Taking a break from homework and lesson planning for fannish squee.

[nenena]

poilass liked my help_japan fic!! (*happy dances forever*)

I'm too busy with homework, work-work, and other RL stuff to finish recapping Soul Eater Not! chapter 6 this month, so I'll probably just post chapters 6 and 7 together next month.

And speaking of summer fandom projects.... (*looks at doujinshi scanning queue*) Siiiiigh. I'll get back on the scanning horse next week, after I finish my last week of classes and visiting relatives and stuff.

And sorry, Spike Pilgrim, but this is my new all-time favorite My Little Pony trailer mashup:

ETA: Also, this excellent rant about "womens' comics" by Melinda Beasi is worth a signal-boost. Pretty much the entire thing is highly quotable, but here's a quick sample:

Who hasn’t been put in the position of having to over-explain to a skeptical friend, “I know the cover is pink, but it’s really good, I swear!” We explain because we think we have to, and we think we have to because we’ve been conditioned to believe that something specifically created with girls or women in mind is less well-crafted, less intelligent, and less universally relevant than something that’s not.

Yep, pretty much this. Also highly relevant re: anybody freaking out over the popularity of My Little Pony. Super-duper highly relevant re: the mouthbreathing male otaku contingent's continual insistence that Madoka Magica is groundbreaking/original/revolutionary for doing the exact same things that magical girl shows for girls have been doing for the past twenty years, but not that they would know that because heaven forbid any of them ever actually watch that sparkly pink girly stuff.

Comments

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Mermaid Melody had magical girls fighting each other, but not killing (although the bad magical girl who was about to be redeemed ended up killing herself at the last minute anyway) and one helluva untrustworthy mascot character in Fuku-chan.

Oh hell fuck yes PC is a girl show. It's not advertised in ANY male-oriented media in Japan. Trust me,I actually went *looking* for that at one point, but no. It's considered so girly in Japan that it might as well have cooties.

ETA: Also yeah WTF the big deaths in Madoka were undone, too. Mami's death was supposed to be the big shocker but she was back by the end. Meanwhile, dead magical girls and princesses in Rayearth and MM stayed dead. Some characters in the SM manga, too.

[the-sun-is-up.livejournal.com]

Is that the anime or the manga of Mermaid Melody? Because I've heard they're rather different and I'd like to check out whichever one has the darker elements.

Well now I'm even more confused about Precure, because I was looking at Youtube stats on Cure-related vids, and the top two demographics that liked those vids were invariably Female 13-17 and Male 30s-40s. So even if it's being marketed at girls, there are still lots of adult guys watching it. idk.

Regarding the deaths in PMMM, personally I draw a distinction between a character dying and then getting un-dead-ed, versus a character dying permanently in one timeline but surviving in another timeline. It's like what Umineko or Higurashi does — one of the Mamis may have survived and gotten a happy ending, but that doesn't help the other five or so Mamis who still got crappy endings. And then those five unhappy Mamis will fuse together into one nihlistic super-villain who will go hijack another canon and insert her own Mary-Sue character into it and then she'll end up dating the evil conglomeration of all the unhappy Sayakas and /end Umineko joke

[(Anonymous)]

So even if it's being marketed at girls, there are still lots of adult guys watching it. idk.

That wouldn't surprise me, but it's the same phenomenon as MLP - the primary audience is little girls, even though it's popular with other demographics despite the lack of targeted advertising toward older dudes.

Also, I assume that you're viewing Pretty Cure videos on le English youtube? The viewer demographics are somewhat different for Pretty Cure videos uploaded by Japanese users. The demographic that really counts, however, is who's watching the cartoons when they air on Japanese TV on Saturday mornings. Which just happens to be the demographic least likely to be watching the same episodes on Youtube. Which is why you need to be careful about making arguments based on Youtube viewership! ;)

Regarding the deaths in PMMM, personally I draw a distinction between a character dying and then getting un-dead-ed, versus a character dying permanently in one timeline but surviving in another timeline.

But Homura wasn't "splitting" timelines in PMMM. She was actually rewinding time. So Mami very much did get un-deaded. That's the same way that Sailor Moon saved all of the Sailor Senshi at the end of the first season.

Or, if you don't buy the rewinding argument, then all of the Sailor Senshi at the end of the first season of Sailor Moon died and stayed dead in their own timeline, too.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

WTF, livejournal. That was me who left the previous comment. I could've sworn I was logged in.

Also, re: Mermaid Melody... I dunno what you've heard, but, uh, Sara's death is the same in both the anime and the manga. So the answer to your question is... both?