Appa's Thoughts

I finally started reading Sketchbook.

It's like Azumanga Daioh, only with some male characters, fewer flying cats, more characters, pretty much the same kind of teacher, and... an art club. Art club people are always interesting. XD I was already thoroughly enjoying it and relating to all of the characters in little ways (particularly Hazuki!) and thinking of how it reminded me of the high school I attended for one week in Gifu and then they brought in Kate.

*dies laughing*

We foreigners who are enthusiastic about Japan are so easy to portray sometimes. XDDD What makes Kate so funny to me is that she's so true to life. But I guess that's part of the appeal of slice-of-life manga, you get to sit back and say "I do that exact same thing!".

This was all after reading some Ribon manga again and getting those "I must write shoujo manga!!" vibes. Oh Ribon, how do you do this to me!?!?

More manga babble: I'm eager for a new Haruka volume but don't see one yet. >_< Volume 16, where are yoooouuu....

My talked about manga this week in class. It's so funny to just be able to look a random page of shoujo manga I've never read before and immediately be able to identify which series it is and which magazine it ran in.

Today... I went totally back to my roots. I was amazed and delighted when I first discovered manga.

Already being a budding anime fan, I had certainly heard of manga, but had never really looked at it yet. Then, at my grandmother's library while I was visiting one summer when I was 13, I found a shelf full of thick, multicolored monthly Ribon magazines. I WAS AMAZED.

I got a few of them, and even for not knowing any Japanese, I went through them multiple times in those short weeks. It was like I had finally found something I had always been looking for. I copied drawings out of them because I loved the arrays of giant-eyed styles, and I would only learn what so many of those series were (and read them) in the years following.

The ones I had been reading were a bit older (Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Time Stranger Kyoko, Kodocha, Twinkle Tiara, Good Morning Call (maybe?) and Mintna Bokura were running), but today my teacher brought in a 2002 Ribon issue to show the class, and I was like, "kyaa! That's the year I discovered Ribon!!!" This issue had ones like Full Moon wo Sagashite, Mujuuryoku Shounen, Andante... aaahhh, and good old Animal Yokocho and Medaka no Gakkou. XDD

What's funnier is that earlier this morning, for the first time in forever, I brought up the Ribon website just to play the games. XD And suddenly Sakura Hime Kaden has grown on me enough that I'm looking forward to more. And suddenly my art style of five years ago RETURNED TO ME. Where is the last time I draw eyes that big!? Well... besides the mural I did last summer, but that wasn't my usual style. And those don't count anyway, since the eyes alone were bigger than most paper I use.

I would go on with so, so, so much more Ribon nostalgia here, but I need to go meet up with a friend to go watch an opera tonight. :D I've never seen the Magic Flute, so I'm excited.