Manga Moustache Part 1

The hands of those with power are so imperial that they can write the fate of others. Hell, it’s not just those who are powerful, anyone can decide someone’s fate. So why is it that when you have such incredible hands, the only thing you can think of to do is to cause pain, create chaos and shed blood? It says a lot when all you can feel is emptiness when you hear of blasts occurring in Boston and Bangalore.

But enough of that right? I exhausted my quota of depression with last week’s post. Today, I’m going to introduce you guys to one of the loves of my life: manga.

I started reading manga when I was around 14. I discovered manga through anime, which is another love, although admittedly I haven’t been paying her much attention in the last couple of years. Manga are basically japanese comic books. Yes, it’s a lot more interesting than it sounds. Unlike american comics, they aren’t targetted mainly towards children and adolescents. Hell no, mangas are a lot more versatile than that, and you’ll find them discussing really mature topics.

Mangas are segregated by demographic. Mangas aimed towards young girls are called Shojo manga. Mangas aimed towards young guys are called Shounen manga. Mangas aimed towards older women are called Josei and mangas aimed towards older guys, Seinen. There are a lot more segregations but you can easily look them up. Basically, there are mangas for everyone. They all get serialized in weekly or monthly magazines in Japan. A shojo manga gets serialized in a Shojo magazine and so on.

Really popular ones get made into animes, which are basically japanese cartoons. Of course, with distinctive styles.

Another thing about manga is that they’re usually in black and white and have to be read right to left.

Well, there’s the boring introduction.

I love mangas. So many of them have such deep and intricate plots packed with emotion. They aren’t brainless and you usually take away something from them. The mangas I’m more familar with are Shounen, Shojo and Josei.

Shounen mangas, like I said are male-oriented, so they’re action packed. Personally, I prefer watching animes to reading actual manga because the fights are epic, and well, you’d rather watch a fight happen than read it in panels. I’m sure you guys would have heard of Dragonball Z, which is a pioneer in shounen manga and one of the biggest animes in the world. Many shounen manga today like Bleach, Naruto or One Piece have been inspired by the awesomeness that is Dragonball Z.

If you’re not into action that much, there’s this manga, that everyone, regardless of their gender MUST read. It’s called Death Note.

But quite honestly, I would suggest watching the anime for this one. It literally boggles your mind. It makes you think so much. The synopsis is this. A high school student called Light Yagami gets this notebook that a Death God dropped, called the Death Note. The rules to the notebook are this:

• The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die.
• This notebook will not take effect unless the writer has the subject’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
• If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen.
• If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
• After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Initially Light uses the book to get rid of the scum of the earth, y’know rapists, murderers and the like, but just like in George Orwell’s animal farm “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.”  Light goes about killing all these people, and people soon get wind of this vigilante murderer. They call him “Kira”, and everyone designates the world’s greatest detective who goes by the name of  “L” to catch him. The race between L and Light, the competition between them, who eventually wins, all of this has you at the edge of your seat. I was obsessed with this series. I suggest people watch this as an anime because it has 37 action packed, brilliant episodes that will have you in awe. The manga while being short for a shounen manga isn’t for everyone. And this is actually something that tests your intelligence, see how you can keep up. I wouldn’t call it a guy’s manga.

Another Shounen anime which is relatively short which is a must watch is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, which in the manga world is known as Fullmetal Alchemist.

Oh my god, how I have bawled in this series. Fair warning, both Death Note and FMAB aren’t exactly shy in their treatment of violence and they don’t gloss over pretty issues like death and insanity. Both of them have a pretty sober tone, but the reason I’m suggesting stuff like this as opposed to the more comedic ones like One Piece is because these have depth in terms of their messages and the stuff you take from the stories. Death Note is more intelligent than FMAB though.

FMAB is the one of the saddest and most tragic anime I’ve watched. I cried so much in this. As the name suggests, the manga and anime have to do with alchemy, which is basically manipulating matter using natural energy. The science of it is very complicated but it all starts with these two brothers, Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric, who after the death of their mother try to resurrect her using a forbidden form of alchemy called “Human Transmutation”. Alchemy is based on the “Law of Equivalent Exchange” which is you have to pay an equal price for everything you get. Of course, the experiment fails because it goes against the rules of alchemy and both of them nearly die. Edward loses his leg and Alphonse nearly dies but Edward saves his life by using alchemy to attach his soul to an old armour.

Both of them go on a journey with the initial intent to research on how to get Alphonse’s body back. It sounds strange but believe me it is fascinating, tragic and in many ways, a sad commentary on our world today.

There are actually 2 animes, Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (2009).

The 2003 version was made when the manga was still going so that’s why it diverges half way. The 2009 version follows the manga perfectly. I’m always for staying true to the source so I’d suggest watching Brotherhood.

Other shounen mangas or anime for you would be:

• Naruto
• Bleach
• One Piece
• FairyTail
• Inuyasha

This is just for now. All of these are really good too but just a lot longer than Death Note and FMA. If you guys want to share other mangas you know, talk about anime or need recommendations, leave a comment.

Next week, expect an equally long post about Shoujo and Josei Manga, which also has some amazing  gems.

The sad part is all of them are so elaborate, emotional, deep and just everything a good story should be. Sure, there are a lot of weeds or stones, but finding that one flower or gem makes up for everything, because that’s how good they are. A million times better, I can guarantee you, than the crap Bollywood churns out these days.

Await Part 2 next week, and do not hesitate to watch these suggestions. 🙂

Cosplay Confessions

TGIF.

Okay, so I want to start off by saying thank you to everyone who has viewed/liked/followed our blog and submitted things to us to post. We started this blog to build a community of writers and bloggers who all want to share their opinions and interests and learn a little something new about this psychotic little ball of dirt we call Earth.

I’m going to talk about a couple of things today and the first thing I want to share with you is something that is pretty close to my heart: COSPLAY.

Having originated in Japan, Cosplay is short for ‘Costume Play’ and the concept basically involves people dressing up as their favourite comic book/video game/movie/fiction characters and role-playing as them. Anyone can play any character, women can play men and vice versa and there are practically no limits to how much you can dress up. You can wear a hat to represent your character or go full-out in the costume they usually wear, but remember, the goal is to BE the character. You have to get down their walk, mannerisms and popular catchphrases.

For example Captain America right above has made a great effort to: A, source the costume and B, channel Steve Rogers for the goody-two-shoes patriot that he is. Just look at that neatly combed hair.

Sometimes you may not be able to source such a great costume, but it’s the sentiment that matters. Home-made means you really are committed, no matter the result. In fact a lot of cosplayers prefer making their own costumes as buying them from stores or online doesn’t always guarantee a great fit.

As you can probably tell I am obsessed with the Avengers, hence you’ll be seeing a lot of them on this post. Though my main object of worship happens to be Loki, I guess I can do with adding a couple of the others in.

Speaking of Loki, I think one of the best Loki cosplayers on YouTube happens to be the lovely Jenn Jones. In fact she’s one of the best cosplayers I’ve seen, hands down, even when it comes to characters other than Loki. She is the co-founder of Parle Productions, a group of cosplayers in the UK who are simply marvelous and portray several different characters in their videos on YouTube. They’re all about fun and entertainment and are such a lively bunch it makes you want to hug them all.

Now this is what Jenn looks like normally:

This is a video of her as Loki:

She has also portrayed Nick, from the videogame Left 4 Dead:

And Gambit from the X-Men comic books:

In fact the entire Parle team are extremely gifted at what they do:

Cosplaying is not just a hobby, it’s a part of our culture and somewhat quenches humanity’s thirst to be creative and showcase their talent. A lot of people argue that cosplaying is a part of theater as it involves costumes, tremendous play-acting skills and a whole lot of commitment and practice. Cosplay in India has only become popular in recent years, especially where cosplaying anime and comic book characters are concerned. You generally see a lot of cosplaying in Comic Cons around the world, some of the most popular being present at the San Diego Comic Con. However since India has begun it’s own Comic Cons in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, the scene is definitely getting popular.

I attended the Comic Con Express in Bangalore in 2012 and it was incredible to see the number of people who had turned up in costume. Some had done a fabulous job on the costumes and others not so fabulous but everyone had a really great time. Incidentally, 2012’s Bangalore Comic Con was the first annual one in the city but had the most footfalls recorded at 25,000 people.

The Joker in this image was really wonderful and kept asking strange questions and laughing like a maniac. I had goosebumps while interacting with him.

In any case he, along with Jenn, have inspired me to cosplay in this year’s Bangalore Comic Con and I seriously can’t wait. I bought a wig for a character I’m thinking about playing, but I still might change my mind and choose another character. The possibilities are endless.

I’m so sorry for the overdose of images today, but cosplay excites me so much I can’t control it! So have any of you guys cosplayed before? If not, do you think you might want to try it out this year, and if you do what character would you want to be? Do comment and let me know! I’ve found some really good DIY costume/make-up videos for you in case you’ve always harboured a little dream to be the Black Widow from the Avengers or if you have a thing for Loki {which I most certainly do).  If you want to search for other characters’ costumes, you can buy them on the internet or watch a DIY video on YouTube.

So here’s a DIY Black Widow costume:

I also have a Loki make-up tutorial (because I love him) for you which will turn the girliest of girls into the very menacing God of Mischief. I will definitely be trying this one out… once I have enough money to buy make-up. My addiction for shopping has reared its ugly head and has left me quite broke.

I wish you all the very best in your future cosplay adventures and sincerely hope you send me photos if possible of yourselves in costume. If you’re thinking about attending the Bangalore Comic Con Express this year, please do come because I’ll definitely be there and we can hang out and take pictures and stuff. Remember, “All the world’s a stage…”

*Credits for the photos of Parle Productions and Jenn Jones go to their respective owners. Thanks so much. You guys really are lovely.

*All photos (other than the one of myself in the white wig) don’t belong to me. Credit to the photographers. : )