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alicia (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} aloysius) wrote,@ 2004-10-01 11:23:00 |
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Ribon October 2004
I'm so behind. As usual. And is PhotoBucket officially dead?
Ribon October 2004
Cover: Haruta Nana, Saboten no himitsu. As usual you can't tell what the heck the pic is supposed to be unless you go to official site and check of the wallpaper version. It turns out this is actually a Halloween pic. I sure couldn't tell. (Cute cactus bats on the title, though.) I sort-of understand putting a big furoku on the cover, since furoku seems to be a huge selling-point these days, but the new Harada Taeko series? The Miki Maki yomikiri? Is there really a good reason for any of those to be on the cover? I mean, who but pre-existing readers really care? It's not as if they have name-value ...
Oh well, I complain about the cover every month so I'm moving on.
Prize contest: Those cactus are really cute. (I've been smitten with cactus! Oh noez!) The nail-art maker looks like fun, too. If only I were a kid in Japan.
Shinshi Dômei Cross (Tanemura Arina): It ... it ... it has three pages of color!!! OMG! It actually has a manga page in color! That's so great, I can hug this issue just for that. I remember back in the days when Ikeno Koi would draw two manga colors and use only one color page for the cover ... those were the times ... (I'll shut up now; I just really love actual manga pages -- not chapter covers -- in color.)
Shizumasa-sama admits he likes guys and Ushio is sleeping with whoever will get her into the school council. Ahahahahaha. If Ushio had been a boy this would be your regular lame BL manga (emphasis on "lame"). I don't get why is Shizumasa-sama is suddenly nice to Haine when he was being a SOB last month, but Haine's past was explained somewhat so that's nice. I hope Ushio will be revealed to be a full-blown lesbian (wheee!) next month. I still can't tell the difference between Ushio and Haine in many panels, though. Ushio ought to have had black hair.
Candy Magic (Harada Taeko): New series, and a teacher/student romance with a twist. Chiho, being mature (for her age, 15) and responcible and intelligent, is much more appealing to me as a heroine than the idiotic Ikumi of Harada's last series. I mean, Ribon heroines are never really bad girls, so if they have to be good girls I like this type of good girl better than the "not very clever or cute or interesting but has a good heart" type (e.g. Ikumi). I'm usually not into the student/teacher thing at all, but I like the hero because he goes about ruining every idealized stereotype of "the cool and handsome and gentle teacher" that are so prevailing in shojo manga. He's a guy (or as much of one as appears in shojo manga), not some teenage girl's dream-come-true. All in all, I like. Am looking forward to next month.
Animal Yokochô (Maekawa Ryo): Maekawa has the best website of all Ribon manga-ka: Out*Life. I also think she draws best of current Ribon manga-ka. So I become a little ... sad when she wastes her time on this mediocre crap. Not that AniYoko is crap in general, but this chapter ... A few months ago they asked the readers to send in new characters and the chosen one appeared this month. Damn, is he boring. He doesn't fit into the Issa/Iyo/Kenta dynamic at all. Waste of pages.
High Score (Tsuyama Chinami): I like this series but it's hit and miss. Miss this month.
Aishiteruze Baby (Maki Yôko): It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to write anything on this manga. Maki's expressions are so monotone it's like no one cares about Yuzuyu's condition although they say they care. I want to see it. I don't. It's so undramatic, this manga.
Saboten no himitsu (Haruta Nana): "Ride on the back of my bicycle!" "No, I'm heavy!" "I don't care, com'on!" "Okay ..." "Hey, you're not heavy at all!" "... *happy*"
"Let's go into this game center!" "No, waste of time!" "Just a bit!" "Okay ..." "Look, UFO catcher! Look, I'm great with them!" "Get that one!" "Here you go! You can have it!" "... *happy*"
Shop assistant: "Couples may take a free purikura today!" "But we're not a couple!" "Let's take one anyway!" "Okay ..." "Hahaha, what a weird purikura." "... *happy*"
And So On. I have never in my life read a more shojo-manga-esque shojo manga. Meaning this is a very (stereo)typical manga, which I believe I also mentioned last month? Strange thing is that I enjoyed reading it anyway, especially because Fujioka is a nice, sincere hero. Not a series I'd buy as a tankobon, but not bad.
Ageha 100% (Takeuchi Kozue): The "big plot" I mentioned was lacking last month has appeared, although it's a pretty typical one. Good, good, because this month was rather monotone. Let's see what happens.
Chokomimi (Sonoda Konami): Andrew is cool.
Manga jôhô: There is a Mozilla-type quiz about "how to approach the guy you like this autumn". The first question in it is "A guy's school uniform should be gakuran, not blazers! Yes or no?"
Am I the only one who finds that question highly kinky? (OMG, gakuran all the way! *nosebleed*)
Momobuta (Fukube Tomomi): Augh, like in Animal Yokochô, a new character as suggested by a reader appears. No comment.
St. Dragon Girl Miracle (Matsumoto Natsumi): I don't think my commenting on this manga is fair since I have given up all hope on it. In this issue An can't seem to figure out whether she likes Ryuji or or Ren so the story is probably going in the "omg I love you both I can't decide" direction, but let me just say this: Ryuji/Ren yaoi all the way yay!!
Sora no mannaka (Kayama Yoko): Combined with the lack of color pages and the way the story is progressing, I'm going to predict that this will end next month. I had originally thought five months, so it would fit into one tankobon, but I guess they'll put a few yomikiri into the second tankobon of this series (Kayama has tons of yomikiri in her back-log, I'm sure).
I'm only writing this because I have no comment to the content of the series. It's so typical it hurts. I can tell exactly what's going to happen next month. Seiji is going to drag Mikoto to the TV shooting and they'll make up and although her siblings travel far away Mikoto is happy because she knows in her heart that they'll always care about each other. Booooring.
Charisma Doll (Kurahashi Erika): Did ... did she actually just use the world "gekimabu" ... and even had a note explaining what it means, as if it were some sort of cool Hollywood slang she just picked up ... when it fact no one has used the word since the bubble collapsed in the early 90s ... omgwtflol?
This simple glitch of vocabulary speaks volumes about the manga-ka that is Kurahashi Erika. Seriously. She cracks me up.
Nagatachô Strawberry (Sakai Mayu): Pass.
E-kei Hybrid Girl (Kitazawa Kaoru): Kitazawa is better at drawing fat girls with horrible taste in clothes than she is at drawing cute and skinny girls in (what she believes is) fashionable clothes. I happen to think this is her saving grace as a manga-ka, but it might also be her fatal flaw as a shojo manga-ka. Hmm. She should quit drawing about models and draw about evil fat girls, is what I think. Would be more interesting than this.
Shôjo wa hitsuji no yume o miru (Miki Maki): Yomikiri. Wow. Why didn't they give this the color page of, say, Dragon Girl? It rocks. The heroine is a rare type of person these days in the sense that she has a dream (becoming an author of children's books) that she works towards very consciously. She hides this fact from her family and friends, though, in fear that they'll laugh at her if they knew she had such a silly thing as a dream. One day, a weird sheep-like creature appears before her and says that he'll ruin her dream, because it's unrealistic and won't do society any good in this age of econimic stagnation. The verbal abuse the sheep rains down on the heroine to get her to give up her dream is hilarious, while the main plot about believing in your dreams is executed beautifully with a firm hand. What a lovely piece.
Ichigo Omelette (Hanzawa Kaori): That first strip is a classic ... only hit as far as yonkoma and short comedy goes in this issue.
Medaka no gakkô (Mori Yukie): Doping. Otherwise, mediocre.
(I know I'm not making sense but commenting on yomkoma is really reeeeeeally difficult.)
Funky Fancy (Tanabe Mayumi): Lemon-kun is cool. But I think the main attraction of this month is Dô (the shota boy I mentioned last month) peeing and pooping. Me, I don't do shota. Or scat, for that matter ...
Next month in Ribon: Yoshizumi Wataru! Wheeeeee!!
ETA:
Since I keep complaining about the quality of the covers of Ribon, some of you might be wondering (or not) what's so wrong with them. To be quite frank there probably aren't anything wrong with them, but fact remains that they used to be better.
To the left is the cover of Ribon October 2004, and to the right the cover of Ribon February 1995. Click to enlarge.
On the cover of 1995, one cut each is featured for the main furoku, the zenin present, and the big new series of the month (Gokinjo Monogatari). On the cover of 2004, two furoku, one zenin present, and three cuts for manga are featured (one new, one yomikiri, one Tanemura Arina).
It's clear to anyone that the area used by PR photo is greater in 2004 than it was in 1995. It is also clear to anyone that in the cover of 1995, you can actually tell what the heck the cover picture is supposed to be. It's a girl and a boy (Miki and Yu of Marmalade Boy in case you didn't know), the girl wearing a kimono -- i.e. a typical Japanese New Years picture (the February issue of Ribon comes out in January). As I mentioned above, I coundn't for the life of me figure out that the October 2004 cover was supposed to be about Halloween.
Now of course you could argue that PR is important to attract new buyers. That'd be valid. (Though Ribon sold considerably more in 1995 than it does now; the huge PR pictures don't seem to have helped on the circulation as of yet.) All I'm saying is that I know which cover I prefer.
I'm so behind. As usual. And is PhotoBucket officially dead?
Ribon October 2004Cover: Haruta Nana, Saboten no himitsu. As usual you can't tell what the heck the pic is supposed to be unless you go to official site and check of the wallpaper version. It turns out this is actually a Halloween pic. I sure couldn't tell. (Cute cactus bats on the title, though.) I sort-of understand putting a big furoku on the cover, since furoku seems to be a huge selling-point these days, but the new Harada Taeko series? The Miki Maki yomikiri? Is there really a good reason for any of those to be on the cover? I mean, who but pre-existing readers really care? It's not as if they have name-value ...
Oh well, I complain about the cover every month so I'm moving on.
Prize contest: Those cactus are really cute. (I've been smitten with cactus! Oh noez!) The nail-art maker looks like fun, too. If only I were a kid in Japan.
Shinshi Dômei Cross (Tanemura Arina): It ... it ... it has three pages of color!!! OMG! It actually has a manga page in color! That's so great, I can hug this issue just for that. I remember back in the days when Ikeno Koi would draw two manga colors and use only one color page for the cover ... those were the times ... (I'll shut up now; I just really love actual manga pages -- not chapter covers -- in color.)
Shizumasa-sama admits he likes guys and Ushio is sleeping with whoever will get her into the school council. Ahahahahaha. If Ushio had been a boy this would be your regular lame BL manga (emphasis on "lame"). I don't get why is Shizumasa-sama is suddenly nice to Haine when he was being a SOB last month, but Haine's past was explained somewhat so that's nice. I hope Ushio will be revealed to be a full-blown lesbian (wheee!) next month. I still can't tell the difference between Ushio and Haine in many panels, though. Ushio ought to have had black hair.
Candy Magic (Harada Taeko): New series, and a teacher/student romance with a twist. Chiho, being mature (for her age, 15) and responcible and intelligent, is much more appealing to me as a heroine than the idiotic Ikumi of Harada's last series. I mean, Ribon heroines are never really bad girls, so if they have to be good girls I like this type of good girl better than the "not very clever or cute or interesting but has a good heart" type (e.g. Ikumi). I'm usually not into the student/teacher thing at all, but I like the hero because he goes about ruining every idealized stereotype of "the cool and handsome and gentle teacher" that are so prevailing in shojo manga. He's a guy (or as much of one as appears in shojo manga), not some teenage girl's dream-come-true. All in all, I like. Am looking forward to next month.
Animal Yokochô (Maekawa Ryo): Maekawa has the best website of all Ribon manga-ka: Out*Life. I also think she draws best of current Ribon manga-ka. So I become a little ... sad when she wastes her time on this mediocre crap. Not that AniYoko is crap in general, but this chapter ... A few months ago they asked the readers to send in new characters and the chosen one appeared this month. Damn, is he boring. He doesn't fit into the Issa/Iyo/Kenta dynamic at all. Waste of pages.
High Score (Tsuyama Chinami): I like this series but it's hit and miss. Miss this month.
Aishiteruze Baby (Maki Yôko): It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to write anything on this manga. Maki's expressions are so monotone it's like no one cares about Yuzuyu's condition although they say they care. I want to see it. I don't. It's so undramatic, this manga.
Saboten no himitsu (Haruta Nana): "Ride on the back of my bicycle!" "No, I'm heavy!" "I don't care, com'on!" "Okay ..." "Hey, you're not heavy at all!" "... *happy*"
"Let's go into this game center!" "No, waste of time!" "Just a bit!" "Okay ..." "Look, UFO catcher! Look, I'm great with them!" "Get that one!" "Here you go! You can have it!" "... *happy*"
Shop assistant: "Couples may take a free purikura today!" "But we're not a couple!" "Let's take one anyway!" "Okay ..." "Hahaha, what a weird purikura." "... *happy*"
And So On. I have never in my life read a more shojo-manga-esque shojo manga. Meaning this is a very (stereo)typical manga, which I believe I also mentioned last month? Strange thing is that I enjoyed reading it anyway, especially because Fujioka is a nice, sincere hero. Not a series I'd buy as a tankobon, but not bad.
Ageha 100% (Takeuchi Kozue): The "big plot" I mentioned was lacking last month has appeared, although it's a pretty typical one. Good, good, because this month was rather monotone. Let's see what happens.
Chokomimi (Sonoda Konami): Andrew is cool.
Manga jôhô: There is a Mozilla-type quiz about "how to approach the guy you like this autumn". The first question in it is "A guy's school uniform should be gakuran, not blazers! Yes or no?"
Am I the only one who finds that question highly kinky? (OMG, gakuran all the way! *nosebleed*)
Momobuta (Fukube Tomomi): Augh, like in Animal Yokochô, a new character as suggested by a reader appears. No comment.
St. Dragon Girl Miracle (Matsumoto Natsumi): I don't think my commenting on this manga is fair since I have given up all hope on it. In this issue An can't seem to figure out whether she likes Ryuji or or Ren so the story is probably going in the "omg I love you both I can't decide" direction, but let me just say this: Ryuji/Ren yaoi all the way yay!!
Sora no mannaka (Kayama Yoko): Combined with the lack of color pages and the way the story is progressing, I'm going to predict that this will end next month. I had originally thought five months, so it would fit into one tankobon, but I guess they'll put a few yomikiri into the second tankobon of this series (Kayama has tons of yomikiri in her back-log, I'm sure).
I'm only writing this because I have no comment to the content of the series. It's so typical it hurts. I can tell exactly what's going to happen next month. Seiji is going to drag Mikoto to the TV shooting and they'll make up and although her siblings travel far away Mikoto is happy because she knows in her heart that they'll always care about each other. Booooring.
Charisma Doll (Kurahashi Erika): Did ... did she actually just use the world "gekimabu" ... and even had a note explaining what it means, as if it were some sort of cool Hollywood slang she just picked up ... when it fact no one has used the word since the bubble collapsed in the early 90s ... omgwtflol?
This simple glitch of vocabulary speaks volumes about the manga-ka that is Kurahashi Erika. Seriously. She cracks me up.
Nagatachô Strawberry (Sakai Mayu): Pass.
E-kei Hybrid Girl (Kitazawa Kaoru): Kitazawa is better at drawing fat girls with horrible taste in clothes than she is at drawing cute and skinny girls in (what she believes is) fashionable clothes. I happen to think this is her saving grace as a manga-ka, but it might also be her fatal flaw as a shojo manga-ka. Hmm. She should quit drawing about models and draw about evil fat girls, is what I think. Would be more interesting than this.
Shôjo wa hitsuji no yume o miru (Miki Maki): Yomikiri. Wow. Why didn't they give this the color page of, say, Dragon Girl? It rocks. The heroine is a rare type of person these days in the sense that she has a dream (becoming an author of children's books) that she works towards very consciously. She hides this fact from her family and friends, though, in fear that they'll laugh at her if they knew she had such a silly thing as a dream. One day, a weird sheep-like creature appears before her and says that he'll ruin her dream, because it's unrealistic and won't do society any good in this age of econimic stagnation. The verbal abuse the sheep rains down on the heroine to get her to give up her dream is hilarious, while the main plot about believing in your dreams is executed beautifully with a firm hand. What a lovely piece.
Ichigo Omelette (Hanzawa Kaori): That first strip is a classic ... only hit as far as yonkoma and short comedy goes in this issue.
Medaka no gakkô (Mori Yukie): Doping. Otherwise, mediocre.
(I know I'm not making sense but commenting on yomkoma is really reeeeeeally difficult.)
Funky Fancy (Tanabe Mayumi): Lemon-kun is cool. But I think the main attraction of this month is Dô (the shota boy I mentioned last month) peeing and pooping. Me, I don't do shota. Or scat, for that matter ...
Next month in Ribon: Yoshizumi Wataru! Wheeeeee!!
ETA:
Since I keep complaining about the quality of the covers of Ribon, some of you might be wondering (or not) what's so wrong with them. To be quite frank there probably aren't anything wrong with them, but fact remains that they used to be better.
To the left is the cover of Ribon October 2004, and to the right the cover of Ribon February 1995. Click to enlarge.
On the cover of 1995, one cut each is featured for the main furoku, the zenin present, and the big new series of the month (Gokinjo Monogatari). On the cover of 2004, two furoku, one zenin present, and three cuts for manga are featured (one new, one yomikiri, one Tanemura Arina).
It's clear to anyone that the area used by PR photo is greater in 2004 than it was in 1995. It is also clear to anyone that in the cover of 1995, you can actually tell what the heck the cover picture is supposed to be. It's a girl and a boy (Miki and Yu of Marmalade Boy in case you didn't know), the girl wearing a kimono -- i.e. a typical Japanese New Years picture (the February issue of Ribon comes out in January). As I mentioned above, I coundn't for the life of me figure out that the October 2004 cover was supposed to be about Halloween.
Now of course you could argue that PR is important to attract new buyers. That'd be valid. (Though Ribon sold considerably more in 1995 than it does now; the huge PR pictures don't seem to have helped on the circulation as of yet.) All I'm saying is that I know which cover I prefer.
