Dewey Decimal be my Valentine!

I gobble up scanlations at such a rate these days that I'm continuously browsing for the next, but the browsing process is labor intensive. OneManga has more than 900 separate manga while MangaFox has upwards of 2000 with more added all the time. There's a lot of overlap, but there's no denying the swamp of available scanlations.

Now when I'm in the mood for manga, my craving is often very specific. For example, I might be looking for a plot about a love triangle in the entertainment industry. It's not an uncommon plot; I could read Skip Beat, Ashita no Ousama, or Cat Street to name a few. How do I find these manga? I use the search terms shoujo, josei, or romance and I wade through the slew of results for the next couple hours.

MangaFox has 36 genre tags. They describe the publisher's idea of the target audience (shoujo, seinen), basic plot ideas (romance, adventure), special interests (sports, mecha) and broad literary categories (tragedy, comedy). My first pick today, Skip Beat, is tagged as Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shoujo, Slice of Life. Comprehensive? Hardly! This list covers the bare minimum. A search with the same list returns Gokusen and Fruits Basket. What do a yakusa school teacher, a shape-changing family, and an aspiring actress have in common? Well, aside from those search terms not much. Considering the number of recycled plot devices in the average manga, it should be relatively easy to establish very specific sub-genres, but starting with categories like Romance, it's hard to see where to start.

An Ode to Anime Conventions, or My Disillusionment

WARNING: The following is a long post that is long overdue. But it's finally here! The Animazement report thing! Please don't be discouraged from reading. Or skimming. Or commenting.

Quite an impressive spread.

Back in Manga Meditation's blog drafts are two entries detailing Polecat's and my (Blackbird) recent adventure to Animazement, a now twelve-year-old convention newly located to the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, NC. These posts, however, haven't been published like we had promised earlier. The reason? To be honest, they were a little boring to write. That, and the descriptions were becoming a little mean.

The Megane-CHANGE!

I got my first pair of glasses when I was in 6th grade. Completely innocuous on the shelf, my pair of choice had light blue frames, rounded triangular lenses, and a polycarbonate coating to prevent scratching and chipping. When they arrived, all shiny and new, I innocently put them on without even thinking about the consequences. However, as soon as those baby blue frames settled on my face, a drastic transformation took place. My hair became rattier, my skin became mottled, my face broke out, and a group of boys running by yelled "HEY THERE FOUR EYES!" at me. Mortified, I quickly snatched off my glasses...and watched as my hair smoothed out, my skin cleared up, and the group of boys immediately changed directions and asked if they could take me roller skating. "Ahhh," I thought to myself as I fended off my new-found suitors, "so THIS is the transforming power of removing your glasses."

Obviously, the above story is a load of shenani-bull-crap, but I made it up to demonstrate a common plot point in many many MANY mangas I have read: the transformation that the main female character undergoes when she removes her glasses. For some inexplicable reason, the accessory of glasses does much to dissuade the attentions of other people, either platonic or amorous in nature. Those two pieces of concave glass do much damage indeed to one's social calendar, for the bearer of such unfortunate but necessary evils is regarded as an uninteresting, socially inept, total freak-o nerd girl, not worth the attention of anyone in her school, and certainly not worth the attention of the most handsome boy in the school.

MJ EVA AMV

I remember closely following my friend’s silhouette as she led me into the cool, dark room filled with booming music and sweaty anime nerds sitting in front of a large screen. As soon as I walked in I found a place along the perimeter of the room, folding my arms with insecurity. I was preparing to be bored, I admit, but instead I found myself somehow transfixed to that large screen.

Anime music videos. I never really expected to develop a crush on them, not at my very first convention of all things, but for some reason the combination of music and video, when done right was, I realized, kind of cool.

It's about time...It's about CHANGE....of hair?

At the end of the school year, after the stress of finals was over and the scent of summer was in the air, the atmosphere here at Manga Meditation was one of anticipation for change...a change in hair! The arrival of summer had effectively chased away all need for the heat-retaining, long and bushy look, and all three of us were itching to try out cute summer cuts, similar to the edgy new haircut of pop singer sensation Rihanna. A short journey to the beauty salon later, all of us had chopped off the excess keratin and now sported beautiful, swishy, shiny, bouncy bobs!

While it is easy for us to cut off our hair, it is not so simple in the manga world. Characters often look similar (if not exactly the same) without hair, and a signature hairstyle, be it short, spiky, long, curly, or blue often times is the only way to distinguish characters...especially in shoujo manga.

However! Not only is hair an important characteristic in physical distinction, it also creates certain impressions regarding the personality of a character. Based on the manga that I've read, I've compiled a list of character hairstyles and the personality traits that seem to correspond most commonly.

An Apology of Sorts

To our devoted readers:

As you may have noticed, our little online community has been sorely lacking in any type of updates much to the chagrin of us administrators. The seductive powers of summertime have proven to be too powerful for us and the goal of "updates once a week", which seemed laughably easy at the beginning of June, has now become a feat equivalent to Hercules' 12 labors.

However! A recent meeting of minds over the tesla-magnetic-supersonic-ultra-complex waves of Skype has rearranged the priorities in our respective summertime schedules, placing this blog at the top of the list. No longer shall we give in to the smell of barbeque in the backyard. No longer shall we be tempted by the sight of our swimsuits and towels and the idea of a day excursion at the beach. No longer shall we run outside to catch fireflies every time we see a flash outside our window. We serve a higher purpose, and by hook or crook (or by excessively guilt-tripping each other) we shall fulfill our quota of one post per week.

So away with ye, summer distractions. And onwards with our continuing mission to explore the manga world, to seek out new series and artists, to boldly mock where no one has mocked before (yes, even more than two months after the Star Trek movie, we are still slightly obsessed).

--Manga Meditation

STOP THE PRESSES: Veritable Star Trek Word Vomit

Blackbird's computer wallpaper

Blackbird: After all this time, we apologize in that the following post is not actually about manga. Instead, we have jumped on the modern geek bandwagon and would like to write about the recent Star Trek (the 11th in the series) reboot movie!

Starfish: Of the three of us, only I have been a long term Trekkie and mostly in response to Next Generation and Voyager. I always found the original series a bit dated. Kirk's interaction with the female characters was too much for the feminist in me to handle. I couldn't identify with the disposable, mini-skirt-wearing sex symbols.

Polecat: I hadn't had very much experience with Star Trek previous to the movie (aside from the few episodes and movies that Starfish showed me) and I wasn't really sure what to expect. Doubts aside, however, Star Trek was PHENOMENAL. As a person with previously lukewarm feelings towards the original cast and series, I can now say that I have succumbed to the lure, and I am a definite fan of Star Trek.

Blackbird: My interest in the movie actually originated with Polecat when she told me of the quality of the recent reboot. Much to my surprise, it was received very well. Earlier in the year, Starfish had added slightly to my Star Trek knowledge (beyond what my Trekkie uncle had taught me), and I felt mildly compelled to research the movie. It was then that I stumbled upon the Spock of all reboot Spocks, Zachary Quinto, and my obsession continued from there.