The Yuriness of Anita King and Hisami Hisaishi redux, pt 1 of 2

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

I posted these scans this time last year, on the old S_D...I figured I might as well repost them again, rather than have them lost...lost to time. *cries* Besides, I posted them for International Day of Femslash, and it's the second one, so, hey.

I'm a big fan of Hideyuki Kurata and Ran Ayanaga's Read or Dream manga, the follow-up to Read or Die - it is, in fact, my favourite manga currently commercially available in English, and in the running for my favourite ever. The entire RoD series - Die, Dream, and ROD the TV (loosely based on Dream) - is pretty full of yuri moments... For Dream/the TV, that mostly focusses on Anita...primarily her relationship with Hisami Hisaishi.

Which...is the focus of these two posts.

Remember, this is manga, so read right to left.

Context: The Paper Sisters - Michelle Chan, Maggie Mui, and Anita King, a trio of Paper Masters (people within the ROD universe with powers over paper), who are      nominally a detective agency specializing in book-related mysteries, but hardly ever DO so - have been invited to Japan to help a young writer named Hisami Hisaishi, whom they met in an earlier adventure (which I probably should have scanned, honestly), get over her writer's block. After a predictable bibliomaniac detour where Maggie and Michelle went book shopping, they meet with Hisa.

Cut to Michelle being her typically overly enthusiastic, yet air-headed, self (despite her claim of having kissed 'lots of people', 'Chelle's every bit as inexperienced as the other 3 - 'lots of people' were Anita, Maggie, and a bunch of neighbourhood animals)...Anita clears things up for her...and:

To which end, Michelle gets...creative (dig that crazy 'stache!):

Hisa's transparent. And sparkles. Heh.


Anita's just as transparent, but not as honest about it...

Michelle and Maggie's reactions to the Kiss are priceless, as a sidenote.

The blonde who interrupted the moment is Hisa's manager, Ms Ishii who is...a bit of a psycho.

Random divergence - I can't believe how many times I read this before I realised Michelle had named Anita 'Anito'...I have no idea why that amuses me so.

So, anyway, they get settled into their Japanese apartment (provided by Hisa's publisher, although Ms Ishii quite vocally loathes the Sisters), and go out to get 'supplies' (read: Books)...so, as Anita is the only Paper Master in history who HATES books, she decides to hang out in the street and wait for the others. Which turns out to be fortuitous, because...


What a wonderful time they've had! How can Anita top it?

 Oh, Anita, you know just what to say. Poor Hisa.

Luckily, the topic pretty quickly gets changed, and they go into a book store (apparently without protest from Anita!), where they hear a couple of older girls badmouthing Hisa's book, apparently not knowing the writer is RIGHT THERE. Anita flips out, and goes to defend her honour. But...


All together, now...'Aaaw!' And look...sparkles!

I end here for now. Next time, the two of them get even more obvious - yes, more obvious than blushing and sparkling at each other.

In reference to the rules changes since then, this post, and the second one, are a total of 28 or 29 pages (it's hard to add up the partial pages) taken from throughout volume 4 of the series, which is about 220 pages.

Comments

[batcookies.insanejournal.com]

Any girl that picks Anne of Green Gables as her favorite book has a special place in my heart.

[timgueguen.insanejournal.com]

Which would describe half the girls in Japan apparently. They're quite besotted with Anne on that side of the Pacific. There's even an Anne of Green Gables anime.

[menagerie.insanejournal.com]

Wow. I'd forgotten about that one. Watched a few episodes when I was really young (reruns). The opening stuck with me for years.

[mugiwara.insanejournal.com]

Thanks for the scans! So it's the anime which is based on the manga? I thought it was the opoosite on the anime and so I avoided it, because 99% of mangas based on anime are lame.
Have to get a look at it now, especially if there are stories happening after ROD the TV.
Are Nenene and Yomiko in the manga to? I wonder how Nenene would have reacted if she found Michele trying to get Anita and Hisami kissing each other.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

Yomiko appears in exactly one story, at the end of the series, sort of looping it back to its genesis in Read or Die. Nenenenenenenenene *smacks self* never appears at all. The focus is entirely on the Paper Sisters, and their own extended supporting cast (Hisa, a young fellow named Chihon, a man named Mr Lau, Lily the Reader Extraordinaire, etc).

ROD the TV is rather an alternate universe to the manga (which debuted at about the same time - the manga had a couple months head start) - the overarching story isn't there, and Read or Dream is a lot lighter, being more character driven than actiony. Not that there's no action, but it's not nearly the focus. There is a bit of an overarching story, but it's a completely different one, involving a smaller group of characters, and no big global conspiracy. One particularly interesting change - Anita's history in the manga is all there in the anime, but it's not all Anita's history. (Ooo, cryptic! But it's majorly spoily to say anything else.)

[shanejayell.insanejournal.com]

Read or Die, Read or Dream and ROD the TV are all kinda seperate things. :) I inda prefer Read or Dream because it's lighter and more humorous, but that's me. *lol*

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

Why do they sparkle! Are they vampires?

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

*gets newspaper and smacks Ashtoreth on the nose with it* Bad! No invoking Twilight!

Just for that...it's Bishie Sparkles (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BishieSparkle) with a side order of Love Bubbles (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LoveBubbles).

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

::internet coma stupor::