ohisashiburi

[ambientlight]

egelantier tagged me for a meme! so here we go.

instructions: comment on this entry, and i'll give you three themes by the lines of "username and [some idea or concept or thing]'. you then post what you have to say on these themes in your own livejournal, and tag me back.


ambientlight and friendship narratives

This may sound silly, but I'm actually not very interested in straightforward friendship narratives. I can certainly enjoy them -- in Chihayafuru, for instance. But the dynamics that interest me most are those which are flawed or fragile, and friendship narratives have to involve some sort of difficulty for me to really care about them. (I think this applies to my taste re: all sorts of relationships, frankly -- I'm generally bored by fluffy romance and I much prefer reluctant comradeship to something more secure.)

I suppose Natsume Yuujinchou is the best series to talk about, here. I like watching the tentative friendships that Natsume's making, but I like this precisely because of how tentative his progress is: how it isn't easy, how he still doubts others and flinches from closeness and has trouble allowing people to care about him, even if he does all that less and less. If Natsume gets to the point where his friendships become smooth-sailing and uncomplicated, then I'm sure my interest will wane.

This applies many times over for fic. Fic which charts the development of a friendship -- great. Fic which deals with the difficulty of connecting with others, with the limits of a friendship -- excellent. But I don't really care to read about established happy fluffy friendships.

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ambientlight and favourite manga

When it comes to anime, most of my favourite series are favourites largely because of how they're crafted -- because I marvel at how they're put together, at all the deliberate and pointed artistic decisions involved, at the tightness of their structure or writing, or how they make the most of the visual possibilities of the medium. (A lot of these also tend to be short, self-contained series.)

Manga, though. Most of my favourite manga series are favourites because of the emotions they elicit, I suppose. Obviously there can be a lot of craft underlying that as well, but I respond to my favourite manga on an emotional level first, whereas my engagement with my favourite anime series tends to be more immediately on an aesthetic level.

Fortunately, MAL has already forced me to choose several manga series to list as my favourites, so here they are: Mushishi, Natsume Yuujinchou, Kimi to Boku, Horimiya and Pluto.

Mushishi just resonates with me. I love its atmosphere and tone, how it's neither mawkish nor grimdark, how it affirms nothing more or less than existence. The world is indifferent, not cruel. People are flawed; some, but not all, can save themselves. Also, Ginko. ♥

Natsume Yuujinchou is... well, see above. I like the manga more than the anime because it's less soft, a little more challenging. The anime is very warm, even down to its colour scheme.

Kimi to Boku is very fun to read and immensely enjoyable as a low-energy ~seishun~ series. I find it genuinely funny, and when it aims at poignant (which it does more often that you'd expect, maybe), it always succeeds. I came for the humour and stayed for the poignancy.

Horimiya is probably the only romance-centric piece of media I've cared about! It genderflips the standard set-up of "shy girl meets popular boy and learns to make friends", which I appreciate, and takes the characters beyond those stock roles. It's another very ~seishun~ series, capturing the awkwardness of adolescence in a way that doesn't make me cringe.

Pluto involves detectives and AI, two of my narrative weaknesses. Detectives!! It's by Urasawa Naoki so you know you're in safe hands. The ending was a bit of a letdown, but otherwise I absolutely loved this series. So much humanity in its stories, without making the robots seem just like humans.

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ambientlight and travelling

I talked about travelling a while ago, and I suppose my views haven't changed much. In short, I travel to see and experience new and beautiful things. I guess there are some vague concerns about authenticity in there too, but I'm not hung up about them and I do consider myself just another tourist, not a ~traveller~. I feel no obligation, so to speak, to visit anywhere in particular -- you know, of the "50 places you must see in your lifetime" sort.

I enjoy natural landscapes, vast expanses, and views from heights. I like places with a deep sense of history and with the buildings or ruins to go with it. I really like trying new foods. I'm biased in favour of cooler climates; if I'm going to go on holiday, I figure I should go somewhere colder than where I live. I am no good at roughing it; I don't stay in hotels, but I have grown accustomed to private rooms in B&Bs and hostels, and I am not keen on camping. I am uncomfortable travelling in countries where, as a tourist, I enjoy a significantly better standard of living than the average local resident. (So I don't really travel in such countries.)

I have grown quite fond of light walking holidays, by which I mean the sort where you don't need to lug a 20kg backpack around with you. Unfortunately this does limit the walks that one can attempt.

I haven't had much occasion to travel alone. There's a certain deep sense of freedom that comes with doing so, a sharper appreciation of how vast the world is, and of course more chances to chat with strangers. But I still prefer having someone else to share the experience with, I guess.

I am the sort of annoying person who will share their relevant travel anecdotes re: a certain country if they find out that someone else is going there or has been there.

Comments

[lesstraveled.livejournal.com]

Re: friendships, when it comes to romance-shipping fic I've transitioned into mostly liking characters who are already platonic friends doin' that something additional, but I suppose it holds true for any story that there has to be conflict or it's not interesting. I like fluff pieces, though they have to be short--otherwise there's nothing there to sustain interest.

I've always wanted to ask--when in countries where you don't speak the language, how do you get by? This is my #2 fear that prevents me from burning the midnight oil and going places.

[ambientlight.livejournal.com]

i think liking the friends-to-lovers progression makes sense especially if you already like the original dynamic? i'm not even sure i need conflict (lol all my fic is basically about nothing happening, for example), just some kind of tension.

i have to admit, i didn't expect you to like fluff. ^^;

sometimes i'm with a travel companion who knows the language or a helpful one (e.g. french in morocco), but i guess that's cheating. mainly it's a combination of 1. i try to get by in the language until the person i'm speaking to gives up and uses english, and since i'm mainly ordering food and buying tickets, i don't actually need to know that many words, 2. i go to a lot of places which receive english-speaking tourists, so the people i'm most likely to interact with often have some english anyway.

travel guidebooks help with deciphering menus, and i've bought train/bus tickets in several places by writing down where i want to go and when, haha. i think the only time i've ever come up against a wall was in a laundromat in residential stockholm where the old lady running it didn't speak english (i think she knew german instead).

(...should i ask what the #1 fear is?)

[lesstraveled.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's true! Then the fanfic is like canon but with smooching, which sometimes can be satisfying to me. lolololol my deep dark secret is that when I am sad, I like reading schmaltzy fluffy domestic fic. Actually, I avoid fic that ends on unrelentingly grim notes; that's not why I read fiction of any kind. (I mean conflict in the--uhhh, literary sense? like 'all plots need conflict' sort of way, so tension between characters counts--a problem in the narrative/relationship that must be dealt with)

Ahhh, so studying up beforehand and general fearlessness. :D I totally did the writing down thing the last time I was in Japan.

(#1 is general phobia of unfamiliar locations. so i admire your ability to travel very much! I armchair-enjoyed that period when you were in college and took advantage of being in Europe to go all over the continent, that looked like fun.)

[ambientlight.livejournal.com]

hee, sounds like a good recourse to me. and yeah, i don't like unrelenting grimness either. or like, stuff that revels in being ~dark and gritty. (got it, just wasn't sure how significant something has to be to count as a conflict...)

not so much fearlessness, just not really travelling to places that are very tricky tourist-wise, i guess. :D;; like, russia is one country i definitely want to visit someday, but i feel like knowing the language/travelling with someone who does would be particularly important there, so. :| also i have a lot of other fears, e.g. travelling to places where you need lots of jabs beforehand (so i haven't, whoops).

(ah, fair enough! i've still managed to travel a bit post-uni but have been very lazy about linking my facebook photo albums on LJ...)