Beauty
Winter in Tokyo is a wonder. After growing up in Texas, where Christmas the last few years has been balmy enough for ultimate frisbee, and four years in New Jersey, where I came to appreciate the spring palette after months of grey grey grey... well this is completely different. It hasn't snowed yet (maybe it won't), but it's quite cold - I assume both are due in large part to there being little to no cloud cover. Which means that every day is beautiful. The days are short, yes, but they're filled with sunshine and blue skies (powerful *cold* wind too), and who can succumb to winter depression in an atmosphere like this?
Today I went out east for Comic Market (Comiketto) 69 at Tokyo Big Sight near Odaiba. I thought the area was fantastic when I went with my sister in the evening, but in the winter daylight the water is so blue, and the air so clear, and the skyscrapers reflect the wonder of man - Tokyo looks like a crystal city. I guess I *really* went out there for the Comic Convention, but when it came down to it, I wanted more to stand on the footbridges and gaze at the skyline than wander an (albeit fanTAStic) exhibition hall with 500000+ people in search of *stuff.* (Sorry I don't have pictures. You should really just see it for yourself.)
I didn't buy anything at Comic Market, just look. It was free to go in and look (at least, I hope it was, because I never paid) and good god, what a collection. Interestingly, most of the crowd today seemed to be female. I'm not sure if that indicated that the otaku demographic is changing (everything I've read in the past about these conventions seemed to indicate that most patrons were male), or just that females are more into doujinshi (also most of the tables seemed to be attended by women, often middle-aged). Either case is interesting to wonder about.
I'm not sure exactly why I didn't buy anything. Maybe it was because I wasn't familiar with most of the work represented there or any of the individual artists. It certainly wasn't a lack of quality. In fact, maybe it was that there was *so much* of it. Is it suddenly not special to me anymore when I see that *anyone* can do it? Anyone can publish it? Anyone can sell it? Because there were plenty of people there buying. Or maybe it's that I'm outgrowing it as a fan... which I'm a little saddened to suggest. If that's the case, I'm probably screwed for the future.
One last thing about Comiketto. I'm not unfamiliar with yaoi or shonen-ai, but obviously it's a lot harder to come by (in stores) in the States. Reading a little of the (not-so-abundant) English literature available on manga (often in the form of culture-shockers or op-eds), plenty of (to generalize) Westerners remark on pornographic manga, victimized/objectified women, fetishized school girls blah blah blah. Not that any of that should be neglected of course. But does anyone approach yaoi from this perspective? From my limited knowledge, yaoi is just seen as a "foreign" phenomenon - strange and weird and upsetting to puritanical (homophobic) tastes perhaps but not insulting - but why should men be any less outraged (if outrage is the proper term for it)? And if there is after all no cause for outrage in yaoi, perhaps "Westerners" could afford to take a second look at the manga they find so objectionable. Maybe sometimes we take our liberation so seriously that we victimize ourselves.
I watched American Beauty while eating dinner today. Two days ago it was The Crow. I hadn't watched either in a while, and I'm glad I brought them to Tokyo with me, especially the latter. The Crow maybe not be as *good* as American Beauty, but it's very special to me personally. I think I'd forgotten how much so, after years of trying to watch it *with* people who of course could never love it the way I do. I *needed* to watch it alone again. Maybe I'll only watch it alone from now on.
Tomorrow what should it be? Blade Runner? Sin City?
Today I went out east for Comic Market (Comiketto) 69 at Tokyo Big Sight near Odaiba. I thought the area was fantastic when I went with my sister in the evening, but in the winter daylight the water is so blue, and the air so clear, and the skyscrapers reflect the wonder of man - Tokyo looks like a crystal city. I guess I *really* went out there for the Comic Convention, but when it came down to it, I wanted more to stand on the footbridges and gaze at the skyline than wander an (albeit fanTAStic) exhibition hall with 500000+ people in search of *stuff.* (Sorry I don't have pictures. You should really just see it for yourself.)
I didn't buy anything at Comic Market, just look. It was free to go in and look (at least, I hope it was, because I never paid) and good god, what a collection. Interestingly, most of the crowd today seemed to be female. I'm not sure if that indicated that the otaku demographic is changing (everything I've read in the past about these conventions seemed to indicate that most patrons were male), or just that females are more into doujinshi (also most of the tables seemed to be attended by women, often middle-aged). Either case is interesting to wonder about.
I'm not sure exactly why I didn't buy anything. Maybe it was because I wasn't familiar with most of the work represented there or any of the individual artists. It certainly wasn't a lack of quality. In fact, maybe it was that there was *so much* of it. Is it suddenly not special to me anymore when I see that *anyone* can do it? Anyone can publish it? Anyone can sell it? Because there were plenty of people there buying. Or maybe it's that I'm outgrowing it as a fan... which I'm a little saddened to suggest. If that's the case, I'm probably screwed for the future.
One last thing about Comiketto. I'm not unfamiliar with yaoi or shonen-ai, but obviously it's a lot harder to come by (in stores) in the States. Reading a little of the (not-so-abundant) English literature available on manga (often in the form of culture-shockers or op-eds), plenty of (to generalize) Westerners remark on pornographic manga, victimized/objectified women, fetishized school girls blah blah blah. Not that any of that should be neglected of course. But does anyone approach yaoi from this perspective? From my limited knowledge, yaoi is just seen as a "foreign" phenomenon - strange and weird and upsetting to puritanical (homophobic) tastes perhaps but not insulting - but why should men be any less outraged (if outrage is the proper term for it)? And if there is after all no cause for outrage in yaoi, perhaps "Westerners" could afford to take a second look at the manga they find so objectionable. Maybe sometimes we take our liberation so seriously that we victimize ourselves.
I watched American Beauty while eating dinner today. Two days ago it was The Crow. I hadn't watched either in a while, and I'm glad I brought them to Tokyo with me, especially the latter. The Crow maybe not be as *good* as American Beauty, but it's very special to me personally. I think I'd forgotten how much so, after years of trying to watch it *with* people who of course could never love it the way I do. I *needed* to watch it alone again. Maybe I'll only watch it alone from now on.
Tomorrow what should it be? Blade Runner? Sin City?
posted by Bibhatsu at 08:18
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