It’s been fun, but ever since November I haven’t really been  interested in watching the currently airing shows, and have not really blogged anything for Shojolover in the last little bit, being more involved in my other fandoms. At first, I considered switching Shojolover to a general fandom blog. However, I decided that lacked cohesion. Than, it hit me. Part of the recent I had not been as interested in blogging shows that I liked was that it was much more boring to write about what I actually enjoyed or at least thought was decent, than to rant and joke about horrible plots, characters, writing or art.

This is what Bad Romance is for. To complain about the less than great series out there, or the arcs that ruin an otherwise great series. To groan about sexcism, to laugh at cheesy romance dialogue, to roll our eyes at stupid heroines.

I still might review good manga from time to time-recently I fell in love with Ooku, Shugo Chara Encore is slowly redeeming the last arc of SC, and the current arc of Skip Beat is awesome (but that’s par for the course for Skip Beat).

I’ll miss this blog. I have a lot of good memories, and have met a lot of awesome people through it. Thank you for reading Shojolover. I hope you will enjoy Bad Romance as well.

Hadashi De Bara No Fume

Plot: “Poor Sumi Kitamura… Her irresponsible older brother Eisuke keeps bringing home orphans for her to take care of even though they can barely afford their own basic needs! Just when Sumi’s financial problems become dire, wealthy Soichiro Ashida enters her life with a bizarre proposition: he’ll provide her with the money she so desperately needs if she agrees to marry him. But can Sumi fool high society into thinking she’s a proper lady? Moreover, is it worth giving up everything for this sham of a marriage?” (from Viz)

General Evulation: Okay, I admit I wasn’t entirely sold on this series, when I read the first few chapters. I think my reaction was something like: “Sexist Rawr! Domestic abuse bah!”. But a few months ago I tried reading it again and to my surprise geniually enjoyed it. It is pretty realistic in terms of how women and people who were working class were treated in the past. I think the first three words of Viz’s summary are a pretty apt. description of Sumi’s situation.

The characterization is really well done too. Sumi, Soichiro and Nozomu are sort of a deconstruction of your typical shojo love triangle, and are shown to be all pretty deeply messed up in some way (particularly Nozomu).

Also, it’s pretty there’s a lot of pretty period dress (which I think was Ueda’s main reason for making the series).

Romance Evulation: Poor Sumi pretty much has the worst love life of any female character I’ve recently read. The only one who really tops her in that field is Sansa Stark. Soichiro is becoming better…but he’s still an asshat most of the time, and her “prince type” subsituate, Nozomu is pretty much a creepy stalker (also yay for a series aimed at girls not pertraying stalking in a postive light), who may or may not be her brother depending on if you listen to the crazy theories out there.  I will say one thing though. At least in Hadashi de Bara No Fume, Sumi is starting to like Soichiro because he’s starting to act less like an asshat, rather than inspite of it. That alone makes it a better historical romance than SHK (shudders).

Recommended for: Some who wants a fairly entertaining and well written historical shojo. Rinko Ueda is pretty much the queen of these types of series.

Valentine’s day is right around the corner which means its time for another countdown series. This year instead of shipping countdown, I’ve decided to make a list of fairly decent shojo mangas that are still coming out and evaluating them on a plot and romance level.

Day 1 is about Otomen.

Plot: 

“Asuka Masamune is a guy who loves girly things–sewing, knitting, making cute stuffed animals and reading shojo comics. But in a world where boys are expected to act manly, Asuka must hide his beloved hobbies and play the part of a masculine jock instead. Can Asuka ever show his true self to anyone, much less to Ryo Miyakozuka, the girl that he’s falling for?”- From Viz

General Evaluation- It’s awesome.

seriously though it is. It is very interesting for several reasons. 1. It’s a shojo manga with a male protagonist, which is even less common than shojan series with female protagonist. 2. It brings up a lot of things about gender stereotyping. It shows how it affects both genders (though focusing mainly on men obviously) and how people often feel like they need to live up to what society expects them to believe. 3. It’s hilarious. It is one of the few series that makes me smile constantly from start to finish.

There are some problems. The art is so-so and sometimes it feels like the series is trying to hard to get people like it.

Romance Evaluation: The main romance in the series is between Asuka and Ryo. I don’t want to give any spoilers away, but these two are adorable together. Their differences balance them out and it makes the similarities they have more prominent. Also, unlike most shojo couples, there is little to no drama between these two. No fights, no “omg x likes you too!”, none of that. Which is a nice change.

Recommended for: People who want something fun and fairly dramaless, that’s different from more mainstream shojo.

Being a Fangirl is difficult, isn't Sanza? (image by Hayakawa)

This is not really an issue that concerns anime in particular, but more something that effects all fandoms- including books, movies, live action television and western animation. It seems more and more though that the word “Fangirl” is getting increasingly negative conatations.

There could be several reasons for this phantom.

1. The Twilight series: Yes, I know, everyone blames the Twilight saga for contaiming the minds of young women. I’m not going argue that it doesn’t have a lot of negative connotations. Also, it does have a lot of unstable fans, some of whom are quite violent to people who express dislike for it. However, what I find even more interesting is how people sometimes react to twilight fans. One rather horrid example are the comments for thisvideo, in which some commentators insulate that a girl deserved to be hit up by a kidnapper simply because she liked the series (it was also hilarious considering they were whining about how the media was blaming the problem on anime).  I think a lot of people forget that teenage girls and people in general, have a really screwed up perception of relationships. I definitely did when I was fifteen and I still do now. Most people grow out of it, and the ones that do not would have probably been like that anyways. What I don’t like is the fact that a lot of people assume that just because one group of girls in a particular fandom act one way, that  it means all teenage girls or women who are fans of different things will act the same way.

2. Shipping: Shipping is problematic and polarizing in most fandoms. It can get out of hand, if people try to bring up their ship in every conversation they have about the series, or start ship wars for no particular reason. But honestly, if they don’t bug anyone and are polite (which I think most shippers are; the noisy ones just get the attention), who are they hurting? It just seems like in some fandoms, that the knee jerk reaction to any kind of shipping, is anger because “it takes away from serious matters.”

3. Bad Fan Fiction and/ or fan art: This one speaks for itself.

4. Yaoi and/or slash: as does this one.

5. Character favoritism and/or bashing: This is another one of those types of issues like shipping, that really does ruin a fandom. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with liking one character over another or not liking a character, but some people get way to over the top with it, which generally leads to a negative perception of anyone who likes or dislikes the character. It doesn’t help that it is often tied to shipping, and disliking characters who interfere with their ship (which is rather stupid)

The annoying thing about the last four reasons is the fact that guys are just as involved in these types of behaviors.  However it’s less common to see people who complain about “fanboys” associated with these issues. Perhaps it’s just because the image of a fanboy is one of a obsessive elitist who looks down on everyone who knows less about their favorite series than they do. Well this is annoying as well, it is something girls do as well as boys. It’s not a gender centered problem. It’s an asshole centered problem. I think everyone in any fandom, should just chill out. It’s suppose to be fun to talk to someone about a series you both like, not headache inducing.

Anyways, even with all these generalizations, I’m still proud to call myself a fangirl of things I enjoy. I hope the other sensible fangirls that are out there will not be afraid to do so, if they want to call themselves one either.

So you find the cute new series, that charms or least interests you. The series goes along a nice little past, until you reach what seems to be the end.  The main quest or point of the story is completed and there really only needs to be one more chapter to wrap things up. Than the next month you’re greeted with a chapter that doesn’t wrap things up, but also just confuses the hell of out you be introducing a new plot. What the hell?

Unfortunatly this is quite a growing trend in current Shojo series: continue a manga after the plot has been resolved.   I never really had a clue what was going on in Vampire Knight, but I have even less of a clue now, the “new arc” of Shugo Chara makes no sense if the manga was just go to end in six chapters anyways (time that could have been spend: developing Amu’s “would be self”, giving  storylines to supporting characters (like the guardians), etc.), or mulply romance centred series that continue to go on well after the main couple has gotten together.

With the romance series it makes a little more sense and can be very well handled. You can use the extended storyline to develop the main characters more and to show them developing a strong working relationship beyond just falling in love and confessing. Lovely Complex and High School Debut are great examples of these types of manga. They set up exteriornal and interinal problems for the main couples to overcome and also managed to give the previously underultilised supporting characters more development and storylines.

However, in Fantasy/Magical girl series it’s just irksome. Once the characters have resolved the major plot there just doesn’t seem to be any point of continuing. It’s like if Harry Potter spend another three hundread pages describing what happened to Harry and friends after Voldie kicked the bucket or if they went on some pointless advanture afterwards. Like Fushigi Yugi after volume 13. The new plot seemed so pointless. The only good thing about the last five volumes was that it developed the other warriors and explained their backstories more or gave them conflicts. But it would’ve been better if Watasne had ingrated into the story at large.

Still at least the second part of Fushigi Yugi had a story (if a stupid one). The last time I read Vampire Knight in the summer, it seemed to consist of Zero and  a couple of other people doing something, and Kaname and Yuuki either being emo or declaring their love for one another. In Shugo Chara, all that really happened was Tadase and Amu wasted a bunch of time looking for her eggs/embryo and bringing back Kairi okay bringing back Kairi was awesome. This month’s chapter was decent, and it’s too bad the rest of the arc wasn’t like this (ie. flashback explaination immedially after chapter 42).

A lot of these problems could be solved by more careful ploting or less excutive meddling (extending popular series for more money). It just contributes even more to idea some people have that Shojo doesn’t really have a plot, but is just a vechile for fluff/smut.

Most of you probably know that Skip Beat is one of my favorite series. Also, by extent you also probably knows that KyokoxRen is one of my favorite couples. And anyone who still follows the skip beat manga, probably knows that for almost a year now that Skip Beat has been focused around valentine’s day and the love triangle in Skip Beat. This arc  made me excited at first, than bored, than excited (and angry) again at around 145-148, and than I almsost forgot about during a month long break.

Obivously the main message of Skip Beat isn’t romance. It’s about Kyoko finding the self she was never allowed to develop growing up because she was trying to please people (mainly her mom and Shotaro). Part of it has to do with be able to love naturally and giving up her old twisted ideas of love, but that’s a very small part in the long run. At some points of this arc, I kind of wanted it to go back to Kyoko’s advantures in acting.

But I think I should still be allowed to derive shipper glee out of what happens in this chapter. So here it goes:

He doesn’t  kiss her on the mouth. He kisses her on the cheek instead.

Now, many people would probably say this was a cop out. But I disagree. Why? Well here’s a few reasons:

1. It allows Ren to show how he feels about Kyoko just a little, without starling her like a full on kiss would. It will probably shake Kyoko out of her obliousness a little, but it also gives her the choice to kiss him or not, if she decides she wants to. I’m so used to shojo mangas where the guy just forces a kiss on a girl out of the blue *coughshotarocough*, that it’s nice to see a guy be not to pushy about it for once. It’s kind of the same thing as holding hands I guess. It gets the point across, but it’s not to invasive.

2. Going on that point, Kyoko had a kiss forced on her. She doesn’t need another guy doing it the same day, muchless someone she respects/admires like Ren.

3. Did I mention that the kiss managed to destroying all the Sho demons brought out by the preivous instance? Not to mention Kyoko blushing at the very end of the chapter~ Shojo blush ftw.

4. Remember the floor scene? Remember how shippy, awesome and hot it was? This manages to top it. The art for the scene is awesome. Somehow though I like Ren’s kind of childish smile, just before he gives whatever excuse he came up with.

The only thing I didn’t like was Ren’s creepy expression while he was staring at Kyoko on the last page. It reminded me too much of another series that shell not be named here.

In other news, Moko kicksass. She flips an annoying guy over her shoulder by his nose, for insulting Hirou (and also for bugging her for dates). I kinda of want to see a throwdown between her Sho before the end of the series.

Wow. Miracle Train actually had a story this week, besides their standard “customer of the day” thing.

Not only that, but they actually helped an old lady at the very start of the episode, so I guess I won’t be able to call them ageist anymore.

The most interesting part of the episode though is when they tried to figure out what their purpose was (apparently the Miracle Train boys have discovered philiosohphy). Personally I either think they’re “station fairies” as Shidome put it, or they’re just guys who died at their respective stations and now have to spend their afterlife solving girls’ problems, but I doubt the real explanation is as cool as either of those possiblities. Either that or it will never be brought up again.

Oddly enough the warp space they were in reminded of that one episode of Sailor Moon where the buses disappeared into a warp space. The Miracle Train is run by the dark kingdom perchaps?

Also, there were some RoppangixAkari hints. Personally, I always thought ConductorxAkari or TochoxAkari (after episode two) was more likely, but eh this is kind of cute too.

Conductorservice~ (though still no mask off).

This episode was more torable than usual, if a bit boring at times. The fact that they didn’t have girls refusing to go somewhere because they’re boyfriends might break up with them, or girls who pretended to like something just to get a guy to notice them. -__- It’s also kinda of amusing to see Miracle Train attempt to take itself seriously.

*must resist the urge to make dirty jokes*

This was pretty much the best episode of Shugo Chara party. Mainly because it actually focused on the oldsters instead of the next generation. Now, I don’t mind Rikka or Hikaru, but it’s not really the same. -__-

lol at Nagi’s over the top reaction shot. The anime tends to make him much more nerivous/worried. I guess it sort of makes sense if you think of it in the terms that he really isn’t that confident being a boy yet, given that he’s been a girl for so many years, and the lack of confidence spills over into other things.

“Good luck finding a way out of this one” Rima~

I kind of  “D~aww’d” at this part too, since Nadeshiko was Amu’s first friend. But the fact that Amu wasn’t over the top happy to see her, shows how much Amu really has matured since the first season and how confident she feels with herself and her friends, as opposed to how alone she felt just after “Nadeshiko” left.

I love how quickly she’s able to go from “evil/jealous” aura to super cheerful and polite. (Kyoko would be proud) Especially impressive when you consider she’s jealous for two reasons.

I also really enjoyed the whole rushed crossdressing scene. It felt like a scene from a 1930s screwball romantic comedy. Probably starring Gary Grant.

Tsun-tsuness. ^^; Well, she is one of the tsundere trio in Shugo Chara.

Heh. Ah well, at least Nagi usually gives as good as he gets. More 19s0sromanticcomdeyesqe.

^____________________________^

Yay for offical inseries dating~

Too bad Party isn’t usually like this.

Instructions: Bake sugary shojo until fluffy ^__^.

Yumerio is pretty epic. It really feels like a shojo show made for young girls in the nineties. Since they’re arn’t many that come out now that don’t have that werid 3D animation, it really is a treat (not as delicous as the cakes on the show though).

In this episode we are introduced to the sweet spirits belonging to the male main characters.

First is Chocolate who works with Kashino. Like him, she seems extremely tsun-tsun. She also has a rivelity with Vanilla, that in many ways resembles Ichigo and Kashino’s own interactions (except Chocolot seems even more directly catty). I think so far that I probably like her and Vanilla the most.

Next is Caramel who works with Andou. She reminds me a lot  of Suu and Yui from K-ON, so far. Also, unlike the other sweet spirits she really doesn’t seem to have a lot in common with Andou (unless he has a side that he hasn’t shown yet), since she’s clueless and clumsy.

And this is Cafe who works with Hanabusa. He’s…just kinda of generically polite so far. Butlerlike I guess. I shell privately refer to him as Stevens.

After intros and a reinenforcement of the boys individual special skills, the rest of the episode follows a genric preschool filler plot (which is need in all shojo mangas). But it was pretty cute all the same with a few really good moments. At least I thought it was anime only filler until the dramatic “bitchy girls” reviel at the end of the episode. (I’m still guessing it’s anime filler, but I’ll wait to judge until I hear otherwise).

Kashino brings the blushy boy total up for this season, which was already very high given Kimi Ni Todoke, Hetalia, and Sacred Blacksmith (oddly enough by the character whose voice actor he shares).  Yay?

*A certain someone was probably happy about this (although she was more happy about last week no doubt)*

*other factions were probably pleased by this*

lol. Another sweets- induced meadow dream.

OMG. Ichigo is probably the first heroine from a shojo series to be (although indirectly) called a pedophile! Is it bad that this was my favorite part?

Yay~ A Clamp crossover I can finally approve of.

Seriously though, does anyone actually know if it crossover with Wish’s complete story or if this was just a random filler cameo? I know Kohaku showed up in chapter 16, but it’s going to be quite awhile until that story arc shows up. At least Kobato has someone whose is as clueless as she is about human culture (Kobato’s clueless never really bothered me that much, because I always assumed it came from a combination of the naive most Clamp heroines have, and from having to adjust to our world).  Also, I assume this happens in the same universe as the regular Wish, but this is Clamp. If so I want Koryuu to show up at some point. (he’s like an evil Yoru). Still, since this series is supposed to be about Kobato, it might be too much to ask for the full Wish series to be animated. -___-