Year Long Analysis

I've enjoyed this year a lot. I think that a lot of people who were in our gifted class didn't but I really did once I changed topics.
I'm really grateful for the time that I was allowed to spend researching anime. I've learned a lot. I think that my art has definitely improved and will continue to improve due to things that I've looked at in this class. Without the extra period a day to learn about different styles and genres of anime, I would have little time at all to do so.
I'd like to take a look at a piece of art from the beginning of the semester and something that I've just drawn.
Here is the first paper and digital drawing that I posted on this blog:

Here are my most recent drawings, on paper and digital:

I think that I've definitely improved over the course of this year. The use of class time has helped a bunch.

While my proportions aren't great yet, I've seen improvement in my drawing of faces and overall the design of pictures. I think that my digital art has gotten better than my paper art, and I'll continue to work on both types in the future.

What are my future plans?
I think I'll actually keep this blog. I really enjoyed writing posts and I still have a lot more I'd like to research. One thing that I never got around to was the analysis of stereotypes in manga. I'd really like to look at that.

I'm looking forward to writing more this summer.

Thanks for reading what I have to say this year!

~Shannon

Family Project

For my final project I decided to ask my family and very close friends (who are close enough they're like sisters) how anime and manga has affected them and questions that applied to the topic. I separated my questions into 3 categories. One is questions for my sisters and friends, one is for my dad, and one is for my mom. The questions needed to be divided based on the different amounts of anime watching that they've done. My friends have watched about as much as me, my dad watched some as a teenager, and my mom hasn't watched any that I know of.
After the questions I'll be putting some drawings that my friends have done in an anime or manga style.

First is my sisters and friends. The question is listed at the top and their first initials are used to show their answers. J and C are my sisters, Julia and Catie. M, H, and K are my closest friends, Megan, Haley, and KC.

Q: When did you start watching/reading anime/manga? 

• J: About two years ago.

• C: Around the same time you and Julia did. I think one or two years ago.

• M: Around the summer after seventh grade. I was watching an anime called Blood+. I didn't really get into it until eighth grade.

• H: Counting Pokemon, 13 or more years ago. Not counting Pokemon, 7-ish years

• K: August of 2012.

Q: What caused you to start reading/watching?

• J: I had seen an episode of something before. I was just really tired and I was watching TV and it came on and I didn't feel like switching the channel. I had watched an episode of something before and it seemed pretty cool and I kinda wanted to get into it. So I ended up watching some on netflix and that's where it started.

• C: Well, we were on netflix looking for something good to watch and we ran across Fruits Basket.

• M: Really, it was in the featured videos of youtube. An episode of Blood+ was in the featured and I was like, "Ooh, I'll watch it!"

• H: I was to young to remember now with Pokemon. With the other I saw a commercial and though it'd be cool so I watched it.

• K: You.

Q: What was your first anime/manga series?

• J: Fruits Basket.

• C: Fruits Basket.

• M: Blood+.

• H: Naruto.

• K: Kaze no Stigma.

Q: How many series have you watched? What are a few of your favorites? (This question didn't end up working out well because most of my friends have watched a lot of series. They tried their best to answer.)

• J: More than 20. I like Black Butler, Dengeki Daisy, and Cardcaptor Sakura.

• C: About 18. Demon King Daimao, Black Butler, and The Earl and the Fairy.

• M: A lot. Some of my favorites are Full Metal Alchemist, Hetalia, Soul Eater, Madoka Magica, Steins;Gate.

• H: 2 you forced me to watch and 5 I chose. My favorites were Clannad and Pokemon.

• K: 8-10. Black Butler, Soul Eater and Ouran High School Host Club.

Q: How has anime/manga affected your life?

• J: Well, because I started watching it and stuff I started getting into the art style, and I started drawing it. It's become a huge part of my life because it makes me feel wonderful to know that I can make these beautiful illustrations. Also, I suddenly felt accepted in some sort of fan group, and that's kind of a wonderful feeling, because before you could say I was a hero loving, comic book reading person, but I wasn't that much. But suddenly I was in this fan group and I felt really accepted, and that changed a huge part of my life.

• C: It's affected me big time. I started roleplaying, I started fanfictions, I started being a big fangirl. I started being obsessed with shipping things and saying Japanese words and drawing anime. I really do love anime and I don't know what my life would be like without it.

• M: It gives me something to obsess over. I don't know.. I'm not really as obsessed with it as I used to be. It's introduced me to a lot of cool people.

• H: It gave me entertainment, helped shape my own drawing style, and gave me something to make new friends and games off of.

• K: I'm more strange.

Q: Do you draw in anime style? If so, how has it changed the way you draw?

• J: Yes. Before I just drew little doodles and stuff, anything a fifth or sixth grader would draw. Just little drawings, not anything serious. When I got into anime and style I suddenly wanted really badly to be able to be really good at it. It really affected the way I drew because I started spending all day drawing and weeks and months of my time have become about becoming better and better at drawing and it has become a huge part of my life ever since I started.

• C: Yes, I do draw in anime style. The way it's changed is big time, because I used to stink at drawing and I didn't know which style I could do and my art was terrible. And then I started anime and my art improved and I really love my art and I can actually say "These are mine" and be proud of them.

• M: I do a little. I used to draw what I called "realistic", but it was bad.

• H: I don't typically draw in anime style but it helped looking at anime pictures and how-to-draws to improve my overall drawing abilities. It has a big influence in my cartoon drawings.

• K: Yes, and it's made me more judgmental on cartoon/anime drawing styles.

Q: How often do anything anime related?

• J: At least once every 20 minutes.

• C: 24/7. In my dreams, I'm drawing it, reading it, watching it, everything I think about is anime.

• M: Every day I guess. We talk about it a lot.

• H: A couple hours a week.

• K: Every day.

Q: Are you planning on continuing your manga/anime reading/watching/drawing?

• J: Yes.

• C: Yes. I'm probably going to grow up and go to Japan, go to a bunch of cons in my life. It's going to be awesome.

• M: Yes. There are so many series to finish.

• H: Yes.

• K: Yes.

Q: Subbed or dubbed?

• J: I like dubbed better because I don't have to focus as much and I can do fanart during it. I can watch subbed, I just don't like it as much.

• C: I suppose I like both but typically I watch dubbed.

• M: Both. It depends on the anime. Some dubs are terrible, and some don't even have dubs. Some you can't find the dub other than 4Kids, and 4Kids is terrible.

• H: Dubbed.

• K: Dubbed I guess.

After finishing the interviews with my friends I interviewed my dad about his experience with anime and manga. This time the question will be at the top and his answer will be represented by an A.

Q: When did you start and/or stop watching anime?
A: I watched it in college

Q: Did you ever read manga?
A: I never read manga.

Q: How much anime/manga did you get into?
A: A little bit. It's also a comparative sort of thing.

Q: Can you name some you watched?
A: Ranma 1/2. I watched appropriate movies. My Neighbor Totoro

Q: Subbed or dubbed?
A: Subbed, dubbed sucks.

Q: Did anime have an effect on your life?
A: No.

Q: Would you still watch anime? What genre/type?
A: Sure I'd still watch it, why wouldn't I? All the best kinds. I watch whatever seems interesting.
 
For my mom the interview was a bit different. As she hasn't watched anime before, we watched a few episodes of High School of the Dead together. My reason for picking that anime to start is her love of zombies. I have set of before questions and after questions. The questions and answers will again be represented by Q and A.

Before
Q: Have you watched/read anime before?
A: No.

Q: What do you know about anime so far?
A: Not really anything.

After
Q: What did you think of this anime?
A: Intriguing.

Q: What was your favorite part?
A: I don't have a favorite part..

Q: What was your least favorite part?
A: Meeting the mean teacher.

Q: Would you watch more of this anime?
A: Yes.

Q: Would you watch more of anime in general?
A: Yes.

Q: Overall do you have any sort of opinion on anime in general?
A: It seems interesting.

While my mom only answered with a few words a question, I did end up getting to spend some extra time with her and show her something that I enjoy. I had a fun time and we plan on watching more anime together in the future.

Here we have the drawings that my friends did in anime style

This is KC's drawing. It's me and her.

This is Haley's drawing. It's a drawing of all of us (my close friends and me). From left to right it's KC, me, Haley, Megan. On the floor towards the back is Catie and on the floor in front is Julia.

 

  Megan's picture is of a demon girl. I believe she drew it a while back.

Julia's drawing is one of a series of art she was doing. She was drawing personified ice cream flavors. So far she's done Neapolitan, strawberry, and mint chocolate chip. This one is strawberry.

 

Finally I have a drawing from Catie. She drew Ciel Phantomhive, a character in Black Butler.

What I like about looking at all of my friends' drawings is the different levels they're at. Obviously they're all still learning. I'm still learning too. But still we keep on trying our best to draw and create. We keep figuring out new methods and styles. We're all proud of what we do. It's great to see.

I think overall I've learned a bit more about my family's history with the thing that I'm passionate about. I'm glad to have found out more, and to have introduced my mom to something that I care about. I'm sure in the future I can talk to my family more about it, which is great.
I'll be making one last post about my progress this year and future plans. 
~Shannon

Chocolat Manga Style

This review of style will be on Chocolat

My reason for checking this one out is interesting. This was actually my first manga. I read it a long long time ago before I even knew what manga was. I was very confused and barely remembered it. But I did read it.

Chocolat is kind of hard to explain. Basically there are two bands- DDL and Yo-I- and they each have fan clubs. In order to get into the fan club you had to join early because once they hit a certain number of girls they stop letting people in. The main character, Kum-Ji, is a huge fan of DDL. However their fan club is filled. In order to be able to get into events and things where she can see DDL she joins Yo-I's fan club as a leader. When one of the members, E-Soh, finds out she's not actually a fan he makes her do chores for him so that he won't tell anything. She ends up spending a lot of time with Yo-I and not with DDL, and gets attacked by fangirls occasionally.

I really like the eyes in this book. They're really detailed and just pretty.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

I feel like the cover kinda looks a little bit weird. It makes the manga look odd. The actual pages are better.

This manga is full of pretty people who I like.

 

  

  

 

I really like manga with funny and over dramatic chibi expressions. This manga is full of them.

 

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

  

 

I am amused that in this manga there are so many fangirls. I love fangirls in manga.

I'm really amused by this guys face. He's saying "Oh my gawd. Fifteen people fit in a max eight-seater minivan!"

Here we have the shading of the eyes to show that someone is angry. I find it interesting that this is a well used way to show that someone is really upset.

What's really interesting is the way that they show this guys skin. To show that his skin is darker they put a texture on it.

OVERVIEW:

Plot- I actually kind of like the plot of this one. It's kind of amusing and interesting.

Style - The style is a bit weird in some places but mostly it's pretty. I like it.

Read Again? - I'm reading them as I can find them. I'd read it again.

Vampire Kisses Manga Style

This review of style will be on Vampire Kisses.

There's a reason I checked this one out. It's because I read the book as a novel. I was reading the series. Eventually I stopped because the writing got kind of bad. I was around 5 books in. When I found this I decided to check it out because I thought it would be amusing to read. Also I was curious. What I found is that it's a graphic novel of the second or third book, and is in the manga style. 

Vampire Kisses is about a girl named Raven who always wanted to be a vampire, who ended up getting a vampire boyfriend, named Alexander. It's about the danger they're always in for a variety of reasons. In this book Alexander's cousin comes to the town they live in looking for a way to become a full vampire (he's only a half vampire, meaning he needs blood but can be out in the light). However, Alexander doesn't want him to because he would be dangerous to everyone.

I really like the art style here. I don't know why, but the art in this book is some of the best I've seen.

I think it's really nice when a manga artist includes their character sketches and designs. This one shows various outfits and such.

 The chibis in this book are really cute. The emotions are nice, and they make everything seem more lighthearted and nice when things get kind of dark.

The cover for this one is nice. The colors aren't weird and it doesn't distort the characters. The cover was part of what brought me in.

OVERVIEW:

Plot- I've always kind of thought that the plot of these books was lacking. it seems like it's meant to be pure romance that keeps getting interrupted and not much else.

Style - I do really like the style here. It's pretty and cute and I just enjoy it.

Read Again? - I'm still reading it. I'm on volume 3. I like it enough to continue.