Cooking for Character Development

Kimchi! Bibimbap! Jjajangmyun! After watching several Kdramas or reading some Manhwa, my mouth inevitably starts watering. With Manga, I crave Onigiri and restaurant quality Ramen. To satisfy my cravings, I decided to use my vacation break to whip up some of these treats.

On the left, you can admire the mouth watering goodness of my fresh kimchi. I used a recipe from Maangchi, a korean cooking website which I highly recommend. It presents the steps in detail with a photograph for each or alternatively you can watch a video of the preparation. Be prepared for lots of food. The original recipe called for ten pounds of cabbage.

I also served up bibimbap to my family. It was a confirmed success. Good thing too, cause it's hard to use up a whole container of Gochujang (hot red pepper paste) at one sitting.

...But then my mom asked, "Should we be consoling you about something?"

"What?" I naturally replied.
"Well, don't heroines of Korean soap operas cook bibimbap as a comfort food?" she explained.
And that got me thinking.

Who am I? I'm their homeroom teacher.

Gokusen by Morimoto Kozueko is one of my all time favorites, but it took a bit of unpacking for me to figure out why. The ah-ha moment happened when I was watching the drama adaptation. Something was missing. Something even the ultimate cuteness of Matsumoto Jun couldn't make up for. That something was Attitude with a capital A.

The story revolves around a high school teacher and her class of delinquent students. The students are one step away from a correctional facility, and Yankumi, their homeroom teacher, aims to keep them that way. Usually, this would be a Herculean task, but Yankumi has a secret advantage. She is a third generation Yakuza heir, so delinquents are milk toast compared to what she deals with at home. The stories are episodic, switching between Yankumi's struggles at school (Will her class pass basic arithmetic?) struggles at home (How will she stop a rival gang from encroaching on her turf?), and of course, the ever present difficulty of keeping her identity secret.

Valentines by the Numbers

For all the math nerds in the house, it's time for a statistical break down. Every year thousands in America rush to their nearest Hallmark store to buy cards, candy, and pink stuffed teddy bears. By doing a quick google, I discovered that Valentine's sells the most flowers and the fourth most candy of any holiday. The favorite flower? Red Roses by 48% of the sales according to aboutflowers.com . No need to guess about the favorite type of candy. It's chocolate all the way.

So sure, Valentine's is commercialized. It's hard to find a holiday on the American calender that isn't (Maybe Martin Luther King Day?). It's also commercial in Japan. While I was there, all the stores broke out elaborate boxes of chocolate. What a tempting sight it was! I almost bought a crate load for myself. Every chocolate truffle, an intricately crafted piece of art, wrapped perfectly in typical Japanese fashion.

In Shoujo manga however, heroines take a step back from the commercialism and cook up homemade Valentine's treats. I've hunted down recipes for a few of the more unusual desserts for your Valentine's consumption.

Twisted Romance in Dreamland

Sympathetic Character = Mad Woman in Attic

We've all seen this scene before: a couple stands at the altar, just about to say their final vows, when a woman/man bursts in, interrupting the ceremony to declare her/his undying love for the bride/groom standing at the end of the aisle. They collapse in each other's arms. The crowd cheers. True love has won the day. In the inverted situation in Jane Eyre, the reader sympathizes with Jane's pain.

In the past, I would have cheered and sighed along with the crowd, but now I say, "Ba Humbug!"

Over the past three nights, I was visited by three dreams. In each, I was a blushing bride in typical wedding day scenarios.

I won't bother you with two of the dreams. They were typical dream fare. That is to say, more than a bit random and nonsensical, but the third proved that my subconscious can tell a good story if provoked.

Score One for the Anti-Twilightists

Just a short video to share. It's been around, but it deserves a thumbs up. To quote a friend, "It's what Bella should have done when she met Edward."

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.

When No Means Yes

I was recently browsing through manga on a scanlation site when I came across a maturity warning for Haou Airen. It read "WARNING: This series contains strong "consensual rape." Consensual rape? What does that even mean? It's like jumbo shrimp, an oxymoron. Luckily, the author of the warning wasn't completely oblivious to the ridiculousness of the statement. But why use the phrase in the first place?

Korean Manhwa Returns: A Counterposition

A few posts ago, Polecat argued that Manhwa was cliche and repetitive. Well, that's one side of the story. This post reflects a long standing internal argument at Manga Meditation. Manhwa is one of my favorites. Polecat can't stand it. So while Polecat might have some valid points in the earlier post, I'm not convinced that her viewpoint is unbiased. In the interest of balanced debate, here comes the smackdown-- Polecat vs. Starfish.

A Call to Arms

I'll be the first to admit that I have an addiction to Shoujo manga. My addictions are usually on a six month cycle. I jump from addiction to addiction, from soap operas, to webcomics, to paperback romances to scanlations. I have yet to have an addiction to blogging. Maybe blogging will be the next wave.

Addiction is a strong word, but for those who doubt, let them know that I spent five hours reading scanlations the night before a term paper was due. Such addictions can be hard to admit to friends and relatives. Saying, for example, "I read six romance novels this weekend" leads my father to ask what I intend to do with the rest of my life. Is it just me? I know otherwise. Those who are with me in loving these belittled art forms, we must reclaim our self-respect.

Values can be redefined. "High art" is a historical term. No one today would claim that paintings with biblical subjects are of more artistic value than genre painting. Two centuries ago, the superiority of history painting was taken for granted. Contemporary art historians are exploring the decorative arts (read crafts) as a new field of study.

I am not suggesting that in the future, "Fruits Basket" will be judged by the same criteria as "Girl with a Pearl Earring", but manga certainly can be viewed with an analytical eye.

As we redefine our fandom, the key is to move beyond blind obsession. Our unconditional love should be tempered by full disclosure of flaws. It is with this goal in mind, that I urge you to take up the yoke of a critical fan. This is not a burden to be assumed lightly. We must build consciousness among the sheep. We must fight for recognition as a legitimate topic. We must learn to hold the interest of dinner table conversations.

Together, we can discipline our addictions and turn them into something more.


--Starfish