Falling Stars

Volumes 1-4
Volumes 5-9

This manga continues to be not just the story of a man and his cat, but all the lost souls and wounded hearts who come into their orbit, whose hurts begin to heal through human kindness and feline devotion. Every volume manages to punch me in the emotions, but in a good way.

( Highlights )

For all my love of anime, I know surprisingly little about its production. Animeta! is a manga by former animator Yaso Hanamura, and provides an insider view of that industry.

Miyuki Sanada is an aspiring animator, whose passion for it awoke from a chance episode of Royal Girl Pannacotta. As a newbie, she takes the exam to join N2 Factory Studio, and she starts at entry level, where we learn along with her.

Animeta! goes into detail about the nitty gritty of what goes into making anime, particularly cleanup, inbetweening, and - the holy grail - raw key animation.

* Key animation - The process of drawing the images that become the key moments of motion. The raw keyframes are the basis of motion of a cut.

* Cleanup - The process of tracing lines on the keyframes to create a clean copy, ie combining (1) the raw keyframe with (2) the animation director's corrections to that raw keyframe on (3) a new sheet of paper to create the finalised frame.

* Inbetweening - The process of adding frames in between the keyframes, so that the motion becomes fluid, not choppy.

* Inbetween checking - The process of checking the cleaned and tweened frames, to make sure they are neat and the motion is smooth. This can sometimes involve fully correcting work, ie redrawing the work from scratch instead of just correcting portions of individual frames.

All the technical details are really fascinating, and what Miyuki needs to do to level up her skills. Animeta! shows the magic of making something come to life on the screen, conveying the sense of movement and weight and emotion, the joy of seeing the three cuts you did appear in the finished movie, and seeing audiences respond in a way that gets that you put your heart and soul into it.

But. Animeta! is upfront about how gruelling the working conditions are. There's no getting past the existing reality of long hours and low pay, which leads to high turnover. Cleanup and inbetweening is piecework, ie paid by the frame. And only completed frames, not ones that have to be redone.

Inbetween checker Fujiko tells Miyuki early on: "If it takes you one hour to draw one frame, then you can complete twelve frames a day if you work twelve hours. For a TV series, N2 pays about 210 yen per frame for inbetween and cleanup. So if you're working twelve hour days with no breaks, that's 2,520 yen a day, or about 75,000 yen a month. That's before taxes, of course." (Though she later adds that there are a handful of top-tier animators who make 10 million yen a year.) And to take the exam to become a key animator at N2, the requirement is to do 500 frames a month for three months in a row as an inbetweener, or work as an inbetweener for two years and take the exam in the third year.

It's kind of depressing, in a way that most manga about striving to excel in your field isn't. Even when Miyuki progresses beyond those beginner stages and wages, there are new struggles and setbacks to overcome. The counterargument is, if making animation is your passion, is walking away something you would regret? There's no good answer to the question, except - what option will leave you with the fewest regrets?

The most recent volume came out in 2020. Even though the series is not marked as concluded, Volume 5 does end in a reasonably satisfying place, with Miyuki having made a major decision about her future.

Maomao is the daughter of an apothecary. She was kidnapped by bandits and sold as a servant to the royal palace, where she is currently working off her indenture. However, her knowledge of poisons and medicines leads her to figure out why the imperial heirs keep dying. Soon she is asked to use her expertise to investigate whenever strange events occur, and she finds herself becoming deeper enmeshed in palace intrigue.

This manga is part mystery-of-the-week, and part about the lives of the concubines and other inhabitants of the inner court. I enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect of it, even though in the ruthless corridors of power, the puzzles are sometimes dark and tragic. But Maomao is smart, determined, and obsessed with being able to use her apothecary skills. And there is kindness and friendship to be found.

As the story unfolds, we learn more about the secret history of the palace, and the secrets in Maomao's own backstory, and unexpected connections beween them. It definitely has me hooked.

I should mention Jinshi, the head eunuch, who takes a great deal of interest in Maomao, and gives her many of her assignments. He's handsome, flirty, and enjoys pulling her strings. I think I would have been completely charmed by him when I was younger, but now I just find him kind of annoying. Still, I am resigned to him being the endgame love interest, and probably not actually a eunuch.

The Apothecary Diaries was originally a web novel, and has since become a novel, a light novel series, two manga series, and now also an anime. The manga I've been reading is the Square Enix one: story by Natsu Hyuuga, art by Nekokurage, compiled by Itsuki Nanao, and character design by Touco Shino.

SHINDOU:
It must be lonely to be the god of go.
You'd have no equal, no rival.

MR KITAJIMA:
Hmm... that's a curious thing to say.

MR KITAJIMA'S OPPONENT:
Well... maybe that's why the god of go teaches humans how to play.
To nurture a strong player who can someday be a worthy opponent for the god.

TOUYA:
So that's why go players down through the ages...
seem compelled to get better and better?

MR KITAJIMA'S OPPONENT:
Exactly right!
Why else would a game become a way of life?

- Chapter 168 of Hikaru no Go

***

Some things I've been watching lately:

* Star Trek: Lower Decks - I never expected to fall for this show the way I did. TNG is forever the show of my heart, and what I want most out of Star Trek. Lower Decks somehow manages to capture that optimism about the future, and that love of science, space, and exploration. It's been said that it's a Star Trek comedy, but not a Star Trek parody. Admittedly, it has a rocky start before it finds its feet, and recurring bursts of unnecessary crude humour. But some of its episodes are up there with the best of Trek I've seen, like the stunning Season 1 finale, "No Small Parts". It manages to pay tribute to nostalgia, both the beloved and the ridiculous, as well as add its own voice to the universe, distinctive and contemporary. I marathoned the first three seasons of this, and I'm hanging out for the fourth later this year.

* Willow - The movie was one of my childhood faves, so I was excited for a new TV show sequel, especially with Warwick Davis so enthusiastic about it. It was everything I didn't know I wanted. The new generation are a delight. Willow is a great flawed mentor figure who has Seen Some Stuff. Sorsha is fantastic and complicated. Even Madmartigan gets to be obliquely involved. I love all the banter and the interactions. I love how everyone is genre savvy. I love all the classic fantasy tropes, and how it sometimes feels like an RPG adventure. I just don't get all the criticism of it! I thought the writing was great, the acting was great, the cinematography was great. I am gutted that it got cancelled after a season. I am still hoping for a revival somehow.

So I've been doing some rereading of Silver Spoon, and discovered a bonus artwork in the final volume. It's a sketch labelled "The Equestrian Club Underclassman", the incredibly earnest first year student who joins the club in the later volumes. The author's note says:

When I was thinking about what to name this character, I got a lot of reader letters saying, "Me too! I was also a sheep who enrolled in farm school after reading this manga! I also went the equestrian club way, and people warned me I didn't know what I was getting into... But I'm doing my best!!"

And I thought, "Ah, I'm not going to name her."

This character is you, doing your best, without worrying about what other people say!!

I think my heart just grew three sizes. <3

I feel like I've been waiting half my life to finally get the chance to read this.

One of the most iconic and influential manga of all time, The Rose of Versailles, by Riyoko Ikeda, was originally published in 1972. It is the story of Oscar François de Jarjayes, the sixth daughter of a general, who raises her as his son and heir. Oscar - brave, fiery, and principled - becomes Commander of the Royal Guard to Marie Antoinette - the feckless, beautiful, and ultimately tragic last Queen of France.

Despite its acclaim, and its translation into other languages, it did not have an official English release until 2019. Udon Entertainment has published it in five deluxe hardcover volumes.

This edition is absolutely gorgeous. The covers shine with gold highlights, and the paper is thick and glossy. Full colour illustrations are included at intervals throughout. Definitely a collectable as well as a classic.

The artwork is stunningly beautiful, like all of Riyoko Ikeda's work: the flowing linework, the extravagant detail, and the passionate emotion.

( Spoilery musings )

This manga is known for its groundbreaking exploration of gender and sexuality. But what I found striking was the social commentary. The endpoint of the story - spoilers! - is meant to be the French Revolution, but I had assumed we were still a long way away. But even in this first volume, there are already rising tensions. While the rich spend tax money on luxuries and get away with literal murder, the ordinary people are suffering hardship and worrying about the price of bread.

... This should not still feel relevant in 2022.

There are some authors that for me are "buy on sight". Turns out Riyoko Ikeda is one of them.

Her most famous work, The Rose of Versailles, is a manga classic. I had never heard of Claudine, but my attention was arrested by the cover artwork, in that unmistakable style. It took only a few minutes to go through the process of, "Should I get it? I didn't plan to get it. Okay, I'll get it!"

First published in 1978, and set in early 20th century France, Claudine is the story of a young man assigned female at birth, and his tumultuous life and loves. Narrated by the psychiatrist who becomes his friend and confidant, it follows Claudine from his idyllic childhood in a country town, to his university student days in Paris, and his relationships with the various women in his life. It contains all the passion, drama, and longing that are hallmarks of a Riyoko Ikeda work. And woven throughout is Claudine's struggle to find true love and true acceptance.

The artwork is gorgeous. The characters are compelling. The story is deeply moving. Some aspects show its age: the narrator uses female pronouns for Claudine, and the story is ultimately tragic. Even so, it is told with great empathy and sensitivity - affirming his identity, and indicting the society that would not understand him.

I can only imagine how groundbreaking it must have been forty years ago. Things have changed so much in that time, and yet Claudine's story still feels like it could have happened today. It makes me think about how far we've come, and how far we still have to go.

Rhea314 has made a podfic of one of my From Eroica with Love stories! I am super stoked.

From Tomorrow with Love by Serenade [Podfic] (21 words) by Rhea314
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Eroica Yori Ai o Komete | From Eroica with Love
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Klaus von dem Eberbach/Dorian Red Gloria
Additional Tags: Podfic, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: Download, Podfic Length: 20-30 Minutes, One Last Mission, Friendship, Romance, Retirement, Future Fic
Summary: Klaus and Dorian in the 21st century.

Akira, you are just chasing after my shadow and cannot properly see Hikaru's Go.

You don't realise that with every footstep, Hikaru is heading straight towards you.

- Sai, Chapter 28 of Hikaru no Go

January was a really good month for manga. I read so much great stuff that reminded me what the best of it could achieve. One of these was Golden Kamuy. I came across it in the library and recognised the name. I knew it was popular but nothing else about it.

( Review )