Hi guys, Menma is on FIRE! I have to keep writing or else I’ll go to Wikipedia and read Doctor Who spoilers and then I will kill myself and you will never see me again, so I’m gonna burn through this backlog. This time I’ll be talking about Hanasakeru Seishounen episode 5, “Meeting ~ Reunion”. In this episode, we meet Rumati, the third bridegroom candidate; he’s the younger prince of Raginei, a small Middle Eastern country. They’ve got stuff to do with the Burnsworth Corporation, and they’re also a country on the verge of some serious political upheaval, for which reason they are very big on tradition. Rumati is in Hong Kong for…some reason. And he and Kajika bond. Of course. That’s the episode, basically, except for a subplot in which the Fang Corporation is again having some internal issues, this time because of Li Ren’s uncle’s scheming wife, Bridget, who apparently had an affair with Li Ren back in the day, when she and his uncle took him in after his father died. He’s nineteen now, so I guess “back in the day” was when he was between thirteen and fifteen. Gross. Anyway, Bridget is jealous of Kajika or something, and sets her up to get raped, I guess, but Rumati saves her and no one is ever the wiser. Meanwhile, Toranosuke is a shitty bodyguard some more, fucking up and losing track of Kajika and stuff. He seriously needs some Ritalin, and a spine.
Screenshots not (ever) in chronological order.
Read more »
Hi guys, it’s Menma. I’m trying to catch up on some stuff while I’m in Canada, having giggleparties every night where we watch Star Trek and Doctor Who and Supernatural and shout homoerotic innuendo and roll and scream and make dumb photoshops and laugh until our lungs collapse. When I’m not working hard on that I also have some free time, so I’m gonna try to get up to date on Hanasakeru Seishounen, at least. Let’s talk about episode 4, “The Sun That Dawns on the Long Night”!
FAMILY DRAMAAAA
So…this episode was totally. fucking. CRAZY. I really didn’t think Eugene was going to have issues worthy of his massive eyeroll-inducing metric fuckton of emo, but I was so wrong. Boy be messed UP! Let’s talk summary: Kajika has followed Eugene to France, but Eugene doesn’t want her around on the anniversary of his mother’s death, mostly because he’s planning to kill himself out of guilt for destroying her life and driving her to suicide (of course he didn’t, but we’ll let him play his tiny violin anyway). His mother, Christine, was crazy because the Vorkan family drove her family into bankruptcy and blackmailed her into marrying Eugene’s “dad” (Auguste, the older Vorkan brother), being artificially inseminated with the sperm of Alan, the younger (and prettier and smarter and better-liked) Vorkan brother (who was a crazy hedonist who got in a car crash and ended up braindead), and bearing a pretty, but terrifying, baby (that’s Eugene), so she killed herself. Are you with me? Good! Eugene is, understandably, horrified by his fucked up family, and wants to die because it’s only fair that he go through what his poor mother did. Kajika stops him, he lurves her, Eugene’s dad cries, Li Ren drops a cactus. Happy end! For me saying some ruder and somewhat more comprehensible things, read on.
Read more »
I’ll do a full preview of the Fall season end of August/early September. Until then here’s a poor man’s version of the preview (courtesy of chartfag).
Read more »
Hi guys, it’s Menma. I didn’t die, probably. At Tekky’s urging, I chose a summer series to cover, and that’ll be Aoi Hana (“Blue Flowers”). As far as I can tell, it’s a shoujo-ai slice of life drama, about two childhood friends who are reunited in high school and find themselves drawn to each other romantically. From what I can see it’ll be a slow, bittersweet journey, set against that kind of watercolor background that makes you weirdly nostalgic for places you’ve never been (or maybe you have, but I haven’t).
In terms of sight and sound, Aoi Hana is very pretty. A lot of the time the art, especially the background, looks like rough sketches, but in a good way. The scenery, all watery greens and beiges and blues, and the soft piano music in the background, make you feel like you’re in one of those serene cities from a Ghibli movie. Think Mimi wo Sumaseba or Majo no Takkyuubin. Yes, it’s that nostalgic Ghibli feeling. The character designs even feel Ghibli-like. I’m sure that as soon as I publish this someone will say “Hey Menma how did you not know that Aoi Hana was made by Ghibli” or something and then I’ll feel silly. But anyway, if you like Ghibli, you’ll like the feel of this series.
Read more »
Hello friends! Here I am again with another episode of Hanasakeru Seishounen. Sorry it’s been so long. In this episode we continue to plumb the bizarre depths of Eugene’s suicidal tendencies and Kajika’s…attachability? Li Ren is pissed at Eugene and locks Kajika up to keep her from seeing him, some weird business stuff is going down in Malaysia, Eugene plots to get Kajika out, Li Ren sets the entire NYPD on them, Eugene is an exceedingly sad panda, Li Ren calms the fuck down, Kajika goes to Paris. There’s your summary. For bitchin’, continue on.
Check it out guys, I used VLC this time, now the collage is all pretty
Manga reviews aren’t really my thing, but since Tekky is currently caught in a whirlpool of his own procrastination, I thought I’d fill the silence with something short about a manga I found recently.
Boku ni Natta Watashi (translated something like “When I Became a He”) is a five-volume shoujo manga about a girl named Takanashi Momoko, who, when her twin brother Akira’s running away from home threatens to lose his spot at an elite boys’ academy, is forced by her mother to disguise herself as a boy and take his place. Because the description I read said something about “surrounded by gorgeous guys,” I thought it would be a reverse harem, but it’s actually a straightforward romance – Momoko’s secret is discovered by her handsome roommate, Itou Kunio, almost right away, and their relationship begins soon after. The story is more or less about their trials and tribulations as a couple.
It seems like a pretty normal shoujo manga, right? And then you get to the part where Momoko confesses to Itou:
WHAT THE--WHERE DID THAT COME FROM
Note that this is not an ecchi manga! I was completely blindsided. Now, I am allowing for the possibility that this is a quirk of translation and that the actual line was “love slave,” which…has the same implications but at least doesn’t have the innocent virgin Momoko (who later in the series hesitates seriously about having sex with Itou) explicitly asking the guy she likes to make her his bitch. But still, I think that this wins Boku ni Natta Watashi the Menma Prize for Worst Confession in a Shoujo Manga Ever. I don’t hand those out like candy, you know! Read more »
I can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to watching this episode and writing about it, since it was so much fun last time. Actually, though, Episode 2 wasn’t nearly as full of wtf as Episode 1 was. We meet Mystery Man #1 (or #2, if you count Li Ren), we learn a little more about Li Ren and Kajika’s relationship, we hear a little more about the relevant parts of the business world, and we get a better sense of just how batshit insane Kajika is. Yeah, Kajika? Totally nuts.
Now with more pets reincarnated as potential boyfriends!
Read more »
Hanasakeru Seishounen was my reason for coming to this blog. When Tekky invited me, he mentioned that there was a particularly ridiculous-looking shoujo series coming out in the spring, and that he wanted someone to blog it. “Me,” I said instantly. “I’ll take it.” From looking at the art, I knew it was going to be overblown, dramatic, and hopelessly sparkly. What I didn’t know until now (but really should have guessed) was that it was also mysterious and somewhat homoerotic! In short, this series plugs right into all the pleasure receptors of my brain.
Here have an ugly screenshot collage I made with MSPaint
Here’s the summary. Kugami Kajika (let’s not talk about her full name) is the daughter of a powerful American businessman, who has just called her back from Japan (where she was living for some reason for a few months) to pick a husband out of three(?!) guys he deems worthy. If Kajika falls in love with any of them, that man (and her father) will win the “game.” Somehow this scheme has something to do with the murder of Kajika’s mother a number of years ago; at this point, the only thing we know for sure is that Kajika is beautiful, brave, and probably also a genius. The author would really like to have us like Kajika. A lot. Do you like Kajika yet? Might as well hop on the train, because it is clear that every single person in this series is going to fall in love with Kajika. Some people might hate her and try to kill her, but those will probably be either 1) unreformably evil, or 2) eventually converted to moist-eyed Kajikaism. So…if you think you might not like Kajika…well, you’re weird. Sorry.
Read more »
Hakushaku to Yousei – Earl and Fairy. It’s based on light novels. It is part mystery, part fantasy, and part romance. I happened to see the first episode and I thought I’d give the rest a try, despite how silly it looked, because I like European settings, as bizarre as they usually are in anime. I suspected I was in for a pure romance novel, but I gave it a chance… It’s really not entirely terrible, but in general the pacing is not very good (a common problem with series made off of light novels), the characters are, for the most part, just kind of depressing in their codependence and sociopathy, and the whole thing plays like a bodice-ripper. If you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll probably like it. Either way, you’ll have more color terms added to your vocabulary than you ever wanted.
Let’s start with a summary of Episode 1. Because it’s the first episode, I’ve gone over it with a fine-toothed comb, but don’t worry, in future reviews I’ll leave more WTF moments for you, the valiant reader/watcher to discover!
Read more »
Anime has left me in despair!
Hi! I’m Menma, and Tekky invited me to take a shot at reviewing here when he heard about my powers of endless bitching (is that how it happened? I can’t remember so I took a guess). I’ll be writing about shoujo manga and anime, with which I have a most complicated relationship. I love a good romance, but 99% of the shoujo genre is horrifically bizarre sexist soap opera bullshit. I just can’t quite give up looking for a shoujo series that doesn’t suck, and I give most stuff a fair chance, but wouldn’t you know, it still pretty much all sucks. Luckily for me, I can still derive an enormous amount of satisfaction from complaining about and/or mocking it! Those things are a large part of what I will be doing here. And swearing a lot. If that turns you off, be assured that relentless mockery and profanity aren’t all that you’ll be hearing from me. Despite what the above picture might imply, my perspective is more like that of Kafka Fuura than Zetsubou-sensei – hope springs eternal, and I believe in highlighting the well-done and the enjoyable right alongside the ridiculous, even in the shittiest of shitty shows.
Some favorite series of mine (among ones I really do think are good) are Juuni Kokuki, Azumanga Daioh, Hikaru no Go, Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, Emma, Airmaster, Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, Hunter x Hunter, and Princess Tutu. I’m a linguistics major at UCLA, and my hobbies include music, sci-fi and fantasy, go, making terrible photoshops, cooking, and rolling you up into a star. I’m looking forward to being part of the team!
–Menma
Hanasakeru Seishounen | menma | 
August 22, 2009 7:24 pm | 
Comments (1) 
Subscribe