Stacy Moon

For this week, I read Volume 4 of Tezuka Osamu’s “Hi No Tori” (Phoenix). I must confess that I have not read a lot of Osamu’s work in the past, mostly because the time I started reading manga was long after his active years. I am glad to have been able to read Karma though, because I now understand why Osamu is so revered by the animation industry. The way that he told the story was really captivating and dramatic. I loved the majestic, wide pages of the scenery and the buddhas throughout the manga. His renderings were so intricate and beautiful, which provided a great contrast from his characters. I found them to be quite simple and caricatured, even more so than modern manga. Gao, the main character, was especially exaggerated with his shapes. His nose and body were massive, and in manga it was kind of shocking to see a character look like that. Typically, men are extremely fit or skinny to appeal to female audiences, even in shounen manga. If they are rounder, then they’re prob...

After seeing “Pyongyang” on the reading list, I felt the need to read it for my blog this week. “Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea” by Guy Delisle was the retelling of his experience living in North Korea for two months. Rather than being a journal or diary, the narrative style felt like a really long comic strip. It had storytelling elements like Maus, but not as many engaging symbols or imagery. To be honest, it was a weird read for me but I did appreciate the amount of detail Delisle had when describing parts of Pyongyang and the facts about the country. Overall, it was really informative but it dragged on for a while. Some parts that I enjoyed from this graphic novel were the satirical moments sprinkled in. The little “quizzes” Delisle were pretty engaging ways to express his opinion on the delusional views of the society. I especially liked the last one where basically every North Korean was labeled a traitor for the most ridiculous reasons. It was funny, ...

This week I read March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. I also looked through the other resources shared on the site for this week. I just wanted to start off by saying I really enjoyed the little comic by Luke Humphris. I feel like as time progresses so does the representation of minorities at a steady pace. Representation of all cultures in the media may not get to an equal footing in my lifetime, but I’m glad that it started becoming more prevalent during it. I always found it so ridiculous how long toxic masculinity was ignored by the public. I think the comic did a great job of addressing a serious issue in a simple yet effective style. He didn’t beat around the bush—he went straight to the point. Although I have not been subjected to this kind of stereotyping (because I am not a man), I’ve definitely had friends and relatives relate to this. I’ve seen this scenario play out in so many movies as well, specifically Asian movies. Toxic masculini...