This is the WORLD where I write my musing about manga/anime/video games and make comments on certain aspects. It's just a little something to stir up a conversation so please don't take me TOO seriously on the things I write here. I'd love to hear your opinion so feel free to comment.
- Created By red:leaf
Review: The Host
The Host by Stephanie Meyer has nothing to do with anime or manga but I thought I'd have a go at writing a review about it anyway. Why? Part of it is to prove to myself that I can be an objective editor and I'm not a completely flaming ...Why Human?
Last night, I was browsing through some art and got to wondering: Why are we always anthropomorphizing stuff?
Example: Anthropomorphizing a wolf to a person. (Which is so overdone, might I say.)
Why can't it be the other way around? There's plenty of human-->animal designing out there but what about human-->object? Talk about design challenge. I've done object-->human for a design class and that's a lot of fun (and a bit hard).
But I guess....who would care what a person looks like as an object?
Which just makes me think of Harry Potter for some reason....
Comparison of Howl's Moving Castle, Book and Movie
A friend of mine bought me Howl's Moving Castle for the recent holidays and probably like most others who also know there's a movie with the same title, knew the story by the anime counterpart.
I couldn't help it as I read, comparing the movie and the book. Sometimes that's half the fun, figuring out what was tweaked or taken out. Michael became Markl, the black door lead not to war but to Wales, and Suliman went from being a missing man to a present, threatening woman. The book is certainly an enjoyable read, although at times, a little hard to draw together the finer details (I am a bumbling reader, though, and consider that more my problem and not altogether a problem of story). My conclusion was that you can't lump the two together. The anime is so distinctly Miyazaki.
Howl's Moving Castle has all of Miyazaki's hallmarks. That strong female with (eventually) short hair, a nod to nature, and a very strong anti-war message. It interested me that the two plots were almost an inversion of one another. War wasn't a looming environmental factor in the book; it was probably mentioned three or four times, outright only once. Yet in the movie, it was the driving environmental factor, and most of the plot got tangled up in it. Important points, like Sophie being able to break her own curse, and Howl's and Calcifer's contract, remained intact. I had read when doing research for my thesis that Miyazaki had stepping into the film project after the previous director left and rewrote the whole thing. I never knew how much he had rewritten until I finished the book.
Another intriguing point was that images that I found a little creepy in the book were altogether gone in the film. Turnip the scarecrow was pretty genial in film. He's helpful and well-liked by the other characters. In the book however, he was a bit frightening and freaked out anyone else who happened to be around. Calcifer was much more menacing in appearance in the book than in the film. Thinking through the movie, Howl might have been the scariest character, or blob men. But that's your call.
I usually like movie adaptions of books. Sometimes I may not agree with their editing choices, but I generally understand why people do what they do in film. What it comes down to is that Howl's Moving Castle as a book is nothing like the film (and vise versa) except at its bare bones level. Sometimes with movie adaptions and their books, you have to choose which one you like better. But that's definitely not the case with this particular set.
Couple Cosplay
I think it would be hilarious if some couple did a cosplay of Honey and Darling from LoZ. You'd have to be a pretty hard core LoZ fan to get it but it would be really easy. All you'd have to do is swoon over each other cooing, "Honey.../Darling..." And maybe occasionally throwing out hearts. Confetti would be good for that.
I think if I ever saw that, I'd die.
I've obviously been playing too much Zelda recently.
Fandom
I guess this corresponds with the larger theO forum question. But I've been wondering this for a while and am curious what your responses would be. Question: How do you live out your fandom? That's kind of vague so I'll use myself as an explanation.
When I was younger, most of my friends enjoyed anime too. Then for a while I was in an anime club. But now both of those things have passed. So I guess I'm wondering if lots of your friends like anime too, or do you have a group/club that you get together with, or are you singular in your enjoyment? I'd like to know, if you care to share.
