Wednesday, August 17, 2005

   [FANGIRL// love for all the wrong reasons...]

hIyAs everyone~ hope you're all doing well & are enjoying these last few weeks of summer vacation! i guess some of you are going back to school soon, right? i know my brother's high school starts next week, so now he's frantically trying to finish his summer reading book. my other brother tho doesn't head back to college till mid september, lucky him. ^_^; for the second post in a row, i've to apologize for not being on MyO as often as i should be. *bows deeply* it's hard to get rid of the summer lethargy in my systems; and i haven't been doing much other than downloading scans & reading manga like crazy. about that, i want to thank GRAYUNDERPANTS for kindly sharing with me your list of scans sites. even tho i got your PM weeks ago and didn't get to thank you properly, please know that i absolutely appreciate your help and LOVE the list you sent me! :) consequently, downloading scans has taken a huge chunk out of my already-snailish internet connection; and i haven't been doing much of anything else online. idiot me. ^_^;; just a friendly warning: the remaining of this post is a rambling fangirl rant! ^o^ 1. have you taken advantage of the "BUY 4 GET 5TH FREE" sales at Waldenbooks lately? i haven't bought a lotta books from there ever since my Preferred Reader membership expired. (because my state has too hefty a level of sales tax, without the discounts, it's really much more economical to purchase manga online than in the store. u_u) this month tho, i can proudly say that i bought each & every book of my "monthly manga wishlist" there. ^^ YAY manga! 2. but then i found some disturbing news about the release schedules of 2 of my wishlisted TokyoPop mangas. both Samurai Deeper Kyo & Saiyuki used to be bimonthly releases. after their publication this month, however, the next volume of SDK won't be out until November & the next Saiyuki Reload not until December!! :0 what's with that??! *tears* these are gonna be some cold, lonely months... 3. i've been on a heavily-shoujo manga diet lately, what with reading Girl Got Game, Hot Gimmick, Full Moon, and Koi Kaze & gobbling down with pleasure every last drop of angst, drama, and romance without giving it much thought. my (nonexistent) view of shoujo manga has changed, however, after reading the article "She Was Asking For It", by Lianne and NotHayama from the anime/manga reviews site SleepIsForTheWeak.org, which discusses the DANGERS of certain risqué shoujo manga. the basic point of the article is that, in the name of love and romance, CERTAIN SHOUJO MANGAS ENCOURAGE GIRLS TO BE SUBMISSIVE EVEN WHEN IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP. among the examples of problematic titles given are: Fushigi Yugi, Hot Gimmick, Boys Over Flowers, S+M, Sailor Moon, Card Captor Sakura... each posing various levels of problem. after reading the article, my initial response was: "AS IF we aren't old enough to be able to tell between fiction & reality or to know what a real relationship is! why make a big fuss at all?? unless you want to alert the PTA to get on the case of shoujo manga and start a BAN list or something. people are already looking into the relationship between video games & violence, do we really want to make a connection between shoujo manga & abusive relaionships too?? geez!" seriously, that was what i first thought. it was irresponsible & insenitive and i feel really ashamed about it afterward. in all honesty, if the list of my fave bishies is any tell-tale sign of what my romantic inclinations are, then i'm truely & surely a person with many, MANY problems. (Aside from those who are relatively normal, among the bishies i worship are...) Marik and Bakura who are a couple of sadistic maniacs; Seto a selfish & heartless bastard; Sanzo an abusive monk (i'd be hit with his paper-fan or be threatened at gunpoint everyday!); Sesshoumaru & the Hitokiri Battousai? they KILL in cold blood for crying out loud (we can argue about their hidden hearts-of-gold of course! and the later Kenshin is all right); Shinogu who constantly has to fight back urges to commit "incest" (in "quotes" because the siblings in question aren't really biologically related); Yukimura who can't seem to live without alcohol & who's a player... when he made his manga debute appearance with one hand on his signature sake bottle & the other reaching in, groping down some girl's kimono, did i find that offensive, or heavens forbid, attractive??!!! honestly now. >.< ...and i still love every single one of them. possibly for all the wrong reasons. CAPTION: a YGO doujinshi cover featuring Seto & Shizuka and the ch.23 cover of Hot Gimmick featuring Hatsumi & Ryouki. possessive. submissive. seemingly unconsenual. this is love, guys. just goes to show, what we love to read/see is not always right. and you ask: what's your point? i think i've long lost mine since ranting for so long. ^_^; except that i'd recommend you to read the article if you've the chance. it's well-written, brings up many good points & arguments, and is definitely food-for-thought. i've nothing against shoujo, but just, yeah, we've gotta keep our heads on when we read & don't let the themes of "female escapist fantasies" indoctrinate our thoughts! lastly, i hope you like my new Hot Gimmick theme! i'm currently working on a RuroKen wallpaper, so, yeah, ANGIEANIME, RuroKen will definitely be my next theme! ^^ i'll try to visit most of you as soon as i can. till next time, have a good one, everyone! :D

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