Rage aka Reiji - Most Annoying Character

I am so ANNOYING!

I just hate yandere characters, and Reiji is firmly in this category! Reiji is a minor character in Gravitation or Gravitation EX. She's an American girl, and Head of XMR Records, the label Bad Luck is signed to. She falls violently in love with pop singer Shuichi Shindou when he comes to America for a short time after breaking up with heart throb romance novelist Eri Yuki.

There is no way I could possibly get any more ANNOYING!

Reiji carries a bazooka or other weapon. Most Americans in this comic do. If I remember, she also has a giant flying mecha panda. But I kind of blocked it out, because I hated Reiji's whole role in the comic so much. I think, Reiji was really the embodiment of what went wrong with the comic, when it ceased being fun and just started to be annoying. Thus, she became the target of my dislike. Please do not be mad at me when I say this: Gravitation should have ended volumes before Reiji was ever committed to paper.

I mean how many times can Suichi and Eri break up and get back together? How many times does Riuichi act like an idiot savant then put on a genius performance? How many creative crises can the characters collectively have, and how many overbearing, obnoxious, gun toting Americans can show up before the whole thing just falls apart?

I wonder if Maki Murikami can even draw me with my dumb mouth shut?

Reading Reiji is kind of like having to watch this video over and over again until you barf blood out of your ears:

Also, lesson learned from working on this post. Never do a Google keyword image search of "Gravitation Panda" without your safe search filters on. Seriously, you do not want to see it. Fun Fact: Maki Murikami did her own doujinshi of Gravitation, Gravitation Remix, which is super-duper-duper-duper-smutty, and many of its pages show up under that search.

Dr. M: Day 11--Your First Manga Crush

Okay, first, there is something you should know. I am not a romantic. In fact, I am pretty much the opposite of a romantic. Wine and bubblebaths and grand sweeping gestures seem silly and insincere to me. I'm less likely to swoon than to laugh at those kinds of romantic things. I hate the phrase "make love" because it gives me the gross-outs. I think people should be honest, and have a hard, crunchy shell...I am not an easy person to love. And I'm okay with that. I do love people, wholly and fully and with all of my twisted little soul, but I don't do romance, and I'm more likely to tell someone to "suck it up and act like they own a pair" than sugar-coat things. That's not great, because sometimes we need a little sugar, sugar boogers (that's a term of endearment...it's about as cutey-fu-fu as I get).

So, it will come as no surprise that I not only don't mind mean, curmudgeonly characters...I kind of love them.

My first manga crush was Eiri Yuki from Gravitation, the most unlikely and unromantic romance novelist ever.

He's cruel, and honest, and altogether my type of person.

He's so deliciously MEAN! 

Here's Eiri Yuki in typical jerk-mode, explaining why he's annoyed with his lover Shuichi:

"You're boring when you're not acting stupid...but you're even worse when you're trying too hard. If you want to get all emotional, then go someplace else. Take some Ritalin. I don't want to hear you bitch and moan." ("Track 7").

Yes, it's harsh, but isn't heartless. In his defense Shuichi is annoying as all get out and should take some Ritalin.

And as he says later, "Get over it, this is just the way I profess my love" ("Track 54"). Some of us don't express our love in standard ways, but it doesn't mean I don't care. It means I can be myself with the people I love. I can call them crap-weasels if I want because I love them.

And it isn't like Eiri Yuki can't be kind, I mean he did threaten to kick anyone's ass who kidnapped his boyfriend without permission. Of course, that's after he told his boyfriend he was a no-talent hack and a moron chimp.

You take the good and the bad, I guess? Love hurts. It hurts even worse when you're with an unromantic cad, but we don't really mean to be unromantic...we just think it's gross. So, like Eiri Yuki, when I call someone a moron chimp, I do it out of love. It might be narcissistic to fall for a character too much like me, but that's another issue I have to deal with. I leave you with these parting words of love from Yuki (romance novelist...remember?):

"When you're that happy, I just want to smack you." ("Track 32")...yup. That's about right.

The heart wants what it wants!
What does it want?
Blood mostly!
ROMANCE! 

Dr. M: Day One--My Very First Manga

My very first manga was borrowed from Shakespeare's already hefty collection over 10 years ago. I had watched some, very little to be honest, anime at that point, and one day as I was getting my hair colored by a friend Shakespeare popped in the dvd of Gravitation. My first reaction was...What is this weirdness? But one episode in and I was hooked on the story of a hyperactive, wanna-be, pop star and the obsessive love he held for an irascible, chain-smoking romance novelist.

Opening Theme to Gravitation the anime series

So, she loaned me the first 9 volumes of the manga series, which was then still in production through the now defunct Tokyo Pop. I didn't even know how to read them correctly. I was, and still am, an American comic fan, so the right-left orientation threw me for the first few volumes. Again, I was hooked. Gravitation  was my gateway drug to the world of manga.

After Gravitation the obsession hit hard. I was making monthly jaunts to another city where the selection of manga was bigger. I started keeping track of release dates and anxiously awaiting the next volumes. I scoured ebay for deals on sets and even glanced at a few doujinshi (fan-created mangas)...where I discovered something both awesome and awful. Murikami, the mangaka of Gravitation, had done her own unpublishably smutty doujinshi. I don't recommend the doujinshi (because ewh!), but I do recommend the manga series. It's cheesy, and hyper, and impossibly goofy, but it is also sweetly heart-felt, and tragic. I cheer for the good guys, shake my fist at the baddies, and laugh my way through main character Shuichi's bumbling attempts at love and success.

Tokyo Pop may be gone, but there are still plenty of copies of this long-running series to be found.

  Now listen to that intro video above and try not to dance.

For the love of Gravitation!

Dear Readers, I promised some Rock 'n' Roll around here! And, I mean to deliver! I've been thinking for ages about how to talk about Maki Murakami's classic many incarnated animanga-marketing extravaganza: Gravitation.

But, where do I start? Let's see, there's an anime, an OVA, a manga, a "remix" manga, light novels and oh, also dōjinshi, which Maki Murakami authored herself (and it is some really sick stuff, folks, sick.). I mean, who does that? So, meta. Actually, I think it was just so disturbing her publisher wouldn't touch it, but anyway.

At the heart of the blitz of materials that make up the Gravitation-verse, the story of a budding pop / rock star, Shuichi Shindou, and his love for a tortured romance novelist, Eri Yuki (sigh...). Shuichi, the lead singer of Bad Luck, is a little pink haired freak with too much energy, self-doubt, self-belief, passion and OCD. And, hrm, he is completely not like anyone I happen to know...

I've been thinking a lot about Shuichi lately, and why I even like him as a character? Point of truth: he can be a little annoying and abrasive, moving from the highest of heights to the lowest of lows, creatively and emotionally; he goes chibi too often for my tastes, and he is kind of pathetic. His band only has like two songs, and he wears the same outfit at every concert (oh, that's just the anime? Production value? Whatever.)

But, the thing is, I just love this character.

Shuichi is naively open to love. He sees what he wants, and he goes after it. He often agonizes and mopes, but he realizes that he shouldn't deny how he feels even if others don't approve. He's passionate about his creative life, and about the people he loves.

I'm going to go on record as saying: Shuichi Shindou inspires me!

In a forthcoming post, I will actually talk about one of the myriad associated comic type, moving picture what-have-you's that he appears in.

So-Bad Sunday: Shakespeare's Insomnia

Artist rendering of William Shakespeare suffering from lack of sleep

That's it! No one gets a So-Bad Sunday from Shakespeare this weekend! I planned on writing something last night, but fell asleep whilst composing my oeuvre. Look at that fancy word, Dear Readers. I think it means complete body of work. For our purposes, we'll say it covers one blog entry. This one.

The truth is, I didn't read anything bad this week, and I have what seems to be some really good reading on the horizon. The person behind my persona has another project going, which is a music oriented, so the next few reviews will follow that theme. Expect some ramblings on 20th Century Boys, Detroit Metal City, Ai Ore, and the ever iconic and classic, Gravitation. Oh, Eri Yuki, finally I will pay homage to you in the only way I know how.

Eri Yuki, you seem more like a Cramps guy, but I guess it's Bad Luck that you love.

Day 20 - Favorite Dubbed Anime: Dubbed, who cares, Subbed: Gravitation (Remix: Hong Kong Rip-off)

I listen to a lot of dubbed anime, so I am going to modify this catagory so that I might talk a bit about bad subtitles. Bad subtitles are...bad. But, they are also really, really funny.

When I bought my copy of Gravitation, I got it for the cheaps. Little did I know that there was a reason for the bargain basement price of my copy of the series. I may, or may not, have accidentally purchased (no one sue me for this) a Hong Kong rip-off of the series. I was not aware of this until I watched it. I knew the series pretty well at this point, because Ms. Shakespeare and I had watched it together on several occasions. My copy was not like her copy. Her copy had...um...what's the opposite of word vomit?

For example:

This screen capture should read, "You want a reason, maybe you're a lousy lay?"

It does not say this. It just says "Poor Sex Skill." Hahaha.









How about exhibit B?

In this scene Eri Yuki (whom my version insists on calling Kwan) is trying to talk seriously about breaking up to a traumatized Shuichi (whom my version insists on calling either Showe or Showende) who has decided to renounce his masculinity (he is dressed in his sister's school uniform) in order to help Yuki save face. Shuichi says something along the lines of, "You're leaving me because I'm a man. I thought you'd like this look better." Yuki is saying something like, "How you're dressed isn't really helping your case." But it came out really weird. Poor Shuichi, he actually cross-dresses a few times in the series.


One last one:

Tohma (whom my version insists on calling like 8 things...seriously, it's like they forgot what they named him) is lurking in the room and catches Shuichi kissing Yuki (see the Kwan there?) goodbye on the ear. Yuki gets a little flustered, so Tohma (whom my version believes is a "she," although I assure you he is not) says something like "Oh, Yuki, I didn't know you had an ear fetish." I suppose that could  be a "problem," but I think it is more likely just a super bad translation.


Ms. Shakespeare couldn't even watch this version with me. She made me turn it off. I think it's hilarious. So, it gets my vote for best subtitles, on account of the amount of amusement it provides me. Not because they're good. Because they really, really aren't.

Day 3 - Your Anime Crush:

I have more manga crushes than anime crushes. I mean there is ONE episode of Fake, so I suppose I could put Dee Laytner down here and technically not be cheating. I love Dee. LOVE HIM! I won't even try to help it. I like mean boys.
So, in the spirit of liking the mean/tragic I'm going to have to go with Eri Yuki of Gravitation, who has already been mentioned by Ms. Shakespeare and I several times.

I wish the artist had added their name to this picture so I could give them credit, because when I found it I was all...BISHONEN BUDDHA! That is hot!

Eri Yuki is cruel, sarcastic, devious, talented, tragic, scarred and beautiful. He's a writer, and he's a total asshole when it comes to emotions. I appreciate this.

Some of my favorite cruel quotes (directed towards Shuichi Shindou, his "lover?") from Yuki-san (many from the manga rather than the anime):

"Moron, moron, moron!" That's pretty ubiquitous.

"You're boring when you're not acting stupid... but you're even worse when you're trying too hard. If you want to get all emotional, then go someplace else. Take some Ritalin. I don't want to hear you bitch and moan." (Track 7)

"That day I met you, out on the street... I should have just backed my car up and killed you." (Track 26)

""Now that's the self-centered drama queen I know. That self-sacrificing bullshit was as dull as dirt." -(Track 30)

Eri Yuki is a dick. A total dick. But he's funny. And he does do the right thing. And once in a while he pulls out a charming confession like this one:

"It's hard to be truthful sometimes. I respect that you [Shuichi] can always be so honest. I don't know if I can be that way, but I'll try. So... don't ever leave me again. It's inconvenient not to have a hole to fuck when I get in the mood." (Track 42)


Or this favorite of mine:
"Get over it. This is just the way I express my love." (Track 54)

He's like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights if Wuthering Heights centered around a wannabe pop star and a romance novelist.
Color me smitten kitten.



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Smitten.

Amanderpanderer--Post One: Very First Anime

This is hard for a 30-something year old kiddult to remember. I have distinct memories of Voltron and G-Force and even the sweaty-faux-anime of Speed Racer. What counts? Not American animation because that's something altogether different. But is The Last Mermaid anime? There is something VERY anime about it in both its style and its adult themes that makes me want to count it. Plus, I saw it in the theater, which was cool. Because I am old.

Or should I start with the first series I followed? Hands down that's Digimon. I didn't start watching it until graduate school (yes, I's edjumacated). I still have the first three seasons on VHS. That could count, right? I do love me some Digimon...so complicated and lovely. Much more complicated and lovely than ANYONE ever gives it credit for. Kids don't get the nuances of that show; there's no way!

Or, SHUDDER, Excel Saga the first "real" anime I ever rented, which made my brain hurt with pain and stupidity...although now I bet I'd think it was funnier. Excel is a parody of other animes I wasn't familiar with at the time.

Or, could it be Miyazaki's Nausicca? The first feature length anime to dazzle me to no end.

Or, should I count the anime that started my sick obsession? Because Gravitation lit that spark. Oh, YUKI! Oh. Yuki.

Maybe they're each firsts? Because, in their own way, they are, and added fuel to my burgeoning interests in anime, which lead to a serious manga obsession!

And although I don't update much, rest assured, my obession is strong. I am still watching; I am still reading; I am still squee-ing.

Your turn Ms. Shakespeare...