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Alopex posted:They're gonna give him the Kakyoin Special. They're gonna date his mom?
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Apr 14, 2016 10:34
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Punched right through the belly kapow rip boy who is bad at viddyoh games
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Apr 14, 2016 10:35
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I always wonders if the bottom panel here inspired early Persona boxart  
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Apr 14, 2016 17:14
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Before the Part 4 anime was announced, there were some mock Part 4 anime screenshots that I was never sure of the source of. I saw some say they were from David Pro people, but in hindsight that seems dubious. EIther way, one of them was from this fight and it owned.
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Apr 14, 2016 17:22
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100% not david
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Apr 14, 2016 17:40
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Pretty good for a fake, though.
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Apr 14, 2016 18:58
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Alopex posted:They're gonna give him the Kakyoin Special. Toilet Violence is more the Polnareff Special
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Apr 14, 2016 21:23
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Yeah, I don't believe Hazamada's having anything "worse" be done to him other than severe physical violence. So, thoughts on this arc now that it's wrapped up: in short, I thought it was great. Once again, in this arc, I would argue that the real protagonist is Hazamada. Why? Josuke and Koichi don't really face any dilemma on a personal level. Hazamada is the one who has to grapple with whether or not he can resist taking the kind of self-destructive action that shields him from confronting his flaw (crippling insecurity in this case.) Josuke is pretty much the same person at the end of this story as he was the day before. What is nice about the fact that Josuke and Koichi didn't really change in this arc is that our understanding of who they are gets to change. What I mean by that is, this arc allowed us to refine our picture of who these guys are by putting them in some novel situations. We knew before that Josuke could be cool under pressure, but after this story we now have a clearer and more specific idea of how that reflects on who Josuke is as a person. A lack of character growth isn't bad if the story still allows us to see new facets of a character. Because Hazamada was the character who was under the most pressure emotionally, I can't help but compare him to Keicho. Not only was Keicho also someone who would rather behave in a self-destructive pattern than confront their own flaws, Keicho was also undone more or less as a result of his own choices with little direct action by Josuke. I'll be curious to see if this ends up being how most enemies in this series end up getting taken out. If so, that's pretty zen - Josuke defeats his enemies by redirecting their momentum back at them. Still, I kind of hope that that isn't the case as in both this story and Echoes Josuke seemed so cold and detached that he stopped feeling like a teenager to me, which is a shame because I thought Araki managed to strike a pretty good balance between having him seem wise beyond his years and keeping his behavior age-appropriate. Oh yeah, and I agree with everyone else, Echoes was way more fun in this story than in the one in which Koichi was the star. Go figure. I did think the one misplaced thing in this arc was Kobayashi's appearance as Koichi's manservant, but I'm pretty interested to see if that has some kind of narrative payoff at some point. Ah, and with that out of the way, that means we can move on to an arc I've been looking forward to for a long time! While I get started, everyone please enjoy this extremely serious video. I know I posted it before several months ago, but drat it it's good enough to watch again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNigaP-OCkw E: also, blog is now up to date! https://manuelamalasanya.wordpress.com/lets-read-jjba Xibanya fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Apr 18, 2016 |
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Apr 18, 2016 02:17
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Xibanya posted:Because Hazamada was the character who was under the most pressure emotionally, I can't help but compare him to Keicho. Not only was Keicho also someone who would rather behave in a self-destructive pattern than confront their own flaws, Keicho was also undone more or less as a result of his own choices with little direct action by Josuke. I'll be curious to see if this ends up being how most enemies in this series end up getting taken out. If so, that's pretty zen - Josuke defeats his enemies by redirecting their momentum back at them. Still, I kind of hope that that isn't the case as in both this story and Echoes Josuke seemed so cold and detached that he stopped feeling like a teenager to me, which is a shame because I thought Araki managed to strike a pretty good balance between having him seem wise beyond his years and keeping his behavior age-appropriate. I think the death of his grandfather (who was far more like a father to him than Joseph was) has made Josuke a bit emotionally numb lately.
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Apr 18, 2016 02:21
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xibanya, what is your opinion of the ongoing anime so far. the press wants to know.
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Apr 18, 2016 05:31
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Johnny Joestar posted:xibanya, what is your opinion of the ongoing anime so far. the press wants to know. I've seen the first two episodes (are there only two episodes?) and I have opinions but I'm not sure if I should bother to organize them or just ramble. A bunch of people on the internet have already jumped on the train of trying to make a video or blog series to compare the two, so I don't think throwing my opinion on the pile would add a whole lot of value to "the community" as it were. The topic does bring me to a concern about my Let's Read. I'm somewhat concerned that the material from my Let's Read is being lifted/will be lifted by someone without my permission to make some sort of video series (based on some referral data to my blog and a few other things.) I do this Let's Read because it's really fun to read this comic with a critical eye and appreciate the artistry that went into it. I appreciate the feedback that I get from the thread because it's fun to share what I end up discovering with other fans of the series. I don't really expect anything more out of doing this. That said, the idea of someone taking my material and claiming they made it or using it without my permission in some internet series really bugs me. I don't really know how to protect myself against that/be vigilant against that though, so I suppose there's no use worrying about it - whatever happens, happens. And I do take comfort in the fact that if someone did that, they probably don't have my background and would probably crumble if asked to provide a deeper explanation of any of my conclusions.
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Apr 20, 2016 22:34
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Oh dear. I know there are a few more people doing that kind of stuff now so I wouldn't be shocked if somebody lifts your stuff though obviously it'd be disappointing. I really appreciate all the effort you put into those posts and would actually be thrilled if you posted anime thoughts too (even if you think it's already being done plenty), but totally understand why you might not feel like putting in a lot of effort only to have someone mess with your work.
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Apr 21, 2016 04:58
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How do you feel about flippity floppity flopped flipped manga, Xibanya. Rather than it just being something that shouldn't really happen, how do you feel it affects the presentation, read order, panel flow etc.
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Apr 21, 2016 07:00
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Josuke Higashikata posted:How do you feel about flippity floppity flopped flipped manga, Xibanya. Rather than it just being something that shouldn't really happen, how do you feel it affects the presentation, read order, panel flow etc. That's an interesting question, one that I might want to make a longer post for -- with visual aids! Short answer is, depends on who's reading. Slightly longer answer: it depends on who's reading and what we as a community of fans want. I'm in favor of it at time of writing for "family" manga. Why? My argument is based on the idea that we would like to increase readership of manga as that would increase the influence manga has on our society in terms of pop culture, publishing conventions, etc. 1. lots of kids who find reading books frustrating and difficult build literacy with comics. 2. lots of kids who find reading books frustrating and difficult are intelligent and have learned the "survival skill" of being able to fake reading comprehension through inferences -- they can give you a pretty good plot summary despite maybe only having been able to read 20% of the text 3. all else being equal, a kid who finds reading frustrating and difficult is going to have a higher level of comprehension of a "flipped" comic than an unflipped comic. Arguments about flow go out the window when you consider a lot of these kids have a hard enough time reading a standard block of text. 4. all else being equal, a kid is going to have a better time with a story they were able to better immerse themselves in than one in which they had a less engaging experience 5. a kid who can read with adults will (on average) have a better educational outcome than a kid who cannot 6. a lot of adults will not go through the trouble of learning to read a comic backwards when there are a wealth of choices in the "non-backwards comic" category; similarly, kids can pick up many subtle nonverbal cues - even if an adult doesn't express displeasure at the idea of trying to parse a "backwards" comic, if they become frustrated the kid may not bring more such comics to the adult to read. 7. flipped comics tend to have translated sound effects. Sound effects are pretty darn important as a context clue. Give the kids some sound effects, please. You can't expect an eight-year-old to parse that poo poo out the way an obsessed 16-year-old weeb would. Source: I was a kid who was poo poo at reading through early elementary school Obviously if a "flipped" version of a manga were published, I'd be in favor of an "unflipped" version also being available for purchase. Now I can see someone popping in and saying "My 8-year-old reads unflipped manga like a champ!" Yeah, 'cause you took the time to teach 'em. How many disadvantaged kids grabbing a mango at the public library are gonna have that? Once we leave the realm of "family" manga, the argument to me becomes less clear cut. I must confess I believe that manga is best read in its original layout, but since I know that's the opinion of probably 99% of everyone here, I find the idea of arguing the opposite pretty interesting. I think if I tried to come up with arguments in favor of flipping manga I'd probably end up being able to better defend my opinion that it shouldn't be flipped, so actually creating a post on that would be a pretty neat exercise. Hmmm. Should probably stop typing this post and get organized then. (And yeah, I'm halfway through with commentary on Yukako's Love 1!) So anyway, that ramble complete, I was checking my blog's traffic today and...  Which one of you was this? 
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Apr 26, 2016 00:04
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 We made it to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Volume 32! Given the fact that those three handsome devils up there turn up most frequently on promo images for Part 4, I'm gonna assume we've pretty much met our entire main cast at this point. And who are these fabulous well-coiffed teenagers? I'm glad you asked! Josuke Higashikata  Has Joseph Joestar's genes and ability to pull of wily schemes that should in no way work yet somehow do. Koichi Hirose (u dont need to remember)  A boring teenager from a boring suburb who shows some interesting promise. Okuyasu Nijimura  A libertarian. Sorry, constitutionalist conservative.  LET'S READ JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE! JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Chapter 294 Chapter 29 of Diamond is Unbreakable Yukako's Love (Part One) Translation: Invincible Trio We open on a well-composed set of panels with lots of great eye-directing going on, leading us down into the speech and then off to the left. Looks like Josuke and a friend are walking to or from school.  "...So, that Hazamada guy...doesn't know...anything about..." I really like this set of panels as an introduction to this chapter. The separation of the top panel with the bottom panel creates the effect of a pan down without actually using a narrow vertically oriented panel (So I don't end up needlessly repeating myself, if you'd like to see more on how comic books recreate cinematic effects, refer to my Art of Dragonball series.) We don't know who this is, but their speech is halting - we get this not just from the liberal use of ellipses but also from the speech bubbles themselves. They're like puffs of smoke. You get the sensation that a greater amount of time passed between the words in the second and third bubbles than the other ones because of the literal distance between them on the page.  "The 'Electricity Guy' that killed my bro?!" (I'm guessing Okuyasu is using aniki here; I'm curious about why "electricity guy" is in quotes, so maybe in the original dialogue Okuyasu used some sort of interesting nickname?) The speaker is Okuyasu! He was speaking haltingly about the murderer of his brother. This is a great bit of character building because it shows us that this is a very emotionally fraught issue for Okuyasu without delving into an inner monologue. This is a good choice in that it keeps the pace of the story moving but also because Okuyasu's relationship with his brother, and thus his feelings about his brother's death, are very complicated and I'm not sure a teenage boy like Okuyasu would realistically be able to articulate exactly how he feels when mature adults in real life have struggled to recognize their own emotions coming out of similar situations. At any rate, this is great exposition 'cause it not only gets us up to speed on how Okuyasu's been doing, it shows us more of his personality: he's a guy with a lot of emotions simmering underneath who tries to have some restraint but can't completely hide how he's feeling.  Heh, and Josuke is Okuyasu's emotional opposite in this panel here. Not only does he look pretty relaxed, check out how much he's talking. That's words words words right there. Josuke and Okuyasu are talking about the intel Josuke and Jotaro tried to get from Hazamada after he got the poo poo beaten out of him in the previous chapter. Oh, yeah, so how is Hazamada doing these days anywa-  AAGHH! Holy poo poo! Well, that fucker deserved it. Anyway, looks like Hazamada doesn't know poo poo about the stand user who killed Keicho and tried to intimidate Jotaro on the phone. He does mention that he believes that stand users are drawn to each other so it's inevitable that more will cross paths with Josuke. (I knew that already by virtue of this being a shonen manga!)  I like how Araki often shows his protagonists from the emotional point of view of the villains - as downright scary motherfuckers. You don't see that too often in manga, probably because it invites you to sympathize with a "bad guy." I like it though - it makes both the heroes and villains a bit more complex. At any rate, Hazamada was pretty much useless as far as intel goes, except for the detail that the user of Red Hot Chili Pepper is out to get Jotaro, which we kinda knew already. Transitioning out of that flashback, we return to the streets of Morioh. Okuyasu has spotted something interesting! I like the shift as we pretty much literally jump into Okuyasu's point of view.  Enhance!  "Hey! It's Koichi..."  This is a great little panel. Okuyasu is happy to see Koichi out and about. Josuke notices Koichi's emotional state right away. It's such a small moment, but it shows us more about who these characters are. Okuyasu, despite seeming tough, is actually very friendly, and Josuke, despite being a teenage boy, is actually extremely attuned to the emotional states of others. (He noticed that Koichi was nervous from across the street.) Okuyasu begins to call out to Koichi when he sees something shocking!  I like how Okuyasu's look of shock wouldn't be out of place in a scene in which someone got dismembered or something. Holy poo poo, Koichi is meeting a hot girl! You can tell he was expecting her to arrive by his expression. He's not shocked at all. Heh, and I like the use of screentone here to make her look like she's glowing.  Oh, that's nice, Koichi is meeting a girl. Guess Okuyasu and Josuke will keep walking and meet up with Koichi later, right?    Okuyasu... You can tell from Josuke's surprise when Okuyasu pulls him behind the corner that he never would have decided to spy on Koichi's date of his own initiative, but now that he's in on the scheme you can tell he's enjoying the poo poo out of every moment. This is such a great depiction of high school bffs. Ahh man, I wish Okuyasu were my friend, we'd have all kinds of excellent adventures. Okuyasu let's Josuke know that the girl is Yukako, one of his classmates, and laments not having a pair of binoculars. (I should have known a libertarian would have hoped to externalize the cost onto someone else!)  The girl begins to speak to Koichi. She was the one who invited him out! When I see the way Koichi is drawn, given the way Araki plays fast and loose with Jotaro's size in relation to various objects, I take it to mean that Koichi is not literally half the height of the rest of the cast. The way I see it, his features which would stand out the most in real life have been exaggerated. So I believe that Koichi comes off as being a few years younger than he really is - he probably looks like he's 13 or so but not like a literal elementary school student. On the flip side, Yukako here looks WAY older than Koichi despite being the same age. The way I interpret that is that we're supposed to be seeing Yukako the way the cast sees her. And the cast is made up of boys who probably don't have any girls among their close friends. So she seems impossibly mature and uh, "developed" as a way of showing the distance between them. Koichi and Yukako are both 15-16 and if they existed in real life wouldn't look vastly different in age but have had their features exaggerated here to emphasize the gulf the main characters feel exists between them. So we're meant to share the characters' surprise - why would a hot chick like Yukako ask the boyish Koichi out on a date? As a side note I'm not crazy about how often this happens in comics (girls are amazing unattainable creatures far removed from we normal people, aka boys, amirite?) but it works for this story. (This is the one arc I'm going into having already read the whole thing because of the Duwang cold reading shennanigans I got up to. Full disclosure!)  There's some fun Loony Tunes-esuqe humor here as Okuyasu and Josuke scurry around to get a front-row seat of what appears to be an ordinary date and Koichi and Yukako somehow don't notice. As Koichi and Yukako chat, it becomes apparent that Koichi doesn't see this as a date at all. He isn't even entertaining the idea - he thinks Yukako has invited him out in order to ask him a favor. She denies wanting anything from him. On the contrary, she wanted to let him know that she liiiiiikes him!   I like that the idea that a cute girl likes Koichi is more stunning to Okuyasu than to Koichi himself.  Josuke helps Okuyasu contain his outburst. I love how even with his mouth covered you can tell Okuyasu is making some kind of grimace by how the muscles on the right side of his face (our left) are bunching up enough to cause him to squint on that side.  This is an interesting moment! Araki often uses a black background in panels that show a character's inner thoughts in order to isolate the thought from the scene playing out for all to see. While he avoided showing Okuyasu's inner thoughts early on in the chapter, he opts instead to make Yukako's explicit. I suspect he chose to do this to keep readers from barking up the wrong tree and assuming that Yukako is faking her love for Koichi. That would be the most likely explanation, so the fact that we basically have an author's note saying "no really, she means it!" actually makes the story more intriguing, not less. More proof that "show, don't tell," should never be treated as the prime directive of storytelling. (I also have an entry in The Art of Dragonball on that theme if you want to explore that in greater detail.) Hm, and Josuke, who could tell Koichi was nervous from 100 feet away, doesn't look terribly shocked. On the contrary, he looks calmly pleased. "Whoa, whoa! Didja hear that, Okuyasu? No way, didn't see that coming, huh? Koichi!" He clearly thinks Yukako is sincere, which further highlights the very interesting twist that Yukako is genuinely in love with Koichi.  As for Koichi himself, he needs a moment to process everything.  And he decides that he's cool with this.  This expression is pretty interesting! He looks half-crazed. I guess I can best describe it as a "greedy" look. It's the kind of look you'd draw on a character who just discovered a cache of diamonds or something. It's worth noting here that Koichi's reaction here demonstrates that he doesn't consider himself capable of getting a girlfriend as pretty as Yukako under ordinary circumstances. He doesn't consider himself to be much of a catch.  Yukako does though, and she explains that recently she's noticed that Koichi has been a lot more confident and that he's got a winning smile. Confidence really is the sexiest trait a man can have, I'll back Yukako up on that one. Confidence, and having a car. Yukako takes Koichi's hesitation not at disbelief of his good fortune but as a polite rejection. She seems to believe, unlike Koichi and Okuyasu, that Koichi is such a catch that another girl has gotten to him first!  Heh heh, Okuyasu has a humorous meltdown out of his envy for Koichi. Aww, poor guy. Looks like he's always wanted a girl but has never had one. I guess spending his whole life in social isolation helping his brother attempt to create a stand user to kill their father didn't leave much time for romance. I bet Okuyasu is hilariously awkward around girls that he likes. Yukako demands to know whether or not Koichi returns her feelings. While he's flattered by her advances, he can't bring himself to be dishonest - he isn't in love with her because he barely knows her.  The panel that's zoomed in on her face is pretty interesting. It shows that this question is more than just a girl fishing for affirmation and compliments. This is serious business for her. Also by cutting off part of her face she takes on a sort of spooky aspect, making her even farther removed from our Everyman Koichi here.  Check out as Koichi struggles to come up with the "right" answer, he has the debate with the teacup rather than Yukako. I take that as implying that he's afraid to actually look up at her while he figures out what to say.  Suddenly Yukako switches from serene perfect waifu to scary horror movie abomination. She actually gets dark circles under her eyes and everything! And check out how BIG she looks compared with Koichi. Yiiiikes! She then switches back to waifu mode as she bursts into tears. Koichi's expression says it all.  What the Christ?!  Okuyasu, having become emotionally invested in the proceedings, is similarly stunned. As Koichi starts to disengage from the shock that had gripped him following his very interesting "date," he takes a sip of his drink. (This first panel here is hilarious both for Koichi's look of terror and for the fact that it shows us that Koichi has been holding that pose since Yukako's outburst.)  Unfortunately, his drink is now full of hair.  WHAT THE CHRIST?!  "That chick...can't be..." a stand user? Come on Josuke, this is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Of course she's a stand user.  Postscript: This chapter is fabulous for its solid character building all around. While I'm never very fond of the "lol crazy women, amirite?" stereotype in any media, I do like that the mystery set up in this chapter is not "why is this chick pretending to like Koichi," and instead is related to the air of menace we feel around Yukako. The fact that we do get a peek inside her inner world also keeps us from writing her off completely as an unknowable crazy bitch. I'm pretty excited about covering the rest of this arc as it unfolds.
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May 15, 2016 22:40
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Hahahaha, I totally forgot how psyched Koichi is right after Yukako confesses to him.
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May 15, 2016 22:57
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Lumberjack Bonanza posted:Hahahaha, I totally forgot how psyched Koichi is right after Yukako confesses to him. it's the best loving feel
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May 15, 2016 23:15
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Yukako comes across to me as a very pitiable character. Where Koichi (and Okuyasu) consider the prospect of a romantic relationship as exciting and joyous, Yukako instead approaches romance with a grim-faced seriousness. She very emotionally dependent on Koichi's acceptance of her, which is a dangerous prospect even before you factor in psychic punch-ghosts.
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May 16, 2016 00:22
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I always enjoyed how Araki saw the movie version of Misery and immediately decided to share his love of the movie with his readers
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May 16, 2016 03:55
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Since Araki is such an horror movie fan, I was always surprised there wasn't a Stand named Goblin.
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May 16, 2016 05:21
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Josuke and the gang learn why they shouldn't feed Mikitaka after midnight
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May 16, 2016 05:46
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I don't remember Goblin
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May 16, 2016 05:47
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Alejandro Sanchez posted:I don't remember Goblin Goblin is a band that did horror movie soundtracks for 20+ years, including pretty much everything Dario Argento did. They're awesome, and many of the movies they scored are in Araki's list of horror movies he liked and he loves to name Stands after bands/songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrbfgemL4yc
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May 16, 2016 05:50
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MonsieurChoc posted:Goblin is a band that did horror movie soundtracks for 20+ years, including pretty much everything Dario Argento did. They're awesome, and many of the movies they scored are in Araki's list of horror movies he liked and he loves to name Stands after bands/songs. Also if you've been kinda aware of EDM in the last decade, it's where the sample for this comes from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QCBkwmsOk0 And yeah, holy poo poo, considering Araki's love of (a) Italy, (b) Horror Movies and (c) Prog Rock, Goblin was kind of a shoe-in for a Stand name, right?
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May 16, 2016 05:58
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It's the name Araki gave his own stand, obvs
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May 16, 2016 06:52
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I meant the plot of the movie
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May 16, 2016 12:40
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He looks so pleased with himself. I actually kind of like Yukako for reasons I suppose I could mention now, but would be more appropriate to bring up later in the Let's Read. Also Xibanya posted:She seems to believe, unlike Koichi and Okuyasu, that Koichi is such a catch that another girl has gotten to him first! Typo!
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May 23, 2016 13:48
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 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Chapter 295 Chapter 30 of Diamond is Unbreakable Yukako's Love (Part Two) Translation: Invincible Trio The first page of this chapter doesn't have any dialogue at all.  The first panel is a large vertical panel of Koichi mopping the floor of a high school chemistry lab. (I imagine most of you already know this, but for those who don't, in Japan it's common for students rather than janitors to clean the classrooms, so this is a very mundane activity for Koichi.) Vertical panels in comics have the effect of a vertical pan in cinema. That this panel is also rather wide as well has the effect of stretching the perceived amount of time passing. Additionally, this panel gives us a long view into the classroom. Though we don't see all of room, the empty chairs and desks imply that Koichi is alone. And, a favorite technique of Araki, the panel runs off the page in the top left corner. I'll let Scott McCloud take this one:  So everything in this panel is giving us the sensation that this is a solitary and tedious task.  This set of thin vertical panels run right next to the larger panel and they're a pretty great example of visual storytelling. So great that I think it's a shame that pretty much everyone probably blows through this page while reading because they want to get to the good stuff. Of note, generally with a vertical panel we get the feeling that whatever is happening in a vertical panel is happening more or less concurrently with the panels next to it, so the general feel is, this is happening at the same time as the long lonely panel we just looked at. Koichi looks wistfully out the window and sees other students walking around outside, running around, playing sports. The next panel shows the mop. The implication is clear - Koichi would rather be outside having fun than inside mopping. This would have been communicated even if the second panel here were a wider shot showing Koichi mopping, but what I really like about this is we're seeing the mop from Koichi's point of view - a downward gaze. This more than tells us "Koichi would rather have fun than do chores," it gives us the impression that he was daydreaming about doing something else and then came back to a less pleasant reality. It's a really nice subtle effect.  Gettin' back to work.  Hm, did Koichi notice something odd in the far corner of the classroom? I don't see anything odd in this shot.  OH HOLY gently caress. lol that was classic horror movie misdirection. (Also the low angle is a nice touch.) Yukako asks Koichi what he's doing and he tells her it's just what it looks like: he was assigned to clean that classroom that day, so that's what he's doing. As he explains, Yukako looks distracted, also gazing wistfully out the window just as Koichi had done moments before.  Yukako, sweating and looking miserable, tells Koichi that she's sorry about what she said the day before. She asks him to forget everything she said. Koichi is a bit surprised, but then tells her there's no problem; he wasn't bothered by what she said so much as surprised. "I'm the type to...well, when I start getting absorbed in something, it becomes all I can think about." Yukako explains, holding her hands to the sides of her face. (That's an odd gesture, but she looks like she's evoking blinders, which makes sense.) "When I went home and thought about things more rationally, I got so embarrassed...I was so stupid back there, and I realized that I have to look at things from a broader perspective..." Wow, that's some surprising self-awareness and emotional maturity coming from a high school girl. "Will you...still be friends with me?" Yukako asks, looking downcast. "Oh...yeah, of course! I'd like that, yeah!" Koichi says, seeming almost embarrassed that his answer was ever in doubt.  Well, all's well that ends well! That was a fun story arc, guys.  ...wait, Araki totally set this up like the first act of a horror film. What's in the bag?! A jar of toenail clippings or something?  .....girl, you gotta learn to respect yourself.  this is a girl who needs some serious self-love. We've all been down that rabbit hole of "oh if I just do XYZ he'll love me," and surprise, it never works. This is some serious scary poo poo. She probably thinks this kind of relationship is normal. I feel bad for her mom.  Yukako then tries to feed Koichi directly, who, by this point, is seriously wigged out. Also the way Yukako's face is somewhat distorted by perspective in that middle panel there certainly makes her look pretty creepy. Araki has done everything he can to put us in Koichi's shoes and make Yukako seem completely beyond reason, though I can't help feeling bad for Yukako because already she's showing super textbook codependent behavior and I think she would be a lot happier with therapy.  Koichi is terrified to assert himself and tell her to cut this out but is also super terrified to let her just force-feed him. We have seen already with Kobayashi that Koichi really hates confrontation. Once again he's being challenged to choose between his desire to avoid confrontation (which seems to be emerging as his most prominent character flaw) and his desire to not get force-fed by someone with one or more personality disorders. However, he gets to put off making that choice a bit longer when another student intrudes upon the scene to remind Koichi to take out the trash.  In his haste Koichi doesn't seem to even care that he's dumping trash all over the place. Heh.  Yukako's eyes narrow. I have not read past chapter 3 (the next chapter) of this arc but I think I already know where it's going - and if I'm correct, this arc will address one of the main complaints I had about the one with Kobayashi - that the final "test" of Koichi's character growth didn't match the first. In this arc, as in the other one, we see Koichi end up in a fix early on because he fears the consequences of asserting himself, and in both cases he ends up rescued by someone else. I predict that Koichi is going to have to assert himself in order to avoid some really bad consequence late in this arc and will choose to do so. And I predict that consequence will be a more serious version of what we just saw: Yukako doing something really weird to him because she wants to see herself as fulfilling a loved one's needs. Seeing Koichi struggle, the student offers him a hand with the trash.  Yukako watches them leave. She ain't happy about it.    Not happy at all! Wide shot! New scene!   Hey remember how we couldn't see the whole classroom but the vertical panel used a long view to imply that Koichi was completely alone? We can only see a slice of the campus in this shot but the implication is the same - Miss Class President and Yukako are alone.  The zoom on this student's face seems to imply Yukako is approaching! "Acting like they have no idea what's going on...the exact attitude of a little thief." Yukako says, eliciting only confusion from the other student. "I can tell...! I can smell the scent of a thief from a mile away!"  "Listen...! If I ever find you getting too close to my Koichi again...I'll..."  "...make sure you suffer the consequences..." Yukako says as she turns heel and begins to walk away.  Well, all's well that ends well! That sure was a fun story arc, right, guys?  The class president isn't going to take that kind of paranoid jealousy bullshit sitting down. "Don't think you can tell me what to do, bitch!" Well, the "bitch" is a bit much, but that's pretty much the right thing to say in this kind of situation. The kind of assertiveness Koichi could stand to pick up! Surely the narrative will reward this character for her exemplary handling of the situation.  Right...?  lolno. Yukako somehow tied a bunch of hair strands together and used that as a fuse from the garbage incinerator to this student's head to light her hair on fire. This character wasn't here to model desired behavior! She was here to show the stakes! As the student tries to head to some buckets of water, hair wraps around her eyes and she stumbles. his must be the work of an enemy stand! That's Yukako's hair all right.  And hair immobilizes the student's tongue before she can call for help in a classic moment of super creepy high detail that JJBA has made its trademark.  But just when all seems lost someone comes to lend her a...ssistance in her time of need!  Okuyasu!  And Josuke too! They're all business and get right to talking shop. "Hey Josuke...Yukako Yamagishi...It's just like you were saying, she's got a stand that 'controls hair'..."  "But it looks like she's not out to attach Koichi or anything." Josuke points out. Okuyasu sweats anxiously as he mulls it over. "Hey, that worries me more! That chick is totally in love with Koichi...she's definitely bad news."  heh, I like how even though they're very focused on the task at hand, Josuke still spares the student Yukako attacked some regard. And notice how though the words in Okuyasu's answer seem cold, the tail of his speech balloon and the sweat coming off his head makes him seem a bit pressured so it's less that he doesn't care and more that he suddenly feels a bit defensive.  Postscript  This chapter was super great. Lots of really great character moments, excellent visual storytelling, etc. It packs a lot into what's basically the setup for the "exciting part." Looking forward to getting to the rest -- hopefully in a bit more timely fashion!
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Aug 28, 2016 22:30
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I'm very happy to see this continuing!
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Aug 28, 2016 22:53
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Yay, this made my day! I think your analysis is always really informative, xibanya. I never heard about the effect of having panels "bleed" off the page like that explained before.
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Aug 28, 2016 22:55
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Hell yeah, glad to see this again!
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Aug 28, 2016 22:57
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I'm glad you're still doing these. The anime has been great but, as you no doubt agree, the manga is absolutely deserves to be read. Speaking of, when I saw the aftermath of Yukako's attack here, I thought "wow, in the manga you can see her scalp! It didn't look nearly that bad in the anime." Of course, then I go to check and I realize, I missed her turn away from the camera when I watched the episode. 
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Aug 29, 2016 01:09
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I'm glad this is still a thing.Xibanya posted:
I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if these were subconcious inclusions - the focus on her hair is probably due more to the fact that her hair is her stand - but it makes me chuckle to see Araki accent this (admittedly legitimately dangerous) schoolgirl with traces of not one but both of his previously disposed final bosses, as though to subtly suggest she's somehow more of a threat than both of them combined...at least to Koichi.
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Aug 29, 2016 06:00
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wow, i'm surprised to see this continuing! i hope everything has been alright on your end. i'd be interested to hear what your opinion is of the anime if you've been watching any of it, too. a couple scenes were definitely improved by being in show format but otherwise the anime has been pretty on par with the manga.
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Aug 29, 2016 06:36
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read the manga years ago, loving loved it. Already have a hard copy of Rohan at the Louvre sitting on my shelf but....
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Aug 29, 2016 10:10
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I haven't touched the anime because I've been inhumanly disciplined with my Let's Read. Yukako's Love 3 is seriously as far as I've gotten. I know if I started watching the anime I'd have a harder time resisting reading ahead! I can't believe the anime came out faster than my Let's Read! My life got totally shaken up in the last year but things seem a bit more stable for now. I keep trying to find ways to do these faster and with less effort but whenever I read I can't help but notice a million little cool things I want to point out. So the chapter-by-chapter pace continues!
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Aug 31, 2016 21:29
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I want to thank you for doing this. Your presentation is excellent and I love seeing all the stuff I wasn't really aware of during my own read through.
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Aug 31, 2016 21:36
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I enjoy your Let's Reads too and I'm glad you're keeping at it!
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Sep 5, 2016 05:16
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I have a hard time with reading manga so I'm glad you're pointing out all the things I miss.
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Sep 5, 2016 18:36
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First, everybody watch this dumb video of some weirdos reading the Duwang version of this chapter out loud with no prior exposure to the material. (And now we've legit reached as far as I've ever read in this series!  )https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM6xj16muI0 Now that's quality!  JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Chapter 296 Chapter 31 of Diamond is Unbreakable Yukako's Love (Part Three) Translation: Invincible Trio  Couldn't have said it better myself.  Super wide two page double bleed spread! Koichi tells Josuke and Okuyasu that the only solution he sees to the problem of Yukako's unwanted romantic overtures is to tell her to leave him alone. Josuke disagrees, pointing out that being that direct is likely to cause Yukako to do something dangerous. He instead suggests Koichi act like someone so unappealing that Yukako decides to move on. Josuke and Okuyasu list specific examples of ways for Koichi to do this, but Koichi doesn't like any of them. Josuke tells Koichi that they won't force him to do anything he isn't comfortable doing, but Koichi can't just do nothing. Josuke assures Koichi that he and Okuyasu support him. Josuke and Okuyasu decide to try to help Koichi out by saying bad things about him within earshot of Yukako -- implicitly, they both agree that they know what's best for Koichi better than he does. And perhaps they do, since Koichi's method of problem solving is "hope the problem solves itself."  Since Yukako showed no outward signs of having heard what they were saying, Josuke and Okuyasu aren't sure if they were successful or not, but they do agree that they get really weird vibes from her.  Later that night, Koichi goes to bed still worrying about Yukako and still no closer to settling on a plan of action. As he drifts off, she appears outside his window and uses her stand to break in. She lets him know that while he doesn't seem to be well-liked by his friends, with her by his side he'll become "a real man." She takes off into the night with Koichi in tow -- bound and gagged in hair. The chapter ends with Koichi's silent plea to Josuke for help. The first scene is interesting in that it's a fair number of pages for what's essentially a back-and-forth discussion in which nothing really happens. It's just the main characters talking, apparently an expository setup. What was the purpose of spending so much time going over this discussion when we could jump straight to Josuke and Okuyasu talking poo poo about Koichi within earshot of Yukako and explain the motive in a single thought balloon? ie, Josuke thinks to himself, If we make her think Koichi's an rear end in a top hat, she'll leave him alone without attacking with her "hair stand"! (goofy quotes for extra scanlation authenticity  ) We tend to not like long talky scenes because they bring the plot to a halt. Some say story is all about conflict, but unless we stretch the definition of conflict, that's not really true. A story is all about change. If there's no change, there's no story. In the first scene the characters aren't really in conflict and their relationships with each other don't change, they don't really discover any new information, and physically it's pretty static, but this scene has an interesting dynamism to it. That's because there's a lot happening in this scene in terms of emotional transition. Let me tell you a true story about something that happened to me yesterday. I was trying to wash my clothes the other day but none of the washing machines were accepting any of my cards. I tried every washing machine in the building. Turns out I was having a total brain fart and was inserting my card the wrong way in the reader. Yes, this story has a plot! There's a path of emotional transition here, most of it implied. indifferent -> frustrated -> desperate -> concilliatory Notice that with each transition, there's a change in intensity. The intensity increases with each transition then goes back down to baseline at the end. Let's go over the first part of this chapter again in greater detail. Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu are hanging out somewhere in town. Koichi is bummed out. Seeing this, Josuke calls Okuyasu over and they lend Koichi a sympathetic ear as he explains his troubles. When Yukako first started interacting with Koichi, he was actually thrilled because a girl had never shown him that kind of attention before. Okuyasu lets Koichi know that he feels him deeply on that one.  But like a wish on a monkey's paw, the situation he currently finds himself now just makes him miserable. Koichi tells the group that he feels like he brought this on himself by not being firm enough in rejecting Yukako. The best he can think to do to get out of this is to confront Yukako directly and tell her "I don't like you, so stop hanging around me." Just in this first page here I like that Koichi is able to express how he feels in a way that seems authentic to a 15-year-old yet shows a reasonably sophisticated level of self-awareness. Also it's nice how Josuke shows his emotional intelligence in calling Okuyasu over to provide emotional support. Josuke bluntly tells Koichi that this is a terrible idea. "The chick spent a whole night knitting you a sweater! That'll just fuel the fire, Koichi! It'll make her want you more!" Koichi recoils in horror at the thought. Josuke assures him they can get through this without facing an attack from her stand. "What we gotta address first is the issue of...well, how we can stop her without incurring her wrath...As long as she doesn't bear a grudge against you...and once we know she won't attack you, you'll be safe to come to school."  Josuke immediately sees the problem. Yukako is not going to accept rejection even if it's wrapped up in a lovely bow, so rewording the rejection is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. She probably has a cluster B personality disorder. Bruising her ego will result in a volatile reaction, and given that she is able to physically manifest her fighting spirit, that's a dangerous road to go down. Koichi agrees that it'd be best to find a solution that didn't involve inflicting narcissistic injury, but doesn't see a way for that to be achieved. However, Josuke formulates a cunning plan. "If we can somehow get her to think that you're a good-for-nothing rear end in a top hat...Then it'll be all good, right?" In other words, make Yukako think that leaving Koichi alone was her idea. Love's not a competition, but Josuke's winning. Koichi cautiously accepts this premise. "Well...if that happens, then it'll all smooth over..." "So, all you have to do is act that way in front of her!" Josuke explains. Okuyasu compliments Josuke on his brilliance. Josuke sheepishly indulges in enjoying the praise. (I really like how happy Josuke is about this.)  Josuke doesn't even play up his own credentials here, but since he's been repeatedly shown to attract the attention of unwanted admirers, he's almost certainly needed to let a girl down without bruising her ego before. That he doesn't mention it is probably a sign of high empathy, since humblebragging about all the girls that like him would in no way help Koichi feel better. In contrast, Koichi seems nonplussed. He doesn't know how he'd even get started. Josuke and Okuyasu then proceed to fall over themselves providing increasingly extreme ways for Koichi to make himself utterly undesirable to Yukako. As their suggestions become less and less practical, Koichi becomes more agitated. Okuyasu and Josuke end up taking turns riffing off the last thing the other said and not really coming up with anything useful for Koichi.  Finally Koichi shouts at them in anger. He then sits a small distance apart from Josuke and Okuyasu and with a tear in his eye he tells them that to him the Yukako situation is seriously upsetting. As proof, he shows them a recent exam - he was so affected by recent events that he couldn't concentrate and consequently got an unusually dismal score. Okuyasu and Josuke adopt a more sober mood in response. Josuke tells Koichi that he doesn't have to take any of their advice, but he clearly can't leave things the way they are. Putting a hand on Koichi's shoulder, Josuke assures Koichi that they'll help him out.  So once again, since Josuke's plan to smear Koichi's good name in front of Yukako could be explained in one panel, why is this scene this length? Why not deliver this information in just two pages? Why not have the scene go on two pages more? My theory is that this scene's purpose isn't to set up Josuke's cunning plan at all. Josuke's plan functions in the plot as the motive for Yukako to kidnap Koichi. (The function of Yukako kidnapping Koichi is to raise the stakes!) Araki could have given Yukako all kinds of motives to kidnap Koichi. The primary purpose of this scene is to show an emotional transition for Koichi. In other words, this scene is not the setup for the running plot, this scene is the running plot. The scene is exactly as long as it needs to be to get Koichi from point A to point B. Here's a rough path of his transition (getting the precise emotions right in just one word isn't terribly important): worry -> hope -> doubt -> fury -> despair -> resignation Koichi starts out somewhat agitated, then calms a bit, then the intensity of his emotional state shoots up to the roof as the hope he felt from Josuke's plan sounding OK in the abstract is dashed as he feels that his friends aren't even taking his problem seriously. The intensity of his emotional state then goes down to the floor as once his friends at least seem to understand that this Yukako business is no laughing matter, Koichi seems completely spent. In terms of rising and falling intensity, this scene is written almost like a fight scene, and in a way it was. Koichi was fighting against acting against his passive nature. He put a whole lot of effort into defending his choice to do nothing! Even though the scene that follows this one is the one in which something "happens" it's less intense because the characters are mostly static. The main transition is Yukako's, and that just has one step. She goes from neutral to...whatever intense emotion she's feeling when we zoom in on her face and start seeing gogogos flying around.  Despite having a great deal of tension, it's actually the least intense scene in the chapter, providing the calm before the storm that is the last one. Postscript  Josuke and Okuyasu are amazing. Also the format of this Let's Read was a bit different from normal because at the moment I'm using a laptop with weird screen resolution issues that made taking screencaps a pain in the rear end, hence the lack of focus on art stuff, but we should hopefully be back to the standard format next time!
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Oct 8, 2016 02:16
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