I did another comparison between the BeBeautiful and SuBLime versions, this time for the recently released 2nd omnibus, which covers volumes 3 and 4. I've cross-posted this to my personal journal for readers who aren't members of this comm. Feel free to comment either here or there.

( Read more... )

I've written up a more detailed comparison between the BeBeautiful and SuBLime versions of Embracing Love and posted it here on my journal, due to length and because I have a few visitors to my blog who are fans of Haru but don't belong to the LJ or IJ communities. Feel free to comment either there or here if you like.

I'm busy working on the final chapters of Unmasked, but just wanted to post a few quick updates of Youka Nitta news. First off, it isn't showing up on the official Youka Nitta site yet, but Chapter 2 of Boku no Koe is up at the Amazon's Kindle store.

There were also some interesting questions recently posted in the discussion forum:
( Read more... )

In an earlier post, I compared Mochimune to Kurosawa. Today I came across a reference to another famous Japanese director who reminded me a bit of Mochi. I was reading a book called Asian Cinema by Tom Vick. There was, of course, a chapter on Japanese films, and the author spent some time discussing the works of Yasujiro Ozu, who directed such films as I Was Born, But... and Tokyo Story. Vick wrote: "Ozu's directing style allowed for very little freedom for his actors. He dictated every gesture, movement, and line reading, sometimes putting actors through such grueling rehearsals that they were reduced to tears. And yet he repeatedly worked with a handful of dedicated thespian collaborators who understood the value of this harsh treatment." (p.43)

Recently, a friend and I were talking about the latest Studio Ghibli film, which led to a discussion about anime and Japanese films in general. And then my friend, who is something of a film buff, started talking about Akira Kurosawa and claimed that Kurosawa hated actors, and that Toshiro Mifune was the only one that he really respected.

I'm working on a Yoshizumi/Kenzaki fic as part of my "Comeback" series, and I had a question about the end of the WMLM series...

In my Kikuchi/Onozuka series, I made Kikuchi's father a retired detective. Recently, in this comment (*swats away Sawa and crossover bunnies. I swear...*) on one of my fics, bronze_ribbons reminded me that Sawa used to be a detective--giving me more plot bunnies to add to the gazillion already clamoring for attention! >_<
( Read more... )

A bit about honorifics in Haru vol. 10&11... In 11, ch. 1 there is a lot of Onozuka-Miyasaka-Iwaki-Katou action, and the use of honorifics says quite a lot about their relationships at this point.
First of all, this made me rethink the relationship between Iwaki and Katou. We have assumed that it is Iwaki who holds back, mainly based on the fact that Katou and he have had a discussion about given names, and when to use them. But if we look at how Iwaki and Katou address each other and how they speak about each other to other people, it is clear that Iwaki's relationship with Katou is more... intimate than we think - he is not holding back. No, it is actually Katou who might be the one who (inadvertently, perhaps) who have set the up barrier which prevents that the family names are put away. It is Katou, after all, who tells Iwaki that he'll reward him by calling him Kyousuke at the Golden anniversary whereas Iwaki wants call Katou Yousuke already at their Silver ann. :D

Here is why: Iwaki always - always - adresses Katou with no honorific. He speaks of him in the same way, thus signaling that their relationship is a deep and intimate one. Katou, on the other hand always uses the respectful -san, both when he speaks with Iwaki, and when he speaks of him. -San is of course a vastly more intimate address than "Mr" - which can in no way be compared to -san. This sets up an invisible barrier - it is one of respect and care, but a barrier nevertheless.

Now, on to Miyasaka and Onozuka. It is obvious that the two fools young men are casual with honorifics. They call each other -kun, and Onozuka makes a small distinction (maybe because he's the brain) and calls Miyasaka Miya-chan as often as -kun. -Chan is of course a loving address, between very good friends, more intimate than -kun. It happens often, especially if they're angry at each other, that the honorifics are dropped. The same goes for the their respectful language when it comes to Katou. Miyasaka and Onozuka also speaks of Katou without the -kun, just as Katou addresses the both of them with or without the -kun added. Katou, on the other hand, is angry when he thinks Onozuka dares call Iwaki Nii-san (in ch 2/36).

It should be noted that honorifics are never used when a worker from one company speaks of a colleague to others. This is a part of the humble language (keigo): one never raises up one's own company by using honorifics added to co-workers' names. I don't think this has anything to do with the three friends here, but it is worth remembering.

On an entirely different note... Mochimune... his name seems to be written with two non-touyou kanji, which means that they are not on the government-approved list of approximately 2,000 kanji that one needs to know to read modern Japanese (I suck at kanji, so I might be wrong here). However, the name Mochimune *is* an old high-ranking bushi (daimyo, shogun, shogunate administrators-all warrior nobles) name from the time that only 20% of the Japanese (namely the noble and the bushi - the samurai) were allowed family names. Might explain his immense arrogance. *loves on him*

After first reading Boku, I made this post in which I said that I found Jouchi really irritating. Now that I'm getting ready for the RPG, I went back to read the manga more closely, and I think I have to revise my opinion slightly.

In the middle of creating character profiles for boku_no_koe, I became immensely annoyed with the translation of vol. 1. Compared to the Japanese version, there is quite a lot of swapping, or worse, removal of the suffixes. The scanlation is simply not trustworthy. I've seen -san swapped for -sensei, -san and -chan removed so no suffix is present. It is irritating because the suffixes work very well to determine relationships and moods, and the depth of those. So I had to cross-check all the info...

( More reflections. OMG, RP-ing is more demanding than I remembered it! )

I was working on Katou's and Iwaki's profiles for the Boku no Koe RPG, and I realized that Katou's profile was very easy to create--in fact, I had to pare it down a little, because it was getting too long. But I was filling out Iwaki's profile and I realized that there are some things that I just don't know about Iwaki.

I read Groupie once and didn't care that much for it, so I set it aside and didn't plan to go back to it again. But then I got a plot bunny about Takashi (the "groupie" that the manga is named after) hitting on Kikuchi and making Onozuka jealous, so I went back and took a closer look at it.

lore  and I were getting into a discussion about Yoshizumi's age in this post. I started off with this question:

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?

In the afterword to First Date, Part 6, I mentioned that Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" reminded me of Kikuchi's situation, and that I was going to add it to my Haru Playlist. lore suggested that I share it when I had a CD's worth, so here it is. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to add them in the comments!

I was planning to eventually introduce Kikuchi's family in my Kikuchi/Onozuka series, and I was trying to decide whether his younger brother was in a relationship or single, and then I thought that it might be fun to have him start dating someone from the showbiz world, either an actress or someone who works behind the scenes, maybe for one of the talent agencies. (I'd also like to see Kaneko get a little romance, either with a man or a woman, but I was leaning towards a woman, to avoid "everyone is gay" syndrome.) But while trying to come up with potential candidates, I realized that there aren't really many female characters in the series, and the ones who might be close to the brother's or Kaneko's age are already married.

Naturally, this isn't a big surprise--it's a yaoi title, after all, where the focus is on smexy guys who love (and lust after) each other, and that's the way that I like it. On the other hand, the few women who do appear are interesting characters, and I wish that we could learn a bit more about them...

Thanks to bronze_ribbons' previous rec, I went to check out the Spring Kinkfest LJ comm tags, and found a delightful Haru ficlet:

Title: Reversal
Author: gryvon
Pairing: Iwaki/Katou
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Katou would give Iwaki anything.

I've been meaning to post this for awhile and never got around to it, but I just thought I'd share an interesting tidbit regarding the When a Man Loves a Man manga. I noticed that Iwaki's club is called the "Rusty Nail" and it immediately made me think of the song "Rusty Nail" by the rock band X-Japan, since I'm a big fan of the group. They were hugely popular in their heyday, so it seems very likely that the club is named after the song.

"When i wasn't paying attention, i was falling in love... each time when i thought i couldn't love him more...."
~ iwaki kyousuke (haru wo daite ita/embracing love)

this moving statement was said by iwaki to karl-san, a foreigner he and his love katou youji met and eventually became friends during their trip to America.

wow... this really struck me... i mean to fall in love over the same man again over and over.. as Karl-san answered him..."Passion that doesn't fade away with the time passing by...."

i've been so much with Youka Nitta sensei's work... specially Haru Wo Daite ita/Embracing love...most of her work are about BL or boy's love (yaoi in japanese)... gay love in street word but nevertheless the art and the story itself is amazing and spectacular that i doesn't feel embarrased at all!!!!

well it is true that love... true love knows no baounderies, no restriction... love that doesn't concern about time or distance, age, status, gender or society doesn't concern at all.... as long as it is love.... as long as there is love... all of the world does not matter...

As I was writing about Iwaki Masahiko, I was wondering what the family actually did for a living.

We know that they are rich (the big, traditional house) and we know that Masahiko had to take care of the house (and possibly also of the family business). But where does the money come from and what is it they do? Iwaki's father is the head of the local Niigata Yakuza group. Not! It is probably something very honourable...

Iwaki travels for his company (that's why he visits when Katou is alone at home, making Katou "enjoy" a loooong day, trying to entertain Masahiko until Iwaki gets away from work), and takes the Shinkansen to Tokyo (takes around 1.5 hour, if you want to know...).

As for Iwaki's father? Is he old enough to have retired?

The Iwaki family lives in Niigata, in Niigata Prefecture - a relatively large city approximately in the middle of Japan. It has around 1.2 million citizens. The main industries are food-related or chemical industries. Niigata has a large international harbour and airport as well. There are seven universities, and several are involved in research and education related to the many agricultural sources in the region. Niigata, due to the meterological conditions in the area (facing the Sea of Japan) has rain/snow/something wet coming out of the sky approximately 170-200 days a year. There is usually a lot of snow during winter.

Useless historical info: Niigata was one of three cities predestined to be A-bombed during WWII (A few other cities had been removed from the list earlier in August). As only two bombs were ready, bad weather over the Niigata area the week before the bombing changed the plans and the bombs were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki instead.

So now that I'm caught up on Harudaki, I finally got around to reading Boku no Koe, and I find that I have mixed feelings about this series. Contains spoilers below the cut...

( Read more... )

I've been pondering this ever since red_day_dawning commented on my Comeback fic (Part 2) and said that my Kikuchi seemed very Slytherin. I write a lot of Snupin fic in the HP universe, so I thought it would be fun to try and figure out which Houses the other characters would be Sorted into. I'm most familiar with Harudaki, but feel free to include characters from Nitta-sensei's other works in the comments.

Ever since reading Book 5, there's something I've been mulling over. It's the scene where Katou confronts Asano and tricks him into lying that he slept with Iwaki, thereby proving that he was behind the scandal. However, instead of telling Iwaki the truth, Katou decides to keep it a secret because he doesn't want Iwaki to be hurt by Asano's betrayal. His intentions are good, and there's a kind of selfless love in choosing to protect Iwaki rather than taking the satisfaction of saying, "See, I told you Asano was up to no good!" But was this really the right thing to do?

My first post! A bit of meta on a Japanese custom; contains spoilers for Book 10.

I was wondering what people think about this. Crossing over between Nitta-sensei's various works feels natural to me, since they all happen in the same time frame, apart from Fuyu no Semi.

- Is canon, to you, only Harudaki ch 1-49? Do the extras count? Are all Nitta-sensei's works one canon, no matter universe?
- Should the universes be kept separate to be canon-compliant?
- Are the doujinshis in Balalaika canon?
- Everything Nitta-sensei ever drew? Wrote? Said?
- Do you find it easy to include the drawn canon?

Lore ♥ is busy being on vacation, so I'll post the discussion this week.

Haru and all Nitta-sensei's works are filled with an immense amount of well-characterised and interesting characters. Although it seems as if Iwaki and Katou are the most popular - and the most popular pairing - most of us have our favourite side characters. Some of us even prefer the (main) characters from YN's other works for that matter.

So...
- Which minor characters do you prefer, and why?
- Does the never-fading spotlight on Harudaki and on Iwaki and Katou make us forget that there are literally hundreds of other characters who need their stories told, characters who deserve some fannish love as well?