Doki Doki Manga // Mishounen Produce

It has been a long, long time since I can last remember reading a doki doki manga!

Last night I started to read a shojou manga by the title of Mishounen Produce written and drawn by Kaoru Ichinose. I may have "accidentally" read it in one sitting instead of actually sleeping... but I guess that means that it's not too long of a series, there's really only 18 chapters that make up the whole story.

The story is about a boy (Kousei) and a girl (Ka-ako), who have been best friends since they were young children. (It is made clear several times in the manga that they really didn't have much choice in this as they were the only two children living in their small country town.) Growing up in such isolation it's only natural that they bring their interesting and colourful personalities with them as they enter high school, (as boarders of course), only to be met with teasing and criticism on their first day. Ka-ako, a self-confessed lover of a shojou manga about a Prince called Lawrence, vows to show up their bullies by transforming/producing her best friend Kousei, a 'country bumpkin' with a wild side, into the most popular guy in school. She does this by modelling Kousei into the mold of Prince Lawrence including his princely charms and feminist ideals, only for it to start getting out of control when Kousei finds inspiration from other sources and starts creating more characters to play and appeal to more girls. The humour pursues as Ka-ako constantly tries to keep the reigns on an obviously out of control Kousei and his even more out of control increasing popularity.

This wasn't the best manga that I've read. The plot was predictable, (if you read lots shojou manga you soon learn that there are particular formulas and stories which get used and re-used quite a lot), the characters were pretty standard shojou and it felt like the manga abruptly ended in a spot where there was potential for the plot to really start developing some interesting story arcs. However despite that I really enjoyed the story, the characters and artwork. It's cute and the manga is chock full of doki doki scenes that will actually make your heart go doki doki~!

STUDY NOTE: For those unfamiliar with manga or the Japanese language: the term "doki doki" is Japanese onomatopoeia for one's heart beating. I guess in English it would kind of be similar to "ba-dump ba-dump" only with romantic connotations attached to it.

It has been such a long time since I last remember reading a manga that constantly had scenes and situations that make you smile or swoon, your heart beat or whatever it is you do or feel when you read a doki doki manga. For me it's like a tugging sensation somewhere deep in my gut and feelings of excited anticipation for what happens next or wondering how the main characters are going to respond.

I guess this is the kind of thing people refer to as a guilty pleasure/read? Something that's not particularly sensational or spectacular but still deliciously enjoyable!
If you have some time and would like to try something a little bit different give Mishounen Produce a try. If you google the title I'm sure you'll be able to find something that will lead you to it. *wink!

I'd love to know what your experiences with doki doki-like manga are, as I'm sure it's not just me who has experiences like this. If you have any recommendations for manga to read or would like to let me know what your favourite doki doki manga is leave a comment below.

Till next time!

Maisy xxx

A Dabble in Drama: City Hunter

Image courtesy of koreandrama.org

So I have been watching a lot of drama shows lately...
For those who don't know I ABSOLUTELY LOVE watching Asian drama! Usually there's an add capped on to the end of a drama I'm watching, or a poster picture that catches my eye and I can go from drama to drama. However, every so often I find myself in a bit of a slump not knowing what to watch next. This is what it was like for me when it came to the end of the season for Bel Ami and Prime Minister & I. Sometimes, (I have to stress it's not always like this), it's like having a gap in your life that needs to be filled. I know that sounds sad but I don't feel bad as I like to watch them when they come out before I go to bed, (or after work), as a way to relax.
When faced with this dilemma and nothing seems to draw me in, I like to look back on drama's I started and never finished or ones that I planned to watch and never got to as well as one's that seem to be pretty popular.

Enter City Hunter center stage. This drama absolutely b l e w . m y .  m i n d .
I've known about City Hunter since they [Japan] handed the project over for Korea to film, it's a few years old and definately falls into the planned to watch just never got around to it category.

City Hunter is based on the popular Japanese manga of the same title by Tsukasa Hojo. I hadn't read the manga before watching the drama and have since started reading a few chapters as I was curious to see how similar the stories were. Most of the manga based drama's I have seen have been pretty close to the stories or at least keep the integrity of the characters. It might be too early to make a judgement yet but from what I have read so far it seems that the drama is just loosely based on the characters from the manga. I also think that in this particular situation it's a win win scenario as the drama has a pretty kick ass story line.

The drama follows the protagonist Lee Yun Seong as he attempts to carry out the 'cruelest revenge' ever as plotted by his adoptive father. What I loved about this was that from the first episode to the last this drama delivers and is consistent with it's action packed scenes. The choreography is really appeasing to watch and is shot in a way that just makes it look damn cool.
There is of course a romantic aspect to the story but I really enjoyed how this didn't dominate the overall theme of revenge, corruption and good vs evil. 

A lot of the 'actiony' dramas I have watched always start off strong and then somewhere through the course of the story the romance aspect overpowers and it's like all of the purpose and strength that was delivered in the first episodes becomes muddled and lost along the way, and so that's why I really appreciated the integrity the writers had for City Hunter.

I do have to say that I found Lee Min Ho, (who plays Lee Yun Seong), particularly attractive in this drama, enough to make me officially a fan. I've seen his previous dramas' including the latest The Heirs or Inheritors, (which FYI is also awesome), but there was just something about his character and style in City Hunter which I found really cool and... there's no denying it, he's hot in this drama.

What makes this so good for me though is that it takes me back to the moments in my life where I watched my first asian dramas'. The feeling of newness, excitement, anticipation and just all round love of a good story, is something that I find can be absolutely soothing to the soul and a cleansing antidote to a bad day/week/month. Now this doesn't mean that I only find great drama's when I'm sad, it just means that I enjoy being able to relive those feelings and emotions from a time in my life where everything was new and exciting, happy and carefree, and it takes a good story to get me there.

I know this is a bit different to things I normally post, but I'm hoping this year to blog about more of the things that I really love and hope to be able to share more about my experiences with asian drama in the future.

I'm currently on the look out for more interesting shows to watch and would love to know if you have any suggestions? I love learning about cultures and languages so it doesn't matter what country it is from, leave a comment with your suggestions.

Till next time!

Maisy xxx

Book Look: New Upcoming Segment!

As I mentioned earlier in my first post I really enjoy reading. I am a lover of stories! It doesn't matter if it's in spoken form, written form, pictures, movies, video games, true, false; I enjoy savouring all forms of story. Sometimes I get into stages where I read so much that I feel like I'm this giant-all-consuming-book-monster. There are also other times where I don't read stories or novels at all because I've had to read so many academic journal articles for uni. I must confess that some of those articles leave me absolutely exhausted after reading them. Linguistics papers can be very interesting and informative but sometimes the topics are so boring and the writing style so academic, that I have to read them multiple times to understand what they're referring to, that each time you read it it feels like part of your soul is being sucked out and drained into the paper. My reading material is usually comics during these times.

My favourite types of books to read would have to be children's fiction and young adult novels. I can recall a time in high school where a friend caught me in the children's fiction area and was he was like: "Get out of there you don't belong there, you're too old to be reading that sort of stuff!". To that I say NO! You are wrong! Just like movies targeted at a younger age group can be enjoyed by adults so can books. If reading these types of books is your secret guilty pleasure then it is time to stop the guilt and join the embrace train and treasure your uniqueness!

~Sorry rant officially over.~

I haven't been able to post as regularly lately due to a lot going on this week, (my apologies), I have a new assignment so will be focusing most of my time and energy into that for the next week. (Unless I magically become super organised and my brain flips its' 'smart'switch back on and finish my work early.)
So I thought it would be nice to just leave a little note, for you my dear readers, to talk a little about the behind workings of an idea I have for some future-themed posts.
When I was younger I had really close friends who liked to read about as much as I do and we had similar, (yet different at the same time if you know what I mean), tastes in stories and books. Due to this we used to share books and even when I moved to the top of the country would post books as presents to my friends for birthdays, as well as receiving for mine. One of my all time favourite authors that I have now was originally introduced to me as a present posted to me from my best friend.
It was great, and then Life happened! Over time, distance, careers and education we all grew apart, still keep in touch every now and then but it's never the same as before, which is okay as well, that's just how life works sometimes. The thing is, now I don't have anyone to talk to about books and discuss characters and story-lines anymore. Which is why I thought why not talk about what I read on my blog to all my lovely readers! Also it'll be a great way to record what I read during the year....hehehe how many will it be this year?

The segments will pretty much just be what I've finished reading lately, what I thought of the book and maybe a bit about the author if I feel like it. It will be a bit like a book review that is not quite a book review, since I don't claim and am not even going to try to pretend to possess the knowledge or skills of a literary critic. That's just not me! I like stories and to me they are just stories.Whilst some of them may contain good messages or point out issues that are prevalent in society I'm really not one to obsess over those types of things. I think you can see it especially with the burst of popularity some books have received over the past years and the crazy fandom that seems to trail behind them. It's like some people don't know how to enjoy a work of fiction without making it become their whole life or believing that it's an earth shattering revelation just because an author tied a few random facts together and then wove it into their story. I personally know people who have had their marriage destroyed by their partners obsession with a novel which I will keep nameless.

Sorry just got carried away and it seems I ended this post all serious.
Books are great fun, they are good exercise for the imagination. I just want to share with you what I'm reading and my thoughts on them, whether I enjoyed it and whether I think you might too!

I hope that you'll all be looking forward to this segment and that you'll find it enjoyable!

As always feel free to leave any suggestions, comments or feedback, I would love love love to hear from you!

Maybe you have suggestions or recommendations of books for me to read? Or maybe you'd like me to read a book and then tell you if I think it's worthwhile reading? Either way let me know in the comments and I'll see what I can do. :D

Maisy xxx