Konami Konata - Fuku Fuku Funyan New, vol. 01-02 (Chi. trans.)

This is by the mangaka of Chi's Sweet Home, which I have not read. And apparently it's a revival of a series or something, given the "New" in the title and the author's notes.

Fuku is the rather fat and spoiled cat of an old lady who is never named; the entire manga consists of their day-to-day adventures, like Fuku sleeping on the TV, only to discover that it's not on and is cold, or the old lady tempting Fuku with new toys, only to learn that she of course just wants the box or bag the toys came in.

I am not sure there's anything I have to say about this, except that the mangaka has clearly had cats before, and that it made me laugh and laugh at all the silly things cats and their owners do, and that it is cute and happy and round and I am so going to look for the mangaka's other cat manga.

Highly recommended if you like cats.

Kim Hee Eun - Dear My Girls, vol. 01-02 (Chi. trans.)

This is a version of Little Women in which the March sisters go to an English boarding school: Meg's a teacher, Jo's the much-squeed-over fencing club president, Amy's pretty much herself, and Beth is a resentful girl jealous of being the ugly duckling among her accomplished sisters.

I am not sure why making Beth resentful and jealous horrifies me in a way that making Triptaka a gun-wielding, foul-mouthed misanthrope does not. Wait, actually, it's probably because I've read enough retellings of Journey to the West to see any changes as playing with the story, whereas I don't think I've ever really seen an adaptation of Little Women that wasn't done straight. On the other hand, I am completely amused by Jo as the gender-bending crush object of all the girls in school and her swooping ponytail. I think the manhwaka took most of the internal conflicts we see with Jo and give them to Beth instead, with less of an emphasis on wanting to be good and more of an emphasis on wanting to rebel.

That said, the manhwaka does know the book very well from her notes, which almost makes the changes odder for me. Also, I cannot tell at all how accurate her representation of clothing and etc. is... I am constantly shocked to see people's knees and calves exposed because their skirts stop a little below their knees, and then it's nothing until the boots start. But! That may just be my own preconceptions about Victorian clothing. And I think the manhwaka moved the time so it's post-Civil-War.

Anyway! This was just a bizarre reading experience for me, since I grew up reading Little Women and am highly unaccustomed to having assorted shirtless bishounen, grumpy clumsy shoujo-manga-heroine Beth, and Utena-like Jo in it. And Laurie has a crush on Beth!

(Also, I am secretly rooting for Amy just because she is such a brat.)

(no subject)

I have been very bad about posting about race and anti-racism lately, and even worse with following discussions online.

But basically, my response would be what Deepa says. Yes and yes and yes. And that is precisely why I've found so much comfort in immersing myself in Asian mainstream pop culture, even though that pop culture has a lot that could be changed. It is just so good to find something that's focused on POC, to have other narratives and other stories, to have an entirely different default to draw upon.