Actually, I've been pondering a lot of little questions lately. I'm not really sure how to categorize them--mostly speculation about the supporting characters, I guess.

How old is Yoshizumi? I get the impression that he's closer to Katou's age than Iwaki's, but he refers to Iwaki as "kun" rather than "san". Because even though he's younger, he's still Iwaki's senior in acting experience? Because he feels comfortable enough around Iwaki (and Katou) to be casual with them? He seems to be an experienced actor, because he says he acts in period dramas "all the time," which is why he is familiar with Kyoto. But he seems kind of young to be that experienced, so is he older than he looks, or maybe he's been acting since he was a kid?

What makes Onozuka and Mochimune tick? (I'm lumping them together because they're both kind of twisted, although Mochimune more so than Onozuka.) Did they have dysfunctional families (my pet theory for Onozuka) or did they suffer some traumatic incident in their childhoods? Or are they just naturally warped?

I already sort of discussed Shimizu and her marriage in another post, but I was wondering how she met her husband. Is he involved in show business, too, and she met him through work, or was he an old childhood friend, or a friend of a friend? Is he okay with her being a working wife and mother, or is their marriage strained because he thinks she spends too much time away from home?

And I wish Nitta-sensei had told us Shimizu and Kaneko's first names! I was thinking of writing a story about Shimizu, but my idea would require giving her a first name. So I was thinking of asking the comm for ideas, but I wasn't in any rush, since I'm still busy working on my Kikuchi/Onozuka series.

And I kind of discussed this a bit with Snapelike already on her post about the Iwaki family, but Iwaki's father said that Masahiko had to give up dreams of his own to succeed the family, so what were those dreams? And what the heck is the Iwaki family business?

Oh, and a "free" day sounds cool! I really enjoyed the general manga discussions we had in your personal journal, and I'm curious to know what other manga and anime titles people here read and watch.

How old is Yoshizumi? Ah, where is Ribbons when you need her?

I think if Nitta has one failing, it's drawing middle-aged characters. She seems to pretty much have two drawing settings: Young and Old. For example, when reading Boku, I kept forgetting the pecking order of the men, even though it seemed important, because they all looked the same age (and hot!). I suppose it's a compliment to Yoshizumi that he's still young enough to be drawn HOT.

As far as I can tell (and I am NOT the expert) from my reading of translated works, "kun" is strictly for ages, not seniority. In many salary man mangas I've read, the use of "kun" by the older employees is often a dig against a younger, but higher in the employment structure or gung-ho equal, man. In other words, even if the other salarymen are being supervised by a younger boss that they resent, they can still remind him that they are his elders by calling him "kun". It seems to me that age trumps all other rankings. So, Yoshizumi must be older than Iwaki. Maybe he's 35? Still considered vital, but not getting those youthful roles anymore? I mean, Iwaki started the series at 32, and we know it covers several years, but the movie with Yoshi seems early enough for Iwaki to still be 32 or 33 to Yoshi's 34 or 35.

As for your other questions...whoa. I couldn't even begin to speculate! I wonder if we should make a list of questions, translate them into Japanese and send Nitta a group fanletter asking for the answers? I mean, she might drop answers in future interviews if she knows the questions exist, right?

And yay! One vote for a free day! I enjoyed those discussions, too! And I could point people here, even if they're not Nitta fans, for the free day discussion. Maybe we could covertly convert them, right? *grin*

Feel free to ask questions on the community anytime! When you have a discussion topic up, I tend to let you have the week. You're totally helping me out when you do that. *HUGS*

love, lore

Thanks for the info (regarding "kun")--I'm no expert either, but that does sound logical. That puts a bit of a crimp in the plans for my "Going Steady" sequel, since I had Yoshizumi auditioning for the part of a man in his early twenties, along with Onozuka, Miyasaka, and Asano. I was guessing that he was in his late twenties but could play younger. Well, I suppose I can always say that he has a youthful face and often plays younger roles.

Doesn't Mochimune refer to Iwaki as "kun" even though he's younger? (I think Iwaki says he heard Mochimune was around his age, but when they meet in person, he says Mochimune is even younger than he thought. I'll have to go double-check that passage in the manga.) Although I can see Mochimune being deliberately rude to provoke Iwaki. Anyway, I think I'll go make a separate post about ages and honorifics, and maybe I can lure Bronze Ribbons into the Yoshizumi discussion. ^_^

Oh, and I thought of another topic: Iwaki's judgment vs. Katou's. Iwaki often accuses Katou of being overly jealous, which is true, but on the other hand, Katou was absolutely right about Asano and Miyasaka being up to no good. And he seems to sense that Yoshizumi isn't a threat and allows him to hang around Iwaki without trying to chase him off, so I think Katou's instincts are pretty good. Iwaki, on the other hand, shows really bad judgment in trusting Asano and Miyasaka, and I'm a little puzzled about how he managed to work for so long in the porn industry without losing that sense of naivete.

he managed to work for so long in the porn industry without losing that sense of naivete.

Maybe he survived as long as he did because he was able to keep persuading himself it wasn't as bad as lesser people might make it out to be? That's a dead-on observation about Katou vs. Iwaki, regardless -- Katou may be more immature, but I think he's also more immediately grounded in reality (in terms indulging and/or confronting his and other people's basic, raw desires), whereas Iwaki was raised with rigid ideals of how people "should" act and feel -- and perhaps that could be why it invariably takes him longer to come to grips with his own feelings, be it his attraction to Katou or his resentment of Asano when the latter replaces Yoshizumi...?

Oh, that's a very insightful observation of Iwaki, and it makes a lot of sense! In comparison to Iwaki's rigid upbringing, Katou's parents seem very warm and permissive--although not quite as permissive as Katou thinks they are, as he find out when he brings Iwaki to Youko's wedding. But they recover pretty quickly and take things in stride after that.

I think if Nitta has one failing, it's drawing middle-aged characters.

Now that you mention it -- yeah. The ones that really confuse me visually are Katou's parents -- to my eyes, they don't look a generation older than Youji and Youko. Especially not his mom.

That said, the head of Katou's agency does look middle-aged to me, as did the president of Iwaki's. And the director of "Inside Report," for that matter. Now you've got me wondering if it's more to do with the...ah... [*flails for the right term*] ... creative purity and/or innate nobility of the characters? Katou's agency prez is cynical and all about business; Iwaki's agency prez puts the company in peril; Iwaki gets upset at the director of "IR" for referring to Katou as Katou instead of his character, which I imagine is usually read as overreaction on Iwaki's part, but what if it's also a hint of the director's carelessness?

[I'm probably stretching this too far -- just musing out loud. I might well be missing or misreading culture-specific cues re: the characters' ages vs. looks; my mind is still resisting thinking of brunette-to-my-eyes characters as blond and vice versa, never mind the stuff I don't even know I don't know. Mochimune looks older than Iwaki to my eyes, but is that because he's a depraved s.o.b. and I'm projecting that onto the scruffiness of his depiction?]

That said, the head of Katou's agency does look middle-aged to me, as did the president of Iwaki's. And the director of "Inside Report," for that matter. Now you've got me wondering if it's more to do with the...ah... [*flails for the right term*] ... creative purity and/or innate nobility of the characters? Katou's agency prez is cynical and all about business; Iwaki's agency prez puts the company in peril; Iwaki gets upset at the director of "IR" for referring to Katou as Katou instead of his character, which I imagine is usually read as overreaction on Iwaki's part, but what if it's also a hint of the director's carelessness?

I've got nothing, but I wonder if this also would be a good discussion topic sometime soon?

*HUGS* I struggle with the hair issues, too!

love, lore