All is quiet on the Western front…and I’ve been spending WAAAAY too much time on YouTube.com. Ever since I got an account there, I’ve been collecting clips from Hong Kong martial arts movies. I’ve always been a huge fan of martial arts movies – namely the Asian variety spearheaded by the likes of Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. This isn’t violence, folks, this is poetry in motion. Martial arts movies have more in common with sports like ballroom dancing than they have to do with sports like “Ultimate Fighting Championship”. What rocks with YouTube is that people post up clips of the fighting sequences only, instead of me having to plough through my DVD stock to reference certain scenes. If I ever find myself drawing a manga involving some form of martial arts (as I certainly will one day), here’s a wonderful well of inspiration of draw from.
The Dreaming: Nothing much happening, though I’m about a third of the way through Chapter 13. The thing will be all completed by the end of August, for a November release. And then I’m going to dive right into the last book!!
Shoujo-bashing again?: What’s with all the concern over shoujo lately? There’s this, this, this, and this floating around on the internet. After reading all of it, I would say that the concern seems to have originated in some popular shoujo romance manga, and the fear that it would somehow infect the minds of the young girls reading them. People are worried that some of the dominant-guy, submissive-girl relationship set-ups in most shoujo romance will cause young readers to use them as a template on “how to run a relationship”. Fair enough, except that when I think of shoujo manga, the first thing that pops into my mind is “Magic Knight Rayearth”. Definately shoujo manga, though containing strong fighting girls with some romance, and a whole lot of adventuring. I can list some more examples, but there is no need.
My point is: are you sure it’s a “shoujo” thing, and not a “genre” thing? In my experience, most romance stories aren’t teeming with strong role models, male OR female. I’ve read both shounen and shoujo romance, told for both male and female audiences, and I’ve NEVER felt like imitating any of the people in most of them them. A typical romance story is a fantasy in itself – it’s not meant to simulate real-life relationship issues. A story that simulates real-life relationship issues isn’t a “romance” story; it’s in another genre altogether. Most teenage girls are aware of this. Therefore, any young girl who attempts to use what she learned from “Hot Gimmick” in real life probably has serious self-esteem issues in the first place – and would have probably gotten into an abusive relationship with or without reading said manga.
And last of all, what about all the teenage girls who have NO interest whatsoever in reading pure romance stories whatsoever? I’ve always knew there were many of these out there, but it was only after “The Dreaming” came out that I realised how many of them there were – girls who read grisly crime thrillers, mystery, and/or horror and enjoy it thoroughly. They may or may not be interested in romance, or perhaps they like fantasy or science-fiction (romance is usually not why they read these genres). Girls, without a SINGLE bit of interest in pure romance stories, just like myself. Are these girls not worthy of interest or discussion? Are their interests not worth blogging about? Instead, volumes and volumes are written on some fabled demographic, of questionable size – Girls Who Read Romance Shoujo Manga And Nothing Else.
I ask because I just came back from the NarutoFan forums, with it’s legions of shrieking fangirls who live, breathe and drink “Naruto” (Girls probably make up to 50% of the Naruto fanbase). They all probably fantasise about becoming really powerful female ninjas, and romancing equally powerful, handsome male ninjas – which is a pretty good fantasy to have. Now, “Naruto” is a shounen manga, but the discussion we’re having is the effect manga is having on young female minds, no? And the discussion has leaned towards shoujo manga, because it’s assumed that young girls tend to read shoujo, right? Well, NarutoFanatics prove one thing – young girls are just as likely to have power fantasies as young boys. And girls who are inclined towards power fantasies will seek in out in whichever manga provides it, which is usually not shoujo romance. So if you’re worried about impressionable young girls, keep in mind that only a small percentage of them are impressionable in the way that people ought to be worried about. The majority are probably too sensible to take it seriously, or would rather be given a fantasy world where they can be a powerful adventuress and go butt-kicking with alot of handsome warrior-types.
Okay, rant off.