Ghostly Things(怪しことがたり) Japanese Manga Thoughts

 

    Created by Ushio Shirotori, Ghostly Things was a manga I quickly flipped through at the bookstore. I liked the art so decided to give volume one a read. I'm going to be completely honest here and say that volume one was kinda boring to me but, there was something about the story that made me want to keep reading the continuation even after I had chose to drop the series. I soon found myself look for new translated volumes during my frequent visits to the bookstore. Thank God this manga was only three volumes because I can only imagine how tiring the story would have been after eight or ten volumes. 

  A girl goes to stay in a house said to be haunted in order to look for an item that will help her find her missing mother......  

  Ghostly Things constructs a storyline that might seem very deep at first. That is until you realize nothing ever happens in most chapters except introductions to ghost like creatures called Yokai. You might call the story like a collectable trading card game where you try to find out about as many Yokai as you can. These creatures appear as the main character transverses that house with a Yokai that knows her father. The story takes a bit of an exciting turn when villains join in the search for the same item our main character. Too bad many readers won't make it that far due to the story's over bogged down information driven first volume. There's certain parts of Ghostly Things that was very cute, then there were moments in the last volume that were very sentimental to the villain's background. All the while still giving a story that shoves may different Yokai down the reader's throat. I actually believe that story suffered a tiny bit from this. For example, the ending felt very rushed in solving the overall conflict and the mother was just left wondering in the spirit world with the belief that she should would eventually find her way home...... WHAT THE FUCK?  Still, Volume three was the best volume out of the whole series. 

   The art is up to par with all the other fantasy related manga on bookshelves currently. The Yokai's designs take up most of the detail effort in the panels, while the characters all look vibrant with youth.  Japanese folklore fans will appreciate the visuals of this manga as a whole. 

  Just think "Pokemon got to catch(in this case learn about them) all" only with Yokai and you got the gist of Ghostly Things in a nut shell. I didn't love nor hate this manga. I'm in the middle of both emotions. I'm just happy the series was short..... A spin off could work out though. 

Zombie For Sale(기묘한 가족) Korean Film Thoughts(2019)

 

 

  The Odd Family or Zombie For Sale as the film is known as internationally, is a 2019- 2020 Korean film directed and written by Lee Min Jae. The film hires an all star cast and new actors: Kim Nam Gil, Jung Jae Young, Uhm Ji Won, Park In-Hwan, Jung Ga Ram(Beast Clawing at Straws), and Lee Soo Kyung. 

  A country family finds a boy on the side of the road and welcomes he into their family, not knowing that the boy is a wanted zombie experiment that will soon infect their whole town.......

  Zombie For Sale isn't a film that's main focus is the zombie aspect of the storyline. What the point focuses on most here is the idea of family bonds and what keeps a family together. The zombie parts of the film are more like the icing on the top of an already sweet enough cake. Constant comedy filled scenes also showcase that this film want's you to think of the whole situation the character's get themselves into as slapstick stupid fun. Oh boy is some parts of this film stupid as hell.... Many times through out this film had me shaking my head at how stupid the actions of everyone involved were. Most if not all of the issues they had could have been avoided but I will chalk that up to country bumpkin naivety. Not to say that the zombie parts, family troubles, and slight romance isn't a fun ride, because for sure it is. Lee juggles all the mess he mixed together pretty well. Even at times when I didn't think this film would head anywhere promising. Director Lee ties all loose ends up with a tiny bow just for viewers.    

   I have to give an honorable mention to Jung Ga Ram for playing the zombie who was a bit too strange, yet also had pieces of his humanity. Sometimes I saw his character as a zombie who had a part of his human self left inside. This is shown during the romantic scenes of the film..... Everyone else was good in their roles too. Nothing that I haven't seen them do before however. 

   Zombie For Sale was a hidden gem that I almost didn't watch. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. It's a Korean film that I will keep in my collection and recommend to fans of South Korean cinema. 

Toilet- Bound Hanako--kun(地縛少年花子くん) Japanese Anime Thoughts

 

  Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun is a manga series created by Aidairo and is still currently ongoing. The anime adaption was made into twelve episodes as of last year. Lerche did the animation while Masaomi Ando directed the series. Hanako seems to have found a fanbase in and outside of Japan....

   A girl who just wants a boyfriend attends a school filled with rumors of the magical seven wonders. One of them is know as Hanako and will make your wish come true if you knock on his toilet stall..... She does just this as a boy appearing to be the same age as her appears in front of her....

   I did give volume one of the manga a try. If I'm to be honest, it wasn't for me. I couldn't even make it through the whole volume because the story bored me with it's constant reliance on comedy and cute character models to appeal to a female audience. All the while, still covering that up with a dark concept. The anime did manage to hold my attention through all 12 episodes but only because I could stomach the random comedic moments in anime format a bit better. There still were times that I was taken out of the story due to the plot itching to always throw a laugh in a serious scene. This caused me to not take most of the characters seriously enough to actually care about them. Whenever they would go up against a ghost, I would kinda of just watch them run around until Hanako came to save the day. NeNe's character was constantly the butt of the joke because her legs were shaped like radishes, Kou was never really at full power, and Hanako actually had a good background story that was ruined by the anime's lack of time. Villains were villains then they weren't villains.... as the story tries to make you feel sorry for the aspersions that Hanako and Nene exorcised. What was even weirder was that the show didn't take on a true dark turn of events until Mitsuda's character was introduced. I started enjoying the show after that and even liked his character. Mitsuda's ark was literally the best part of Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun.  I'll even say it with my full chest if you want. Kou and Mitsuda's friendship was also more interesting than the flip floppy relationship NeNe and Hanako brought to the table. Mitsuda made Kou more relatable to the point that I cared a bit more about him toward the end. As you might have guessed, the anime has a ever ending type of ending because the manga isn't finished yet or wasn't finished at the time of production. I doubt that they will have a season two. 

  The animation looks like a cartoon that would be on the new age version of Cartoon Network. It's similar to slapstick humor drawn to cute character models. They had cute round faces, big eyes, and small fames. I could understand if not everyone would be interested in this series. I'm not completely either. 

   Toilet - Bound Hanako-Kun isn't a show that I would watch again. Even while I did enjoy certain aspects of the show, It's not a show that I would recommend to most people unless they like this sort of thing. I did really love the ending theme song.... Especially the piano intro.