[1st episode] Folktales from Japan

And here you have something else I didn't want to watch, actually didn't know it existed, but when I saw it was about folktales I just couldn't help myself. I really love folktales.

So, unfortunately, I don't have a lot of material to sum it up, it's a bunch of different folktales. Makes you go back in time, doesn't it?

I don't really know what to say about this. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I thought it was adorable. It's strange how replacing a fairy by a dog and sisters by old people can change a story. It's interesting how our (well, I by "our" I mean French and some other European) stories often stars princes and princesses while Japanese focus on old and modest people.

All in all, I think that Folktales from Japan is a great anime for those who're culturally curious. Fairy tales can say a lot about a culture, and you don't have to watch the whole thing once you've started as a single episode has a few stories in it.

I liked it a lot and I'd love it if other people would watch it so we can talk. Since I'm pretty sure this will serve as basis to a few future editorials

Japan, Europe and Thermae Romae

First, sorry for the sudden disappearance, since I started to work, life obviously decided it was just the right moment to start throwing things at me, now it's calmed down a bit (until the next time at least), I can blog again!

Second, today's subject is Thermae Romae, as a French who's studied Latin and (reluctantly) roman history as well, I had to watch it. If only because, for once, the title is proper Latin (unlike Madoka, because yeah the full title was supposed to be "Latin").
Truth is, I really like seeing anime set in Europe, no matter it's a fictional Europe (like in Gosick for example) or a real one (like in Ikoku Meiro no Croisée, to a certain extent), because I find it incredibly interesting to see the representations Japanese have of my continent.

Thermae Romae is a bit special in that aspect.

First, its subject is a theme common to both Roman and Japanese cultures, mainly, baths, and I can only admire the researches that have been made to accurately present the differences between them.

Second, as you probably noticed, the animation style is special. Want to know where it comes from? Then, let's take a look at Alix, hero of a French comic set in Ancient Rome.

Now look at Lucius :

See the similarity? 

But these two points are not what make Thermae Romae that special, the thing that striked me when compared to other Europe-inspired anime is that it is always implied that Japan is superior, at least when it comes to baths. 

Lucius says it at every episode. 

Every episode has Lucius improving Roman baths with Japanese inventions. 

From an historical point of view, that isn't true, I am pretty sure that at the time of Ancient Rome, Japanese culture of baths wasn't near as technologically advanced as Rome's. 

And so, not only did I find Thermae Romae somewhat funny, but also sociologically interesting because for once, an Europe-inspired anime didn't cater to exotism but to nationalism to attract viewers.

Japan Blog Matsuri - Reasons to visit Japan

The lovely Justin over at Organization ASG posted it and so I follow his example. I'm proud to present you my own taking part in the Japan Blog Matsuri, the theme of the month is "reasons to visit Japan", hosted by A Modern Girl.
The theme made me think quite a lot actually, about what really interests me in Japanese culture and whether or not it can be really seen in a simple visit in a touristic context. If it's just going to see famous places or doing anime related things I think it can be done, but anime is hardly the first thing I loved about Japan, if I talk about it a lot it's just that it's easier and I wouldn't want to dwelve on topics I don't know first hand. In the end I realized that if I ever go to Japan, I want it to be a long stay. If it's just to be a tourist, I can be in another country in the next hour.

So, why would I want to go in Japan? I liked Justin's idea of making a Top 5 so top 5 reasons it'll be! (please note that the reasons might not make much sense and/or be a bit weird.)

5 - I want to buy doujin.
I could do that online, true enough, but the concept of going into stores entirely dedicated to fan made books is wonderful. Actually, the recognition that the fans can be active in their love for a show is something I like a lot. Even though I fully understand not everyone sees it as positive, this is still something I love about fandom.
Basically, and to sum it up, I'd want to go to Japan in person to thank the country for showing me that loving a show can be productive. (That comes from a lazy person, it's important)

4 - I want to see a real yakuza
Please note I said "see", not "meet", I may be a bit weird but I'm not crazy to that extent.
If you're new here you probably don't know it (yet) but I have a little bit of an obsession for yakuza, try to understand me a bit, they're living in the underground yet they're recognized in society (hell they have legit press publications), they cause troubles but people comes to them for help, they're criminals but they have/had high morals.
I love contradictions like these. I am interested in yakuza. That's the reason I'm curious and want to see a real one one day.

3 - I want to see Honnouji. 
Just so I can walk on Akechi Mitsuhide's tracks and think to myself "that's where you betrayed Nobunga you wonderful bastard"
Granted, it's not the original one but I'll deal with it and take what I can have.

2 - The food.
Mind you, if a pizza eaten in Italy tastes better than a pizza eaten in France, a Japanese oyako-don (my favorite Japanese dish) eaten in Japan will always taste better than an oyako-don eaten in France. Even if it's just for the scenery.
Even though to be honest I'd travel anywhere just to taste the food.
And I want to go to the Sunrise headquarters with fried rice. Just for the sake of it and so I can (or not, depending on what will happen on Saturday) smash it in their face with my very angelic expression of utter satisfaction.

1 - The culture
Basically, I want to meet more Japanese people so we can share our difference (I want to meet more people of different countries actually, which is why I blog in English in the first place), I want to go a Matsuri, to a temple, I want to go to a ryokan, I want to go to Akihabara, to Asakusa, I want to see the Tokyo Tower, and the Asahi building just for the sake of it, I want to ride the Shinkansen, I want to experience the start of a new year in Japan and Tanabata and the Mooncake festival ... and a seiyuu event.
I just want to try by myself everything that's different, compare it with what I know, enjoy it for what it is and continue to learn more about how others live and try to understand them.

Ikebukuro West Gate Park + Hiatus

First. I'm moving out tomorrow so I won't have any access to the internet for a while, because god knows how slow they can be for that kind of stuff. Wish me luck?

Second. Ishida Ira's Ikebukuro West Gate Park. I finally read that second book and fell in love all over again. (and was convinced all over again that Narita Ryohgo got some inspiration from there to write Durarara!!, just like I'm convinced he knows the authors of Kara no Kyoukai but that's another story and I digress ^^)
So, gathering all of my courage I went to look for the drama and .... finished the drama.

That was hard. Because it's a bad adaptation. I should have known better than to hope for something awesome. And I pretty much hate the actor who plays the main guy and don't understand the changes in the story and/or in the characters' personnalities nor do I get the unncessary emphasis on love stories. And they didn't adapt my favorite part of the books.
So yeah, bad drama, baaaaad. (Then again the only dramas I really liked are Gokusen and Life)

The books on the other hand are really awesome.
When you're reading them you get the feeling you are in the city, you're right there observing everything that happens and the only thing you wish is to never stop reading.
It's composed of collections of short stories with the same recuring characters, mostly 4 of them though, the main guy, Majima Makoto, his badass mother, and two of his friends, the ex-bullied-now-successfull-yakuza Saru and the boss of the biggest color gang out there, Ando Takashi.

It's a book that can be read very fast, written in a very easily understandable style and very catchy, almost like a polar except less dark than a polar.
It feels real, that's the best part of the book. The characters are feeling exactly what every person of their/my age is feeling.

All I can say is that I can't wait for the thirs book to be released.

"Fashion" post

I'm a girl, that much should be obvious by now, and while I am not particulary a girly girl I still do enjoy looking at pretty things. (For the record Hello Kitty doesn't count as pretty thing, sometimes, I will need an explanation about her popularity ^^)

Anyway, my point was that, while browsing Japanese fashion blogs this morning, I found actual pieces of clothings, not cosplays, inspired by Vocaloids. 

So I thought I'd share with you, it's by the brand Putumayo

...

I thought a lot before making this post, because I didn't know how to put things in the simplest way possible, finding the right way to say things, especially in a foreign language, is never easy, finding the right tone, not upsetting anyone without sounding heartless, all of that is hard, which is why I don't find a lot of posts about it in anime and generally Japan oriented blogs I suppose.

It happens this is a Japanese pop culture oriented blog so I will continue on my topic. It doesn't mean I don't care for other people, and not only people in Japan but in other countries hit by a tsunami and/or in danger of being it by tsunamis or aftershocks because I do care but I also know I cannot do anything but hope for the number of casualties to be the lowest possible and for the situation not to become worse.
I also wanted to pinpoint a fact that seems important considering all the hate going around but I couldn't care less if I don't have animes/mangas/anything before a while, as long as the PEOPLE behind it are ok, even if I don't know them personaly. (as a sidenote, people I know personaly and are currently in Japan/around the Pacific are safe, I checked on them first thing after the news)

Which is when I come to the main point of my post, which is to share a list of Japanese Personalities and their statuts after the earthquake, it's being constantly updated since yesterday and gathers as much informations as possible for now.

Since I don't know what to add I will leave it at that and just continue to hope.

Of fandom and interesting goodies

You probably know it by now but when it comes to goodies and weird interesting stuff, Japanese are really good at it, just see all the places where Hello Kitty have been put and you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about, also, since I've seen it, I'm dead set on getting that Pacman necklace /shot
Anyway, it happens that I'm currently into a very crazy fandom (with crazy, but wonderful, but very crazy people <3), mainly Durarara!! and it happens that this serie has crazy stuff.

First were the fragrance dedicated to each one of the main characters, obviously not my favourite but it would be so easy if I could have the same favourite character as everyone. Then again, it saves me money.
So, what I was trying to say is that they re-released the bottles, much more tiny, and as a set.

Isn't it cute?

Wait a bit because there's better, they're going to release a cake, a birthday cake, for each one of the previously mentionned characters (then again, mine happens to be forgotten, but well, we don't even know his given name, I can't hope to know his birthday can I? ^^)
Obviously limited edition, have a pic!

All of that to say that I'm definitely doing one of those for Izaya's birthday, definitely /shot
And you can find the stuff on this website.

Prepublication in France

You may or may not know (or care) but I'm French, as French as one can be (if you except the fact that I do blog in English, am blogging about Japanese things and that half of France think I'm German, indeed ^^).
My point was just to show you a bit of what happens in France in terms of manga publishing, today's topic is : prepublication.

You all know it, but, aside from a few mangas, all of them are published in various magazines before being published in legitimate books. Most popular is of course Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, but well the purpose of this article is not to tell you how mangas are done, if you want to know about that go read Bakuman.

As I was saying, prepublication magazines which is supposed to be a Japanese thing are starting to produce little babies and spread throughout the world, if I recall correctly there's an American Jump but since I've never got my hands in one I can't talk about that experience, what I can talk about though are French BExBoy and the newest one Akiba Manga.

First, these are the only experiences I know of, at least in France, so yeah, it's still rare. Second, I shouldn't even compare them since they're VERY different. Now you know about let's dive.

I'll start by the nearly 2 years old BExBoy, a "creation" of Asuka

You may have guessed judging from the cover, this one is yaoi, as I don't care much about yaoi I read only when a kind soul lend it to me, which like, happened once in my life.
This one is based on the Japanese BExBoy and it features mangas already published in Japan and translated to French, mostly as a teaser of the future releases of the editor, they publish a few chapter and then if you want to read what's next go buy it. Except for Viewfinder, which is apparently running in the magazine since the very first issue (I'm still wondering how the hell no one ever complained their children are reading this, more often than not there's no special warning or anything and it's fucking kinky, more than most thing, hentai and yuri included, I ever read)
On the other hand this one is really thick, nearly as thick as a Jump, it's definitely worth your money if you're a girl into yaoi that is.

Now the big one, or the most Japanese one as you may say, and this article is already pretty long, well I hope you'll bear with me. This one is called Akiba Manga and has a special website you can find HERE. This one is edited by our own version of Square Enix, meaning they're everywhere, games, magazines, original mangas, translation of existing mangas, music, figures, an anime and now this.

This one is closer to what you can see in Japan, original mangas and then people vote for their favourite manga which will continue and apparently if one is last 4 months in a row it gets cancelled and if it lasts long enough it'll be released in tankobon format. Simple, especially since there's only 7 series, but it also means the chances for something getting cancelled are extremely low.
But I like that, makes the user feel  involved in the process. They also publish photos of the mangaka's desks and interviews on the website, it's totally a marketing strategy but it works.
As for the quality of the mangas themselves, all of them are collaboration between a French story writer and a Japanese mangaka, which I like and dislike at the same time, don't really know how to explain it, but there's something disturbing, like they just asked them to draw to say "Hey it's Japanese buy our magazine" you see what I mean?
Anyway, there's a lot of different genres, well shonen, seinen and shojo (or so they say but well it opens on a suicide scene so I don't really know about this), the drawing styles are all very diversified too (see the website for this) which is something I really appreciate.
Don't really know what to add, the cover is pretty, glossy, not a lot of text, emphasis on the (gorgeous) Hime, they also added a small "manga review" part, half of them dedicated to their publications (not that they're bad, don't misunderstand but well, come again for an objective review), there are articles on Japan too and recipes.

All in all I will continue to read because despite everything I like these mangas and I want to support the idea, if only to get more magazines with more specialized content. And because I'm totally supporting Agent Suicides /shot

The Battle of Hitotoribashi

For those who have watched this week's episode of Sengoku Basara you may have found the flashback between Masamune and Kojuurou to be extremely cute and heartbreaking, you also may have been a little curious about that Hitotoribashi Battle they were talking about.

I was curious so I did my researches, and here is the result (because obviously, the Wiki article sucks ^^)

Let's sum up quickly to start.
Location : In the North of Japan, around the city of Nihonmatsu
Date : 1585
Opponents : Date (with 7 000 men) against Hatekeyama (30 000 men)

Everything started when Hatakeyama Yoshitsugu captured Date Terumune, Masamune's father.
Obviously Masamune wasn't happy at all at the idea, took some men and ran to his help, without much luck, even if they were victorious Terumune died during the fight.

The real battle of Hitotoribashi took place a little later, after the death of his father Masamune wasn't happy at all, so he and a few samurai decided to siege the castle of Nihonmatsu.
Despite the large discrepancy in the number of men in each side neither won.

One year later, Date's forces siege the castle once again, this time resulting in a victory for Date's side and the setting on fire of said castle by Hatakayama Yoshitsugu's son.