AYAKO by: Osamu Tezuka + Presentation Discussion

      So, week 2 of "Seminar in Manga and Anime" we were given the task to read AYAKO. So some people bought the book, but I found the digital copy so I could read it faster. (in my opinion) Like Showa the book I mentioned in a previous blog post, this book is like 3 volumes in one book! In all honesty when I first began reading AYAKO I was at home on my sofa listening to music. The first couple of pages I felt like "Man not another war manga" It felt like it was going to be that typical [man comes home from the army and may or may not have struggles dealing with coming back into human society again.] Or the [Son comes home and falls in love with a hopeless farmer girl] Something along those lines right. . . . . DEAD WRONG!!

     AYAKO does just have one protagonist, I has a whole family and follows their story as if you were actually there in that time period! When you first met the army vet as he's going home, you get this small sense that something isn't right. That feeling leads to being correct when you realized how utterly MESSED UP this family is! I mean this book as it all, army vet, army ptsd, insect, murder, psychological break downs, just the works!! I mean the worst thing they could do was to the little girl Ayako herself by throwing her in a cell . . . . . . for 27 years . . . Yeah you tell me this family isn't messed up after seeing that number. One thing leads to another with this family and it's just tragic! And in all honesty you only feel sympathy for Ayako in this whole book because of how messed up the family is. Everyone else could die and you would have thought they deserved every last bit of it!

      If you can't handle dark themes, then AYAKO may not be the best for those weak of heart for some of the themes involved. However if this peaks you're curiosity then I would totally go for it! It was defiantly worth the read and I couldn't put the book down once I started it.


Presentation Discussion: Shonen and Seinen

So week 11 will be readings and presentations on selected titles and artists. Might include Speed Racer, Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, Bakuman or other titles and artists to be selected by presenters, and I hope to be one of them. 

The topic I want to discuss how a particular sub gene of Shonen that has been really popular as of late is the theme "teleported from another world" This means the main character was a nerd of some sort, or and extreme introvert and has no social life outside of his computer or interest of sort.  the anime I wish to focus on in particular is Overlord which only had one season for a few years be fore season 2 and three launched in 2017 and 2018.