conversation over dinner

[rushthatspeaks]

gaudior: has been reading Angel Sanctuary, an extremely convoluted manga by Kaori Yuki, and expresses intentions to draw up a spreadsheet after finishing it so as to know who actually does what to whom.

Me: It wouldn't be so hard if only everyone didn't have six names and multiple secret identities.

G: ::nods::

Me: I think I've got straight the four or five separate identities of [SPOILER]-- [lists them]-- but I'm kind of expecting there to be more. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he were secretly a ukulele.

A gay, cursed ukulele.

G: ::nods emphatically::

Short pause.

G: ...aren't ukuleles kind of female by definition?

Me: Told you it was cursed.


This causes me to reflect. Throughout my years of reading manga, characters have turned out to be secretly the protagonist's mother/father/sibling/second cousin twice removed/Aunt Fanny; God (repeatedly); God's roommate (only once); various sorts of demons and/or devils; a whole range of weaponry including swords, bazookas and Ultimate Explodey Things; figments of someone's imagination; words in books; aliens; a different gender entirely; shards of a mirror; various gems of power; a personification of the nation of Japan; almost every animal you can think of; giant robots; regular robots; time travelers; psychics; and a lovely matched set of formal outerwear.*

No one has ever turned out to really be a gay, cursed, bishounen ukulele.

As of yet, that is. Because you know what?

I have faith.

* Yes, every single one of those** is real, and I can provide citations if you want them, although they usually involve massive plot revelations.

** Okay, okay, no one's actually been the protagonist's Aunt Fanny.

Comments

[sovay]

No one has ever turned out to really be a gay, cursed, bishounen ukulele.

I bet it would get along fantastically with the kurokasa.

Throughout my years of reading manga, characters have turned out to be secretly the protagonist's mother/father/sibling/second cousin twice removed/Aunt Fanny; God (repeatedly); God's roommate (only once); various sorts of demons and/or devils; a whole range of weaponry including swords, bazookas and Ultimate Explodey Things; figments of someone's imagination; words in books; aliens; a different gender entirely; shards of a mirror; various gems of power; a personification of the nation of Japan; almost every animal you can think of; giant robots; regular robots; time travelers; psychics; and a lovely matched set of formal outerwear.

Why is Diana Wynne Jones not more popular in Japan?

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

She's very popular in Japan. Hence the Miyazaki Howl's Moving Castle-- her work is readily available both in translation and in the original. I bought my present copy of The Lives of Christopher Chant at a small bookstall-on-wheels in Kobe, and had my choice between that, Power of Three and The Homeward Bounders, with no other English-language material in sight.

[sovay]

She's very popular in Japan.

Cool. Because sometimes I feel that her books are founded entirely on trying to figure out who is really what.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention "giant robot chicken." (Planet Ladder.) Though that wasn't actually a secret.

Spoilers be damned, I want to know what series have characters who are secretly God's roommate, words in books, a personification of the nation of Japan, and a lovely matched set of formal underwear. Actually, if you just tell me the names of the series in no particular order and don't say which goes with which, it won't even be spoilery. And then I'll just read all of them and find out.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I thought very strongly about including 'giant robot chicken', but decided it is right out there and obvious.

Ayashi no Ceres, Gasaraki, Shingu: Record of School Wars and Fushigi Yuugi. The only one of those I would unreservedly recommend is Shingu, which is a perfect little series; the others are all entertaining but have major flaws.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You know, I have read/seen both the Watase Yu ones, and I just never thought of it that way.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

They're accurate descriptions, but I do have to admit that I think of it that way partly because our household has a habit of trying to come up with the best, worst, and weirdest ways of describing series to one another in one sentence. Thus, in the immortal words of Thrud, 'A psychic teenager and a veterinarian are caught up in a torrid gay romance-- and fight crime!' = Tokyo Babylon. I mean, you can't say it isn't perfectly true, but.

The other reason I think of one of these series in these terms is because upon finishing it my college roommate and I turned to one another simultaneously and said, hollow-eyed and despairing, 'He's a COAT. A coat, I tell you. A frickin' coat.' And then we leaned on one another for support for a while, because there was nothing more to be said.

Did you know that in the series Pretear there're a whole set of bishounen who are secretly the magical girl's different outfits? No, really. One of them's a school uniform. For her transformation sequence she takes the hand of the appropriate guy and he turns into her clothes. I stopped watching that show after about twenty minutes.

[octopedingenue]

I greatly enjoyed Pretear and I still had to shriek and hide under pillows at the parts where she does the hypersexualized transformation sequence with the elementary-school-age boys.

I am curious about the coat; was it in SPOILER Ayashi no Ceres? I read the first volume and didn't care enough to keep reading.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was. I think she plotted herself into a corner.

Your icon is a thing of beauty.

Revision to the way Thrud describes Tokyo Babylon, as apparently I got it wrong the first time and would like to set the record straight here: 'It's about a young onmyoji trying not to date a veterinarian. They fight crime!'.

[octopedingenue]

How the heck did THAT happen? Spoilers, please, since I doubt I'll ever care enough to start volume 2.


I am very fond of this icon. I would kill to have/make a kickass Tutu vid to "Bachelorette" (despite the facts that I have no vidding ability to speak of and there is already a kickass Utena vid to "Bacheloretee" and comparisons would be inevitable), because it is just so perfect. I'm a tree that grows hearts, one for each that you take

Have you gotten further into Princess Tutu? Speak of it! Go write win! I die for commentary over here! Also, I signed up to pimp Tutu at crack_van for August although I have almost no fic recs to speak of. Ulp.


See, now I have to read this Tokyo Babylon, even as wary of CLAMP as I have been since they apparently never finish anything. Curse you.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Oyce and I were squealing over [spoiler] turning out to be not only [spoiler] but [spoiler] at Wiscon. I think I will never get over it.

I am very much looking forward to the final volume of the Viz translation of Angel Sanctuary, which will at last reveal what the hell that long run-on sentence at the end of the book is saying. The scanlators clearly grappled heroically with it but were defeated by its endless clauses.

And I am still buying Godchild, even though "Mary Weather" makes me want stab someone with a pitchfork.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Ukelele!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You meant, of course, to say Ukulele!

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Yes, but which one of you is speaking English and which one is speaking Hawai'ian?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hawai'i for me, every time. You're quite right, of course; it says here that Jean's version is a common alternative spelling, where I just took it to be a common error. But the band goes with uku, so...

It also says here that the instrument is originally Portuguese; anyone know the Portuguese name?

(I note en passant that 'Portuguese' is another word that goes u?u - it seems to be a very unnatural combination in English.)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

What I meant to say to you on the subject was, Gala Theatre, Durham, Tuesday 12th September.

But oh, yes, I'd never noticed that. Anarchy in the ukUlele, then...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Sure. I'll try anything once. (Except...)

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

*winces* *whimpers*

My wife suggests that we temporarily change your name to shewhomustbethwackedforthatpun.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I thank yew. But the credit goes to the Ukulele Orchestra, not to me.

I should apologise for using your LJ to make assignations with desperance, I think.

[xsmoonshine.livejournal.com]

No one has ever turned out to really be a gay, cursed, bishounen ukulele.

Now I really want to see that. Curses!

[larryhammer]

God's roommate?

---L.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

They live in a beach house and wear Hawai'ian shirts. Said roommate is striving to create the perfect cup of tea.

It made an odd kind of sense, when I thought about it.

[shahnasa.livejournal.com]

I think I could worship that God.

[larryhammer]

I might even try to read it, just for that.

But speaking of gods, I've been trying to wrap my brain around when one might use the honorific -chama. Would you be able to 'splain?

---L.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

'Splain, yes; forgive characters who use it, no.

It's a combination of -chan and -sama and is therefore used for people for whom one would ordinarily use -sama but who want to give an impression of cuteness/sweetness/approachability. It is therefore the only honorific I have ever seen which involves the person it is used for going around and telling everyone to use it, meaning that it is a little conceited by definition because of the -sama component. Think middle-school-girl-with-pink-fluffy-hair-is-also-a-goddess, and you've got the right idea.

[octopedingenue]

The only time I can remember seeing it is in Here Is Greenwood, when Shun's little brother (who is indeed cultivating an air of cuteness/sweetness/approachability) calls him nii-chama. In, uh, whichever volume of the manga Shun's little brother shows up.

Oddly enough, Shun does have pink fluffy hair and looks exactly like a middle school girl, but has no godhead that I know of.

[larryhammer]

Makes sense, since I first met it around a middle-school-girl-who's-a-goddess, though she doesn't have pink hair and hasn't yet asked anyone to use it -- she uses it to describe her godhead. (This is in Kamichama Karin.)

One note I found claimed -chama would be used with close older persons -- like a little auntie? It wasn't clear.

---L.

[frostedelves.livejournal.com]

The lovely matched set of formal outerwear sounds fantastic. I'm dying to know what series that is.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

The comment upthread with the spoiler whiteouts has it right.

[frostedelves.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[soapdemon.livejournal.com]

Lila,
In case my experienced and extensive spy network falls through for me on this one, perhaps you could give me a call or shoot me an email when you hit the Old Dominion? We can coordinate for fun and profit! Or just fun.

yr friend,
Elizabeth