JOURNAL: Emong

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  • Nominations 2013-03-08 08:31:52 Finally got them done. I kinda dislike voting for stuff. I don't really watch that many AMVs anymore and don't really follow new releases so my votes always end up going to the most popular videos. I'd rather vote for the less popular hidden gems. BUT, as long as my videos are participating in the contest I feel obliged to participate in the voting too. So there.

    In other news, go watch Psycho-Pass. Like, now. 
  • Bakuman 2013-02-04 18:38:07 I'm at episode 16 of season 3 right now. I love the show and get ridiculously addicted to it, which is creepy since the series basically reads like any artist's worst case scenario. Take the basic concept: two guys dream of becoming mangaka, having their manga being made into an anime and the other guy is even supposed to be rewarded with a girl in the end. All of this through dedication, discipline and hard work. All nice and well so far, except you can read it also like this: It's effectively an anime about dedicating all your time and effort to creating the most commercial manga ever for the big company to reap the biggest profits with.

    It's nice about anime that, whereas in the west you need some kind of media studies and critique of ideology to dig out the dirt from high brow and pop culture alike, in anime it's laid bare in front of you! Bakuman takes place in a bizarre world where the quality of your work is measured by its commercial value, where everybody sees each other as competitors in the market place and where your biggest virtue seems to be workaholism. All of this cloaked in a nice package of pursuing your dreams through hard work and dedication. Perhaps this is what every artist out there should be dreaming of?

    To be fair though, the drama is quite excellent, especially for an anime, whose suspense seems to be coming entirely from competition in popularity charts. I'm quite impressed by how the story juggles with a whole bunch of interesting characters while keeping it focused at the same time. There are also bits of personal non-manga-related drama scattered all around the series and it works so nicely. And when the series is not busy being shounen and propagating individual commercial achievement it actually deals with the flip side of the coin: the characters break down sometimes due to the pressures of competition. No winners without losers. 
  • @Aimo 2013-01-07 08:12:11 iknorite! 
  • Shoujo manga 2012-12-13 19:56:10 I've been reading Ao Haru Ride (http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=60271) recently. If it wasn't clear already, this definitely confirms the formula for writing a popular shoujo manga series, at least this one certain type of it. If you're planning to do such a thing, here are some tips:

    1. The Bishie. Make it so that he somehow stands out from the crowd, either by being the most popular guy of the school or some pseudo-delinquent. In the latter case it should be fairly obvious that despite the edgy surface he's really a super sweet guy inside, haunted by some traumatic experiences. In any case, he should be an impossible combination of some of these traits:

    -alpha male or gentleman
    -skilled and athletic (at least better than the protagonist. Wouldn't want her to feel superior to the guy she's fallen for/looks up to, no?)
    -amazingly aware of and responsive for the protagonist's feelings
    -cat/dog lover (why can't they ever leave stray animals alone?)
    -possessive (just enough not to be creepy) and obviously incapable of developing feelings for anyone but the protagonist, rejecting all confessions by other girls (wouldn't want the readers to feel insecure, right?)
    -low sex drive (just enough so that, at a crucial moment, he'll grab the protagonist by her hands and leans over her on the floor. It has that comfy feeling of the bishie being passionate but restraining himself for the girl)

    2. The protagonist. Despite of a century of feminism you're gonna want to push all that aside and make her into a self-depreciating damsel in distress. Who needs equality when whenever you have a small paper cut in your finger there'll be a handsome bishie carrying you to the infirmary for it? And ofcourse it should be impossible for the protagonist to feel like she's on the same level as her precious bishie. She should always look up to him and feel bad about herself for being so inferior in the process.

    3. The drama. As we definitely don't want the readers to feel uncomfortable, it should be fairly obvious from the beginning what's gonna happen in the end. Now the problem is how to fill all this empty space since the basic plot is clear from the beginning. Now there are various ways to do this:

    -Insert a lot of pseudo-drama generated out of misunderstandings. Nothing is more entertaining to read than having the protagonist misunderstand the bishie's feelings towards her and sorting all this out for the next 4 volumes. This way there'll be lots of drama without anyone taking up the role of a bad guy or the reader feeling any discomfort about the general line of the story.

    -Insert a rival guy to compete for the protagonist's attention. Ofcourse we all know who the protagonist is going to end up with but isn't it nice that she's so desired? Besides, as the protagonist is supposed to be your ordinary high school girl, and if you happen to belong to the target demographic of teenage girls, wouldn't it be cool to have two of the most popular guys in the school to drool over you without really doing anything for the attention?

    -Stretch the story. The protagonist is usually a little bit of an idiot so you can count on her not discovering her feelings for the bishie during the first few volumes. Ofcourse the confession process should take multiple times longer.

    -When the relationship between the protagonist and the bishie gets boring you can always use up some time for building some high moral ground for the protagonist by creating a contrast between her and the other gossiping and bullying bitches in the class. Besides the bishie is never shallow enough to pick one of those girls, right?



    Why do I even read this stuff? >_< Does anyone have any good shoujo parody recommendations? 
  • AimoAio should edit more 2012-10-07 17:39:43 Emong: gimme your betas
    Emong: you must have betas
    Emong: D:
    Aimo: i have no betas D:
    Aimo: i havent been editing for the past 3 weeks at all XD
    Emong: ...
    Emong: YOU LAZY BITCH
    Emong: D:
    Emong: i thought i was the lazy bitch here
    Aimo: .....D:
    Aimo: BUT IVE MADE LIKE 5 VIDEOS THIS HALF YEAR ALREADY? D;
    Emong: THAT DOESNT COUNT
    Aimo: HOW NOT?!
    Aimo: D;
    Aimo: that was months of hard work i'll let ya know XD
    Emong: it doesn't count because..
    Emong: because...
    Emong: BECAUSE I WANT A NEW AIMO AMV RIGHT NOW
    Emong: D:
    Aimo: D:!!!
    Aimo: too lazy
    Aimo: XD
    Aimo: waaait
    Aimo: i only just made a video for awa pro recently! D<
    Aimo: and also that kurobasket fanart video
    Aimo: XD
    Aimo: thats 2 8|
    Aimo: recently
    Emong: THOSE TWO DONT COUNT EITHER
    Emong: FOR THE REASON STATED ABOVE
    Aimo: .............. 
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