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rachelmanija Apr. 28th, 2006 09:17 pm)
rachelmanija Apr. 28th, 2006 09:17 pm)I stare at it.
It stares back.
I stare at it.
It stares back.
I eat dinner and watch the first episode of Naruto, which is ever so much more poignant when you've already read thirty volumes of manga. Also-- yep, that was Urahara and Tsuzuki's voice actor, all right. Too bad he's not in the rest of the show, although I see why they wanted a good actor for that role.
I go back to staring at the project.
It goes back to staring back. Balefully.
I will now work on for another forty minutes without doing anything else, and will then knock off and continue reading The Black Stallion's Blood Bay Colt, which is excellent despite the total lack of aliens, vampires, or rabid vampire bats.
It stares back.
I stare at it.
It stares back.
I eat dinner and watch the first episode of Naruto, which is ever so much more poignant when you've already read thirty volumes of manga. Also-- yep, that was Urahara and Tsuzuki's voice actor, all right. Too bad he's not in the rest of the show, although I see why they wanted a good actor for that role.
I go back to staring at the project.
It goes back to staring back. Balefully.
I will now work on for another forty minutes without doing anything else, and will then knock off and continue reading The Black Stallion's Blood Bay Colt, which is excellent despite the total lack of aliens, vampires, or rabid vampire bats.
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I have Issues with the "Naruto" anime's animation quality and its devotion to making Naruto look like a moron, but I love the voice cast. The one actor--you're talking about Mizuki, right? He actually came back at one point this filler season for a mini-arc of, like, stupid crime and evil and reveeeenge, complete with shoddily-animated henchman. But Iruka and Naruto were On The Case For Great Justice And Bonding!
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Yes, Mizuki. Umm, it makes Naruto look like a moron? I thought he was being all immature in the first one because he was ten.
I looked up the voice cast, and apparently Gaara is played by Akira Ishida, who also played Hakkai. That makes quite the little sub-niche of... I feel like saying anything about Gaara is spoilery... well, you can probably guess where I was going.
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Yes. Yes, I can. (Didn't he also play Xelloss in "Slayers"?) Clearly he is down with the crazeh.
Kazuhiko Inoue is Kakashi as well Hatori in "Fruits Basket" and Yuki in "Gravitation", which gives us both painful pasts and eye trauma. And Temari/Paku Romi = still my seiyuu girlfriend.
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YESIt's a series for once in which quality and popularity intersect.
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I don't think the first volume is very well-written, though; it sets up important stuff, but the series takes a big jump forward in quality in volume 2, and just keeps getting better. There is a reason I have been obsessively posting and buying ninja figurines and photographing them.
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---L.
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Longer answer: "Princess Tutu" is as good as "Revolutionary Girl Utena" if not better. "Naruto" is as good as "Bleach" or the comparable shonen genre work of your choice if not better.
Even longer answer: "Princess Tutu" is close to my favorite anime ever; "Naruto" is close to my favorite manga ever. They're apples and oranges, and comparison ranking doesn't serve either. I don't look to "Naruto" for multilayered references to and exploration of the story structures of classical ballet, literature, and music; postmodern fairytales; a marvelously strong heroine; a finite and skillfully threaded self-contained story that doesn't waste a single second of storytelling and still breaks its own boundaries; a breathtaking meta-narrative of fictional characters rewriting their roles and their world; the humor of a duck turning into a girl; and the subversion of gender roles and mahou shoujo tropes without rejecting them. I don't look to "Princess Tutu" for a sprawling modern epic; kinetic and exciting fight scenes; the effects of violence, war, and abandonment on children; extended families, adopted and blood, good and bad; political intrigue; earthy and irreverent physical humor; physically powerful women; scruffy little human kids who cry messily with snot and play stupid silly games with each other and sulk and whine and bounce like kids and break your heart into tears in a single moment of kindness, grief, or broken innocence, the terrible things adults do to children in the name of the greater good; transformation through determination and hard work instead of magical transcendance; and a huge, colorful, flawed, lovable, incredibly lonely cast of characters who have complex relationships with each other and with the world, who all grow and change visibly and often painfully over the course of years, and who all, in their own way, only want to love and be loved.
There are similarities, of course, many of which are what attracted me to both series and make both resonate so powerfully and painfully with me. Most notably I'd say Ahiru and Naruto are both unusual, compelling, and lovably human protagonists who were meant by their nature to be underestimated and overlooked and who instead rise to their challenges with fierce grace and courage. They grow up and grown into being heroes: their initial desire for recognition and strength is personal and naive, but their capacity for great empathy and inability to not empathize makes them reach out to people and redefine what kind of strength they want. In the end, Naruto and Ahiru want the power to protect people, to protect the people they love, to protect everyone regardless of gender, ability, or past sins. Their greatest, unstoppable, transformative power comes from love that is both selfless and still fiercely personal, and they express that love in unusual, physical ways: Ahiru through dance, Naruto through violence.
Is that an answer?
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All good ones. Thanks.
---L.
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---L.
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---L.
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The Naruto manga is flawed (only two non-traditionally feminine characters of significance, neither of whom appear till comparatively late in the series; the first volume is not very good; though the fights are great and are part of the character development, they sometimes go on too long) but generally excellent, and keeps getting better and better as it goes along.
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What series is Tsuzuki in? I keep seeing the name mentioned, but I'm not familiar with it.
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icon love!
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Re: icon love!