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lalunameli · 4 months

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LaLunaMeli's MasterList of Translations:

And other miscellanea...

Tiger & Bunny:

Mostly Yuri Petrov/Lunatic related

Season 1

Yuri Petrov/Lunatic Article from Hero Gossips

Excerpts from Hero TV Fan Volume 2

TN: May add more translations from this publication later

Hero TV Newspaper Extra Pg 18: Lunatic/Yuri Petrov

Cast Comments from Yusa Kōji from an unknown magazine about Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning

Late Night Tea With Yuri-Sensei: 5th Cup By: Ogawa Kuro

Late Night Tea With Yuri-Sensei: 4th Cup By: Ogawa Kuro

Yuri Petrov's Profile from The Rising - King of Works Super Fanbook

Lunatic - Heroes Column Card

Golden Ryan - Excerpts of Heroes Column Card and short lesson on Japanese polite speech forms

Yuri Petrov's Daily Schedule: The Rising - King of Works Super Fanbook

The Beginning Novelization: Yuri/Luna's post credit scene

Translation of Barnaby's Medical Assessment Performed by Dr. Chinatsu Matsui (From the November 2011 Issue of Animage)

Media

TaiBani Music, Audio Dramas and Events

Lunatic/Yuri-centric content from The Sound of Tiger & Bunny pamphlet.

Small blurb on Special CD #6: Yuri Petrov's Melancholic Daily Life

TN: Changed title to match the title used in the previously translated audio drama; however, 憂鬱 (yuuutsu) can also be translated as "depression", "gloomy", and "melancholy", so both titles work. "Yuri Petrov's Gloomy Daily Life" also sounds pretty good.

Translation of Yuri's Character Song: Thanatos no Koe wo Kike and small article about it

Excerpts from TB2 OST Liner Notes

AFFT Talkshow Event October 13, 2017 (Mainly Yuri information)

Information about TaiBani and New Otani Hotel Collab 2024

Explaination About Yuri and the Karuizawa Cabbage Seller Theory

Taibani Videogames

Translation of Yuri-centric info from this PASH article on Hero's Day for PSP

More Hero's Day Info on Yuri's Route

Hero's Day Screenshots and other info from Yuri's Route.

TN: May add translation of Yusa Kōji interview later

Translation of Yuri's (main) Route from Hero's Day for PSP

Part 1 and Part 2

Hero's Day: Yuri's April Fools Day Message and Small Interview with Yusa Kōji from B's Log

Misc Translations

Translation of blurb on Barnaby and Kotetsu's Eau de Toilette Fragrances

Masakazu Katsura's Tribute to Toriyama Akira-sensei and Masakazu Morita's words (Translation by: Todd Blankenship on Twitter/X)

Translation of Lunatic Sound Drops

Happy 13th Year Anniversary TaiBani

Season 2

Ueda Hiroshi's TaiBani2 Sequel Idea (Tweet)

S2 Cour1 Ep 8: 顔色悪い (Kao iro warui)

Translation of Yuri and Lunatic centric parts of this interview with Kase Atsuko in Newtype, February 2023

Translation of Yuri and Lunatic centric parts of this interview with Kase Atsuko in Animedia, February 2023

Translation of Excerpts from MASAKAZU KATSURA x TIGER & BUNNY 2 Design Works

Yuri Petrov and Lunatic blurbs from the Tiger & Bunny 2 Museum

Commentary

The Murder Dungeon

Commentary on Lunatic's Hidden Room (aka the "Murder Dungeon™️") including official designs

Murder Dungeon Location Found? From The Beginning Novel Vol.2

Proto Cape Discovered in Murder Dungeon - S2 Episode 20

Commentary on Tartarus from S2 Watch Party Eps 20 and 24, as well as other inclusions of Greek Mythology

Yuri Petrov/Lunatic Guide (Jp, last updated Jan 2024)

Mystery Solved(?) How Yuri Stores His Hair in the Luna Mask

Pale Silly Man Leaves Phone Messages: The Rising Super Prelude

A Japanese Language Faux Pas

My YuriPe/TaiBani Merch:

Found and Fixed Luna-Sensei's Missing Bowgun

Some Doujinshi Anthologies and Goodies

More TaiBani Goodies From My Friend

Another YuriPe Haul🥰

P3 Chara Fineboard and Lunatic TB Styling 2 Figure

Luna/Yuri Care Package From My Friend

Suruga-ya Haul and Others

Mercari Haul

Mercari Lot: Summer Resort Heroes and Other Acrylic Stands

TB1 Sakakibara Manga and Artbook and Lunatic Rascal Acrylic Mascots

Misc (TaiBani):

My YuriPe Tattoo

Drabble: Yuri on Cabbages

Privatter: The Cabbage Connection

Picrew Fun with YuriPe: Here, Here, and Here

Fighting Game Avatars Trying to be the Pale Man: SF6, Guilty Gear Strive

Saint Seiya:

Deadend Game CV: Kawada Shinji (Thanatos' Character Song - Lost Canvas)

Tsunakan's Gag Comics (Scanlations done by House of Libra with their own translations) Here and Here

Saint Seiya Omega: Translation of Cancer Schiller's moves

Meiou Iden Dark Wing Chapter 33

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historyhermann · 2 years

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Books, Magic, and Representation: Libraries and Librarians in The Owl House

The Disney Channel young adult animated series, The Owl House, is known for its LGBTQ representation, voice acting, visuals, animation, and writing. Less recognized, however, is the fact that one of the supporting characters, Amity Blight (voiced by Mae Whitman), is a librarian. The library plays a significant role in the show, as well.

The show follows a teen girl named Luz who stumbles upon a portal to the magical world of Boiling Isles. The public library in Bonesborough, the largest town in the Boiling Isles, appears three times in the show’s first season. In the episode “Lost in Language,” Luz travels to the library to return a stack of overdue books. There are signs to stay quiet, and the librarian (Fred Tatasciore) shushes Luz for being “too loud,” making it clear that the library is a place for study.

Amity counters these notions. She displays the importance of reading and the library as a welcoming place for everyone by reading to children. The rest of the episode involves Luz trying to become better friends with Amity, even teaming up with Amity’s mischievous siblings, Emira and Edric. Luz and Amity later work together to fight off a book monster, which Amity’s siblings forced her to create.

The episode has some fun visual gags, like the card catalog for the Demon Decimal System (a play off the Dewey Decimal System). There are also books about cyclops, extinct birds, ancient texts, including those with funny titles like Quacks Eats Snacks, Barely a Duchess, Pride and Pythius, and Coping with Empty Nest Syndrome. There’s even a poster aimed at witches, saying the library lets them “get learned at the stake.”

The library in The Owl House is organized like other libraries. It has reading and children’s areas, a reference section, and books floating in the air, along with sections for manga, graphic novels, fiction, non-fiction, adventure, and romance. Alluding to feelings between Luz and Amity, a hidden hideaway for Amity can be found behind the library’s romance section.

While it is funny to see a librarian get exasperated when he thinks there is no difference between fiction and non-fiction, Luz, Emira, and Edric, are clearly disruptive patrons. Especially when they disturb librarians shelving materials or cause card catalog cards to fly onto the floor. It’s no surprise when all three get kicked out of the library, with the librarian claiming that they make reading “far too fun.”

The library briefly appears a few more times in the first season. In the episode “Sense and Insensitivity,” a party for the sentient demon King (Alex Hirsch) is held at the library. And a publisher offers Luz a chance to be a writer while walking in the library stacks later in the episode. In “Understanding Willow,” a flashback scene shows Amity and a former friend, whom Amity slowly reconciles with over the course of the series. In “Witches Before Wizards,” Luz and King travel to a castle where a wizard lives with his personal library of many volumes. The library is also seen in the closing credits of the show’s first season.

The library returns

In the show’s second season, the library returns in “Through the Looking Glass Ruins,” as does Amity, who is now a librarian. Manifesting library energy, she wears a library employee card in a lanyard around her neck. The official description of the episode states that Luz and Amity journey into the “most dangerous section of the library,” leading enthusiastic fans to chatter about the episode even before it aired. Some even drew fan art of Amity as a librarian.

In the episode, Luz learns that another human has donated a journal to the library and asks Amity for help finding it. Luz is hesitant to involve Amity, but her friend rejects this and puts her job on the line to help find the book. For Amity, helping Luz is even more important than keeping her job; it is the ultimate sacrifice for a patron. At one point, Amity grabs Luz and declares “We’re getting that diary!” She goes above and beyond her role as a librarian, and acts as a very good friend.

Amity and Luz successfully find the journal, but a mouse —who happens to store memories of book pages it has eaten—has eaten a portion of it. Amity’s boss, a mysterious librarian named after the demon Malphas (Fred Tatasciore), catches them in the act. He eventually fires Amity because she entered the library’s “forbidden section,” showing the power of library management over rank-and-file librarians.

Feeling bad for Amity, Luz goes through a series of “trials,” including fighting monsters, to help get her friend’s job back. Amity is forever grateful and boldly kisses Luz on the cheek, surprising her and bringing them closer together. There is also a cute scene that bucks the shushing librarian stereotype where Luz and Amity shush each other in hopes of not getting caught.

Fan theories

Fans have theorized that the head librarian in The Owl House resembles a character from the video game, The Legend of Zelda. Others posit that Amity resembles an older version of the witchy librarian, Kaisa, in animated series Hilda and that she gives off vibes similar to Star Wars character Sabine Wren. Despite such similarities, Amity, as a lesbian woman, has the distinction of being the most prominent LGBTQ librarian in a currently airing animated series.

There have been other LGBTQ characters who are librarians in animated series, such as George and Lance, who ran a family library in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power; Desiree, a closeted trans woman, in Too Loud; and Mo Testa, a lesbian and librarian with a MLIS degree, in Alison Bechdel’s comic series, Dykes to Watch Out For. There are many LGBTQ librarians in anime, as well, such as Lilith in Yamibou, Azusa Aoi in Whispered Words, Fumi Manjōme in Sweet Blue Flowers, and Chiyo Tsukudate in Strawberry Panic!, to name a few.

Like George and Lance, the fathers of a show protagonist in She-Ra, Amity is more than a librarian—she’s a full-fledged character. Her job as a librarian is only one aspect of her life and her portrayal fulfills all three tenets of the Librarian Portrayal Test.

Since that episode, Luz and Amity have made their relationship official, and the pairing was even one of the top ships on Tumblr last year. Hopefully, in the second half of Season Two airing later this year and in the show’s upcoming final season, the library will reappear and the show will continue to highlight the importance of libraries and librarians for people of all ages, especially young adults.

This is reprinted from I Love Libraries, where it was published on January 14 of this year. I had originally titled this “‘Get Learned at the Stake’: Libraries and Librarians in ‘The Owl House'” but Phil Morehart, who I worked with at I Love Libraries for all of my articles there, proposed a new title, and I like this title better.

Reprinted from Wayback Machine since popculturelibraries.wordpress.com was down at the time this was scheduled. It can also be read on Pop Culture Library Review.

#the owl house #i love libraries #librarian portrayal test #lesbians #lgbtq #librarians #pop culture

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noblesvacation · 3 years

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NOVEL TRANSLATION

Somebody is translating the Gentle Noble novels!! AdCaelum Translations has up to chapter 9, gogogo read!! I’ve also added this to the Where to Read page.

https://adcaelumtranslations.wordpress.com/translations/a-mild-nobles-vacation-suggestion/

#a gentle noble's vacation recommendation #a mild noble's vacation suggestion #japanese webnovel #穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。#休暇 #I'll Think of This As a Vacation And Enjoy It #reminder that's the original webnovel title #the other title is for the official publication of the novel and the manga #news #thank you cat-tyy for letting me know someone was doing this <3

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

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No, Re-Destro Is Not Destro’s Literal Son

and

Yes, I Will Die On This Hill

I have a number of small, persistent quibbles with some of the widespread misapprehensions I see included in BNHA fanfic, quoted as fact in meta posts, even cited on the wiki. Quirk cancellation restraints, what the 20% quirklessness data point means in practice, when Kurogiri comes into existence relative to the time of the Shimura Family Massacre, things like that. My biggest one, though, is as the title suggests: the idea that Yotsubashi Rikiya is Yotsubashi Chikara’s son.

I don’t entirely know where this confusion comes from. As far as I can tell, the early scanlations didn’t get it wrong—one rendered the line in Chapter 218 about Destro having a child he didn’t know about as being children, plural, but otherwise, they were all accurate enough. It seems people just assumed that the child mentioned in 218 must be Re-Destro, who was, after all, right there on the panel. Even though the scanlations never said it, even though the official translation never said it, even though ample evidence in the manga disproves it, the idea still got around that Rikiya is Chikara’s son.

I have and will maintain that this is obviously wrong if you stop to think about it for even a moment, but unfortunately, most people don’t. The error can be found on less well-tended parts of the fandom wiki[1]; it’s in tumblr meta posts about the villains; it’s in fanfic.

And now, god help me, it is on the official anime website, too.

“Stillness-in-green, maybe you should consider that you might just be wro—”

I will face BONES and walk backwards into hell.

But if you want, you can come with me, and I’ll explain on the way. Hit the jump.

Dialogue + Narration

There are two places where the relationship between Chikara and Rikiya is explicitly addressed—the lead-in to the dinner scene in Chapter 218 and the fight between Clone!Shigaraki and RD in Chapter 232. If you include the Ultra Analysis databook, the number goes up to four: once each in Re-Destro and Destro Classic’s character blurbs.

Let’s take a look at each of those places, shall we?

The relevant Japanese text here is in the first narration box: 子ども, kodomo.

Kodomo is not gendered. It literally just means child. The key kanji is 子, ko. Like most kanji, it has a lot of potential readings, and you can add other kanji to it to modify it. Add 息 and you get musuko, son. Pronounce 子 as shi instead of ko, and you get a term that is frequently, though not exclusively, used to refer to boys. Add 女 to that reading and you get joshi, woman/girl. 子 is in a lot of words, many of them gendered! Used for kodomo as Hori does here, though, it does nothing to indicate a gender one way or the other.

Also too, it does nothing to indicate that Rikiya is the child in question; it simply states that there was such a child, somewhere in the world. Now, the natural assumption for anyone who knows how the graphic novel medium works and who understands basic literary analysis would be that the significant character we just met is, in fact, the child in question—except that everything else we learn about Destro and the original Meta Liberation Army here makes it entirely impossible.

I’ll do a full breakdown on why that is in the next section. In the meantime, here’s the next reference:

Here, we’re looking at the phrase the Viz translation renders as, “His blood runs through these veins.” The literal Japanese there is, Desutoro no matsuei chi o tsugu mono! In a literal translation, chi o tsugu mono means, “one who inherits the blood,” or, more loosely, “blood successor.” It’s matsuei—末裔—that’s the key word here.

Japanese has several words to express the concept of “descendant.” Matsuei is one word; the data book uses shison. So what’s the difference? Well, I’ll talk about shison in a moment, but I had an inkling of it just from looking at the kanji in matsuei—“end” and “descendant” respectively, leaving me with an impression of something like a final descendant or the terminus of the bloodline. Further research confirmed it: shison can refer to any lineal blood tie, but matsuei refers to a bloodline’s final inheritor, the person at the end of a long line of many, or even countless, generations. It’s the difference between being able to point to a grandparent and the kind of painstaking genealogical research that lets you[2] point to a famous royal from eight hundred years ago—matsuei is a word that very much assumes the existence of those countless generations.

So not only does Rikiya’s line there not imply that he’s Chikara’s son, but his specific word choice also tells us that he cannot be Chikara’s son. That’s, uh. Pretty conclusive, I would say.

Lastly, though, there’s also the data book. This is, perhaps, the actual closest you’re going to get to a manga equivalent of those character blurbs on the anime website, at least until such time as Hori deigns to give the MLA types character profile pages. (I live ever in hope.)

There are two relevant bits of text, one in Re-Destro’s entry, and the other in Destro Classic’s. The first describes how Re-Destro organizes the MLA as Desutoro no chi o tsugu mono: the same phrase he uses for himself in the manga, minus the matsuei. @codenamesazanka (the one who told me about the databook references among other citations, bless) rendered it as “Destro’s blood successor”; I have also seen it given as “the successor of Destro’s bloodline.” Note again, the lack of reference to a father/son bond.

Chikara’s entry uses that other descendant word I mentioned before, 子孫, shison. Notice that the term uses that ko kanji from kodomo before? As it does in joshi, 子 here reads shi. The other kanji, 孫, means grandchild. Thus, literally, grandchild-child—or, in the vernacular, simply descendant.

And then we have the anime website.

So, for comparison’s sake, the anime website uses 息子—the same combination of kanji that I said earlier gives you musuko, son. Heck, it even uses 父, chichi, for Destro—father. It’s as explicit as it’s possible to be, and I just don’t know why or how the anime website could fuck that up so bad when absolutely nothing in the manga describes the two Yotsubashis that way, and, indeed, one specific word choice actually rules out the possibility.

So, that’s all the manga says directly. It’s not the only evidence there is, though. In fact, the next piece makes it even more clear how colossally and impossibly wrong a father/son connection for Destro and his modern successor is.

Timeline

The long and short of this section is, “Since Harima Oji was Sako Atsuhiro’s great-great-grandfather, there is no possible way that Destro—who pre-dated Harima—can be Re-Destro’s father.” If you read that sentence and nodded your complete understanding and agreement, feel free to skip ahead to the last section. If you’d like the full explanation it takes to reach that sentence’s conclusion, though, read on.

So, aside from the word matsuei, the timeline is the most telling piece of evidence to my eye. I address it secondly rather than firstly because it’s less direct than the explicit narration; it relies on drawing conclusions based on things we’ve been told elsewhere rather than on the immediately relevant text. Oh, Mr. Compress’s relationship to Harima is explicit enough, but on what am I basing my claim that Destro predates him?

Regarding that, there’s no explicit year relative to My Hero Academia’s current events given for when Destro and the original Meta Liberation Army were active; the same is true for Harima Oji’s escapades. However, we are given some broad-strokes information, relative not to current events, but rather to the history of heroism as a legal institution in Japan.

We know that there was a widespread, lengthy period of chaos following the rise of quirks—called meta-abilities in those early years. At some point, however, people began to search for a way for meta-humans to live in peace with non-metas. The compromise that was reached was the foundation of professional heroism in Japan—while the use of meta-abilities would be legal in private settings, it was only by becoming licensed by the state as “heroes” that people could use their quirks in public.[3]

The legislation curtailing the use of meta-abilities—and the appropriation of a dead woman’s language to popularize a law establishing exactly the opposite of what she used that language to call for—is what catalyzed the rise of the original MLA. Thus, we can position Destro as being alive and active around the same time that heroism as a legal institution was being formed. Since we further know that he committed suicide in prison, we can assume that his child was conceived at some point prior to his capture. Ergo, Destro’s child, were they alive today, would be as old as Japanese professional heroism itself.

Next, consider Harima Oji, the Peerless Thief, a criminal who targeted the riches of “sham heroes.” We’re specifically told that he was active in the days in which the current system was settling into place—e.g. he only became active once the Hero System was established enough to have produced corrupt heroes. We’re told he preached reformation—he wasn’t just some pre-existing criminal who saw a shiny new target in heroes; he had specific grievances which he wanted addressed by the system, and which the system was not addressing.

The earliest Harima could possibly be active, then, is concurrent with Destro—Harima fighting against the corrupt people who had found their way into the new heroic institution, and Destro fighting against using the institution of heroism to oppress non-heroes. What I think is more likely, though, is that Harima came after Destro—Harima needed to have had time to realize what kinds of fakes had been drawn to this shiny new career path, maybe even to spend some time trying to change things the legal way.

I don’t suspect they were separated by very long—I would imagine Destro was easily within Harima’s living memory, and might well have influenced why he chose the path of protest that he did—but I do think they were separate.

Moving forward, then, Mr. Compress is four generations distant from his famous ancestor. Thus, even if you assume that Harima is of the same generation as Chikara, that’s what you’re looking at for Chikara’s child: someone who, were they alive today, would be old enough to be the great-grandparent of a thirty-two-year-old man.

Re-Destro’s probably a few years older than Mr. C, sure,[4] but that man doesn’t have Ujiko’s slow-aging quirk. Unless you want to start pulling theories about cryogenic stasis the story for some reason never saw fit to mention out of thin air, Re-Destro is in no way old enough to fit the bill.

This is backed up by one other piece of the timeline as well, and one more place we can look at language:

The small child at the center of the image is Rikiya, so young that he’s in schoolboy shorts for a meeting otherwise so formal that he’s been made to wear a tie. He’s, what, six to nine here, tops? And the adults speaking to him say that they’ve been in hiding for generations—代々, daidai, the kanji for generation followed by a kanji that just means, “See that kanji written right before me? Yeah, just read that one again.”

The original MLA was active for only a handful of years, and, per Chapter 218, they didn’t dissolve until Destro was captured. Thus, we can assume they have been in hiding since then, but not before then. With that in mind, this is another line that renders a father/son relationship impossible.

Remember, Chikara already had a child in the world circa his capture. If Rikiya were Chikara’s son, then Destro’s capture and his army’s subsequent dissolution could not have happened any farther back than nine months plus however old Rikiya was in this exact moment of his youth. Rikiya, who we see here as a child of less than ten.

Ten years in hiding doesn’t make one generation; it damn sure doesn’t make multiple ones.

Now, you could make theories about cryogenic statis that would explain this ludicrous discrepancy, sure. You could also theorize about e.g. artificial insemination,[5] or time stop quirks, or any number of other possibilities in the vast panoply the HeroAca world offers. The point is, though, that you don’t need to. There was, in the manga, no discrepancy that needed to be explained. It is only fanon misinterpretation and a glaring disinterest in the series’ villains from official sources that have presented this issue.

I’m praying that it’s all just a misunderstanding on the part of whoever maintains the website, and that the anime itself will render the relevant bits of dialogue correctly. Given the extreme cuts and alterations that My Villain Academia has been subjected to thus far, though, I’m sure you can appreciate my being concerned.

…So that’s the meat of it. The idea that Rikiya is Chikara’s son is wrong simply on the basis of what’s said in the text, and it’s doubly wrong on the basis of the timeline. There is, though, one other thing I think points towards Re-Destro being exactly the descendant he says he is, not a son playing down the connection out of humility or something. This one is a lot more headcanon-y, though, so I saved it for last.

MLA Social Dynamics

It’s quite simple. We have, in the MLA, a group of people that venerates Destro’s bloodline to an obviously unhealthy degree, putting up portraits of him wherever they can get away with it, tagging his successor with a “Re-” as if to invoke reincarnation or miraculous return, entirely willing to throw their lives away for what they think was his cause, and others’ lives if those others say anything too scathing about the words Destro wrote, quite as if they treat Destro’s memoir as some sort of holy writ.

They venerate Destro that much, and you’re trying to tell me that they wouldn’t just call a spade a spade and acknowledge RD as the son of their great leader? Come on.

Since long before I turned up the matsuei factoid in researching this piece, since long before Mr. Compress gave us such a helpful generational comparison, I’ve held the opinion that, given a group that holds their leaders in such high esteem, with such particular regard for bloodline, the only reason Rikiya does just call himself a descendant, rather than citing the specific term for what he is, is that the specific term is distant enough that it actually does sound more impressive to just say “descendant,” rather than something like, “great-great-great-grandson.” That kind of thing just begs the question, “What took you guys so long?” or, “You and how many other people, buddy?”

Mr. Compress may have the panache to carry off a line like that, but Rikiya’s a different story. If he had something so amazing up his sleeve as, “I am the son of the great Destro,” I have to think he’d just say it proudly, not fall back on the impressionistic vaguery of something like chi o tsugu mono. Even if I had no other evidence to work with, I’d think the same—all the evidence you need is right there in the character writing of who Rikiya and the MLA are and how they talk about the man whose dreams Re-Destro was raised to carry.

A closing note: I will allow that Rikiya is being overdramatic when he uses matsuei and its connotation of countless generations. There are a few other things we can use to trace the history of heroism—Ujiko’s age, and the 18-years-or-less periods that One For All was held by its pre-All Might bearers—and running those numbers leads me to believe that it is, in fact, entirely possible to count the number of generations between Rikiya and Chikara, and the number, while higher than one, is probably not all that high. Certainly matsuei is being more dramatic about it than is entirely warranted, hence the poetic flourish of the official translation’s, “His blood runs through these veins!” The theatricality only makes me fonder of him, however.

------------------------

FOOTNOTES

[1] It was changed and reverted on Re-Destro’s page at least twice before it finally stuck in January of this year. Chikara’s page took until July to be corrected, and it’s still wrong on various other subpages.

[2] Or your kids, if you have those. Only the last generation in the bloodline is the matsuei, but that’s a moving goalpost as long as the bloodline is still propagating.

[3] This summary of events combines what we know from both My Hero Academia proper and the Vigilantes spin-off, which I recommend to anyone who’s at all interested in finer-grained worldbuilding on Hero Society Japan than the main series makes time for.

[4] I personally headcanon him as 42.

[5] To which point I would refer back to the word kodomo, and note that that word choice indicates that Destro had a child in the world. Not a sperm sample kept in a freezer somewhere, waiting for the right would-be mother: an actual child. Some quick research on my part says that the farthest that term stretches is in using it to refer to yet-unborn children, fetuses still in the womb. Seeing as Japan doesn’t even allow inmates conjugal visits in real life, much less in a setting where villains are so dehumanized that Tartarus is an acceptable punishment for them, the line about Destro “having a child out in the world” takes us right back to a date of conception no later than Destro’s final night of freedom.

#boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha #bnha meta #yotsubashi rikiya #yotsubashi chikara #re-destro #destro bnha #meta liberation army #my writing #i have thoughts on the anime's nonsense too but #hahawow #that's gonna take a little longer to get coherent #preview: it's not about capitalism #it's about fear

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absolutebl · 3 years

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This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 4

it’s my birthday week! *raises a glass of pink milk*

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 4 - oh noes my babies are all so sad! Teen angst for the win. Tropes included: crying in shower, a very significant hand hold, & striped shirts. (At this point over half the cast has been in stripes.)

Love Machine Ep 1 - not gonna lie, I barely made it through the first half, this is a short run LOW budget experimental web series and it’s not good. Dropped.

Lovely Writer Ep 9 - I like it when LW gets serious because there are fewer dumb sound effects, but oof Aey, poor baby. How many Aeys have I known over the years? Rejected, broken, angry, lonely, and lashing out. On a different note, I haven’t see the “sex drug made us do it” plot device since 1980s Johanna Lindsey. Props to that cocktail rearing its ugly head. (yeh yeh) ZOMBIE TROPE ALERT. (Is this the point where I remind the world at a-play doesn’t have to hurt? Well, it doesn’t! Toys, prep, and lube people. Sheesh.) Anygay, zombie trope is put safely back underground. Please don’t let it rise again? (I KNOW, I’ll stop now.) So this was a rough episode, especially the back end. (Okay now I’ll REALLY stop.) Seriously tho, BL doesn’t do a massive coming out family drama scene often. I liked LW’s handling of this one. Hard to watch but compelling.

Close Friend Ep 1 (OhmFluke) - very cute snapshot into a LTR featuring an overworked music producer and his student BF. That’s the chassis for this whole series, each one has to do with the song & is a portrayal of that song’s message. Essentially, the theme of this one was remembering to make time for your partner. I enjoyed that. OhmFluke gave us easy casual familiar affection and a kiss, but no BL tropes, just romance.

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 3 - Pi is a total spazz & the ghost story bit was... well, it was something wasn’t it? Lots of tropes: fixing his clothes, wound tending, drag baby around, piggyback, head in lap, hand hold, and ending on a drunk kiss. I just noticed Pi uses guu/mueng with Mork, but Mork’s a year older. (So I have a new entry onto the linguistic brats list.) So rude and presumptuous. Also I gotta say this, don’t wear watches when you’re working on a cadaver, mmky boys?

Y-Destiny Ep 4 - look MaxNat have great chemistry, this ep had loads of great tropes (e.g. cheek kiss, rooftop, public claiming via phone), it’s not their fault I’m just not wild about these characters. I do like Nuea’s wanna-be idol wardrobe though. And Sun is sporting the red bag version of Tharn’s black bag that I wanted so bad in TT2. (I wonder if I can score a knock off when I’m over there?) Regardless, I basically grinned all the way through this installment, so that’s another thumbs up from me for Y-Destiny. Who knew I’d come around? Man would I love to see these two get their own series.

Brothers Ep 12 - teacher/student exposed! But the power of boys on phones will overcome all. No KhunKaow for me, so of course I found this ep tragically disappointing.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 6 - MuRen is officially a yaoi manga character in the flesh. H4′s outright mockery/subversion of tropes “don’t touch him he’s mine,” + “touch my lip & think of kissing” makes the fact that other (way more damaging) tropes are being blithely utilized without critique almost - dare i say it? - insulting. YongJie is trash but I’m the one who feels like trash because I want to forgive him. How aptly abusive & dysfunctional we all are. I don’t know whether to applaud H4 or start drinking. (Maybe this is the show I should invent a cocktail for? Who am I kidding? This is totally a jello shots show.)

Friend or Lover (Taiwan) Ep 2 - I thought this was only a microfilm but turns out it’s a web series. It’s cute. I’m enjoying it.

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 3 - subs take a while to drop but it’s still better than average. I like a secret identity trope, I love a grumpy/sunshine pairing, and the side couple is great but this ep was slow. With only 6 total (I assume) they better get the main couple together next ep or the improved quality of this series will be sacrificed on the alter of pacing issues.

Word of Honor (China) Ep 28-30 - slowed down to focus on bad guys (yawn...ooo Scorpion...yawn again). Then baby gets kidnapped, other baby goes crazy, and old friends turn up. We end on DOOM because mathematically this was an episode 11. All boxes checked.

Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korea) Ep 3-4 - how is this show SO DAMN CUTE & weirdly wholesome at the same time? Another one of those: Will Korea resolve this satisfactorily in 4 short eps? But I seem to say that half way through every Korean BL. These days, I have complete faith. Warm fuzzies for everyone.

Stand Alones

Color Rush movie is the same as the series. There is a stinger at the VERY end (untranslated) but which I’m assuming has something to do with the missing mother. Is this a possible indication of a 2nd season? Hopefully someone will eng sub the stinger and post it out into the universe. So yeah, Color Rush movie = To My Star style, sadly, not Wish You. That said, I did enjoy watching with different subs. The first version I watched was fan subbed, and they were better on English colloquialisms. Viki’s subs are better on Korean colloquialisms.

Breaking News

Bunch of new press on Thailand’s I Told the Sunset About You 2 AKA I Promised You the Moon. Here’s a master post on the subject with all the links you could ever want. It will start airing May 27th 8 pm (Thai time) on LINETV.

New Thai Bl Golden Blood got a teaser trailer. Stars familiar side dish Gun Napat (Techno from LBC) as a rich kid who needs a bodyguard. Yeah, it looks to be the Thai version of Where Your Eyes Linger which is FINE. I love me a bodyguard romance. DO EETTT Thailand. Trailer contains ALL the tropes: dry his hair, piggyback, cooking together, and more, plus good smooches. It looks GREAT. Also cheeper to make then KinPorsche and it might get funded due to of residual enthusiasm. Also GOOD TITLE.

Close Friend got another teaser trailer this one for Talay & Yoon (no subs).

Taiwan has a new BL coming out... eventually. Looks to be a new franchise like the HIStory series with different couple(s) each season. It’s the first Taiwanese BL from a major in-country network. The first installment is titled Be Loved in House: I Do (seriously Taiwan, could we talk about your titles?). It stars a familiar face, Aaron Lai from HIStory: My Hero. It’s a grumpy/tsundere boss/employee office-set BL with some forced proximity to push them together. (Nods to Japan.) No release date, but (unlike Thailand) Taiwan usually doesn’t make announcements without content & serious intent.

Gossip

Taiwanese BL NOVEL Miracle dropped a trailer, no subs or translation. According to YouTube comments it was supposed to be part of HIStory3 but MODC took on its slot. Still it’s kinda fun to see what might have been.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

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nikadoesanart · 3 years

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Why I think Bones animated the light novels in the order they have so far

Before I start, I will preface this by directly quoting Asagiri as he did say himself:

“...each of the plots in [novel] Volumes 1 through 4 are independent with their own timelines that follow different protagonists, meaning you can start them in any order.” (55 Minutes, Afterword, Yen Press translation)

This was of course written at the time of 55 Minutes being written (which was first released in October of 2016), but this has so far held true for all of the following light novels except for Storm Bringer. So officially speaking, you don’t necessarily have to read the bsd light novels in numerical/release order or chronological to the story order either, though you’d probably want to have read or watched 15 Years Old before Storm Bringer. Also, considering that 55 Minutes and Dead Apple are the only ones that take place during the main story, you may want to have at least finished season 2 or read up to the end of ch 37 in the manga so that you’re familiar with the characters (because these two take place shortly after where s2 left off).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to why I personally think that Bones has decided to adapt the light novels that have been animated so far in the order that they have. Seeing as Dead Apple was pretty much requested by Bones for Asagiri to write (according to his afterword in the novel), I won’t really be going over it.

Anyway, my theory is that they chose to adapt Entrance Exam>Dark Era>15 YO because in that order the light novels are most relevant to which part of Dazai’s past and mental state are tied to the current main story arc being animated. This doesn’t make Dazai the protagonist in the main story, in fact he never has been as of yet, but this is how the audience is able to slowly uncover Dazai’s past and try to learn about how his mind works. Keep in mind that even the novels with Dazai’s name in the title and even what few scenes there are focused on Dazai and his POV in them, they are not actually from his POV and we are given the absolute minimal clues as to what he may be thinking.

In s1 we don’t know much about his past yet but Entrance Exam/Azure Messenger helps to highlight his eccentricities while also showing his cunning, but also addresses the question of how Dazai and Kunikida are able to work together. Atsushi himself starts the arc off by questioning how two people with seemingly such incompatible work ethics and personalities are able to work together and even became work partners in the first place.

This was cut out from the anime but the novel also shows how Dazai can act sketchy at times and acts on his own behind people’s backs. There were also a lot of overall changes from the Entrance Exam novel to the point that I find it more fitting to refer to the novel as Entrance Exam and the animated arc as the Azure Messenger arc due to how much was cut and changed, but that’s not the point here.

Next, Dark Era shows not only that Dazai used to work in the Port Mafia, but also some of his closest connections within it and why he left, which becomes relevant during the Guild arc. It also introduces us to the Lupin bar, which Dazai is later shown holding a match box from there as a relic of Oda, who he always thinks about/remembers in difficult situations. Dark Era is also where we’re introduced to Ango and what led to Dazai pretty much despising and refusing to forgive Ango.

15 Years Old mainly shows us the relationship between Dazai and Chuuya. This includes how they first met, the earliest instance we know of when Dazai can act his age, but also touches on the topic of Mori’s leadership. It takes place shortly after when Mori became leader, so the choices Mori makes during this time are crucial to both him and the PM. The importance of Mori’s leadership is later mentioned again during the Cannibalism arc, and we see Chuuya respecting Mori as a fellow leader at the end of 15 YO. We also see in 15 some of Dazai’s mentality as a strategist and leader when directly under Mori’s influence, and it is Mori’s teaching that got Dazai to a point that the only reason Fyodor was able to be found in s3 was because Dazai claimed that it’s how he would act in that situation. This is shown in some of Dazai’s unnecessary cruelty and use of excessive force during the arc (ie. continuing to shoot a dead body). 15 also shows not only how Dazai and Chuuya first met but also how they are both able to act their age around each other. Their constant bickering shows that they can both act like the teens or young adults that they are (depending on when we’re looking at) but also that they already have at least some respect and trust for each of them being their own person and each having their own strengths. They’re both being used as very important and powerful tools by their respective groups during 15, but they still realize that the other can each make their own decisions. Dazai is the one that tells the Sheep that Chuuya is his own person and Chuuya assures Shirase and Yuan of the captured members safety and he later realizes the extent of Dazai’s foresight after asking him to spare the kids, which Dazai mentions was part of his original plan anyway.

What’s interesting to me is how during the Rimbaud fight, Dazai claims that he’s started to become interested in living again yet only 1 year later in Storm Bringer, he is at his absolute worst in terms of what we’ve seen so far of his mental health. In regards to everything that went into Dazai’s mental health plummeting between 15 and SB and then improving again between SB and the Dragon Head Conflict, for now we can only hope to one day learn more about the DHC, how Dazai and Oda first met and what happened to Dazai during Chuuya’s first year in the PM. Also do keep in mind that 15 Years Old was originally written at Bones’ request (you can read the full afterword here).

In my opinion, when you think of these as some of the reasons for the order of the light novel adaptations so far, it makes sense to me. I do still question why we got Dead Apple instead of getting 55 Minutes animated, as they take place at around the same time on the timeline. However, if Dead Apple and even the Walking Alone OVA have proved anything, it’s that Chuuya’s mere presence alone brings in the money. Entrance Exam and Dark Era are respectively light novels 1 & 2 but #3 is Untold Origins of the Agency, which has a short story about Atsushi’s entrance exam being planned (A Day at the Agency) followed by the story of how Ranpo and Fukuzawa met and how this led to the need for the ADA to be founded. Personally, I don’t think Untold Origins is too necessary to the main story until Bones gets to animating chapter 71 onwards. In fact, if you want to look at the order of the Japanese release dates for the novels, Gaiden (January 2016) came out between Untold Origins (May 2015) and 55 Minutes (October 2016), yet with the official translations for the novels it’s been skipped over. But at the end of the day, the order Bones has chosen so far is by no means wrong or right. I’m not sure if the information regarding who chose which novel to adapt when is available to the public (if it’s in an interview or one of the guidebooks, hopefully there are translations available so please lmk if you know anything!), but hopefully Asagiri was involved in that part of the decision making as bsd is originally his story.

If you want to see my more in depth predictions for when the remaining light novel anime adaptations would take place (as in which order they’d be animated) and my estimated screen time for each, you can check it out here.

Also last minute thought/realization but they probably could’ve animated A Day at the Agency instead of Entrance Exam and achieved almost the same goal? I think I’ll revisit this idea later after rereading the novels eventually.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd analysis #bsd spoilers #bsd theories #bsd light novel #bungo stray dogs #bsd anime #bsd dazai

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tempenensis · 2 years

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Hello I have a lot of questions. I'm new to manga and anime please forgive.

1> How many JJK audio dramas are there?

2> Are the some of the audio dramas available as light novels too?

3> In the Juju Sanpo where the girls were asked about their type, there was a scene where Gojou was talking about a nice girl with bangs aka Miwa. I read somewhere that in a audio drama it was clarified that he wasn't talking about his type of woman, but asking about Kyoto student who took a selfie with him. Do you know if it's true or which audio drama it is from?

4> In your About me page you said you don't support leaks, may I know what leaks are? Are they untranslated spoilers?

5> I've only started reading manga online a few weeks ago, I don't know if they're official translation or fan translation. This part of manga culture is totally new to me as I'm accustomed to reading official English language comics and officially translated webtoons for free all the time. Do manga websites only host fan translations?

6> Is there any way to legally read free manga like the webtoons are on Webtoon app? I'd like to read official translation but where I live none of this is common hobby, there's no anime on tv or manga at bookshops unless you can pay a lot to import them.

I'm so sorry for asking so many questions, please don't feel obligated! Thank you and have a nice day!

Hi, new fan! Welcome to the fandom, we don't bite, promise

1. They used to release one audio drama episode of Jujusanpo every month during the airing of the anime, but previous episode always got taken down whenever new episode came out. And now, only the first jujusanpo audio drama episode is available in the jjk anime site. In total there are 8 jujusanpo audio drama, I've translated them somewhere here in my blog and I think there are people who uploaded the audio files in youtube. You can look it up there. There are also audio drama bonus of DVD, these ones are longer than the jujusanpo on the site, and harder to look up sadly. I've only translated bits and pieces of this one.

2. The light novels have been out for some time, even before the anime. So, actually it's the other way around - some of the audio drama from DVD bonus was made based on the light novel.

3. No, I'm pretty sure there's no audio drama like that. It's just what we speculated.

4. Leaks are pages or chapter released to public by non-official before the time of its official release. It’s basically stolen chapter, so they are illegal, either translated or untranslated. Like the case with Jump titles, anything you see before official release Monday 00.00 JST, from non-official sites or accounts is leaks. Spoilers on the other hand is any manga materials that haven’t been adapted into anime.

5 and 6. Most manga websites you see on the internet are run by fans. But there are indeed some sites you can use to read the official release. Jump have Mangaplus, both as website and app, which is available in several languages. It releases new chapters at the same time as their release in Japan and for free. There are also some titles exclusive to Mangaplus, like Kaiju No. 8. For titles with physical release, however, the number of chapters available in Mangaplus is limited. Alternatively, you can use Shonen Jump app. For a cheap price of 2 bucks, you can register as a member and then you can read basically everything that Shonen Jump has ever published under the sun

#le-ask #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #tagging this for PSA

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maxwell-grant · 3 years

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The pulp origins of Godzilla

I am incredibly pleased to announce that, amidst my quest to find pulp characters across the world and the history of pulp across changing nations and time periods and audiences, I discovered that one of the biggest icons had actually been one of my favorite characters of all time ever and in plain sight all along: Godzilla.

Yup, you heard me right, Godzilla is a pulp character. And no, this isn’t me stretching the barely-existent definition of pulp hero to encompass a character I like and want to talk about, as I usually do. No, this time I stumbled onto a piece of information that lets me make this claim with veracity.

Meet the first version of Godzilla ever created: The Godzilla of the 1954 pulp novel Gojira, by Shigeru Kayama, one of Japan’s most prominent pulp writers at the time. Published about a month before the film, and the first version of Godzilla ever officially released to the public.

The following excerpts are taken from the Project Kayama website, where you can find the novel available for reading

In the 1950s, Kayama was one of Japan’s preeminent science-fiction authors.

In 1952, Kayama published a particularly bizarre and horrific tale: a story in which a large, lizard-like monster that stands upright on two legs wrecks terrifying havoc on the residents of a pacific island. The story’s name was Jira Monster, and both its name and plot foreshadowed the cinematic beast that was to come.

It was his talents that Toho producer Tomoyuki Tanaka sought out after deciding to pursue the creation of a giant monster film.

A mere 11 days after accepting the assignment, Kayama had completed his 50-page outline. The manuscript – stamped as CONFIDENTIAL and titled G-Sakuhin Kentoyo Daihan (G-Production Script for Examination) was submitted to Toho before the end of May.

As many G-fans know, much was changed from Kayama’s original concept. By the time Godzilla went before cameras, the monster itself had evolved from a vague, reptilian beast with flappy ears and a hunger for cattle into an allegorical destroyer whose lack of clear motivation was its greatest terrifying strength. Dr. Yamane, originally conceived as a mysterious, cloak-wearing weirdo living in a gothic mansion, had transformed into the distinguished and kindly Takashi Shimura.

Despite the changes that Ishiro Honda and writer Takeo Murata would make to the tale, the basic structure and flow of the plot remained the same. It was Kayama who envisioned Japanese fishing ships sinking amidst radioactive fire, an island where a giant beast-god is worshipped by fearful villagers, the deadly fire that spews forth from Godzilla’s mighty maw, and a terrifying new super weapon whose use against the monster leads to the heroic suicide of a war-scarred scientist.

Upon its release, Godzilla became a smash hit. But a little over a week before Japanese audiences got their first cinematic look at the monster, the story was already available to the public in the form of a full novelization.

First published via Iwatani on October 25, 1954, Kaiju Gojira (Monster Godzilla) was penned by Shigeru Kayama, but retained little of his original vision for the story. This adaptation of the original Godzilla drew from two different sources: Honda and Murata’s initial script for the film, and Toshi Tatsuno’s serialized radio-drama adaptation of the same script.

August Ragone, writer of EIJI TSUBURAYA: MASTER OF MONSTERS, additionally writes

Actually, there is literally tons of concrete evidence of the Japanese equivalent of American pulps. These have been chronicled in books on the history of Bokura magazine (and other such nostalgic retrospectives), as well as books on the Post War period and children's toys and hobbies of the Post War (1950-1970).

As soon as the war ended, a number of Japanese editions of American publications, such as Amazing Stories began to flood the market -- as well as Japanese-penned stories (Japanese children were especially fascinated by tales of the American Wild West, Science Fiction and Jungle Adventures)

During and after the war, there were numerous cheaply-printed, garish periodicals aimed at children -- not to be confused with manga (comic books), which contained exciting illustrated stories. These continued into the 1960s, but slowly absorbed as features of larger weekly or monthly manga anthologies, mostly containing serialized comics (the size of phone books), and were largely phased out by the 1980s.

In fact let’s look at the whole process behind Godzilla’s debut on pop culture again: Started off with an idea, that then became a novel, partially based on a radio drama, and then made a big hit as a film. That is exactly the kind of trajectory most of the pulp heroes took when getting adaptations outside of their original material. It’s the same trajectory that The Shadow followed, from book to radio to film. Vastly different circumstances that led to them getting there, sure, and Godzilla’s obviously grown into something much more vast and influential than his origins, like other pulp-influenced properties that broke big into the mainstream, but the fact remains that Godzilla began life, first made his debut in pop culture, as a pulp character, by the most exact definition possible.

Not that I actually ever needed an excuse to talk about Godzilla, my other favorite character of all time, and of course I have a “Shadow meets Godzilla” post on the pipeline because of this, but this really was a revelation that threw a lot of things into context for me.

Actually, not just Godzilla. Turns out, my other other favorite character of all time, Mothra, also had a start in magazines. As a serialized novel written in 1961 called The Luminous Fairies and Mothra, that eventually got adapted and turned into a feature film. Which only makes sense especially considering Mothra has an incredibly similar story to King Kong, which is commonly put side by side with pulp characters, and the kaiju’s connection to Kong has reemerged time and time again.

And you can bet I have a lot of further things to say about this, but that’s for a different post. I’m just sitting here unreasonably happy that I finally found a reason to put The Shadow and Godzilla in the same room (not that I needed one).

#kaiju tag #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #i never thought i'd ever actually use that tag in a godzilla post #godzilla #mothra

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literaryeagle · 4 years

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For my sixty-seventh Evangelion book review, here is Shin Seiki Evangelion Koushiki Guide Book (Neon Genesis Evangelion Official Guide Book), published by Kadokawa Shoten. This 171-page paperback is a guide to Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's Evangelion manga, however it was released before the manga was finished, so it only covers the first 12 volumes (the whole manga was 14 volumes).

This book is not available in English or French - although the chapter titles are in English - but it has plenty of pictures. The illustrations are in full color for the first twelve pages, and then the rest of the book is in black-and-white. (The book's dust jacket is also removable, however there is no alternate cover art hidden underneath.) The full color pages are devoted to the cover art for the first 12 volumes of the manga. For example, here is the cover for Volume 6, which features Toji, Hikari, and Evangelion Unit-03:

It's interesting how some of the characters' hair color in the manga is different from how they look in the anime. And as many of you probably already know, Shinji's eyes are a different color as well.

By the way, this is going to be another multiship-friendly review, so expect a mix of ReiShin, KawoShin, and AsuShin. Keep reading for the rest of the book review, plus a few more pictures!

After the Cover Illustration Gallery, there is a title page and a Table of Contents page, and then the first chapter of the book which is called "the Character". This section contains pics and information about various characters, including dates of birth and blood types, and discussions about the characters' personalities. Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Kaworu, and Misato each get 4 pages devoted to them, while the other characters only get one or two pages. The other characters in this chapter are Toji, Kensuke, Hikari, Gendo, Ritsuko, Kaji, Fuyutsuki, Maya and Makoto and Shigeru (these three characters are squeezed together into two pages), Yui, Naoko, and Keel. This part of the book also contains three brief columns about other topics: Evangelions and Angels, Nerv, and Seele.

By the way, even though this chapter has lots of pictures, they're all from the manga, so you won't see anything new here if you've already read the manga. Also, many of the pages have multiple images all crammed together, so the pics end up being very tiny. Most of the book is like this, unfortunately.

The second chapter of this book is called "the Episode", and it contains illustrated timelines for events in the manga (again, only for the first 12 volumes), plus information on battles, characters' relationships, and some background stuff about Nerv and Seele. The section on relationships isn't just about romance; it also covers family (for example, Asuka and her mother) and friendships (such as Shinji and his classmates). Anyway, I said this would be a multiship-friendly review, so I'll get to that now. Let's start with Rei and Shinji. This chapter devotes three pages to Rei's relationship with Shinji (two of those pages are for Rei II, while the third page is about the introduction of Rei III). Here is a piece from one of those pages:

Awww, Rei and Shinji holding hands! So sweet! (By the way, the above scan is larger than actual size, so you can see it better. As I mentioned before, a lot of the pictures in this book are really small.)

Moving on, this chapter has two pages about Kaworu's relationship with Shinji. Here's a piece from one of those pages (yes, the kiss is here):

Such an iconic moment. ^_^

As for Asuka and Shinji, um... This chapter only devotes half a page to their relationship. Yeah, not even one full page (the other half of the page is for Asuka and Kaji). What the heck? None of the illustrations for the Asuka and Shinji portion are romantic, either: There's a picture of Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke freaking out; a pic of Asuka kicking somebody; and a picture of Misato standing next to Asuka. That's it. Fortunately, there are some images later in the book that I think AsuShin fans will like, so don't worry, I'll get to those next!

The third chapter of the book is "All of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto". It starts with a Q&A section, and then there's a gallery of the title page illustrations from various chapters of the manga. Like many other parts of the book, this gallery crams multiple images onto each page, so most of the pics are tiny. But at any rate, here are some cute ones that AsuShin fans can enjoy:

Adorable pics, aren't they? The one of Shinji and Asuka dancing together is so precious!

The next part of this chapter has some pictures and info about other manga that Sadamoto has worked on, plus his art books, and other things for which he has done illustrations or character designs such as album covers, video games, and anime. There is also a timeline of his career, and some extra comments from him.

Okay, next we have the fourth chapter of the book, which is called "Message from EVA Friends". It starts with a conversation between Hiroya Oku (creator of the manga Gantz) and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. After that, there are short messages from some of the Evangelion anime staff: Hideaki Anno (creator), Ikuto Yamashita (mecha designer), Yoshito Asari (assistant character designer), Yuko Miyamura (voice of Asuka), and Megumi Hayashibara (voice of Rei).

The next part of the chapter has illustrated messages from various writers/artists. Finally, some pictures that aren't already in the graphic novels! Check out this message from Kazuya Tsurumaki (assistant director for the Evangelion TV series, director for the first half of The End of Evangelion, and one of the directors for the New Theatrical Edition - AKA "Rebuild" - movies):

What a cute drawing of Asuka!

All right, I'll show one more illustrated message from this section. This is from Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou (the writer and the artist for the manga Deadman Wonderland):

Wow, Rei and Evangelion Unit-01 look pretty cool in that art style!

The book's fifth chapter is "Comic EVA History", and it shows Evangelion-related covers for various issues of Monthly Shounen Ace magazine and Young Ace magazine (the chapters of Sadamoto's Evangelion manga were originally published in Monthly Shounen Ace, and then starting in the summer of 2009 the remaining chapters were published in Young Ace). This part of the book also has pictures of some Evangelion-related bonus goodies that could be obtained with those magazines, such as posters, cards, and stickers.

And finally, the sixth chapter of the book is called "Extra Part", which includes notes for some of the terminology used in the manga, such as "LCL" and "entry plug". Then the book ends with a short psychology test to see which of the Children you are most in sync with.

Overall, I don't really recommend Shin Seiki Evangelion Koushiki Guide Book. It's supposed to be a guide to Sadamoto's Evangelion manga, but it was released before the last two volumes of the manga came out, so the information is not complete. Also, most of the illustrations are smaller versions of images that you can already see by simply reading the manga, so it isn't even all that great as an art book. It just feels like a cash grab. There are much better Evangelion books out there, so I would say don't bother with this one unless you're a serious collector who wants to obtain as many Evangelion-related publications as possible. Anyway, that's just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

Well, that’s it for my sixty-seventh Evangelion book review. I have plenty more Evangelion books to discuss, so keep checking my blog for new reviews!

#Evangelion #KawoShin #ReiShin #AsuShin #Kaworu Nagisa #Rei Ayanami #Asuka Langley Soryu #Shinji Ikari #Toji Suzuhara #Hikari Horaki #Evangelion Unit 01 #Evangelion Unit 03 #book review

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yurimother · 4 years

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LGBTQ Light Novel Review — I'm in Love with the Villainess

A stunningly profound, entertaining, and queer title that eclipses other isekai and Yuri series

There are few titles the general public seems to be as excited about as Inori and Hanagata's I'm in Love with the Villainess, as it has been sitting at or near the top of Amazon's LGBT Manga list for months and Twitter is consistently abuzz with the latest news on this isekai Yuri series. I was somewhat more skeptical, as I have had relatively poor experiences with isekai and fantasy Yuri. Still, my excitement went through the room, and I eagerly boarded the "hype train" upon the cover reveal for the third volume. Yuri families, where two women raise children together, are one of my greatest desires and something I rarely see portrayed in the genre. However, I still had mostly low expectations for the series going into the first volume. I looked forward to some light meandering comedy and typical boring trope-filled isekai shenanigans. However, I'm in Love with the Villainess more than exceeded my expectations. No, even this statement is far too moderate to describe how utterly stunned and blown away I was by Inori's creation. I'm in Love with the Villainess is completely shattering and easily one of the greatest light novels I have ever read. Thus, I have no choice to award a perfect 10/10 score, my first ever for a light novel.

After waking up in the world of her favorite otome game, Revolution, protagonist Rae is ecstatic to be faced to face with Claire Francois, the game's villainous rival. However, Rae never played Revolution for the thrill of romancing any of the three attractive young princes. She was always in love with Claire. She attends the academy and studies magic in the fantasy world alongside Claire, the princes, and various other supporting characters. Using her skills from the modern world and her encyclopedic knowledge of Revolution, Rae manipulates the situation to be close to Claire, becoming her maid, and garnering status and money along the way. As an inevitable conflict looms closer, Rea begins to enact plans to protect herself and Claire, many of which are not fully understood or explained until the finale fantastically reveals the reasons for her actions. There is a natural and steady pace to the narrative that awards readers’ predictions and attention to detail.

I'm in Love with the Villainess has some excellent supporting characters, all of whom have unique personalities, histories, and abilities, some of which are revealed by Rae's exposition and others naturally throughout the novel. However, the stars of the show are the central couple, Rae and Claire. Claire is an elite aristocrat and extremely bratty. She often sneers at commoners and makes her disdain of Rae very clear from early on. On paper, she sounds like the perfect villain and someone all readers would despise. However, Rae's utter devotion and infatuation with Claire is so sincere that we cannot help but be pulled in and adore Claire and all her tantrums. Rae is a delight herself, continually flirting and poking fun at Claire, which gets her verbally berated, much to her masochistic pleasure. However, she is also exceptionally cunning and intelligent, and some of the light novel's greatest joys are listening to her analyze a situation or watching one of her plans fall into place.

“Ah, I’m… Well, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s irrelevant to cuteness—because, Miss Claire, you are cute.” “Huh?!” She pulled away. It was perfect—such a pure reaction. “Miss Claire, you hate me, right?” “Of course!” “That’s fine. Please keep teasing me. I love it.”

The beginning of the book does not immediately clue one into its brilliance. Sure, Claire and Rea get some great one-liners as they bully each other, and the scenarios are authentic and fun, but it is nothing shattering. I was feeling pretty relaxed and having a lot of fun with the characters, their relationship, and the various slice-of-life style scenarios they encountered until one section, I remember the exact page, 81, as it stopped me dead in my tracks. I was flabbergasted and briefly frozen before shooting up out of bed, shouting expletives as I ran to my office to immediately record what I had just experienced. It all begins with the line, "Hey, Rae. Are you what they call gay?" What followed was one of the most thoughtful, condensed, informative, and nuanced discussions of gay and queer identity (both terms used in this scene) I have ever seen in Yuri. Everything from representation in media, the perceptions of and prejudices against gay people, and the role gender plays in romance for bisexual and gay people are analyzed. Its commentary is succinct yet so respectful and forthright that it could have only come from genuine experience, thus selling the book and its characters so much more.

"Queer people were still overwhelmingly closeted in this world, which was rife with prejudice and nurtured little understanding. As I noted, the queer people depicted in the story were either the sex fiends Claire imagined or the free-loving sort Lene had in mind. Diversity and acceptance were a long way off.”

Thus, Inori's writing's beauty exposed itself, and the book opened itself up to a delightful cycle. The narrative masterfully integrates isekai slice-of-life hijinks, like running a cross-dressing café or battling a giant slime with nuanced and challenging moments that dissect complicated topics. The latter mainly consists of a growing rift between the aristocracy and common people, mirroring real-world wealth gap issues, but the novel also touch on matters such as unequal prison sentencing and segregation. Every scene helped further the complexity of the characters and their relationships or else built onto the world of Revolution. Speaking of which, I'm in Love with the Villainess has some of the best worldbuilding ever seen in a light novel.

Initially, brief exposition establishes much of the world, which is adequate if not exciting. I will mark up to a casualty of the light novel's serialized nature, as it must present readers its setting immediately. However, Inori does not stop here. Through the narrative, new elements are established, such as a magic system and the kingdom's politics. Rea notes and describes how the world, while clearly based on medieval Europe, has many modern Japanese attributes, as Japanese game developers created it. Her pointing out the intersection of the two is fascinating. Furthermore, A great deal of time is spent establishing characters and organizations all have their own wants, agendas, and methods, many of which are not even directly involved with the story. Instead, they act as a background and help further contextualize others. For example, the Church publicly appears to lean towards supporting the commoners in their efforts for equality but has its own agenda of superseding the nobility. While they play little role in Rea and Claire’s adventure, they are one of numerous factors contributing to the unrest of the lower class. All these additions are interesting, and it never feels like the story or characters suffer for their inclusion, quite the opposite.

“The Bauer Kingdom had started a step behind other countries when it came to magical research. They dominated the surrounding countries in military strength, and this had made them complacent, leading them to underestimate the value of new magic technology until the best researchers had all been enticed to other countries. Even after the king came up with his magic-focused meritocratic policy, Bauer lagged behind.”

I can only make complaints by scraping the very bottom of the barrel. Hanagata's beautiful art is too infrequent to add much to the light novel, and many scenes crying for illustrations are left to the readers' imagination. However, Inori so wonderful writes the story that one hardly cares and can easily picture every moment with delight. Besides, the manga adaption will nullify this issue. Where I cannot complain at all is the spectacular translation by Jenn Yamazaki and Nibedita Sen, one of Seven Seas best (which is high praise considering the competition). Sure, I was slightly disappointed at first to see the adaptation left off honorifics, but the more I thought about the setting, the more sense it made. I am sure people much smarter than I gave the issue much more consideration, and I am happy with their decisions.

I'm in Love with the Villainess left me reeling with how pleasurable and powerful it was. The story and characters are such a joy, and I cannot wait to see Rea and Claire bully each other again in the next volume. Astounding worldbuilding and powerful, thought-provoking politics surround their antics and the high stakes plot. Every moment of their journey will enthrall readers as they squeal with glee at its hilarious set pieces or are shocked by its commentary of society's most significant challenges. Inori has created one of the most delightful, heartfelt, complex, profound, and genuinely queer light novel series ever. If you only read one thing I recommend this year, let it be I'm in Love with the Villainess.

Ratings: Story — 9 Characters — 10 Art — 5 LGBTQ — 10 Sexual Content — 2 Final — 10

Review copy provided by Seven Seas Entertainment

Purchase I’m in Love with the Villainess in digitally (9/23) and in print (11/10) today: https://amzn.to/32NEyG1

Supports creators by purchasing official releases.

#yuri #lgbt #lgbtq #reviews #lgbtq+#i favor the villainess #i'm in love with the villainess #girls love #gay #queer #light novel #manga #gl #politics #feminism

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egalitarian-tomboy · 3 years

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"How can I support the manga industry?": A Comprehensive Guide for American Fans

There are plenty of ways that you can support the manga and light novel industry but since I've never lived in a Country outside of America, this guide will be aimed primarily at my fellow yanks. But, if you have any tips for your fellow manga fans in your respective Country, feel free to reblog this with those added tips.

1. Digital Sites: If you're like me and you don't have a lot of space anymore to grow your physical collection, the next best option for you would be to go digital. Now it all depends on which site is your preference but if you wanna buy your manga directly from Japan that is translated in English then I highly recommend you use global.bookwalker.jp . It has a loyalty program that allows you to gain coins for every purchase and you can use those coins to buy more digital manga legally. No scanlations, just official translations by the manga publishers in the USA. I've been using it for a while now and it has worked wonders but since it's still growing it's library, I highly recommend you use their request form for new series where you can tell them which series they need to add to their store. Since chances are that they're already partnered with those publishers in question. But here are some other alternatives to bookwalker you can use if you aren't comfortable using a brand new site:

Kobo

Nook

ComiXology

VIZ

2. Public Library: If you can't afford to buy manga, then the next best thing you can possibly do is request the manga from your local library. Library cards are absolutely free and you can check out as many books as you'd like. Also if a library doesn't have a title, by requesting a certain series, you're also helping another fan who can't spend money get access to that series as well. Making it easier for all.

3. Physical Copies: Of course you knew we were gonna talk about our physical manga collections. While digital might be more convenient for fans who're constantly on the go, holding the physical volume just feels so good. There are plenty of ways you can personally support the manga and light novel industry when it comes to physical copies. But if you wanna kill two birds with one stone then you should always try to order your series from your local bookseller over sites like amazon or B&N first. If not then you can use your preferred bookseller option. But here's a link to Kinokuniya if you'd like a physical alternative to bookwalker like I mentioned above.

4. Conventions: Anime conventions normally have really big vendor halls filled to the brim with booksellers and merchants of every genre within manga and anime. From hentai to fluff to angst to slice of life, there's something for everyone at anime cons. But unfortunately until COVID has become more containable and less of a threat, you'll have to wait on that unless your local anime con decides it's OK to proceed. Normally you can get pretty good deals on manga as well at vendor halls.

So once again, I hope you guys find this at least a little helpful. While not the most in depth guide, I do try my best to give legit tips on how to grow your collection. From a nerdy manga reader such as myself lol. Thanks for reading and continue to support creators!

#Manga #Support Mangaka #Support Manga & Light Novel Creators #Support the Anime Industry #Anime #Manga Industry #Manga Support Guide #Tips #Manga Tips

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justusrstone · 3 years

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Review of the light novel The Apothecary Diaries by Natsu Hyuuga. Review is of the official English release from J-Novel Club. Check it out on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Wa5bkg

Or... Get it from iBooks: https://apple.co/3qNI2Cy Get if from Kobo: https://bit.ly/2JNeRyY Get it from Google: https://bit.ly/3oHguwM Get it from Bookwalker: https://bit.ly/37cn7Br

LIGHT NOVEL INFORMATION

Japanese Title: 薬屋のひとりごと — “Kusuriya no Hitorigoto” Author: Natsu Hyuuga — 日向夏 Illustrator: Touko Shino — しのとうこ Publisher (English): J-Novel Club Translator: Kevin Steinbach Release Date (English): February 14, 2021 Publisher (Japan): Hero Bunko (SHUFUNOTOMO) Release Date (Japan): August 29, 2014 Volumes Released (Japan to Date): 10 Anime Series: None Manga: Yes. Released by Square Enix Manga. Began publication December 2020

Synopsis: In the East is a land ruled by an emperor, whose consorts and serving women live in a sprawling complex known as the hougong, the rear palace. Maomao, an unassuming girl raised in an unassuming town by her apothecary father, never imagined the rear palace would have anything to do with her—until she was kidnapped and sold into service there. Though she looks ordinary, Maomao has a quick wit, a sharp mind, and an extensive knowledge of medicine. That’s her secret, until she encounters a resident of the palace at least as perceptive as she is: the head eunuch, Jinshi. He sees through Maomao’s façade and makes her a lady-in-waiting to none other than the Emperor’s favorite consort… so she can taste the lady’s food for poison! At her lady’s side, Maomao starts to learn about everything that goes on in the rear palace—not all of it seemly. Can she ever lead a quiet life, or will her powers of deduction and insatiable curiosity bring her ever more adventures, and ever more dangers?

#lightnovel #light novel #light novels #light novel review #The Apothecary Diaries #kusuriya no hitorigoto

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shazzeaslightnovels · 4 years

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Eris no Seihai 1

Official English Title: The Holy Grail of Eris

Author: Kujira Tokiwa

Illustrator: Yu-nagi

Label: GA Novel

Release Date: 14 November 2019

Art Notes: I was impressed with the art in this volume with how each illustration feels perfectly placed to convey the feeling of a scene. Yu-nagi’s art is really suited for this series.

Note: BookWalker is currently running a promotion until the end of May where you can get a short story written by Fujino Omori (writer of Danmachi) as a bonus if you buy this volume. The story itself is a cross-over story where Freya has read this volume and advertises the series for 2 pages. It made me laugh but it’s so short that it’s probably not worth buying this volume just to read it, unless you’re a really hardcore Danmachi fan.

A pretty good start to a mystery story with two interesting female leads. The author did a great job at making the reader feel tension and unease when it was needed and I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between the leads grow over the course of the volume. I do think that it dragged a bit and that there were so many plotlines that it got confusing but it piqued my interest enough that I’ll be checking out volume 2. Recommended if you want to read a series with two female leads and/or a slow burn mystery series.

Story:

Genre: Mystery, Ghosts, Revenge

When Constance Grail was young she witnessed the famous villainess, Scarlet Castiel, being executed in public for the crime of attempting to poison her rival in love. Now Constance is 16 years old and her family has run into a bit of financial trouble. To help her family get out of debt, she becomes engaged to a young man. It’s far from the fairy tale romance that she dreamed of as a kid but he treats her well and she has hope that everything will turn out fine until she catches wind of a rumour that he is having an affair with Pamela. She soon gets caught in a trap laid by Pamela who accuses her of thievery. Hearing Constance’s desperate pleas, the ghost of Scarlet agrees to help, for a price. Now, Constance must assist Scarlet in finding the one who framed her for the crime that led to her demise and help her get revenge.

Content warnings: the prologue features a beheading and there are a few mentions of suicide. Also, I think this series may develop a m/f romance with a 10 year age gap (the girl is 16 and the man is 26). I’m not 100% certain that it will develop it but it does seem likely, based on some of the illustrations I’ve seen from volume 2.

My biggest issue with this volume is that there were a bit too many plotlines introduced for a first volume and I got confused after a while because I had trouble seeing how the plotlines were connected. It also felt overly long and definitely dragged a bit.

One thing that this novel does really well with is tension. There’s often this sense of unease whenever Connie interacting with someone of high class and it’s really effective. My favourite example of this happens early on when Pamela accuses Connie of thievery, Connie begs someone for help in her head and Scarlet possesses her body to help and then the POV switches to Pamela’s and the tension immediately goes up as all she can think initially is “this is not Constance Grail”. It’s incredibly effective and by the end of the scene, you can’t help but get the sense that there’s something more going on under the surface here. Scenes like that were all over the volume and were really well done. I found that the volume piqued my interest easily and it was hard to stop reading once the tension started to rise again. I also really enjoyed the relationship between Scarlet and Connie and seeing their relationship grow over the course of the volume was a treat.

Character:

The most interesting character in this novel is Scarlet Castiel, the villainess herself. What’s interesting is that, even though she’s the deuteragonist, she’s still quite evil in a petty kind of way. She may not have not poisoned anyone but she did threaten her rival’s family and she did spill wine all over her rival’s dress. So, yeah, she’s kind of dick and I love her for it. But she also has the soft side that she shows when she likes someone which I really enjoyed getting to see. Her relationship with Connie is definitely one of the highlights of the volume. As for Connie herself, I found her a bit too plain in the beginning and I don’t think she’s flawed enough to be truly interesting but she does have her moments that mostly shine through her interactions with Scarlet. The other characters vary a bit and some of them weren’t very memorable. It doesn’t help that there are quite a few side characters in this and it’s hard to keep track of them all. Thankfully, each chapters ends with a character information sheet for the characters that appeared in said chapter which helped a bit to keep track of everyone.

Adaptation Notes:

The manga adaptation is ongoing with 2 volumes currently released and features art by Hinase Momoyama, notable for being the artist of the manga versions of Danmachi Familia Chronicle Episode Lyu, Higurashi Minagoroshi-hen (Massacre Arc) and Umineko Episode 6. Momoyama was an excellent choice as an artist for this manga because there are so many opportunities for good and creepy faces that Momoyama excels at, as well as some cute scenes which they do well at as well. There are a couple of lines that are cut but it’s largely the same as the light lovel and, like with the adaptation of Episode Lyu, there are cute 1-page recaps at the start of each chapter. Plus, Momoyama has excellent taste in dresses and I love the evening dress that Scarlet picks out for Constance to wear at Emilia’s party. Momoyama’s art is so good that I may prefer the manga over the light novel in this case. Definitely recommended.

Recommended for:

If you like series with two female leads, you’ll probably get some enjoyment out of this. If you like mystery, this may scratch your itch but it does seem to be a slow burn mystery where the answers are slowly revealed over time instead of being a bunch of different smaller mysteries.

I definitely am interesting in reading volume 2 but I may not get to it for a while, since these volumes are more expensive than my usual reads and I may have to wait for it to go on sale.

#eris no seihai #the holy grail of eris #GA Novel #May 2020 #Positive review

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torontocomics · 5 years

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JUNJI ITO TO ATTEND TCAF 2019

The Master of Manga Horror makes his first North-American appearance in Toronto, Canada, this May 11-12, 2019.

Toronto Public Library presents The Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2019 Saturday May 11th, 9am-5pm, and Sunday May 12th, 10am-5pm @ Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, Canada Free To Attend | www.torontocomics.com

FEBRUARY 11: TCAF, The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is proud to announce that acclaimed Japanese manga creator and international horror sensation JUNJI ITO will participate in TCAF as a Featured Guest and Official Poster Artist of the 2019 Festival, to be held May 11-12, 2019, in Toronto, Canada. Junji Ito is best known for his groundbreaking horror stories including Uzumaki, Gyo, Tomie, and “The Enigma of Amigara Fault,” and will travel to Toronto in support of his new short story collection Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection, to be published this April by VIZ Media.

“Junji Ito is a truly amazing creator, and we’re so proud to welcome him the Canada,” said TCAF Artistic Director Christopher Butcher. “Ito-sensei is a creator that we’d been hoping to feature at the Festival for more than a decade, he’s a personal favourite manga-ka of mine and of so many fans and comic creators. We’re so happy that he could find some time in his busy creative schedule to attend the Festival this year.”

Junji Ito will debut the new horror short story collection Smashed, the latest in an impressive line-up of great collections of his work in English. In the last 5 years horror fans have been treated to an incredible wealth of Ito’s material, including new hardcover deluxe editions of Uzumaki, Gyo, and Tomie, and all-new collections including Frankenstein, Shiver, and Fragments of Horror, among others, all available from VIZ Media.

“Ito-sensei’s work crosses so many traditional comics boundaries, and he has such a wide and enthusiastic audience for his work,” continues Butcher. “Whether it’s horror fans, comics fans, manga fans, or anime fans, there are so many people that count Ito among their favourite creators in the world, thanks to the omnipresence of his work across popular media including manga, film, and anime. I know that meeting Ito-sensei will be a treasured memory for many visitors to TCAF.”

Junji Ito will participate in a wide variety of events at TCAF 2019, including an on-stage interview, live-drawing, and special ticketed autograph sessions (details To Be Announced). The full range of Ito-sensei’s in-print manga will be available for purchase on-site at TCAF at the Festival Shop, Page & Panel, and at his events courtesy of Festival Sponsor The Beguiling. Ito-sensei’s works are also well-represented in the circulating collection of Festival Presenting Sponsor Toronto Public Library.

—

ABOUT JUNJI ITO

Junji Ito made his professional manga debut in 1987 and since then has gone on to be recognized as one of the greatest contemporary artists working in the horror genre. His titles include Tomie and Uzumaki, which have been adapted into live-action films; Gyo, which was adapted into an animated film; Fragments of Horror, adapted into an animated series; and the short story collections Shiver and Frankenstein, with all works having been published in English by VIZ Media. Other works of Ito’s in English include Dissolving Classroom, published by Vertical Inc., and Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Mon & Yu, published by Kodansha Comics. Ito’s influences include classic horror manga artists Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino, as well as authors Yasutaka Tsutsui and H.P. Lovecraft.

ABOUT SMASHED: JUNJI ITO STORY COLLECTION

Thirteen chilling nightmares, presented by the master of horror! Try not to be noticed when you eat the secret nectar, otherwise you’ll get smashed… What horrific events happened to create the earthbound—people tied to a certain place for the rest of their short lives? Then, a strange haunted house comes to town, but no one expects it to lead to a real hell… Welcome to Junji Ito’s world, a world with no escape from endless nightmares. Hardcover graphic novel coming April 16, 2019, from VIZ Media.

#TCAF #JUNJI ITO #VIZ

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comixology · 5 years

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For Immediate Release

ComiXology Originals Announces Stone Star, A Sci-Fi, Action-Adventure, Comic Series by Jim Zub and Max Dunbar

Available Digitally Starting Today

Now Included Exclusively in Prime Reading, Kindle Unlimited and comiXology Unlimited

March 27, 2019 – New York, NY –ComiXology, Amazon’s premier digital comics service, dropped a surprise new series today, the first issue of Stone Star, a 5-part sci-fi, action-adventure comic seriesby Jim Zub (Champions, Avengers: No Road Home, Rick and Morty vs Dungeons & Dragons) and Max Dunbar (Champions, Dungeons & Dragons). Stone Star issue #1 is digitally available to read now for members of Prime Reading, Kindle Unlimited, and comiXology Unlimited and is also available for sale on comiXology and Kindle for $2.99.

Stone Star is a mobile asteroid where entertainment abounds, and competition and celebrity are intertwined. Gladiators fight to find their fortune, but there are other secrets lurking beneath the surface as a new season begins. Evoking the very best of science fiction, cyberpunk, and modern-day sports entertainment, Stone Star follows the story of Dail, a teenage thief who is pulled into the arena and has to decide where his loyalties lie. Zub and Dunbar have created a fast-paced adventure full of stunning sights, intense action, and colorful characters.

"Stone Star is a wild mix of everything that ignited my imagination growing up - strange creatures with a fantasy flare, weird worlds, and unexpected danger,” says writer Jim Zub. “Max is channeling that excitement and unleashing it on every page with a level of kinetic action and detail that readers have never seen from him before."

“It’s exciting to surprise fans with a new series no one knew was coming,” said comiXology Originals Head of Content Chip Mosher. “We love Stone Star – Zub and Dunbar have really delivered the goods and we know that new and existing comic fans will enjoy the heck out of this rollicking sci-fi adventure. And with digital distribution we can surprise and delight readers everywhere with new content they didn’t know was coming. It’s a blast!”

In celebration of this surprise announcement, Jim Zub and Max Dunbar will be at WonderCon—March 29-31 in Anaheim, CA—to promote and discuss Stone Star. The two creators will be signing two exclusive, limited edition giveaway posters, illustrated by Max Dunbar and available from their table at Booth #2151. Zub and Dunbar will also be appearing on the following panels:

Friday, March 29, 2019—2:00p.m. - 3:00p.m., Room: 211 ComiXology Originals What’s Next Stone Star Spotlight The biggest news in comics is comiXology’s exclusive digital content program - comiXology Originals. Now you can join comiXology’s Head of Content, Chip Mosher, writer Jim Zub and artist Max Dunbar to get the scoop on an all-new, recently announced, comiXology Originals series, Stone Star—available now—direct from the creators making it! They’ll wow the crowd with stories on the process of bringing creator-owned comics to life and what it’s like pushing the envelope with digital comics, and beyond. Saturday, 3/30/19, 12:30p.m. - 1:30p.m., Room: 208 Breaking in & Staying in Comics Like with any creative field, Comics is a tough business to break into, and possibly tougher to stay in – but fear not! Our panel of comics veterans from across the creative & administrative spectrum of comics are here to help! Join our panel of comics superstars including Jim Zub (Avengers, Dungeons & Dragons), Max Dunbar (Champions, Teen Titans), Chip Mosher (comiXology Head of Content), Ivan Salazar (comiXology PR & Events) & surprise special guests as they teach you the tricks of the trade to break in & stay in comics, possibly for LIFE. Welcome to Comics, hope you survive the experience.

Sunday, March 31, 2019--2:00p.m. - 3:00p.m., Room: 209 Comics 101: Making Sense of the World of Comics Just getting into comics but not sure where to start? We can help! Hear from some of the industry's best & brightest including Jim Zub (Avengers, Dungeons & Dragons), Max Dunbar (Champions, Teen Titans), Mark Sable (The Dark, Graveyard of Empires), Bis Stringer Horne (Comics Editor & Facilitator), Ivan Salazar (comiXology PR & Events) & more special guests as they impart their vast comic knowledge by personally recommending series just right for you! Join the eternal comics fans at comiXology along with a riveting panel of comics superstars as they become your guides through the awesome world of comics!

Stone Star is part of the comiXology Originals line of exclusive digital content. The first issue is available now and each subsequent monthly issue will be available to members of Prime Reading, Kindle Unlimited, and comiXology Unlimited at no additional cost, and available for sale on comiXology and Kindle for $2.99. The collected edition will be available via Print-on-Demand exclusively on Amazon.com. Stone Star #1 is a continuation of comiXology Originals offering new, exclusive comic book content across Amazon’s subscription services of Prime, Kindle Unlimited, and comiXology Unlimited. Prime Reading offers Amazon Prime members a rotating selection of over a thousand top Kindle books, magazines, short works, comic books, children’s books, and more – all at no additional cost. Kindle Unlimited offers over 1 million titles, thousands of audiobooks, and select current issues of popular magazines for just $9.99 a month with a 30-day free trial for new members at amazon.com/kindleunlimited. ComiXology Unlimited offers over 20,000 comics, graphic novels and manga for just $5.99 a month with a 30-day free trial for new members at comixology.com/unlimited.

For more updates on comiXology Originals, check outhttp://comixologyoriginals.com and follow comiXology onTwitter,Facebook andInstagram. About the Stonestar Creative Team Jim Zub is a writer, artist and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. His current comic projects includeAvengers: No Road Home, a weekly epic event for Marvel’s Mightiest Heroes, Champions, Marvel’s team of teen superheroes fighting for the future, Dungeons & Dragons, the official comic series of the world’s most popular tabletop role-playing game, and Wayward, a modern supernatural story about teens fighting Japanese mythological monsters. http://www.jimzub.com/

Max Dunbar is a Vancouver-based comic book and concept artist who has worked on such titles as Dungeons & Dragons, Judge Dredd, Champions, Gears of War: Rise of RAAM, Red Sonja and others.

About comiXology ComiXology, an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is a revolutionary, cloud-based digital comics service. With content from over 125 publishers as well as thousands of independent creators from around the world, comiXology provides an unrivaled library of comic books, graphic novels, manga and bandes dessinées. The company’s first-in-class innovations include the exclusive Guided View technology which provides an immersive and cinematic reading experience and a new monthly subscription service. ComiXology is based in New York City, with operations in Seattle and Los Angeles. For more information, visit comixology.com and follow the company on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. About Amazon Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

To request a review copy, art or interview, Contact: Pamela Mullin Horvath, Publicity Director, Superfan Promotions LLC [email protected]

#Press Release #Stone Star #comiXology Originals

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