Princess Jellyfish: Art and review
Jan. 10th, 2014 12:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brendala
Princess Jellyfish Review:
Every female nerd should watch this series. Seriously, this show does an AMAZING job of capturing the dynamic of a bunch of oddball, dorky chicks living under one roof. It’s hard to articulate my love for this show in a traditional review, so I’ll just be lazy and make a list of reasons why I think this should be required viewing for everyone…
1. It delves into the lives of a group of women without EVER sexualizing them. Most of the main women living in the “Sisterhood Dorm” are weird looking (or downright ugly). This is a refreshing change of pace from virtually every other TV show in the universe that sticks glasses on a model and expects us to believe that she’s spent her entire life being ignored by boys because of her appearance.
Granted, Tsukimi (the lead female character) is cute. But even after her obligatory “My Fair Lady” makeover, she isn’t a sex pot or a supermodel. So the show avoids falling into the “She’s All That” trap
2. Speaking of the girls’ appearances, another thing I love about the show is the fact that EVERY SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER LOOKS DISTINCT! One of my biggest artistic pet peeves is when a professional artist can draw countless diverse male characters but can only bring himself to draw one or two different women and just palette swap them over and over (I have dubbed this phenomenon “Clone Girl Syndrome”). WAY too many shows/artists suffer from this; and anime is a notorious repeat offender. So this show is a breath of fresh air for the character designs alone. The fact that the story is good is just icing on the cake.
3. It explores both the good and bad side of being an “otaku”. The way all the girls escape into their hobbies is clearly a coping mechanism for dealing with being treated like outcasts their whole lives. And, while its fun for them (and fun for us to watch); it’s also kinda sad and unhealthy. And some of their behaviors hit me pretty close to home.
For example, when Tsukimi brings a new “girl” to their Friday night dinner party, her room mates are horrified to find out that Tsukimi’s new friend is one of ‘The Stylish’ (which is their slang word for popular, pretty people who wear fashionable clothes). And they’re really nasty to Kuranosuke despite the fact that s/he brought in a bunch of expensive food and was nothing but nice to them. The girls in the sisterhood let their past experiences block them off from meeting new people and getting to know a really rad new friend. Being bullied and ostracized turned them into assholes. And that just sucks.
…..I want to gush more, but anything further would be a spoiler. And I REALLY want everyone to discover this series on their own. Go check it out! Funimation has the first episode on YouTube for free (in both sub and dub), so you have no excuse not to at least preview it!
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-10 08:33 pm (UTC)I know the 'girls' appearances all look the same' issue is what bothered you about Ever After High, but I've managed to overlook it because the characters really get more fleshed out as the series progresses (which is a feat considering how short the webisodes are).
Plus the animation is still gorgeous.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-10 10:38 pm (UTC)It is strange for all of Japan's political problems they occassionally get things like this better than Americans do. It is like Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. That anime was created to be purely fanservice. And it is downright hilarious how guys were so butthurt about it. But it is basically the gratitutous fan service that most of the guys get anyway.
If you like Princess Jellyfish because of they talk about woman, I recommend watching the jdrama Kimi Wa Petto.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-10 10:43 pm (UTC)I seriously love this drama. The manga is not bad. But what is so interesting about it to me is the female lead gets dumped because her intelligence, her education, and her height intimidate men. I never saw such an interesting view of relationships through a woman's eyes than I have with Kimi Wa Petto. Warning, it is a bit weird at first (basically, she finds an 18 year old boy in a box and nurses him back to health and he doesn't want to leave. So she says, 'you can stay but as my pet' and he pretends to be her pet). Really, I love it so much because I relate to Sumire so much.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-11 07:20 am (UTC)I initially didn't want to watch the TV series because I had read the first manga and I didn't like it (the art style was off-putting and the translation was awkward and a pain to read). So I was pleasantly surprised that the show was so good. I really liked how it took the "Manic Pixie Dreamgirl" formula and turned it on it's head.
Speaking of J-dramas....
Before I had cable, I used to watch subtitled Japanese dramas on a local Asian channel. A lot of them were REALLY good. But, sadly, none of them were popular enough to get streamed on places like YouTube where I could watch them again. So I haven't watched very many.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-11 07:14 am (UTC)I think it has a lot to do with the fact that animation doesn't have the "just for kids" stigma in Japan. So a bigger variety of stuff is able to be produced.
Also, unlike the US, Japan isn't reluctant to make stuff that shamelessly panders to women. And it's really sad that the few genuinely good "girlie shows" we get are anomalies like 'Friendship is Magic' (and that only took off because a TON of dudes fell in love with it)
It is like Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. That anime was created to be purely fanservice. And it is downright hilarious how guys were so butthurt about it.
I haven't seen Free!; but I LOVE the fact that male otaku are getting butthurt about the fanservice. XD
no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 03:46 pm (UTC)