Another Favorite Manga Series! & How It Influences My Current Graphic Novel!

I'm an intense re-reader. My favorite books I'll re-read dozens of times. Usually, every several months, I'll either read key/favorite volumes/issues in a long series or re-read a short series...

I re-read and skimmed through volumes 14-21 about two nights ago because I've been going through some stuff and things are already stressful and recent 'drama' was the icing on the cake. 

This week was "Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou/Jijō" often referred by its more popular abbreviated title "Kare Kano", or the English translation His and Her Circumstances, a 21-volume manga that became a woefully short TV anime series that probably only went to Volume 5!!! *still mad about this*

As I script my graphic novel/web comic "Summer to Winter", Kare Kano has influenced me on how I pace my story and how what starts out as a romantic comedy can still have elements of high drama, tragedy, and family saga.

Kare Kano starts out as a high school comedy, a teen star pupil ,Yukino, is riding on the praise, adoration, and adulation from her schoolmates, incurring jealousy in some, and biting envy in others. But she has a rival: a boy by the name of Soichiro who is considered the 'crown prince' of their grade and in the school. When his scores cause her to go to Second Place, she declares war on him and the two end up in a battle of grade school popularity, bringing in their respective fans, stalkers, and obsessed friends. The hijinks are over-the-top until you think it's going to get dark, and the series does get dark very fast... But NOT in the way one would expect. 

The series is a romantic comedy, as it also covers the romances of the secondary characters, Yukino's and Socihiro's HS friends and family members side-stories. But there is a darkness in the Soichiro character that is hinted at but becomes more apparent by Volume 13-14, and a lot goes downhill but with the humor still cropping up despite so many dark topics.

***

"Summer to Winter" appears to start off as a high school drama, but then flashes forward into the present with the protagonist(Yanina) at 25 meeting her teen crush and mean Math teacher, Mr. Dunlop. He's different now and this reignites her feelings into something more than the infatuation she felt as a girl.

The story veers into romance comedic territory with former teacher and student trying to navigate their feelings for one another, which veers into high family drama, social commentary with me also taking cues from Kare Kano with dwelling into the secondary characters' dramas and romances and the dark past involving Peter's(Mr. Dunlop) childhood and Yanina's constant flashbacks from childhood to adult present. 

Please continue to check out Summer to Winter on my Instagram! 

When the webcomic ends up on another platform, I will provide those links and details here on this ol' blog!

Again, take care, Dear Readers!

Rewatching 80s Beauty and the Beast TV series

Bingeing the TV series #BeautyAndTheBeast (starring #LindaHamilton & #RonPerlman). And to see a favorite #TVshow from childhood. To know I was 11 and that tomorrow, I'll be 44... Such a pivotal series. It changed how I view shows, how I think, read, write, and draw #stories. 

A *NEW* Art of Plugging Away

What bothers me with some of the science fiction I grew up on is how naive even advanced alien species are to our ways.

Though my alien protagonist perceives us differently than how we view him, he is in no way unaware to the existence of racism, bigotry, and other systems of oppression. He comes from a galaxy-spanning star-system-traveling alien civilization. They have *seen* slavery before. They understand what bigotry looks like. 

One of the shows that really impressed me and may be time for a binge-watch was the TV series ALIEN NATION. It started with, I think, two TV movies, to give the setup before becoming a 45 min-1 hour per episode series. The show shaped how I thought about aliens, humans, racism, bigotry, and how such hateful tools can be used against an entire group. 

As what is often the purpose of alien-vs-human scifi, the story is to call more attention not so much to the strangeness of the alien, but how utterly strange and dysfunctional human beings can be and are, but, with some help from our star cousins, or their collective efforts to destroy us as a species, we can then have the opportunity to show moments of our highest evolved selves. 

My mini-review for Honey & Clover TV series

Just finished bingeing the Honey & Clover anime series. Back in the early 2000s, I read the manga while it was serialized in the number of manga/anime-related periodicals the U.S. once had, and I must say that if you were any sort of Art Major/Minor, this is HANDS DOWN the most complete and perfect TV series (beats any live-action or other animations with this subject/topic) to show EXACTLY what it means to be a college/university art student in one's head, heart, and how much baggage creative people carry while we tackle real-world life issues... *chef's kiss* 

Honey and Clover on Wiki