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ponderlyunbiasednews · 3 months

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Should physical education be mandatory in all schools?

Fact Box

Schools in the United States require variations of classes in English, Social Science, Mathematics, and Science through a 12-year educational system, elementary to secondary school.

According to a 2016 study, out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, 39 require primary school students to take physical education, 37 for junior highers, and 44 for high school students.

Shape America states that only six states mandate physical education in every grade level (IL, HI, MA, MS, NY, and VT), while three states require nationally recommended 150-minute weekly exercise.

The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) assert that “children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 years do 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily.”

James (No)

While physical education and health are undoubtedly essential areas of life and growth, there are numerous valid reasons why they should not be mandatory in our schools:

First, the US has fallen outside the top 10 in global academic rankings. One significant factor contributing to this is the need for adequate funding for schools. Schools may only have the means to offer some, not all, pupils high-quality physical education lessons because the subject frequently calls for specialized equipment, facilities, and qualified instructors. With this in mind, slots currently reserved for physical education could also be better used to offer students an opportunity to grow academically, as this should be the main focus of primary education.

Furthermore, compulsory physical education lessons might burden some students with physical restrictions or impairments that prevent them from participating in physical education activities. This reality would further alienate an important demographic of the student body. This and other factors can also lead to numerous safety concerns associated with physical education. Considering the woes mentioned above about the current education system, it is often the case that schools don't have policies in place to guarantee the security of all pupils.

Giving physical education a mandatory place in primary school curriculums can also lead to increased and unnecessary stress levels and pressure on some students. If a kid is not naturally athletic or is not interested in team sports, physical education classes may be a source of these negative emotions during an important developmental phase of life.

Chad (Yes)

Physical education is essential to a child's development, alongside other forms of education (such as mental, emotional, and social). Together, these lead to a healthy, well-balanced, and successful adult.

Phys Ed classes have sometimes had a negative perception or effect on students. This is primarily due to a need for more qualified instructors and resources. Such issues led to classes that were often a waste of time for some students and a source of anxiety or even bullying for others.

However, this is not to say that all PE classes are harmful or unnecessary. More modern PE classes at many schools offer a more comprehensive range of activities that are much less of a one-size fits all solution. These provide more activities that suit students' varying interests and needs (like yoga, stretching, individual sports, martial arts, etc.). Every student can find the activity that suits their physical and mental needs or circumstances.

America has some of the highest obesity rates in the world, and many adults do not know how to exercise, stretch, or be in touch with their physical bodies. This greatly strains our medical system and decreases our overall longevity and quality of life.

Instilling proper physical education ideals into these students early on in life will improve their overall health as individuals as well as benefit our society and economy in the long run. We do not need to abolish PE just because some have had bad experiences. Instead, we need to reform it and design a new curriculum that addresses the unique, holistic needs of the students.

#opinion articles #best unbiased news sources #parenting articles #short articles #best unbiased news

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scratchpad123 · 7 months

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10 Amazing Short Articles and Essays

Want to read something great? Short on time? We have you covered:

Things We Think We Know by Chuck Klosterman - We all hate stereotypes. Except we don't...

Crazy Love by Steven Pinker - Why love is like insanity...

Small, Yes, but Mighty by Natalie Angier - The molecule called water

Why You Are Unhappy by Tim Urban - Happiness = reality - expectations

Keep Your Identity Small by Paul Graham - Politics, like religion, is a topic with no threshold of expertise for expressing an opinion...

What No One Else Will Tell You About Feminism by Lindy West - Guess what? You're a feminist

Adventures in Depression by Allie Brosh - Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me...

The Onset by My Ngoc To - When I was about six weeks old and still inside my mother, my milk lines formed...

Phoning It In by Stanley Bing - She gave me this long and involved story about a huge slight that was inflicted on her operation by some other entity someplace, and I was looking out the window and thinking, whoa, look at that BMW Z8

A Brief History of Forever by Tavi Gevinson - Forever is the state, exclusive to those between the ages of 13 and 17...

#short articles #short essays #classic nonfiction

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inovize · 1 year

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The Benefits of Sleeping Enough

Sleep is one of the most important things for your health. Getting adequate rest can help reduce disease, improve athletic performance, and more. Today, I will be discussing the four most important benefits of sleeping enough.

🌐 healthyteen.org/shorts 🌐

#Sleep #Health #Physical Health #Short #Short Articles #Short Form #Mental Health

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stormysapphic · 2 years

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hey, my kurdish friend wanted to point out that the iranian woman murdered by the police in tehran was a kurd and her kurdish name was jîna emînî. she has mostly been referred to as mahsa amini, the iranian version of her name, in the media & that can ofc still be used to make sure posts about her reach a mainstream audience. however people should make sure to mention her given kurdish name foremost, as well as highlight the fact that she was a kurd in the first place, because that played a part in her facing the violence that she did.

#my friend doesn't have a tumblr & her original post on instagram abt this was not in english so i couldn't just repost it #so this is a short summary of her message #if you need to know more i'm not the person to ask abt this & you should go check out kurdish activists' posts and articles on this event #personal #mahsa amini #jîna emînî #jina emini #iran #kurdistan #kurdish #social justice #feminism #police brutality

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dailykafka · 5 months

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Was kafka really a zionist?

First, I feel like I have to mention that the modern day zionism (which is used as propaganda that serves Israel) is very different from what it was in its starting days. Europe's rising antisemitism in 20th century made jewish life impossible there and a seperate Jewish state was a last chance for jews to survive.

Fun fact! Did you know that Israel was supposed to be in Africa but other european colonisers didn't want another major power in Africa?

Back to Kafka. When Zionist movement was just starting in Europe Kafka was quite fascinated by it. He was close friends with some very devout zionists in his late twenties, went to lectures and seminars and was close with the movement. But over the years Kafka changed his views, he disagreed with the movement on various issues and he distanced himself from it mainly because he did not share their idea about creating a seperate jewish state in middle east.

Kafka often spoke of immigrating to Palestine but ultimately for him it didn't solve the "jewish problem" (he didn't think packing up and settling somewhere else would bring true peace for jews). Kafka was more concerned about the lives of jews in Europe and how they could have lived peacefully in Europe (he states very clearly in diaries and letters too that he didn't want to leave home and go somewhere else).

So shortly, Kafka shared zionists' sentiments of protecting jews from discrimination in Europe but he was against forming a jewish state in middle east.

Also a bit off the topic but the way Israel for years has tried to literally trap Kafka's works in Israel and has worked on creating the myth of "zionist Kafka" is worth taking note of. The legal battle over Franz Kafka's work and to whom it belongs has been very messy. I have seen couple of times Israel trying to portray Kafka as if he belongs to Israel just because he is jewish. I doubt Kafka would approve of this.

#i think i said bit more than was necessary but yeah that's the short answer i think😅#love getting asks that require writing actual academic articles lol #asks

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utilitycaster · 6 months

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God I'm sorry but Em Friedman is the Dnd Shorts of Actual Play writing. The Burrow's End coverage is egregiously off-base and there's just a pretty profound ignorance of How Things Work. Like, how TTRPGs work, but also how Actual Play works, and more generally how fantasy as a genre works, and there are some significant errors in really simple things such as the fact that ACOFAF used D&D, and usually Polygon has a bit of editorial integrity but this is giving like. CBR Top Ten Most Cool Things About D20.

#i have. many thoughts about the latest burrow's end episode #namely if it's the setup for a twist I am intrigued and excited!#if it is the twist itself...y'all could read about stoats on wikipedia and not a single article on How Do Nuclear Power plants work huh #and to be clear the friedman/dnd shorts comparison holds either way; i'm cautiously optimistic re: the actual show #but GOD the coverage is BAD #burrow's end spoilers

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stuffeddeer · 6 months

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rock band member dazai where he’s often in the media for drama between him and his previous ex band partner and you happen to run into him (anonymously!) on a chatting app. eventually his “personal conflicts “ he tells you about him and a ex friend start to align a lot with a certain famous singer’s tabloid scandals, so you bite the bullet and ask if it’s him or if he is just going through the same exact specific events dazai is. he ends up revealing his identity and you end up getting backstage tickets to his shows and he ends up just as obsessed with you as you are (chuuya is pissed that somehow that shitty dazai got a partner before him)

its u.

Dazai’s heart rate picked up at the two grammatically incorrect words that popped up in his notifications. You’d been so close to figuring it out for weeks; Was today finally the day?

wdym

Right: play dumb. There’s no guarantee you figured out who he is, so he just needs to stay calm.

Sure, week after week he’d tell you stories from his life that popped up in magazines and circulated around online the next day or so, always causing you to come back and flaunt it in his face that your favorite guitarist had done it “bigger and better” (even though the stories were the exact same). You frequently pointed out similarities in them (being him and… himself) to the point where he almost saved and told you several times, but something always held him back. Maybe he should just finally rip the bandage off.

A photo message came in. It was a screenshot - a screenshot of a picture Dazai had sent you. In the background had a bright red circle around something small. He zoomed in, eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. Couldn’t you just type it out? What a hassle - oh.

Yeah, he should’ve listened when his manager told him to pick it up and display it properly.

The image was a bird’s eye view of his hand, flashing his fresh coat of nail polish and his rather messy wooden floors (and his cute orange halloween socks). Nothing too damning upon first glance. Sure, you’d mentioned that your favorite band’s guitarist had painted his nails the same color, but that was mere coincidence, right?

No. Because this lazy moron couldn’t put things away, in the top left corner of the photo - the area circled in red - showed an opened package with the platinum record his band was gifted for their most popular song. Why would he have that if not a member of the band himself?

He looked up from his phone blankly, staring at the package still nestled on the side of his room. The only difference from the photo is that it had been pushed slightly to the side since then, stopping him from tripping over it. What a stupid mistake; Dazai had always been much more careful than this (except when he wasn't).

dude

u let me gush to u ab URSELF????

im embarrassed

Dazai smiled. Well, at least things weren’t awkward.

It had been a few months and you and Dazai were happy to talk in person now that he didn’t have to hide his face. You’d been backstage at many of his shows, meeting his bandmates and spending time in person. It had honestly been so much fun, but sometimes Dazai missed the cat and mouse game he’d been playing when you were unsure of his identity - back when you texted him rumors and articles about his own life, saying how crazy it was that your favorite artist went through the same things as him.

He’d woken up earlier than he wanted to due to the myriad of calls blowing up his phone. “What..” He grumbled, not even bothering to check caller ID. “Who is this?”

“You asshole! You got a fucking partner before I did? And they’re hot, too! No way they settled for you,” Chuuya continued to grumble while Dazai put him on speaker phone, tuning him out. Whatever he was yapping about didn’t matter once he noticed a notification from you.

do u know this guy? he seems to be goin thru the same things u r…

A link is included, leading Dazai to an article with a picture of him and you. The first thing he notices is how smitten he looks with you, causing him to blush very faintly as he smiles to himself. Is that really what he looks like around you?

Rockstar Dazai Osamu Finds New Fling - Or Maybe More?

More, definitely more.

“Are you listening, asshole?” Chuuya shouted from his speaker. “How’d ya get a partner before me?”

Dazai smiled, saving the paparazzi shot onto his phone. “My height, definitely.”

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c-kiddo · 11 days

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matt mercer saying in an interview that tmn animated will have none-tmn pov episodes concerns me a little. like , it doesn't need to be huge and expansive, theyre scrappy little weirdos, i rly like their weird small worldviews being challenged as the plot expands. but on one hand i sort of like the idea of a simultaneous plotline of them befriending a snooty fancy drow (essek) and that cutting between him absolutely ruining countless civilians including tmn's lives, but idk if the way i envision that is vry diffferent to what it would actually be, seeing as it implies episodes. either way i hope it stays like, he's fucking terrible, because if theres too much fanservice-y soft boy uwu shit i might have to hit him with a brick

#refering to a vry short interview article thing on businessinsider bc i saw people mention it and looked around for it #im like fully aware it wont fulfil my Vision and suit my taste and what i got out of cr2. but i would like it to be good and fun #kiddo say #sorry this is a hater post. and reading into things a little toooooo much maybe #its /lighthearted though #i wish i could show everyone the tmn animated show in my brain because its cool . unfortunately it will stay in there #ok i need to stop being distracted

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billionneuronscurious · 1 day

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Something fishy. Our world is full of aliens.

The Macrognathus aral, One-stripe spiny eel has its mouth and anterior shaped like a bird's beak. People make artworks by combining different kinds of animals or their forms. People also wonder about aliens, how they would look, and we have had so many drawings, cartoons of aliens. But isn't our own earth, the very world where we live, comprised of creatures alien-like? We have thousands and lakhs of species, all different from one another. And if we were to pick any animal group from these, let's say, fish, even they have so much variety. This variety, again, is in their body shapes, colours, size. And they are found in different habitats - freshwater (rivers, streams, ponds, lakes), saltwater/ marine, estuary. Let's consider their looks and body features. There's this one, in this post itself - Macrognathus aral, One-stripe spiny eel - which has a bird's beak-like anterior. There're 'flying fish' that can fly or glide in air for some time (with help of their fins). There're 'frogfish'. From their name itself, one can understand that they must be appearing like frogs. Walking on the seafloor. 'Sole' are flat fish that can be observed, again, on the seafloor, and with both of their eyes on one side (facing upward), on contrary to the single eye on each side of the fish. There are anglerfish, which lure their prey with their luminescent part. And so many others, grouped together based on their 'usual' characteristics, but still 'unusual'. Our world itself is full of aliens!

- Dhairyasheel Dayal

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aimasup · 1 month

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sure i COULD ramble about how ai is one of the multiple things that check all the marks of humanity's seven deadly sins but would that be extreme

^^^ possibly insufficiently educated

#the pride the hubris of believing you can do better than innovation and nature by playing god and not in the fun way #the lust it's being used for in so many awful cases #the sloth the way its encouraging everyone to check original sources less before believing anything. Also to not take time to develop skill #the greed its being used for profit without consideration for ethics or fair labour #gluttony. we always have to be faster. shinier. better. no matter if it ends up being less convenient or wonky #the wrath it sows in between people creating more differences to be frustrated over. more hatred #the envy how it takes and takes. always trying to be as clever as the best humans. as beautiful as a real forest or sunset.#do you think the ai wants itself #if this were a scifi movie would we be the bad guys #but this is not a movie and the ai cannot love us. so we cannot love it. and there's that #my post #personal stuff #thinking aloud just silly yapping n jazz 没啥事做就这样咯~#(￣▽￣)~*#when i was in primary school our textbooks for chinese had short stories and articles to learn about #there was a fictional scifi oneshot about a family in the future going to the zoo #the scifi zoo trip was going great until the zoo's systems went offline for a moment #and it was revealed that all the animals roaming in their enclosures were holograms #the real ones went extinct ages ago #when the computers came back online the holograms returned and there they were #honestly at first I thought it was a bit exaggerating #but I still think about it once in a while

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ponderlyunbiasednews · 3 months

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Local vs. national elections: Which is more important?

Congressional elections occur every two years to determine who is elected to Congress to represent the state in the US House and Senate and occur every two years. Local elections include voting for city mayors, governors, school board members, etc., and voting for or against ballot initiatives in an electorate’s immediate local area of living.

Presidential elections occur nationally in the US every four years where the people vote on the President and Vice President are chosen by “electors” through a process called the electoral college.

For the 2022 midterms, “nearly identical majorities of voters for candidates in both parties say they are ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ motivated to vote.”

According to the US Census Bureau, the 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout in the 21st century, with 155 million people sending in their votes.

The ten states with the highest rates of voter registration are: Maine, Alaska, Michigan, Kentucky, Vermont, Delaware, North Dakota, Colorado, Alabama, and New Jersey.

#short articles #opinion articles #best unbiased news #best unbiased news sources #most unbiased news source

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thewayoftheleaf · 11 months

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I couldn't help but click on this because I had no idea people had reading orders for wot. I mean, it's a pretty linear story and I wouldn't recommend reading them out of order?

Anyway, turns out this article endorses the controversial practice of starting with book one and proceeding in numerical order through book fourteen. I'm glad to be able to bring this helpful tip to anyone who was confused!

#how do i get paid to write such insightful articles #in fairness it also includes a short summary of each book but still . . . what is the point

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keikotwins · 3 months

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Mokumokuren

Birds of different feathers flock together

Noticed online by head-hunting publishers, Mokumokuren hasn’t waited very long before polarising the attention of Japanese readers. With strange The Summer Hikaru Died, horrific bromance dealing with body dispossession, the mangaka signs a series of sophisticated oddity, that sets itself apart from the predictability of current fantasy productions.

Interview by Fausto Fasulo. Original translation: Aurélien Estager. English translation: “Keikotwins”. Bibliography: Marius Chapuis. Thanks: Camille Hospital & Clarisse Langlet (Pika), Yuta Nabatame, Mayuko Yamamoto & Mana Kukimoto (Kadokawa), Chiho Muramatsu (Tohan)

(T/N: Interview given to ATOM in winter 2023; 2 volumes were out in French.)

In an interview given to the CREA website in November 2022, you confided inventing stories since very young. Did your first fictions resemble the ones you draw nowadays?

It’s true that there are quite a lot of common points between the stories I imagined when I was a child and the ones I tell nowadays in my mangas. Especially a specific motif, that has been haunting me since the time when I wasn’t really aware of the world surrounding me: the presence amongst us of “non-human” beings, that nonetheless have a perfectly normal, ordinary appearance…

And how was this “obsession” born?

Precisely identifying the origins is complicated, my memories are too blurry, I think… What I can tell you is that I’ve always been fascinated by “creatures”. For example, I remember being very impressed by Peter Jackson’s bestiary in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. By the way, still in a fantasy register, I am also a big fan of Harry Potter adaptations… (She thinks.) And I’ve always liked yōkai stories, you know. I think that what I like in all these mythologies is the idea of species classification: each has its own characteristics – physical, biological – its own way to apprehend its environment.

In Japan, yōkai are integral part of regional folklore. Did the place you grew up in have some specific beliefs?

I was born and grew up in Tokyo, and, as you must know, yōkai are mostly associated with rural areas. I was thus never really bathed in this type of regional fantasy folklore. There are all kinds of yōkai and we can perhaps see in some more contemporary urban legends the echo of certain past beliefs? (She thinks.) I am a bit frustrated, because I believe that I could remember a legend that would have impacted me, but nothing comes to mind immediately, sorry!

You have already said so in an interview and it’s quite obvious when reading your work: you are a big amateur of horrific fiction. What has been your first contact with the genre, all medium included?

It was television that introduced me to horror: special shows, television films, series, I was watching these programs with a mix of fear and enthusiasm, a confused sensation that particularly delighted me! (She thinks.) And amongst all the aired shows, I will remember two titles: Hontō ni atta kowai hanashi and Kaidan shin mimibukuro*.

* Inspired by the homonymous manga magazine published by Asahi Shimbun, Hontō ni atta kowai hanashi (lit. “Scary stories that really happened”) is a series produced by Fuji Television that has been airing more or less weekly since 2004. Derived from literary material (a series of compilations of hundreds of short stories by Hirokatsu Kihara and Ichirō Nakayama, published from 1990 to 2005) Kaidan shin mimibukuro is a series made of several short movies depicting ghost stories based on real testimony.

Did you read horror mangas when you were young?

Let’s say that I was more interested in live-action productions. Nowadays, I obviously appreciate some horror manga authors, without pretending to be any expert in the subject. For example, I like Junji Itō’s work, but I am far from knowing it for a long time… (She thinks.) I could also talk about Shigeru Mizuki, who I also appreciate a lot.

The mechanics of fear aren’t the same in occidental and oriental fictions. You like American horrific productions – like Ari Aster movies – as much as ones from Japanese origin – you notably quote Ichi Sawamura novels and Kōji Shiraishi feature films. Can we say that you are tying these two perspectives with The Summer Hikaru Died?

My relationship with horror is more imbued with oriental sensitivity. But what I find remarkable in occidental horrific productions is work on image. In The Shining like in Ari Aster movies, for example, there is real research made on frame composition and choice of colours. I also try to follow this aesthetic reflection in my work as a mangaka.

In Ari Aster’s work, beyond the very precise staging, there is this permanent desire of ambiguity. Do you try to dig this same equivocal trench?

Absolutely. I try to tell complex feelings as well in The Summer Hikaru Died, like fear dyed with nostalgia or attachment, repulsion mixed with fascination, with attraction…

How do you “sort out” the shots that inspire you in cinema?

I don’t draw while freeze-framing during specific scenes. I would always rather watch a movie as a “focussed” spectator. However, I pay a lot of attention to the way the director composes their frame. I sometimes take some notes, but I most often simply keep it in a corner of my mind.

Could you tell us when and how the story and characters of The Summer Hikaru Died appeared to you? Have they matured a long time within you?

I’ve started thinking about this story when I was preparing university entrance exams. I was aspiring to join an art uni, and I was drawing every day. I can’t really say I made my characters “mature”: back then, I wasn’t thinking that the drawings I was making would one day end up being published, way less being serialised! I innocently created characters close to me, without guessing that one day they’d become manga protagonists.

One of your foundational reads was Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul manga. Can you tell us how you discovered it and what effect it had on you?

I don’t really remember how I discovered this series, but what I know is that I became crazy about it at first read. What I liked – and what I still like – is this idea of telling a story that confronts humans to these “different” beings while following the point of view of a character that represents alterity. Beyond this strictly dramatic aspect, Sui Ishida’s storyboarding and character design have had a strong impact on my work. However, I want to add that Tokyo Ghoul isn’t the only title I took inspiration from, I obviously have other references…

Do you do a lot of researches to define the design of your characters? You seem to draw them easily, in a very natural gesture…

I haven’t spent a long time defining my protagonists. First, there are few in the manga, then, they evolve in a rather realistic universe. My goal was rather simple: they had to look believable in the reader’s eyes. I wanted people to be able to imagine crossing them in the street, you see?

It’s after seeing illustrations posted on social media that depicted the future characters of The Summer Hikaru Died that the publishing department of the Young Ace Up magazine noticed you. How have you reacted when approached?

I was very surprised, because I absolutely wasn’t trying to become a mangaka. I would have never projected in such a future, you see. And, very honestly, if they hadn’t suggested working on this series, I don’t think I would ever had pushed the doors of a publishing house… I am then very thankful towards the persons who have allowed me to enter.

And what would you have done if you hadn’t been solicited?

Back when I’ve been contacted, I was considering – still vaguely – working in the video games field. But I wasn’t really proactive, I wasn’t contacting anyone, wasn’t sending resumes…

Did you want to do chara-design?

Why not, yes. What I like in video games is the range of possibilities they offer. You can then create an entire universe and this is rather exhilarating.

So you’re a gamer…

I have dropped my controller since I’ve started drawing manga. But yes, when I had more time, I played rather regularly, especially Nintendo productions…

Even if you play rather little nowadays, do video games influence your work?

I can’t say whether it really is an influence, but the Undertale game has left a big mark on me. I felt its creator’s strong will to surprise players, to make them feel unprecedented sensations…

Horror manga only relies on art and storyboard to provoke fear, whereas cinema and video games can also rely on sound. Is it from this observation that you have decided to particularly work on your sound effects?

Absolutely. I have thought a lot about the way to introduce and stage sound in The Summer Hikaru Died. The sound effects that you can find in the manga are indeed the result of this approach.

In an interview given to the Realsound website, you mention the use of the シャワシャワ (“shawa shawa”) sound effect. Knowing that occidental readers are way less sensitive to these graphicoustic details, can you explain its meaning?

“Shawa shawa” expresses the song cicadas make in western Japan. It’s a very special noise because in the different regions live different species that make specific sounds. So when I choose this specific sound effect, I convey a geographic and temporal piece of information to the reader, who can then guess the location and season the action takes place in. (She thinks.) When using this sound – that we especially find in the beginning of the manga – my goal was to play with silence, particularly when the song stops. I thus had the idea of representing this sound effect with an easily readable font, so the reader would make no effort to decipher it, as if the sound was asserting itself naturally, you see? I hoped to suggest a saturation they couldn’t avoid and that, when it’d stop, would immerse them in absolute silence.

The Summer Hikaru Died transcribes very well this particular atmosphere of Japanese summers…

Yes, I really wanted to signify this languor in my manga. And the cicadas’ song we discussed earlier contributes to creating this atmosphere: it’s an overwhelming sound, sometimes irritating, you cannot escape from in summer – Japanese readers obviously know what I’m talking about. (She thinks.) I also gave special attention to shadows: summer light being very bright, shadows are very sharp, very deep.

Do digital tools allow you to get this result more efficiently than traditional?

I work on Clip Studio Paint, and it’s true that it sometimes allow me to save time. Consider the work on shadows: I never apply solid black because I like saturating space with hatches and, with digital tools, I can obtain the desired result faster because I can duplicate each of my lines.

Your use of hatches is sometimes reminiscent of Shūzō Oshimi’s…

I don’t know his mangas very well, but it’s funny that you mention him because I recently read his latest series, Okaeri Alice. In any case, I really like his style and I perfectly understand how you can bring his universe and mine together.

The Summer Hikaru Died relies on the concept of body dispossession, that obviously takes back to the Body Snatcher novel by Jack Finney and its movie adaptations. Did you think about it?

I don’t know this book very well, but I know its theme has been approached often, especially in movies. As I was saying at the beginning of this interview, my idea was to adopt the point of view of a non-human and tell his indecision, his moral questions…

We also find this idea in Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasite…

I haven’t read the manga fully, but I’ve watched the anime adaptation that was released a few years ago (R/N: in 2014). I remember rather liking it, even if I think I offer something different with The Summer Hikaru Died. What interests me is sounding the inwardness of my non-human character out and expose all his dilemmas. What is his place amongst men? Is he legitimate in our world? Here is the type of questions that pushed me.

One of the impacting scenes of volume 1 of The Summer Hikaru Died is the one when Yoshiki penetrated Hikaru’s body by shoving his arm into his torso. It’s a sequence that is both very sensuaI – to not say sexuaI – and also very horrific. How did you get this idea?

I wanted to put the readers in an uncomfortable position. A stressful situation that could take several forms because, according to your sensitivity, you can feel very different emotions in front of this scene: sexuaI arousaI, fear or disgust. For me, it was supposed to put the reader in some kind of catatonia, you see?

Do you chat a lot with your tantō, especially around these slightly “complicated” scenes?

I have free rein, you know, I can draw everything I want. My editorial supervisor has never asked me to temper some sexuaIIy connotated parts. My discussions with him don’t revolve around this kind of things, but rather around the structure of the scenario itself: where to place this scene in the narration? Is it better to put this sequence before this other one? Nowadays, I am more at ease with all the scripting layout but, at the beginning, I needed support.

What allows you to get, from a dramatic point of view, the mix between bromance and horror?

I wanted to show the differences in sensitivities and values between a human being and an “other than human”, and tell the misunderstandings this can cause when both meet. When Yoshiki “scratches” under the appearance of the one who is supposed to be his best friend, it creates a first point of conflict in the story. I then hoped to make his relationship with Hikaru – or rather with the “entity” that pretends to embody him – a kind of undefinable bond, that wouldn’t be friendship, nor love.

Do you know today where this strange relationship between your two heroes will lead you?

I know more or less how all of this will evolve, yes. I have decided on my story’s general plot since the beginning. I can only tell you that The Summer Hikaru Died won’t be a long series.

How do you explain the almost instant public plebiscite of your series in Japan? You perhaps cannot have perspective on it but, in a saturated publishing landscape, you have managed to stand out…

Hm… Indeed, I don’t really have precise explanations to give you about this success. Maybe the covers’ design has been in favour of the manga? I asked the person in charge of graphics to make sure that the visuals would be noticeable in bookstores. That’s why the books have this monochrome aspect, with the title discreetly placed. I didn’t want obvious advertisement banners, but something simple, like this blue background for the first volume, on which the character stands out. I also wished to create contrast between the jacket’s and the inner cover’s drawings. I thus had requirements that didn’t quite go alongside what we can nowadays see on the shelves of Japanese bookstores.

#the summer hikaru died #hikaru ga shinda natsu #/long post #I'm not a native eng speaker so excuse mistakes!#the fr version has fancy words that I simplified for the eng translation #Feel free to ask any question!#The og article had manga illustrations with funny comments as legends + a short analysis of the manga's narration that I didn't include #The og title was 'Qui se dissemble s'assemble'#which is a play of words saying the opposite of idiom 'Qui se ressemble s'assemble' lit 'who look alike go together'#so I went for a silly equivalent lmao

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