Somehow, maybe it's just the ingrained routine of childhood, but I always get the feeling that the year begins in September. It's not the beginning of the year. It's not even the beginning of the school year in Japan. But it's just one of those things I can't shake. Things end in August and begin in September. You go back to school and feel like somebody new because something happened over the summer. Or because something different is happening at school. You go back and think you're smarter. You've grown up. Or something like that...
A lot of stuff I've been into for a while now is ending soon. "Shangri-la", "Canaan", "07-Ghost" "Tsubasa" (been waiting on that one for a LONG time...) It's disappointing but what can you do? "Kobato" starts next week so that's pretty awesome. Also, I've kind of become obsessed with "Pandora Hearts" and "Bakuman" and both of those look like they'll continue for a while.
At first I thought I'd really love Bakuman b/c it's about writing manga. A manga about manga. Like my 'play within a play' from so many years ago. (That was a big success....) Like my two favorite TV shows, about making TV shows. But as I read it there were so many things that made me balk about the characters personalities, the way things are done, the choices people made. It was anger inducing at times. But in the end, reading it just makes me want to draw even more. I can't really explain it, but it's made me realize things that might be useful.
I heard about Pandora Hearts, or rather, I saw it, advertised in Animate so many times that I finally downloaded it b/c I was bored. When I realized it had Alice in Wonderland themes I thought it'd be cool, at least design-wise, but it's the characters that I really love. I really can't decide on a favorite, or which one I'm most like from the main three. After catching up to the anime I had to get the manga too so I could get ahead in the story. I thought. And that's what sunk me. The clean simplicity of the characters (the way they're drawn that is) and the way the author's feelings for them come through is something I haven't seen in a while. I've been reading too much mainstream stuff I think...
When things change it's like a breath of fresh air. To speak in ridiculous cliche. You can breathe more easily, think more clearly, find the right path to follow more decisively. Suddenly, things make sense.
"Never look away - not from nightmares or the truth."
