… when I am much better equipped to be writing a manga/manhwa blog!
Anyway, I have gotten hooked on a whole lot of Japanese and Korean girls’ comics lately. I really enjoy reading the ones that have a strong female lead and really handsome males (there’s usually only one girl, but many guys fighting over her :) ). My latest series that I’ve read are Zettai Kareshi (Absolute Boyfriend) (6 vol), Koukou debut (I only read 2 vol ..), Ijiwaru Shinaide (2 vol), Pheromomania Syndrome (I’ve only read 1 vol.), and lately, Hot Blooded Woman (I’ve read 9 of 24 volumes).
It’s of course not that I have suddenly stopped liking guy-aimed series. I also like the series “Girlfriend,” which is about guys and their girlfriends. But although both sides are treated somewhat equally, I find that the girls are a little bit too .. horny .. to be realistic. It’s nice to see girls that don’t knock guys into the stratosphere for looking at them, but there’s a lack of emotional content vs. sexual content in the relationships that sort of makes me raise an eyebrow.
The nice thing about modern girls’ comics is that they are actually not remarkably girly at all. This probably seems a bit surprising, right? But what I mean can be illustrated by this example: while many characters are fashionable (actually, the main female lead usually *isn’t*, haha! But all the other girls, plus all the males), it’s as though fashion is part of the style, just like larger eyes are part of the style. No one says “oh, you have big eyes” since everyone has big eyes. Just like that, also, fashion/make-up/etc. are also not much of a focus. The focus is really on the emotions of the female and male characters … and on their antics, too.
As another example, I used to avoid shoujo manga because I assumed that they would be full of gossip and jealousy. But actually, the protagonists almost never gossip, instead relying on people’s honesty; and the jealousy is also comparatively rare. When the green monster does strike the protagonist, she’s usually justified, and she always handles it in a cute way. I really had had so many misconceptions about the life of girls, because of all those male series in which girls believe every bit of gossip they hear (and then give the male lead the silent treatment), or when the girls get jealous and won’t listen to any rational argument. Thankfully, in shoujo, this isn’t the case! The girls are much more realistic. They are sensitive, but they are also honest, good people, and they are often much more forgiving of the male characters than I would ever be in their situation.
Another nice thing about shoujo series is that the girls are so much more human. In shounen or seinen or bishoujo series, you see the pretty girls from afar, being .. pretty and elegant or cute and clumsy or whatever your archetype of choice. Even tsunderekkos, in all their cruelty, are seen as unattainable queens.
In shoujo, on the other hand, since it is told from the girls’ point of view, you get to see them eating hamburgers like slobs, trying to clean their messy rooms, using the internet (something that bishoujo girls seem to rarely do, for some reason), playing video games, trying to finish homework, struggling to choose between two handsome guys, or just arguing with their parents. Their portrait is just that much more candid, and it makes the characters much more endearing to me.
As for the males, they are a lot more handsome and interesting. They aren’t indecisive nerds or jerks like in male series. The main problem with male series’ relationships is the disconnect between gorgeous, intelligent girl and rather stupid, womanizing male lead (or the spineless doormat). On the other hand, with girls’ series, you have a strong female and a strong male – the relationship is like an equal duel.
Do not take that “duel” line too figuratively. In “Hot Blooded Woman,” a very amusing situation arises. So, the female character thinks she is the rival of the male lead; the male lead thinks he is the love interest of the female character. She asks him for a duel (the kind where someone dies), but he misunderstands this as the sort of “duel in bed.” So he invites her to a hotel. There, he tries to take off his clothes, and she tries to take him out with the furniture. Repeated incidents of this type ensue. However, the moment that the female lead gets beat by the male character, she falls in love with him, and so one day she starts stripping in front of him in an attempt to seduce him. He gets into a defensive stance and then starts backing away. The chemistry between these two is simply spectacular!
In any case, shoujo artists are definitely really talented, not just in drawing, but in coming up with well-balanced stories that are beautiful, cute, and tremendously funny. While male humor seems to come in the flavor of idiocy, breast groping, and panty shots, female humor encompasses wit, dramatic irony, situational irony, the absurd … in addition to idiocy, breast groping, and panty shots (yes, I have seen all three in girls’ series .. and they’re no less inhibited about it than any male artist would be :P).
Anyway, time to read some more “Replay” manhwa. Til later!
