Finally a title with meaning! :D But this post won't have any meaning (as per usual)
I am currently staying at my parent's house which is super small and I am living right above them. You can hold a conversation from every area of the house (except if you're outside and the other person is inside). That means everyone can hear everything at every moment of time!
Not only that but because I am living above them (in the attic) I can't keep the light on since the light comes into their room through the floorboards while they are sleeping.
I have been trying to adjust my sleeping schedule in slow increments so that I can sleep Japan time. Light normally wouldn't be too big of a problem since my laptop has a light but I've been working on a MANGO~ :3
I've opted to saying 'mango' instead of 'manga' now because I am paranoid and have low self confidence about being myself around ignorant people...I feel like if I say manga then people will judge me. That's super weird, isn't it?
This summer I've been given myself as many projects as possible before I go to Japan so I don't have to worry about the fact that I am going to a country that I have dreamed of going to ever since I first learned it existed in 2nd grade. (I think I'm gonna pee my pants) Also I am anticipating a bucket load of tears from myself since I was just watching some videos about Japan and some of the places I am going to so that I can figure out what I would want to do there (since my itinerary is kinda vague) and I almost cried every time I remembered that I will actually physically be there. I dunno how I will handle this....I feel bad for the people traveling with me....;orz
Anyway~ So the first month I did a 30 day challenge where I drew stuff everyday...Even though it's old I think I should post some of those drawings on here. I dunno why I didn't...just too lazy to post in multiple places?
Then the next month (and the month after that 'cause of life frustrations and art blocks and mango takes a long time to draw) I worked on my entry for the Silent Manga Audition. I was gonna do multiple ones but I don't think I'll have time. I still want to do a 24-hour manga and maybe it'd work for the contest but I dunno.
I am super unhappy with what I submitted but I submitted it anyway since I wanted it to be done. I drew it traditionally and scanned it using my school's scanner so I had so many problems. First one being that I have no skills at drawing manga traditionally and second, and probably most important, the scanner at my school is only for text, not drawings, so it gave me some AWFUL scans. Holy crap. Why did I do that?!
So after that experience I decided to....
Work on another manga traditionally~ :D
I was reading the Silent Manga Audition website about editors and how to become a manga editor and they also had stuff about how to become an actual mangaka and what the process is and then they had some FAQs. They might've been too positive, I am not sure, but the impression I got from them is:
1. Go to Japan
2. Contact Manga Magazine from phone number in Manga Magazine
3. Make appointment with editor
4. Meet with editor and show them your manuscript
5. They will give you advice and enter it into the Magazine's contest
6. If you win it gets published and you are a mangaka
I don't think I can do number 6 since that sounds pretty far-fetched for me...but I WILL be in Japan I AM working on a manuscript and I CAN make an appointment with and editor and meet with an editor.
So I'ma do that.
I've been working on this manga more seriously (not that I haven't done that in the future) and since I want to have immediate feedback from the editor, and I also don't know how to show an editor my work if it's on the computer (printing is not an option since printing manga is surprisingly difficult if it's with the wrong printer and uses up a TON of ink), and I don't really have a good program to make manga in except Krita a little bit but screen tones are a pain and any 'manga' effects are a pain.
Yep.
I'ma do it 'cause I can. Why not?
I finished drawing all the pages I have manga paper for. I need to buy some more manga paper when I get to Japan (oh gawd I am so splurging on art supplies *3*) and finish the rest there (a bit of a pain but what can ya do?). But I have almost all the pages drawn except for the first two (the other pages I drew on computer paper).
I have made so many mistakes with the ink, too. I don't know how to do the spiral-y things and and speed lines and all that jazz without smudging! ;m; And then my panels are bad too and guhh...;orz
But I decided to make more detailed backgrounds~ :D They are really good for me who never does backgrounds but I compared it to Noragami's art (which I shouldn't have done since the duo that did that is made up of the person who specializes in drawing characters and the person who specializes in drawing the backgrounds so obviously the backgrounds would be good) and then I lost some confidence...;orz
I'm getting there little by little and if my manga gets rejected or something (however that goes) I'll post it online.
I've been spending all my time on these projects so I haven't had time to do much else online or whatever. I mean I HAVE had time but le guilt...
I have been playing some games and reading mangoes and watching animoos for inspiration and incentives, though.
Recently I watched Wolf Children and I am surprised how much of an effect that had on me. I couldn't sleep after I watched it and I kept crying about the ending. I dunno...just the ending made me feel really depressed...Like it was a bittersweet mainly happy ending but it was really painful...;orz I don't think I want to watch it again even though it was really good.
Maybe eventually I will want to watch it again or something but it's just too painful for me. I don't know why...I prefer my endings to be really sad and I'm okay with sad movies in fact I get attached to them if they made me cry but this one just doesn't sit well with me. Not sure what it is...
I am also watching Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace and HOLY CRAP IS THIS A WEIRD ANIME. I don't understand what's going on and it's way too fast paced and the mysteries are terrible but I can't stop watching it! ;3; The music is cool and I like the short autopsy scenes:
It makes me fired up for some murder mystery! >:D And the main protag is super weird...like they keep drawing his butt really detailed and make him look as cute and feminine as possible but he's a guy and we have to remember that he's a guy...but like....yeahh....Quit with the butt details it's annoying.
Visually it's great whenever they are talking about the murders and stuff and there are a lot of great ideas just really bad execution. Like they are trying to do a lot of things in 20 minutes that they just can't do. It'd be better if they extended the episodes or something.
I really liked Jigoku Shoujo and I feel like they are similar in format where there is a short story every episode with some of the same characters. I think Jigoku Shoujo worked better since it told it's story very traditionally with symbolic characters of death that sometimes showed personality but the focus was on the decisions people were making and why.
I feel futakomori's last few episodes were especially powerful because throughout the series the formula of events is established where we see somebody's story that they want to get revenge and they contact the Hotline to Hell and all the jazz about how it works, then how they end up pulling the string, and then them getting ferried to the gates of hell by Enma Ai. But in the last few episodes it breaks this formula and starts focusing on another character who wasn't super major and we didn't know that much about and we keep learning more about him and then the best scene of them all when Enma Ai stops the ferry was super powerful for me.
I think if they took that route it'd work better where they establish a formula and put more focus on ONE individual character and have a few characters interact with them in a super basic level then I think it'd work better.
Also these mysteries...I am trying to think of a mystery anime or manga that I actually liked. I do like mystery manga but most of the mysteries are super duper obvious and it IRRITATES ME. I want to have fun trying to figure out who did it. But I don't think I've ever had that experience...it's mainly that I know who did it, but I want to know why.
I think that's why I LOVE Himitsu Top Secret since it's all about motive and less about mystery. Well, the mystery is why they did it.
But with Ronpa Kitan it's just like 'Here is a guy who did creepy murders, here is how we caught him, here is his motive, the end' but they TELL YOU.
I can't stand being told things by anime and manga...
I think that's because I've spent so much of my time on Silent Manga. I KNOW you can write a story without telling anybody anything so just DON'T.
I just need to gush about Dragon Head for a little bit. It's the PERFECT example of showing and not telling. NOBODY in the story knows what's going on, which fits with it's theme of fear. It never outright tells you it just SHOWS you some evidence. All the dialogue is built on characters not exposition and if it's exposition it's not reliable. Nobody knows what's going on, even if they think that's how a situation went it might not have been.
I think it might be up there as on of the best mangas I've ever read. It was somehow so succinct in it's story telling. There wasn't a chapter I felt was unnecessary to the overall theme of the manga and it explored all of this without being preachy or telling you what to think of what it even happening.
IT'S SO GORGEOUS~ <333
I highly recommend it from the bottom of my heart!
I still don't know if Ronpa Kitan is any good...like maybe I am missing the point of it...but it feels like it's going in the wrong direction with a lot of it's stuff. I am wondering if it'll end up like Homunculus and being like 'haha! Tricked you into thinking that all stuff you read was actually meaningful' or something like that. By the way, Homunculus it another great manga, though I don't think it's as clean as Dragon Head since there are several scenes/chapters/arcs that I felt were pointless. I love it because it establishes a supernatural world at the beginning and then later makes you question if the world they are in is actually supernatural or is the main character insane.
But yeppp. This post is getting long (as per usual) and it's 5 am....I should probably go to sleep....but wahh...I dun wanna...;m;
OKIEDOKIE! THERE'S AN UPDATE!
ADIOS~
