AwwwRIGHT! Things are getting better and better! Gyakkyou Nine is only 6 volumes long, so that means Shimamoto has to pack a lot into those pages, which means a lot of hot-blooded action in every chapter. I always pick it up intending to read just a few pages and end up reading half the book.
I’m not going to give a blow by blow of each volume. I’m too lazy for that. All you have to know is that after the fiasco where Toshi ditched his baseball team for a girl, they were really, really mad at him but eventually forgave him when Hagiwara (replacement pitcher with the blond hair) goes through almost exactly the same thing but busts his arm and is forced to rely on Toshi’s pitches.
All good right? Nope. It’s clear that Toshi is wavering between his love for the girl and his love of baseball. Meanwhile the Zenryoku team is scheduled to go up against Hinodeshou High for real this time, and Hinode just blew out their opponents by a ridiculous score. The whole Zenryoku team is down and only Toshi can inspire them… but only if he can sort out his own feelings once and for all!
Volume 3 is a good one just because I like romance and drama, plus it’s fun seeing Toshi deal with adversity that isn’t directly related to baseball. That and it’s funny how his family sticks their nose into everything. Anyway, once that whole crisis is over, the Koshien qualifier finals take place, starting from the first chapter of Volume 4. Toshi gets on the mound full of pep and vim… and is knocked out like a light by a liner from the very first batter. It knocks him out so hard that he lies where he fell in the right field until the 9th inning. Then he wakes up and takes a look at the score. 112-3. Could any team possibly bounce back from such a deficit?
Hoo boy. Now I have to read volumes 5 and 6 to find out. If the Gyakkyou Nine were any longer I would be worried about how much longer it would take to get through it all, but one of the nice things about short series is that it’s easy to keep the fire going and your enthusiasm up because everything happens quickly. Win or lose, it won’t take long to find out!
HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP 20周年大感謝祭 in Japanese. It was too much trouble to translate “Daikanshasai”, which means something like “big thank you party”. Basically a small live concert featuring some big names in the Japanese music industry celebrating 20 years since Hey! Hey! Hey! started… even though it was technically cancelled 2 years ago and had been in decline for a while before that.
Anyway it aired live in Japan on December 29th 2014 but I’m only just getting round to watching it. The performers on the show were:
aiko
AKB48
Ami Suzuki
Arashi BoA
GACKT
Golden Bomber
Hideaki Tokunaga
Kiroro
MAX
Noriyuki Makihara
ORANGE RANGE
Porno Graffiti
PUFFY
Ryuichi Kawamura
SMAP
Tetsuro Komuro
T. M. Revolution
Tomomi Kahara
TRF
Ulfuls
I’m not going to do an act-by-act breakdown like I did (and will continue to do) with Kohaku Utagassen. It was a lot of fun for me as a fan of Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ because they showed lots of skits from the early days of the program. Some of them I had seen before, like the one with X Japan and the one with Amuro Namie. Others like SMAP’s first appearance and Arashi’s first appearance were new to me.
I went through a phase where I watched a lot of Hey Hey Hey clips on Youtube when I was learning Japanese, but I only focused on artistes I was interested in, so no wonder I didn’t see those.
The performers sang a number of hits from the 90’s, but the really interesting part of this for me was… seeing how they had aged between their first appearance and now! Without going into the gory details, I’m quite close in age to most of the acts like BoA and Ami Suzuki and even the ossans of Arashi mwahahaha, you can dress as young as you like but you’re still an ossan, mwahahahaaa… yeah, I enjoyed that.
Even better, when the current SMAP members came on live, they spent the time talking about grey hairs and balding heads. Apart from Goro Inagaki they all denied having any grey hair at all, but they’re not fooling anyone. Being in a “boy” band at the age of 42 must be suffering.
And of course Matsumoto couldn’t resist a little dig at Kusanagi for his drunken incident a few years ago. I was working with some Japanese people at the time and they were all shocked, shocked! to hear of Kusanagi’s little bender. I didn’t know much about SMAP back then and barely knew who was who, but it was still funny. Human beings are all the same, corrupt and wicked inside. Some just put on a better mask than others.
And some play the guitar better than others
Actually I didn’t pay that much attention to the guys’s looks. Now the ladies, on the other hand… ^.^ IMO many of the ladies looked even better with a bit of maturity added on. MAX especially had a very nondescript ‘generic pretty girl band’ look in their youth, but with a little meat on their bones and roundness in their faces they looked great dancing on stage. Pretty sure they used to be 4 members, but only 3 performed. *shrug*
Ami Suzuki still can’t dance, but after what, 20 years as a performer I don’t think she cares any more. She’s doing more acting these days anyway, so it was nice of her to relive her idol days for one night.
Tomomi Kahara also looked good, especially considering all the ups and downs she has been through in her career (according to the gossip mags anyway). Wonderful clear voice.
I did wonder what BoA was up to these days, didn’t I? I suppose I could find out in five seconds by checking Wikipedia, but where would the fun be in that? It’s more exciting when people show up out of the blue and you’re like, Hey, it’s Gackt! (I had almost forgotten he existed). Hey it’s BoA!
The best thing about live shows is that every once in a while something goes wrong and there’s no way to do a second take, heh heh. That’s what happened to T. M. Revolution (who is definitely dyeing his grey hair, but at least no one asked him about it so he didn’t get the chance to lie). He totally lost his place while singing Hot Limit and had to pick up the song a little later, which prompted the hosts to respond like this:
Haha, they’re so mean. According to T.M. it was Matsumoto’s fault for distracting him by talking about his ex-wife right before he was scheduled to perform. Whatever you say, Takanori. Though it’s cute how performers will apologize to the audience when they make a mistake… as if watching them fluff lines wasn’t the whole point of live performances. …What?
Apart from that everyone sang and danced old hits and new, and then the show ended with all the performers singing H Jungle with T’s million-selling single “Wow War Tonight.” Looking forward to the 25th anniversary performance!
After a bit of a break I tried to get back into Shinji Mizushima’s Ikkyuu-san, but I think I’m going to end up dropping this series after all. Volume 4 and (most likely volumes 5-8 at the rate this is going) covers the winner-takes-all practice match between the first and second-string teams of Kyojin High School, but it’s just painful to read because Ikkyuu sucks so, so badly.
He himself might have an excuse for being so bad since his coach pretty much left him to his own devices, but there’s no reason why he still, after 4 volumes, doesn’t know many of the most basic rules of baseball like forced plays. And the coach puts him on third even though the poor soul can’t catch the most basic grounder — because you didn’t teach him, you idiot!!!!
What’s worse, even after it becomes clear that the opponents are aiming exclusively for Ikkyuu, the other team members don’t budge from their positions to help him out. There’s no law saying the shortstop or the left fielder or the whole team can’t move closer to third base to help Ikkyuu defend, is there? Instead they just stay where they are and whine and complain. The pitcher isn’t off the hook either, since he’s throwing balls that are so easy to hit that that the other guys got 10 runs in one inning without really trying. It doesn’t matter if Ikkyuu can’t catch if the enemy can’t hit your pitches, right?
So everybody sucks and I’m annoyed. At the end of the volume Ikkyuu FINALLY managed to catch something and the sides change, which was like PHEW! Obviously it’s going to turn out that this was all part of Coach Iwakaze’s master plan to awaken Ikkyuu’s true powers, blah blah blah, but it’s going to be a while before I return to Ikkyuu-san to find out what happens next. No wonder this series is so much shorter than Mizushima’s other stuff: it’s really, really frustrating!
This story is a simple depiction of the ordinary lives of the three Minami sisters. Please do not expect too much.
That’s the disclaimer in every episode of Minami-ke Tadaima, and the show is exactly what it says on the tin. Haruka, Kana and Chiaki wake up, eat, go to school, come home, eat, sleep and on and on through the episodes. It’s a great series for anyone who likes slice-of-life with relatively normal characters, but after four seasons maybe enough is enough?
Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the show thoroughly, but the nature of most slice-of-life shows is that things will (almost) always reset to the status quo, so there’s rarely any development of note. Normally this isn’t a problem because such shows usually last only 13 to 26 episodes and end before you can get fed up, but Minami-ke is at double that number and counting. That means after 4 seasons things that were funny or interesting in the beginning now prompt a “That’s enough already!” reaction out of me. In particular:
– Hosaka is still fantasizing about Haruka yet still hasn’t managed to even talk to her properly yet.
– Fujioka is still failing to confess his love to Kana.
– Riko is still failing to confess her love to Fujioka.
– That annoying girl who is in love with Natsuki is still in love with him but can’t confess. Though we have learned that Natsuki has a bit of a crush on Haruka.
– Fujioka still doesn’t know that Touma is a girl.
– Makoto is still cross-dressing as Mako-chan… though I suppose Chiaki is slightly more friendly to boy Makoto now.
– Uncle Takeru is still coming over to mope… though he’s less of a mooch now.
So there have been slight developments, but for the most part everything is still the same as ever. That means fans of the series will get exactly what they were hoping for when they picked it up but it also means people like me who were getting just a bit tired of the formula last time will be a little disappointed. And even more so when they tease developments then take them away, like when they made it seem Haruka was into Natsuki, or that Fujioka and annoying-girl-who-likes-Natsuki would get together.
At least the show only added one new member to the cast (Miyuki. Or was she there all along?) but the cast is already plenty large, so I had to slog through a lot of skits that dealt with people I either don’t care for (the annoying girl that likes Natsuki, Atsuko and Maki), used to like but am now tired of (Hosaka, Makoto) or people I actively dislike (Natsuki, Hayami-sempai). I felt a little sad when the past three seasons ended but with Minami-ke Tadaima it’s just like, huh. Okay.
Of course I will still watch season 5 if and when it comes out, but the series is really stagnating now. If nothing changes after this then the next season will be my last.
I read Remember by Benjamin a few months ago. It was pretty bad, but I noticed in that many Amazon reviewers thought quite highly of his previous work Orange. And I figured Orange had to have done pretty well for Tokyopop for them to pick up another work by the same author (though I’m probably giving TP more credit than they deserve). Besides, Benjamin’s art is nice to look at regardless of the quality of his stories, so ah well, I decided to read it.
Blurb: Her name is Orange. She’s a young girl in high school, coming of age in the heart of the city. And she has decided she has nothing to lie for. Not her shallow friends, not her parents, not school. Not even the empty promises of love. Her head filled with morbid fantasies of suicide, Orange finds herself standing at the edge of her rooftop when the drunk, enigmatic young man, Dashu, enters her world…changing it forever.
A heartbreaking tale of a young woman desperately trying to understand the bewildering world around her, brought to life by the luscious artwork of global manga icon, Benjamin, Orange is a profoundly moving story of loss and redemption.
Aannnd… it’s not as bad as Remember, I guess. It helps that it’s really short, with the main story covering a little over 100 pages and the rest of the volume being taken up by Benjamin’s admittedly ‘luscious’ artwork. The guy can really draw when he puts his mind to it, no question about it.
It’s also not that bad because it has a definite focus – angsty teen pretends to be happy but is actually depressed and suicidal within, let’s see what happens to her. Of course you don’t ever get to find out, and it’s never made clear what the root cause behind Orange’s rebelliousness/lack of self-esteem/mental issues is, nor does anyone ever attempt to find out. It’s sad in a way, the way millions of depression sufferers slip through the cracks every year because they’ve mastered the art of putting on a mask of normality. As a reader I was just rolling my eyes as I read her endless whinging lines “Nobody understands me” (yes she really said that) “I’m in so much pain” and so on, but there are real life people going through that sort of thing so I suppose a tiny little bit of compassion is in order?
It might almost have been good if Benjamin hadn’t spoiled the shocker ending in the first few pages. I don’t really mind an open ending that gives you stuff to think about like “How did we get here?” and “What’s going to happen next?” but it has to be an ending, not given away right at the start so that the reader goes “Yeah yeah, just forward to the part where X happens.” Maybe in a longer story where enough happens during the flashback to make you forget that might work, but it’s a risky strategy that didn’t pay off for Benjamin IMO.
LOVE the bug eyes on the elf girl.
Should you read Orange by Benjamin? It only costs $0.50 used, but since it has like zero rereading value, I dunno. It’s just 100 pages of Orange whining and complaining, smoking and using bad language and making out with random guys in dark corners only to stop them from putting their hands in her underwear, and then every couple of pages Dashu shows up. I’m sure if you google for a few minutes you’ll find someone’s LiveJournal or Myspace (is that still a thing) with the same content.
The only real reason to get this would be the art. Benjamin’s artwork is gorgeous without a doubt, and it’s fun to read something in full color after all the manga I’ve been reading. Not that I don’t like manga or anything, but I love the use of vivid color in manhua. It’s such a pity more of it doesn’t come out in English because I was thrilled all those years ago when Image Comics published titles like Mega Dragon and Tiger and Solar Lord. I even bought some Mega Dragon volumes put out by an inferior publishing company, I forget their name. But I digress.
At the end of the volume for the last 30 pages or so are several pages of random artwork by Benjamin, a little extra bonus for the loyal fans who stuck this out. These look really nice, plus it’s nice to get an insight into the people who draw the art for the MMORPG ads you see everywhere when you don’t have Adblock on. I said last time that Benjamin would be better off just being an illustrator, and this just confirms it. I hope he’ll put out an artbook someday.
had to have done pretty well for Tokyopop for them to pick up another work by the same author (though I’m probably giving TP more credit than they deserve). Besides, Benjamin’s art is nice to look at regardless of the quality of his stories, so ah well, I decided to read it.
