Joker and Skip Beat!

Enjoyed this article about the Joker's history.

In Skip Beat, I'm beginning to warm to the Kyoko/Ren pairing, as a reread shows how integral Ren is to Kyoko. However, I still hope for Sho's latent love for Kyoko to bring him low.

Is Kanji's Sexuality A Red Herring?

Some dude with a blog says that gender issues are the real focus. Personally, I think in game, Kanji's sexuality is whatever is funniest at the time, and in my personal canon, he is bi.

My favorite character is Naoto, who gets less essay time, even though I did like how Naoto's story is also about strict gender roles. Spoilers from here on. Naoto has internalized that cool detectives are all men, and also, the fact that while she is already treated as a child by agencies, but being a girl would make that worse.

Her dungoen is nice through- underscoring the fact that even though she acts like an adult, she has the underlying immaturity that most highschoolers have. I like that about Persona 4- even though they have AWESOME MYSTICAL POWERS! They are still teens- Yosuke is exceedingly immature about Kanji's possible sexuality, Chie bickers with Yosuke, Yukiko goes on insane giggle fits...

It's weird to see works with high schoolers being invincible heroes who never angst or do anything stupid.

It's Time For Urban Fiction!

Racialious has the goods. We're reliant on information from media sources, I agree. So here's some info from my media- read Nalo here.

This Guy Annoys Me.

*GRINDS TEETH*

Kare Kano

It seems to me like Arima and Miyazawa's whole 11th grade year isn't really depicted in this manga. But sadly, the way the manga is, I don't think it would work well in fic. The pictures just seem really central. The mood dissonance between A STORY OF CHILD ABUSE and HEY! I WORE HEMP TODAY is really jarring sometimes too.

Ouran Host Club 13

Ah, finally the plot deepens. Of course, in true Ouran style, I bet Tamaki's HIDDEN TRAUMA will probably end up just him being dense. The family has broken up, and I guess Haruhi and Tamaki's happy ending is coming up soon.

No String Or Ring on This Shaking Finger

Nana 19 is great, giving us a lot of payoff for the set up. The Stockholm Syndrome motif was interesting as well. The glimpses of the future seem closer and closer lately. Us Americans have only 2 volumes left until we end up having to wait much longer for the manga to come out, due to Yazawa's illness. But even if the manga stopped with this volume, even if Yazawa never draws or writes again, I'd like to thank her for writing this series. Every time I read this series, I'm struck by the intensity of it all- the joy, the pain, all of it. I'm really grateful from the bottom of my heart.

My manga list

Series that are preordered-

Nana
Ouran
Skip Beat

Series that I am still trying to buy, high priority
Full Metal Alchemist
Flowers and Bees
Walkin' Butterfly
Future Diary[just read the first one today]
Low Priority Series:
Hana Kimi
Crimson Hero

Series I am getting rid of:
Otomen
Lovely Complex

Scalanations:
Persona manga
Hikaru no Hotaru.