I would be such an excellent crack dealer

[rachelmanija]

I've been having a blast introducing Sherwood (sartorias) to anime and manga. First was X/1999. Then I loaned her all six volumes of Saiyuki, my current # 1 favorite manga. After she returned them, I got to watch today in a bookshop as she pounced upon them-- all six of them-- with visible glee, then requested scanslations of forthcoming volumes and the prequel series Gaiden. (Who has a good scan source? I have them downloaded, but can't find my bookmarks to where I got them?)

There is a problem with a recent shipment of Saiyuki. Some of the art at the beginning, pin-ups which are supposed to be glossy and in color, are black and white and matte. I had noticed this elsewhere and was able to swap out her bad ones for the correct ones-- very important as she would have gotten a cruddy reproduction of the stunning image in volume 2, with the guys looking moody in white shirts.

She has also purchased the first volumes of Fruits Basket, Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun, Gravitation, and others which I forget. I eagerly await her reports on them and on the nature of panel transitions in manga as they differ from Western comics.

Comments

[majinkarp.livejournal.com]

MangaCity has Gaiden: http://www.mangacity.net/?page=gaiden

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

There's also some later volumes I haven't found anywhere but...er...whoever I got them from.

[majinkarp.livejournal.com]

Aestheticism has text translations and scans of later chapters, but I don't recall if any more of the story has been scanslated.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I wanted to talk more about manga, and especially openings, and the semiotics of this particular type of storytelling--next time!

But yowzers am I hooked!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

You're doomed! Doomed, I tell you! [snicker]

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

And now you can appreciate my favorite Saiyuki fanfic, a rather short little fable called "The Sanzou Who Walked by Himself (http://home.eol.ca/~basara/saiyuuki/catsanzou.htm)".

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

You're right--it's wonderful!

Thanks for the link.

[larryhammer]

This is probably a stupid thing to do without reading the originals, but while I'm here, a research question: If I wanted to toss off a one-phrase reference to a Saiyuki fanfiction a character was writing, what would be a good one?

---L.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Ah. Hm. Not sure. When someone asks me what Saiyuki's about, my usual flip answer is "Four bishounen in a jeep." (My *other* Saiyuki line is about the character of Sanzo: "Tall. Blond. Emotionally unavailable. MY PERFECT MAN.")

What's the immediate circumstance of the reference? Someone asking what they're writing?

[larryhammer]

More or less. A friend mentions in passing she's working on XXX.

---L.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

If you want more detail than "I'm working on a Saiyuki fanfic" but you don't want to totally baffle people who are unfamiliar with it, you could throw in a plausible-sounding plot reference, like "Sanzo gets laid," or "It's set right after Gojyo and Hakkai first meet," or "It's an alternate universe where Hakuryu turns into a jet plane instead of a Jeep." (Hakuryu/Jeep is Hakkai's little pet dragon that turns into a Jeep.)

If you want it to sound esoteric, you could refer to a romantic pairing by either name or by the goofy numbering system which refers to the "san" in Sanzo being written with the character for 3, the "ha" in Hakkai being written with the character for 8, and Gojyo and Goku's names having syllables that sound like numbers (5 and 3 respectively), though they're not written that way: "It's Gojyo/Hakkai," or "It's a 5/8/3." Just don't pair Goku with anyone but Sanzo, or everyone's brains will explode.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

That should be (5 and 9 respectively.)

[larryhammer]

Thanks -- that's perfect. The first paragraph, that is. Number theory is a different friend.

---L.