Levi Truck

I Don't care what those legs are made of. This does not look stable.

Kiri-e class

On March 4th, there was a community event at the San L (3L) building about a 15 minute walk from my apartment. The instructor, a school rugby coach by profession, led us through the steps for making kiri-e (pictures made by cutting the paper, as opposed to origami, which only folds the paper). 500 yen covered the cost of the supplies, including a white matte board and some pieces of construction paper.



The instructor had sets of five different patterns and we were to choose one each from them. There were 10 students in the class (me - the American, one woman from the Philippines, one guy from Germany, and the rest were Japanese). The concept is simple: The picture you want to make is drawn out on a piece of printer paper and stapled over a sheet of black construction paper. Using an x-acto knife, cut out all of the white parts. The remaining construction paper is then the outline of the picture you're going to make (remove the staples). Glue colored construction paper to the back of the outline as desired, then glue the finished image to the white matte board.



The finished student projects. I did the little skier in the middle. Took me 2 hours to complete, while the instructor commented that with practice we could get each of the pictures down to 20 minutes. I think they all look good, but the little girl and the rose seem to be the most elegant.




This skier is mine. The camera had trouble focusing from where I was standing but I didn't realize that at the time of the shot. The female ninja below didn't photograph at all well, but the actual kiri-e looks very good. I have been looking at getting a new camera, and I may make a decision on one in a few weeks. As for doing more kiri-e, well, that depends. The main challenge is to create that initial pattern on the printer paper. It's important to remember that the black construction paper will tear if the lines get too narrow. So, I need to come up with a good design, first. There's a similarity to woodblock printing, and it may be easier to find a good woodblock print and use that to start out with.

Commentary: Manga Action

(All rights belong to their owners. Images used here for review purposes only.)

It's rare for me to go through a magazine and find nothing at all worth writing about, but it does happen occasionally. I've been wanted to get Manga Action for a while, because Crayon Shin-chan used to be serialized in it, and I wanted to write up a review fairly soon. Oddly enough, though, while it's identified in the wiki entry as "Weekly Manga Action", it only comes out on the first and third Tuesdays of every month. 370 yen, 350 pages.


(Rising Sun)

Manga Action. From the name, and the cover photo, it should be obvious that the main focus of this publication is sex. In fact, it easily covers both the "sex and violence" categories that American entertainment is so famous for. Past series have included Monkey Punch's original Lupin III, Lone Wolf and Cub and Ishinomori's 009-1. As mentioned above, Crayon Shin-chan had run in Action, but only up until 2010, when it moved to Manga Town. Action is typified by the scantily-clad female on the cover, plus a 3-4 page photo spread at the front of the magazine. This issue includes a 2'x3' fold-out poster of the model (actress Risa Yoshiki).


(Ekiben Hitoritabi)

But, so much for past glory. The rest of the manga is made up of murders, slice-of-life, military action and bike racing. None of the titles will be recognized by most western fans, and the only artist I've seen before is Shigeyuki Fukumitsu who is repeating his semi-autobiographical story here in yon-koma format. On the whole, the artwork isn't that bad, it's just that none of the stories really pull me in.


(Bar Lemon Heart)

There's:
Rising Sun, by Satoshi Fujiwara (ch. 1, with a guy that's going to enter the JSDF)
Baseball World King
Odds GP, by Osamu Ishiwata (bike racing)
Bar Lemon Heart (running since 1987)
My Pure Lady (is anything but)
Shin Shiawase no Jikan (etchi office drama)

Of the group, Rising Sun has some promise, with a thrill-seeking boy being enticed to join the Japanese Self-Defence Force, but so far it's just starting out and there's no story yet. Bar Lemon Heart is worth mentioning since it first started in 1987 and is still on-going. However, the character designs are incredibly simplistic, and the story in this chapter consisted of people sitting at the bar and talking to the bartender. Nothing really earth shattering. On the other hand, Ekiben Hitoritabi takes earth-shattering to heart. Started in 2005, it's a story about a guy that likes traveling around Japan on the trains and eating box lunches (called "eki bentou", or "eki-ben" for short. Hitori tabi = single traveler.) In this issue, the main character visits the areas around Miyagi which had been wiped out by the tsumani last year, and pays tribute to the station shopkeepers that were killed then. It's a pretty somber story, at odds with everything else here.


(The violence part)

Rising Sun may become popular with fan scanilators in the future, because of the promise of more action as the protagonist goes through basic training, but that won't be for a while yet. Otherwise, Manga Action isn't really recommended.

Hina Matsuri Display

March 3rd is Hina Matsuri, also known as Girl's Day. It is typified by the red platform doll display. This one was at the front door of the Maruya Gardens department store.

New Work

Start of a new construction project on Tram Street, next to the river.







Looking at this makes my eyes hurt. I can't even imagine what it was like to run all the wires to put them in the cement.

Short Review: Dainana Joshikai Houkou

One of the good things about Manga Fox is that when new chapters are uploaded, there's a chance that something unexpected will catch my eye and turn out to be more or less interesting. The downside is that Manga Fox caries so much stuff, including manwha, that usually a title that piques my interest will turn out to be boring.



One of the more promising titles is Dainana Joshikai Houkou, by Tsubana (no info on this artist yet). The title translates to "The Wandering of Girl's Group Number 7", but that doesn't really mean much in terms of the story. Basically, this is an understated gag strip that follows two normal school girls in a weird futuristic city. Takagi is something of an airhead, and Kanemaru is her more rational friend.

At the moment, there are only 5 chapters posted, and the first three don't load for me. But, the remaining two are representative of the overall concept. In chapter 4, Takagi goes to a memory shop to use a recall machine to help her remember where she misplaced something that morning. Kanemaru tries the machine for the first time and ends up remembering something from back when she was really young. Takagi discovers where the item went, and then forgets who she was going to give it to. In chapter 5, one of the girl's classmates has died, and her soul is uploaded by her parents to a "digital heaven", Tagaki goes to the DH offices to make a visit to the digital heaven in order to get back a CD she'd given the other girl a few days earlier.

It's a very off-the-wall concept, and contains a bit of black humor that some people may find off-putting. The character designs are rather crude, but I think the situations are funny. The matter-of-fact way the girls have of accepting the weirdness around them is also entertaining. I'm just hoping that there'll be more chapters in the future. Baka Updates shows that there have been 4 volumes so far, although I haven't noticed them at Kinokuniya yet. Dainana runs in Comic Ryu, which I haven't reviewed to date.

Infinity

"Infinity. The sky is a limit. Since 2011."
Not sure this is the image the car owner really wanted to project.