My Broken Mariko(マイ・ブロークン・マリコ)Manga Thoughts

    

    My Broken Mariko is a one shot manga created by Waka Hiroako. The manga deals with subjects such as abuse and suicide. Most readers won't know what they are in for before cracking opening this manga but you sure will remember the reasons you kept reading. 

    A women travels around with the ashes of her best friend after her passing due to suicide......

     You really want to pray for some kind of positive resolution as you read the first few opening pages of Broken Mariko. The story is so bleak that you wonder how the idea of friendship exist in the realm. Mariko as a character in herself is the post child of a messed up life that she didn't ask for but was born into. Then the toxic nature of her upbringing follows her into adulthood, causing her to make reckless decisions in her love life and with her life in general. All the while, her friend stays be her side as support. Sometimes support still doesn't make the person with a history of abuse fell any less alone even if you try your best be by that person side. The choice to take their life is their own over all. Plot lines explaining Mariko's background lead the reader to this conclusion but her friend left behind has an emotional break down struggling around the questions of she did enough for Mariko. Especially since her death seemed to come out of nowhere suddenly. My thoughts are that all the signs led to the conclusion that Mariko would eventually take her own life. You could tell from the way she reacted to certain situations, Her thought process she often voiced out loud to her beloved friend, and her strong will to live only for her friend. She was lucky to have such a great friend who stood up for her in the most awkward times. What happened to Mariko wasn't her fault as it was nothing she could do to stop someone who made up in her mind that she was too broken to live on anymore. Most of the story deals more with inner regret and memories than the trip itself. Don't get me wrong, the lead up to how the trip began was great story telling however, what happens on the trip doesn't give anymore depth to that of Mariko the character in my opinion. We get emotional value from her friend's point of view instead. Readers mostly end up with a sad realization to conclude Broken Mariko's whirlwind emotional experience. I enjoyed this read though, this content isn't for people who are easily triggered by suicide. My Broken Mariko is beauty in sadness if I must say so myself.. 

    Much of the art has different feels depending on what's happening in the panels like most manga. However, My Broken Mariko takes on this amatureish look when it comes to comedic scenes or scenes that might depress the reader. A lot of the drawing are done with a sharp pen that give these scenes a sketch feel. Sort of similar to storyboard sketches only more final looking. The art on the cover is very eye catching too. You experience the same level inside the book when characters are drawn full out in all their detail. 

     I would recommend My Broken Mariko to people who want a front row seat to real life loss. This ride might depress some readers. Life can just be depressing sometimes which makes great manga come alive. 

Equation To Erase The Teacher(先生を消す方程式) Japanese Drama Thoughts

  

   Equation To Erase The Teacher is a 2020 Japanese drama that was directed by Takashi Komatsu and written by Osamu Suzuki. Starring lineup includes, Kei Tanaka, Yuki Yamada, Fumiya Takahashi, Sayu Kubota, Kokoro Morita, Nao Takahashi, and, Ikuho Akiya. A lot of newcomers are in the cast so I hope they get more work in the future. Especially since they did very well. 

     This drama was the most surprised filled drama that I've seen in a long time. There's two parts in the script that are nothing like each other to start off. The first part deals with a private school full of problem students who run the place simply because their families have money. Teacher's in this school are not people of authority. Instead they are punching bag place holders who fear the students. That's until one day, A new homeroom teacher appears. No matter what the students do to him, he continues to go about his day with a smile on his face. I really loved the first part as the story covers the bullying of teachers: Something that happens more times than not in schools all around the world. Teachers tend to be bullied by the students, parents, and facility the work for. Equations are used to explain situations that bother the students even if they don't want to hear the solution. Acts that are done upon the teach aren't one's that make the watcher feel good. In fact, I felt uncomfortable watching the teacher get out of constant attempts at his life but watching a show that makes me feel is the kind I find enjoyable. The second part sloppy tacks on a supernatural element along with voodoo magic that would have fit in the story's progress had it not been for how strange most of the character's in this drama were. I can applaud the effort to create a different story set apart from others, however, you have to make sure that the flow of the episodes up to that point don't suffer. I think most of us(including myself) saw Equation To Erase The Teacher as a slice of life drama dealing with bullying from students to teachers. You get very disturbed when suddenly lighting starts striking people or zombies appear like that was normal in this world. What's the real saving grace is that this drama is relatively short and the acting is top notch. Otherwise, I would have dropped out after the midway point. 

    Performances were the shadow inner workings of Japanese society. Well, in secret anyways. Each character was crazy. They had to be crazy to think that creating a plan to kill your homeroom teacher is normal. Then they carry it out not once, but multiple times. Some performances were so unnerving that they actually borderline became comical. I got to hand it too everyone in the cast for still being emotional sane after becoming there characters. Darkness in the heart that warps you the way some of the characters were is not for normal individuals. Japan likes outside the box which makes dramas like this common. 

    Equation To Erase The Teacher will defiantly leave you asking "what in the world did I just watch?" I like certain aspects of the show such as the life lessons that are taught through all the yelling or the comedic way the drama tries to paint attempted murder. 

Joker Xue(薛之谦) - Object From Outer Space(天外來物) Album Thoughts(Mando-pop/Rock)

 

  I 'm a bit late talking about Joker Xue's talents but he is well known in Taiwan for his own emotional signature style in penmanship and singing ability. He has wrote many hits over the years for other artists as his lyrics deal with love lost and unrequited love. The singer's career took off in 2006. Object From Outer Space is Joker Xue's eleventh album to date. 

1 天外來物 Object From Outer Space

2 遲遲 Slow

3 把你揉碎捏成蘋果 Hold And Crush You Into Apples

4 野心 Ambition

5 彩券 Lottery Ticket

6 不愛我 Don’t Love Me

7 潘金蓮 Pan Jinlian (Golden Lotus)

8 耗盡 Exhausting feat. 郭聰明 Fan Xiao Guo

9 小尖尖 Tiny Sharp feat. 韩红 Han Hong

10 紙船 Paper Ship feat. 郁可唯 Yisa Yu

    For Objects to be this singer's eleventh album at thirty seven years old, the tracks are very concise in a set theme. The theme would be ballads written in many various viewpoints dealing lyrics that break hearts even if you don't understand Mandarin Chinese. I like how the ballads ranger in sounds from pop rock to dark hard rock. Slower ballads showcase more a mysterious classical sound as the violins play sequences under the usual band guitars. Harder rock tracks still contribute a settle vibe that doesn't make these moments on the album stick out. Joker's definitely a rock singer at heart under the ballads in my opinion. Featuring artists appear on the last tracks of Objects From Outer Space to my pleasure. I wouldn't say that these two tracks made the already good album better. Instead these tracks kind of reminded me how certain tracks sound so beautifully melodic when Xue sings alone. Another voice only enhances this fact. My only problem is that one or two tracks sounded a bit too much like each other causing my to hit the skip button after awhile. 

   I L.O.V.E his vocals so much. They mange to be so soft yet the tone can adapt to rock so easily. There's also a deep tone to his voice that's so dark it fit melodic rock like a puzzle piece. Joker was an amazing vocalist on this album and he doesn't see to be slowing down at all. 

Killing Commendatore(騎士団長殺し) Japanese Novel Thoughts

 

   Killing Commendatore is a 2017 novel written by world famous Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The book was originally split into two volumes in Japan but was combined into one release for North America. Many people have various opinions about this novel so I'll also add mine to the fray. 

    An artist moves into the house of a retired famous painter after separating from his wife. Weird events start to occur around the man after he discovers a painting in the house's upstair's attic....Then he has a white haired neighbor that's just as hard to figure out as all the strange events happening around him.  

     Killing Commendatore has many different subplots going on in it's pages. What starts off as a family inspired drama turned fantasy thrill starts to fall toward the ground quickly when too much content gets stuck into a story that isn't stable enough to support various ideas. There's a vibrant cast of characters on top of the various ideas in this world that are as abstract as a painting you see in an art museum. The painting has all the details about the character you're looking at however, the painting is too complexed to make out those details clearly. This caused me to not care about anyone I was reading about. No matter how much the characters tried to become normalized by establishing human relationships with each others. Other times, the novel creates an interesting atmosphere full to the brim with mystery, thrills, and fantasy until the coming pages ruin it by preaching historical facts at the reader. There's many times when certain characters would appear just to discuss history from World War II, forcing me to flip over to the book's cover multiple times to check if I was reading the same book. At least readers go through all of this to get a conclusion that wraps up everything nicely. Killing Commendatore isn't a novel that I could see myself reading a second time. While Murakami is known for writings that create new rules in the Fiction genre  good and bad, I've still managed to come across novels he's written that speak to me as a reader. Sadly, Killing Commendatore isn't one of them.

    I won't state that this novel can't be a good read for someone. Give it a go if you like many different ideas raging in a story about characters just as complexed as those ideas presented. I recommend reading his older novels such as After Dark, Norwegian Wood, or Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.