-centered/dominated series to the ones I’ve previously discussed.

Early on in the author’s notes Araki mentioned that he wanted to experiment with supernatural powers in this work as it allows for  better development of characters whose looks don’t exactly equate to their strength. This fits Lisa Lisa quite well; despite being a woman, which would usually make her seem lesser in power/ability compared to the men around, Lisa Lisa is the Hamon master — the strongest character. I think this was a great decision on Araki’s part, however I do think this framing fell a little flat when she is tricked and injured by Kars at the end of part 2. Of course Joseph is the main character of this part and it only makes sense that he would be the one to overcome the main antagonist, but I still think the way in which she was tricked was pretty basic and not befitting of something that could simply eliminate the Hamon “master.” 

Later parts, I think, also follow this trend. In part 3, Joseph’s daughter Holly gets a stand, but she’s too “weak” to control it to the point that her life is threatened. This is the motivation for the character’s journey in this part, but most of the time it feels like they forget that Holly even exists and that her life is on the line as they travel around, rather haphazardly, trying to find and defeat Dio. Not every female character needs to be “strong,” of course, but this set up paired with how the female villains are treated can make it feel a bit off. The female villains tend to be sexualized under the seeming excuse that Joseph is a “pervert” kind of character and this is a bunch of men traveling who don’t get to see women often. I believe that there was a pretty strong stand user who was a woman, but she was older, which allowed her to avoid those comments. However, overall, most of these characters (honestly I felt like most of the villains in this part, regardless of gender, anyway) didn’t seem to serve much purpose other than filling in all of the roles of the tarot cards/Egyptian gods. It’s not really a problem in this part of the story but when you think of the female characters in this part it’s hard to think of any of them who have stood alone and were actually treated seriously. Honestly I felt like there was a lack of actual depth in this part overall which could be a result of Araki still experimenting so this didn’t bother me in the long run.

In part 4 I didn’t really mind a lack of many female characters other than Reimi and Yukako who I thought were actually pretty interesting and got their own little arcs. I thought part 4 in general was pretty refreshing compared to the first 3 parts and I enjoyed that these characters were treated seriously and fleshed out. Being able to understand these characters and their personalities as just people rather than overly focusing on their femininity or overly sexualizing them made them much more enjoyable for me (I know Yukako centers around Koichi in her arc, though). Being able to enjoy characters just as people regardless of their gender is what I think sets the characters in this part apart from the others. Above all, I think that characters should be able to stand alone as people first and foremost, before their differences and the societal roles or issues related to things such as gender enter their story.

I think all of these series, in the end, do fall flat in certain aspects of their portrayal of female characters, however I still think it is interesting to compare what they did “right” and “wrong" and how that works with the story the author was attempting to portray. I’ve had a professor say that Japan does good on this front of pairing equally strong male and female characters, however, I’ve seen that “strength” does not equate to depth or even a “good” portrayal. I think that is something to keep in mind when analyzing series like these. 

The last part took a little long to post, but here it is finished (maybe a little rushed, though). As always, thanks for reading!

[nerikoki]

jjk "spoiler"

late to the party but does anyone actually care about nanami's death like he kind of just...died. it was like we were only supposed to care because we were told so...

[nerikoki]

honestly all day project was a genius move by the black label. debuting a coed group is already out of the norm, but with kard maturing and spreading out as a group they are able to tap in to that intrigue with a new generation of fans. but what I think is really fascinating is that this also comes at a time where tensions between men and women are already very high. this tension is not only in the idol industry where idols, and fans, seem hyper aware of how much they can interact with other idols of the opposite sex or if what they choose to do will get them implicated in a dating rumor, but in korean (and really global) society as well. the timing couldn't be any better because it is really, really, refreshing to see the members interact freely and openly, caring for and joking around with each other, seemingly without these pressures.

[nerikoki]

do the ahof stans understand the woongki and shuaibo lore?? like go back to the boys planet dual position battle. feel special team. shuaibo supposedly ecstatic to perform his favorite song but subsequently doubting himself and losing all motivation. woongki taking over the leader position and carrying a team who was dragging their feet and who gave up winning from the start. the (honestly understandable) amount of doubt and insecurity in that team was actually unbelievably frustrating. woongki made that performance what it was, he absolutely ate the killing part position, and who did the fans vote for as the mvp? shuaibo. all because the fans thought he was so cute while they had no idea what happened behind the scenes. and now they're in the same group?? how did i only find out now that they're in a group together 😭😭

[nerikoki]

Portrayal of Female Characters in “Manly” Manga (Bakuman, JJBA, and a little bit of Death Note)

(Part 2/3)

Death Note is written by the same group that created Bakuman and I actually had read Death Note before reading Bakuman (making me fall in love with Obata’s art and giving me more reason to check out another one of their series). Honestly, should I have expected much from these creators in the way of female characters? No. Death Note doesn’t have amazing female characters either, but the role that they play is much more fitting. The female characters in Death Note work because Light is such a douchebag that it makes sense for him to view women in a demeaning and expendable way; he views just about everyone around him as expendable anyway. The female characters in Death Note mainly exist as pawns and for slight fan service which completely matches Light’s manipulative personality and the tone of the overall manga. There are also a few characters that I felt were competent, such as Naomi and Linder who provided some balance (until their ends). Unlike Bakuman, Death Note didn’t necessarily need female characters who were on the same level as the male protagonist(s). There is no heterosexual romance that acts as a motivating factor and thus the female characters in Death Note occupy a completely different space with different requirements than do the female characters in Bakuman. 

Misa is the most prominent female character in this series and thus deserves focus this time. When you actually read Death Note, you see that Misa is kind of just there. Yes, she possesses something incredibly powerful and useful to Light, but she’s presented as a “dumb blonde” kind of character. She’s rather clueless and “in love” with Light which doesn’t allow her to match up with him intellectually; however, his didn’t really anger or deter me from reading and enjoying the series. Now that I think of it, it may just be the product of audience analysis and reimagination but Misa feels to be a symbol of embracing that traditionally-looked-down-upon bubbly and feminine personality and being comfortable in it. Even though she’s not actually written like that, I personally don’t think, because of her popularity her faults feel less like the product of bad writing and instead have been sort of “reclaimed” as a way to embrace femininity in it’s various forms — even those that were previously weaponized against women. 

As a girl who reads a lot of shounen manga I think that just because I fall out of the traditionally set demographic of the genre, that doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy those series as well. I enjoy most of them but I don’t think they are free from criticism especially in this department. I don’t expect perfection but I think it is still worth it to discuss these kinds of issues, even if they may be rather minor. I actually enjoyed Death Note a lot and I had a lot of thoughts about the ending of the anime versus the ending of the manga so maybe I’ll make a post about that too… That might be an exhausted topic but I haven’t really looked for myself yet.

Again, thank you for reading! I plan to somewhat wrap this up with my next post discussing some things about the female characters in JJBA (up to part 5).

[placebogirl7]

Nana characters names analysis

Here again another Nana analysis (probably you’re fed up of my Nana anlysis in these days!). I don’t know if someone has already done it, by the way I’ll try to point out what I found out.  Yesterday I was searching Japanese names (male and female) and among the two lists I found several names of characters in Nana. When I checked the meaning of those names, I was surprised to see that it reflected in some way the character who had it. But considering that this is Yazawa and she never does things randomly, I guess the choise of names was premeditated.

Let’s start with the list (below cut to save other people dashboard)!

Keep reading

[komatsunana]

Oooooooooh! I very interesting read. I love reading about character name meanings, especially in anime and manga because name meanings are so important in Japanese language.

A few fun notes that I have about the names!!!

Nana and Hachi’s last names are Osaki and Komatsu.  As anyone who read Lovely Complex might already know, O and Ko mean big and small respectively.  It’s just a cute little thing that makes how they are so similar yet so different and always destined to meet.  To carry it out, Osaki means “big/great cape” while Komatsu means “small pine tree.”

Additionally, Even though the two Nana’s have the same name and pronunciation… Their names are actually spelled differently!  Nana Osaki’s name is spelled ナナ which is the katakana spelling, while Hachi’s is spelled 奈々which I believe is kanji spelling.  I don’t know much more about Japanese but if anyone else does I would be interested in the difference between the two and what it may signify in their parents intent while naming their children, as well as any significance that readers might notice.

However I am going to hazard my guesses based on my research and say that part of this might be in part of Hachi’s parent’s naming conventions.  The Na ( 奈) in Nao, Nana, and Nami all share the same character for all three (as does Natsuko, their mother!)  That character ( 奈) means fruit tree.  

Keep reading

[nerikoki]

Portrayal of Female Characters in “Manly” Manga (Bakuman, JJBA, and a little bit of Death Note)

(Part 1/3)

This is definitely a vast, most likely endless, topic but in reading these series, the role which female characters played and the way in which they were written stood out to me in particular.

I’ve seen many people prop up Bakuman as a great series and I genuinely am interested as to why. I was recommended to read Bakuman by a male friend who claimed it to be one of the best series he’s read, and the premise seemed pretty interesting to me: a classic shounen format but instead of action and combat, a story centered around becoming a mangaka. I like to draw; I’m interested in what’s behind becoming a mangaka; I thought I would give it a try. However, the story was much different than I expected and I really couldn’t get into it (I ended up dropping it probably around volume 5?). The main problem, for me, was how the female characters were treated. Miyoshi couldn’t be on the page without a “Wow, your boobs are so big,” while Miho had virtually no personality and the fact that she was a girl as compared to the main male protagonists seemed to be overly emphasized. The story hinges on romance yet creates completely uninteresting love interests that leave you wondering why they even have feelings for each other in the first place. This doesn’t make any sense to me as I understood the romance between Miho and Moritaka to be the basis of his motivation to become a manga artist (although they barely interact).

Miho isn’t a throw-away side character, she’s the protagonist’s love interest. Miho is presented as smart, not for her intellectual ability, but for acting “how a girl should” and “knowing her place” as a woman — instead of living up to her full potential her dream is to be married and become a wife. This is projected onto her and she seems to have no individuality outside of her relationship to Moritaka. Miyoshi on the other hand seems to provide the illusion of being a strong female character, as she excels at martial arts, but other than that she says stuff like “I want a girly dream.” And what exactly is a “girly dream”? She had potential to be genuinely interesting but she simply is not. The problem isn’t necessarily that she needs to be strong and independent, but is instead the way she is framed by Takagi and Moritaka as well as how she is compared to Miho's "girliness." The female characters in Bakuman seem to exist solely as eye candy for the male characters because "Guys like girls and they need something to look at." Yes, they are 14 year old boys which would make that make some sense, but that doesn’t make it ok or enjoyable to read.

I’ve seen people say that romance is the weakest part of Bakuman yet it is still an incredibly important aspect of the entire plot and story. The romance serves as the protagonists’ motivation and determination to achieve their dream. If that part of the story is weak and boring, why should I even care about any of the characters, what they’re doing, what they’re trying to achieve? 

Bakuman is clearly a male-dominated story, it is a shounen manga after all, but the fact that romance is supposed to play a large part in the story means that the male and female characters must actually work together; they need to be somewhat equals.

I have two comparisons to make -- the way that female characters are treated in a manga by the same author(s) and the way that female characters are treated in a manga that is also clearly “manly” and “male-dominated” -- which I will discuss in my second and third parts. Please look forward to those if you enjoyed!

Hi, if you made it to the end! This is my first post, so please be nice TT Over the years I've accumulated many different thoughts on the media I've consumed and I wanted somewhere to yap so I decided to try making a tumblr.

Thank you for reading and please reply with opinions/corrections! (Honestly it's been a while since I've read these series so I'm mostly going off of what I wrote down in the past which is, admittedly, not always complete thoughts lol)