Heeheehee...

[teddog]

I wish I had my clock radios icon still, because posting this is just the same to several people here...

Del Rey, Marvel to Collaborate on X-Men, Wolverine

Oh! But it gets better!

"The first, X-Men, was described as a shōjo title — "X-Men meets Fruits Basket or Ouran High School Host Club" according to one panelist — features Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning as an all-boys' school, with the only female student being Kitty Pryde. The work will be aimed at a manga audience; while the characters will be based on famous X-Men heroes, the manga will not require any prior knowledge of the original X-Men comics. The manga is scripted by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, with art by Indonesia-based artist Anzu."

My first reaction: An X-Men/Ouran High School Host Club fusion or even crossover would be really freaking funny.

Second reaction: Fruits Basket and Ouran probably aren't the best examples for this (Tohru =/= Kitty), unless they're trying to say "Reverse Harem".

Third reaction: I am extremely curious how this is going to translate. Morbidly curious, even, since I do not mentally connect the stereotypes of shōjo with the X-Men.

Ah, who am I kidding. I just want to see this explode into pairing wars. AND IT WILL. Such is the joy of the Harem genre. ::pops some popcorn::

Comments

[thebitterguy]

{Lisa} I recognize most of those words...{/Lisa}

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

Ugh, my time helping run an anime club is showing.

[krwalker.livejournal.com]

My first reaction to the statements "all boys school," "only female student being Kitty Pryde," and "manga" was pretty extreme. Honestly, all I could think of was gang rape (or tentacle rape.)

But, I figured I don't know a ton about anime, so I looked up "shōjo" and found it almost as disturbing as what I had been thinking.

Now I pity the poor X-Men, because I'm imagining the rough-and-tumble makes "drawn in a flowing style where beautiful characters with huge, intricately drawn eyes become spontaneously surrounded by flowers, stars, and/or bubbles."

Wow. I mean, wow.

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

This will be either wonderful or a complete train wreck. Or both at the same time!

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

My first reaction to the statements "all boys school," "only female student being Kitty Pryde," and "manga" was pretty extreme. Honestly, all I could think of was gang rape (or tentacle rape.)

Nah. Unless it's an adult title, setups like these are "harem" series; you have the main hero (Kitty in this case) and a boatload of other characters who have some passing romantic interest in the lead. Lots of "warm fluzzies", if you dig that sort of thing. I don't, personally.

"Now I pity the poor X-Men, because I'm imagining the rough-and-tumble makes "drawn in a flowing style where beautiful characters with huge, intricately drawn eyes become spontaneously surrounded by flowers, stars, and/or bubbles."

Wow. I mean, wow."

I'm tempted to pick it up JUST to see how strange the art is going to be.

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

I'm betting for "wonderful train wreak". No offense to X-Men fans here, naturally.

I think the one chance this has at ACTUALLY being decent is how Kitty is handled as the lead. They use both Fruits Basket and Ouran as examples, but the female leads in those series are very different. Given that it's a "all-boy's school", then the reason Kitty is even there might be more in line with Haruhi's backstory in Ouran. Tohru is an okay character (she reminds me a lot of my college roomie), but I'd say that Haruhi is the more charming of the two.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Well, I have no idea how it'll play out but the creators involved (in particular goraina) are pretty decent people.

Von

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

Like I said above, there's an opportunity here for something really neat to come about. If the examples are correct, this is going to be a "reverse harem" series of some sort. This puts the lead female character in a position of power because the story is told through her point of view. What really interests me is that Ouran High School Host Club is given as an example; it's a comedy that gently pokes fun at gender and social issues in comics aimed at the female market in Japan, although as a satire it's not particularly hard hitting, deep or biting.

It would only be speculation at this point if this comic is going to be anything like Ouran. The "all-boys' school" seems to echo some of Ouran's set up, but it's not clear if they're referencing Ouran and Fruits Basket as examples of a popular shōjo series in North America (therefore making this all marketing spin) or if the plot for the X-Men series is going to be anything like the examples. My guess is it's probably the former, as the two examples are like day and night.

Yeah, so, I see the potential here for something neat. I don't really like the preliminary sketches, but I really don't have an eye for the shōjo aesthetic.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem on my end is that as I'm starting to become more aware of other creative types (getting to know them is probably pushing it a bit), I'm winding up being too close to the work. I've actually met Raina, albeit briefly, as APE (though I'm blanking if it was in 2006 or 2007). And I like her work. It just means that I have a harder time pulling back and looking at it more pragmatically.

'Course, if it blows chunks it blows chunks. And I do think there is some spin here. But there's also a paycheck for the creators involved and I'm kinda biased on that front. I don't know the artist, however, and I haven't seen his(?) work at all. Not even the sketches. So we'll see how it all plays out.

Von