la_vie_noire (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_vie_noire) wrote2011-01-08 04:07 pm
la_vie_noire) wrote2011-01-08 04:07 pm
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Helena is definitely my new manga girlfriend. God, I'm so in love.
This is definitely a good manga, and damn how it loves to talk about race and class differences. Now I can say that white people aren't exactly positively depicted. Kinda the contrary, the privileges are depicted without any excuse whatsoever.
But the cultural norms are so wrong. It's really a mixture between Japan and USA. Where drug dealers act like Yakuza, and where there is racial tensions and identities exactly like the US. (Watch Michiko to Hatchin to see the contrast, or even Cidade de Deus, or Rosario Tijeras's movie, which aren't perfect works, but you will see what I'm talking about.) Really, with all this considered, it isn't that bad; just awkward when you read people using the word, "mestiza" (really, most people only use it when talking about history here).
Also, I dislike Elijah's father SO MUCH. And God, I hate Elijah when he is in "solemn killer" mode, but I actually can stand him when he acts like a puppy towards Helena. I feel more for Naomi though.
It also got better about prostitution; showing that they know what they do, separate private lives from work, and their everydays (even if it's all about PAIN int he end). They even show a girl shaving her armpit in a funny, non-sexual way (in a 4koma). (But there is little talk about gigolos who are also supposed to be there.)
This is a very painful manga; with gore and kinda depressing. There are a lot of explicit sexual scenes (there is rape, but it's always in the background, they never showed a rape scene; this is no Berserk, thank God), and can be very, very triggery.
I was going to say something more, but I forgot. Probably having to do with Helena and her hotness.
This is definitely a good manga, and damn how it loves to talk about race and class differences. Now I can say that white people aren't exactly positively depicted. Kinda the contrary, the privileges are depicted without any excuse whatsoever.
But the cultural norms are so wrong. It's really a mixture between Japan and USA. Where drug dealers act like Yakuza, and where there is racial tensions and identities exactly like the US. (Watch Michiko to Hatchin to see the contrast, or even Cidade de Deus, or Rosario Tijeras's movie, which aren't perfect works, but you will see what I'm talking about.) Really, with all this considered, it isn't that bad; just awkward when you read people using the word, "mestiza" (really, most people only use it when talking about history here).
Also, I dislike Elijah's father SO MUCH. And God, I hate Elijah when he is in "solemn killer" mode, but I actually can stand him when he acts like a puppy towards Helena. I feel more for Naomi though.
It also got better about prostitution; showing that they know what they do, separate private lives from work, and their everydays (even if it's all about PAIN int he end). They even show a girl shaving her armpit in a funny, non-sexual way (in a 4koma). (But there is little talk about gigolos who are also supposed to be there.)
This is a very painful manga; with gore and kinda depressing. There are a lot of explicit sexual scenes (there is rape, but it's always in the background, they never showed a rape scene; this is no Berserk, thank God), and can be very, very triggery.
I was going to say something more, but I forgot. Probably having to do with Helena and her hotness.