#mypoe

[shrimpnest]

Outcrop on High

[theholygrails]

I wake up I wake up and I wake up and wish That the world that the world was that the world was not like this.

diandra

[shrimpnest]

The messenger returns.

[mindstack]

"They told me I could be a saint while I smoked a newly rolled joint. My left eyebrow cocked itself in reproach"

-@mindstack

[ggeraldooso]

El Fin De Las Historias (Predilección De Mi Umbral).

Contactos inutilizados, constituidos en lo remoto, no seguiré murmurando en espacios vacíos donde he cometido lo inexacto

Parezco un arma cargada, tiros, tiros, tiros... En más agujeros repletos de aversión y malignidad; mis pensamientos ya no podrán amedrentarse (Quizá)

Decidiendo qué reverenciar para no visualizar aquello que puede ser execrado, sigo deseando tener lo que yo he imaginado que ya estaba sobre la mesa No podremos dejarlo ir, podemos dejar que esté en el redondel del alejamiento, aunque siempre habrá tiempo para cambiar de opinión Oye mis silencios, sintoniza mis pensamientos... Acerca tus placeres, abracemos nuestros sufrimientos Repítelo conmigo. Sé que tomé el camino, no es la primera vez que me verás, no pronto llegará la oportunidad de ser la última; no hay infiernos por mucho tiempo Cubrir el mundo en todo tu alrededor, salvando los sueños perdidos por remuneración (Esclavos de las noches) Solo pude decir una sola verdad, la que existe (Una perspectiva) Sin ilusiones está el arma, con tiros de promesas que flechan la esperanza.

[yoitssheena]

She overwhelm with the thoughts of killing,

She wants to be dead rather to deal with the living.

She knows she is unusual,

Yet she can’t help her horrific thoughts.

She absorb everyone’s sorrows,

And yet no one listen to her.

“Life is not fair,” she said,

And she is God damn right.

                                                             02.16.15

[annotatedsonichu]

Sonichu #3, page 9

MYPOE: Because I, Mypoe, calling myself Byashiko, will not allow a grasshopper like you to hatch into my director's dojo-shin so easily!

SHINABE: Mypoe, I am only your father in this setup; stay in character!

CHRISTIAN WESTON CHANDLER: Yeah!  I'm the director of this anime, not Shinabe.

MYPOE: That doesn't matter!  I will win this fight!

MYPOE: And my opponent does not need this weak point!  Hyah!

SFX: *rip*

PUNCHY SONICHU: Hhhhm...

PUNCHY SONICHU: That... really...

SFX: Smash!

PUNCHY SONICHU: ...hurt!!

CAPTION: *Sky Uppercut*

SHINABE: Wow!  You are strong!

SHINABE: I know what Mypoe did was wrong, but if you will let me, I can teach you how to center that power into a much better, less painful-looking style.

PUNCHY SONICHU: I am Punchy, strike ninja!  I studied under the G.D.W., Shinabe, and I became the greatest fighter since Goku!  I also leaned to keep my temper down by watching TV comedies... Ha, ha!  They're so funny!

Mypoe is nominally based upon Poemy Watanabe, the title character of the Excel Saga spin-off Puni Puni Poemy.  (However, the character's hairstyle is more reminiscent of Saga's main character, Excel.)  In the cartoon, Poemy is Nabeshin's adopted daughter, and is notoriously hyperactive and headstrong.  The character calls herself "Kobayashi" (as she is voiced by Yumiko Kobayashi) and openly acknowledges that her father is really the director of the anime.  

Hence, just as Nabeshin is bewildered that Mypoe keeps breaking character, Shinabe must gently chide his daughter for doing the same.  Curiously, even as he does this he admits that Mypoe is not actually his daughter at all.  This is made all the more curious by the author's brief cameo to point out that he is the storyteller, which raises the question of why Shinabe shares his directorial self-awareness.  The only reasonable conclusion is that Mr. Chandler is a self-aware author character who has created a self-aware author character, Shinabe, that realizes Mypoe isn't real without also recognizing that he himself is just as imaginary.  Not for the first time I would like to note that Grant Morrison has nothing on Christian Weston Chandler.

Chris strangely asserts that he is "the director of this anime," as opposed to "writer/artist of this comic book," which would have the benefit of being true.  (OK, technically it's a drawing of Chris claiming credit for the work, and ceci n'est pas une homme enfantin, but you get the idea.)  This brings to the fore an underlying fact about Sonichu--it is a story that is only told in the format of sequential art because the author lacks the talent or resources to make it a full-fledged Japanese animated series, as he truly envisioned it.

Mypoe's comparison of Punchy to a grasshopper calls to mind the TV series Kung Fu, in which Shaolin monk Master Po gives the nickname "Grasshopper" to his student Caine.  The trope of a great teacher assigning this or similarly diminutive titles to his lowly student has permeated pop culture, so it's not clear if Mr. Chandler has knowingly made a Kung Fu reference or if he simply picked it up from some other work that did.

When Mypoe describes Punchy's tail as a "weak point," she refers to Dragon Ball manga and anime.  In Dragon Ball, the extraterrestrial Saiyans are powerful warriors who have a monkeylike tail; this tail is a critical vulnerability as is extremely sensitive, making it an obvious target in combat.  In the episode "The True Colors of the Masked Man," Goku, a Saiyan boy, loses his tail while sparring with his grandfather, who quickly suggests that the injury has eliminated Goku's greatest weakness.  Here, it is less clear why Mypoe would want to remove a vulnerability of her enemy, but then again it's not even clear why Mypoe is so determined to fight Punchy to begin with.

The casual brutality with which Mypoe tears out Punchy's tail is a harbinger for much more extreme violence in later issues of Sonichu.  Although Punchy, like Goku, almost instantly recovers from the wound (there isn't even any bleeding), one cannot help but wonder why this scene was necessary at all.  There is no particular need for Punchy to lack a tail--Knuckles the Echidna has a tail, after all, and Punchy's a carbon-copy of him in every other respect.  This and even more graphic violence in the series stem from the author's inability to understand that certain acts are unpleasantly gruesome for a comic about cartoon hedgehogs.

The tail-ripping sequence reminds me, ironically enough, of the extremely violent Sonichu parody Fear and Loathing in Cwcville, specifically the scene in which Sonichu's son Robbie is so high on cocaine that he cuts off his own penis with a boxcutter.  Although Fear and Loathing seems to juxtapose horrific mutilation with the apparent innocence of Sonichu, the only real difference is that it celebrates and glorifies the gore instead of taking it for granted as Mr. Chandler does.

The agony of being maimed causes Punchy to evolve into his adult form within minutes of hatching.  (Remember, all Angelica had to do was pray a lot.)  In his Sonichu form, Punchy's distinctly slanted eyes are more evident.  If there is a reason why the author rendered Punchy this way, it has not been revealed.  Even Mypoe and Shinabe, who are ostensibly Japanese people living in Japan, do not have their eyes drawn this way.

Although Punchy sends Mypoe hurtling through the roof towards parts unknown, her father seems more concerned with Punchy's potential as a student in the martial arts.  His remark about teaching Punchy a "less painful-looking style" is odd, considering that inflicting pain is rather the point; perhaps he means that he can show Punchy how to focus his wrath without being dismembered.

Punchy claims to be the greatest fighter since Goku, the aforementioned central character of the Dragon Ball mythos.  This is no small claim, as Goku would grow up to become a virtually unbeatable, immortal master of the martial arts.  By carrying on the legacies of Goku and Nabeshin, Punchy effectively becomes the lovechild of Superman and Dolemite for people who love terrible Japanese cartoons.  In spite of this, Punchy never displays any extraordinary prowess in future Sonichu action sequences; like the rest of Cwcville's hedgehogs, he is little more than a rank-and-file foot soldier in Chris's army.

In a curious epilogue to this origin story, Mr. Chandler would later write that Shinabe was murdered by a former student, forcing Punchy to avenge the Great Director Watanabe.

[annotatedsonichu]

Sonichu #3, page 8

TITLE: Punchy Sonichu

CAPTION: *Nabe's dojo-shin*

SHINABE: Excellent, my students.  You all make this master G.D.W. proud.

SHINABE: Now, we will perfect our choppin' technique; you never know when you'll need to cut a movie.

SHINABE: Now, get like this and...

SHINABE: Nani?!

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: (off-panel) Master Nabe-san, your egg is shaking.

PUNCHY SONICHU: Sonee!

SHINABE: Great Excel-Poemy Saga!

PUNCHY SONICHU: Son...

PUNCHY SONICHU: Sonee, sonee, sonee!

MYPOE: I'll accept your challenge!

The "u" in "Punchy" at the top of the page has been stylized to resemble Punchy Sonichu's fist, with his thumb on the right and two spiky knuckles pointing down.

The setting of this sequence seems to be based on PaRappa the Rapper, a 1996 game in which the title character learns to rap in various fantasy sequences.   The first stage features Chop Chop Master Onion, a sensei that teaches Parappa basic karate in rap form.  (Mr. Chandler infamously performed Master Onion's rap as an entry in a 2007 contest.)  This would explain Shinabe's emphasis on "choppin' technique."

Shinabe himself ("Nabe" for short) is a pastiche of Shinichi Watanabe, the director of the 1999 anime series Excel Saga, and his fictional counterpart in the cartoon, Nabeshin.  Nabeshin is the direct inspiration for the author's premise of putting himself in Sonichu as both a participant in the action and the creative force dictating that action.  Accordingly, Shinabe's school juxtaposes martial arts combat training with the art of filmmaking.  The term "GDW" is taken directly from Watanabe's Puni Puni Poemy, where he styles himself as GDW ("Great Director Watanabe"), which in term references the manga GTO ("Great Teacher Onizuka").

Mr. Chandler completely skips over the part of the story of how the egg came to be in Shinabe's dojo; he would later explain that the egg had previously crashed through the roof and Shinabe chose to keep it on a pillow.  He seems quite shocked that his egg might hatch and a strange creature could burst out of it, in spite of the rather obvious risk one takes when harboring a mysterious giant egg.

"Nani" means "What" in Japanese, and the suffix "-san" is an honorific denoting courtesy.  "Great Excel-Poemy Saga" is a meaningless combination of words meant to allude to the titles of Watanabe's cartoons.  When Punchy's egg begins to stir, we might translate the dialogue that follows as:

SHINABE: What?

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: (off-panel) Master Mister Nabe, your egg is shaking.

PUNCHY SONICHU: Herro!  My name-ah Punxiay Sonnixiu from-ah Kurikvirre!

SHINABE: Holy Regular-Adventure Showtime!

The six panels crowded into the lower right corner appear to occur after all of that, and show Punchy striking a cool anime pose and brandishing his claws.  Mypoe immediately perceives this as a provocative gesture, and resolves to validate her honor by pummeling a two-minute-old rodent.