Thursday 6 September 2018

Elegance Eve September 2018

I enjoyed this issue much better than the previous one. At the time, I had been adjusting to Japanese text and was not able to obtain much of value from my experience with the previous issue of Elegance Eve. This issue was hit or miss but the series which struck a cord with me created such fascinating narratives I was unaware existed in Japanese josei manga. Elegance Eve seems to be targeting a broader audience than perhaps the name lets on. Yes, there are series for housewives(which were also emotionally swaying reads by the way). In addition, there were also some alternative comics which would not have been out of place in an American indie zine. My goal initially with discussing the magazines is to scratch the surface of the various notable Japanese shojo and josei manga as well as to catalogue my own experiences as I am unfamiliar with the astonishingly greater variety in content which comes with reading manga in Japanese. I would like to explore the actual contents of the magazines down the road at some point. It would be fantastic to get people reading more comics targeted at girls and women since there is a great variety of content which is unknown to most people. At one point I asked a friend what they thought of when they saw the words manga and anime they immediately grasped for Naruto. Now, this post seems to be straying further and further from its original intent so I believe I will call it a night. 

Nakayoshi October 2018


This was honestly a fantastic read! Black Panther And Sweet 16 disrupted the quick clip I was reading gobbling up the chapters but even it had some dramatic moments and an overall dark tone which made it a compelling read in its own rite. A series which revolves around a girl marrying a sheikh had me concerned about what particular direction it would go in last issue when it started. Those fears were washed away as the series seems to be taking a more political intrigue angle than a a "Harlequin for beginners" angle I dreaded it taking. There are many good Harlequin manga but there is a huge over saturation of them in English which makes them easy to get agitated about. Thankfully the heroine was able to stand her ground in this exotic locale. Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card adorned the issues cover. Given the popularity of Cardcaptor Sakura this perhaps comes as no surprise but it is still a lovely cover by CLAMP. A rerun chapter of Saint Tail sits at the back of the issue. I opted to ignore it I wonder if this will come back to haunt me down the road? There's an idol manga which seems to be ripe for an anime adaptation early in the issue. It has the darker angle modern kids anime seems to aim for without questionably odd subtext like Black Panther has. Nakayoshi was a truly fascinating and exciting read, perhaps I didn't get that detail across discussing it this time. A lot of the stories were unconventional in the issue which seems to be quickly  becoming my favorite aspect of modern shojo.