the network for radical unschooling families

Introductions

I'm Joyce. Mom to Kat (17), wife to Carl. We're in Medfield, MA, not far from Boston. I enjoy writing (fantasy and about unschooling), drawing. Kat's teaching me guitar. So far I've mastered a mean intro to Smoke on the Water ;-)

I've always loved manga and anime even before I knew what it was ;-)

Back when I was a kid (early 60s) we had Astro Boy and Speed Racer and Kimba. Even though they got sliced and diced for the American market and I didn't know they were Japanese, you could tell there was something different . They had a depth, some ongoing tension and conflict that American cartoons didn't have. The closest American cartoons came was Jonny Quest (which was pretty darn close! Very well done. Even better in the remake.)

I got started on the modern stuff when my daughter Kat (now 17) got interested in Pokemon. (Undoubtedly loads of adult's starting point!)

We got into Ronin Warriors and Dragonball and Tenshi Muyo.

Which all seem lacking in depth complexity now compared to the newer stuff like Rurouni Kenshin and Cowboy BeBop and Naruto and Bleach ...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Katherine on August 8, 2008 at 2:08pm

Oh what a good idea and I hope others take to it as well as I have. There's nobody but unschoolers here that I know of and I've been better able to keep in touch with people through RUN for some reason.

I am Katherine and I have a 5 year old who's got no idea that he's watching manga/anime inspired Cartoonnetwork.com. He just knows that he really likes it.

I am also taking my very last class to finish a degree I'm working on and it's Film Art. The last two assignments are to pick a genre and watch several movies... and I guess I picked ANIME of course.

Then I'm going to an Amy Steinberg concert this weekend thanks to an event that was posted on this network.

Permalink Reply by Kara on August 12, 2008 at 11:14am

Hi. I'm Kara, mom to two anime and manga enthusiasts :)

I like Studio Ghibli films, the aforementioned Kimba series, Hikaru no go, Cardcaptor Sakura and Tsubasa. I'm big into Asian films as well so this is sort of a natural progression.

DD,9, likes all that I've mentioned and is also very much into reading manga. Right now, she's reading Ultra Maniacs.

My elder DD,19, likes a lot more adult-ish anime and manga and is a big fan of Evangelion. She also is an artist and specializes in drawing anime. I think she'd make a great comic book illustrator!

What a great group! I could talk about anime and movies all day long!

Kara

Permalink Reply by Joyce Fetteroll on August 13, 2008 at 5:22am

Hi Katherine! I'm liking it too. :-) Is Film Art the class? Like film critique? What degree are you working towards?

Permalink Reply by Joyce Fetteroll on August 13, 2008 at 6:45am

Hi Kara! Glad you found us. Yes, I could go on about anime and manga all day too :-) My daughter Kat who is 17, is big into drawing anime style too and has been exploring colleges that offer degrees in Sequential Art.

Permalink Reply by Kara on August 15, 2008 at 11:37pm

I have a question about this group (and others). Do I keep replying here or use the yahoo site?

Permalink Reply by Katherine on August 17, 2008 at 2:49am

Art's the degree. And yes... Film Art's the class, which is over now a week ago. :) *sigh* It's good to have that over with. It was critique with some film technology thrown in for good measure.

The only thing I really wish could change in RUN is to have message alerts sent on threads that I have no idea exist unless I just happen to run across them next time I visit the groups I belong to. That's why I don't think there's as much activity as there might be.

The only workaround I see for that is sort of out of the way, and not likely to be used consistently. After posting a new discussion, one could follow up by also going to the home page of the group and using the "Send Message to Group" feature.

Permalink Reply by Nola on August 26, 2008 at 3:27pm

I'm Nola, I am 14 years old. I draw, play pokemon and runescape (effie5413), and follow a myriad of other interests that i can't think of at the moment.

I prefer manga to anime, and i subscribe to Shonen Jump, i also read fruits basket, D Gray Man, and Shaman King.

I also speak a very small amount of japanese (that's speak, not read).

Permalink Reply by Joyce Fetteroll on August 27, 2008 at 6:36am

Sorry, missed your post! Yes, use this site rather than the list. It's not quite as easy as email but a lot better for people to get to know each other I think.

Permalink Reply by Katherine on August 27, 2008 at 6:40am

Joyce, I forgot to thank you. I ran across some post you wrote where you explain to click "Notify" at the bottom of the discussions page (which can be reached by clicking "Forums" in RUN's header of links) of the groups I belong to and that gives me the alert when something new has been posted, even a new discussion. That feature has been working just fine. Thanks for the suggestion.

Permalink Reply by Joyce Fetteroll on August 27, 2008 at 6:54am

Hi Nola. Welcome! How are you picking up Japanese? Kat and I picked up a few words from anime (baka (idiot) -- is one that comes up a lot ;-). A friend of Kat's hired a tutor to learn Japanese and she was going to use manga to do the teaching. Unfortunately the friend had been studying it a while and wanted to go faster than Kat or I could, but we did learn that the conversation in manga tends to be rude. And by rude I don't mean calling each other names (like baka) but using impolite forms of address. Sort of like for Americans being in each other's face all the time. I think she was afraid we'd end up talking rude to each other ;-)

Permalink Reply by Katherine on August 27, 2008 at 7:33am

I wonder how many people picking up American English these days are learning the rude expressions and not knowing it? Maybe it's more obvious than it is in Japanese.

Permalink Reply by Sally Lopez on August 28, 2008 at 6:21am

I'm Sally Lopez. I became interested in anime when my high school boyfriend (Gabe) was taking Japanese and talked about his favorite shows constantly. I didn't watch with him much (Dragonball Z is tediously boring if you're watching an episode somewhere in the middle of the series and have no idea what's going on), but I started to become familiar with terminology and a few of the more common jokes. Gabe and I broke up, but then I dated Joey, who was also a fan. Fortunately, he was also more selective in his viewing, choosing first of all for the story and whether he liked the music. I found watching with Joey highly enjoyable (my relationship with Joey was better than mine and Gabe's had been--I'm sure that helped warm me up), and I really got into it. He introduced me to 3X3 Eyes, Evangelion, Escaflowne (<---Which I HIGHLY recommend, with a cherry on top. It has some excellent music.), Fushigi Yuugi, Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, Ranma 1/2, Magic Knights Rayearth, among others.

Joey and I (and my heart) broke up, and I gave up anime for a while. It was too much "his" thing for me to want to pursue it on my own. Around the time I graduated from high school, I decided I wanted to be a missionary in China. I tried to get into a Chinese language class at a college, but I got put on the waiting list, so I took Japanese while I was waiting. My interest in anime was rekindled, and I started reading manga, too. I spent a lot of money and a lot of my college study hours (I really needed a vacation) on anime. I got a job at a Sanrio (Hello Kitty) store and listened to J-Pop online. I learned tons about storytelling, humor, Japanese culture, and quality vs selling out.

Now, years later, I still love anime and manga, but I am a picky fan. I'm fond of Studio Ghibli (Whisper of the Heart is my favorite feature-film anime) and I enjoy anything with a really good relationship story, but I'm bored by gore and too much flash-flash-flash action where you can barely tell what's going on. I HATE HATE HATE dubs (well, sometimes they make me laugh, like the Escaflowne The Movie dub).

I didn't have the space (and my husband doesn't have the patience) for all that I had collected over the years, so I kept a few of my favorites and got rid of most of my old stuff. I gave my younger brother a large suitcase full of tapes, and will feel forever responsible that he ended up married to an otaku girl. I mentioned in the favorite manga thread that I sold several of my manga collections and wept repentantly afterward. They were so comforting when I was lonely, and I wish I could have them to give to my kids (even as coloring books!).

So, there's my story. Fan by association turned real fan turned wistful fan, but never a missionary to China. That just wasn't meant to be.