1.First, Ai means “Love” in Japanese, this name is a reference to both Courtney Love and Ai Yazawa. The Princess Ai in Manga is a loose adaptation of Courtney Love's life story, with Ai as Love's fantasy alter ego. It is also generally believed that Kent, the sensitive, blonde guitar player who becomes Ai's love interest, is based on Courtney Love's late husband, Kurt Cobain. Another connection to the real-life Love is Princess Ai's heart-shaped box, which figures prominently in the story. "Heart-Shaped Box" was a hit song by Nirvana, and was inspired by a heart-shaped box Courtney Love gave Cobain as a present.
Courtney Love is a rock music star, and Princess Ai makes her living as a rock star at Clue Cupid; many of Courtney Love’s friends are musicians, so as Princess Ai…
The history of Ai is resemblance to Love's life
2.Compare with the little red cap we have read this semester: Princess Ai is a doll-face and lovely appearance, I think the appearance of little red cap might not as beautiful as Princess Ai, and also the dressing of little red cap is not as fashion as Princess Ai. In a word, from the appearance and the dressing, may be in the modern view, we like Princess Ai much more than little red cap.
Second, compare the personalities of these two characters: princess Ai a voice like an angel but with petulant--mix of trash, flash, and punk; in my point of view, little red cap is naïve and cute and goodness and innocent. They are quite different.
And also Princess Ai suffers a lot, for example, she is amnesiac. Because of the battle of Ai-land, she is escape from her own land to a newly and strange place—Tokyo, she suffers from many troubles and has to find her real identity… and little red cap do not have such kind of complex sufferings…
Princess Ai is homeless on earth and little red cap has her family and people around her love her so much…
And also there are many women in the Manga of Princess Ai I did not mention. Each of them has the individual characteristics…
Here, I want to say the women was portrayed more complexity, modern, and more relate to the modern live than we have encountered this semester.
3.I agree that costume and body shape plays an important role in Manga. As I know, many people may firstly attracted by the costume and body plays when they meet a new Manga, then they would like to read this Manga. That is to say, a new Mange with good, fashion and personality costume and good body shape will be easily recognized.
The costume and body shape in each time are different. From the costume and body shape of Princess Ai, we could easily know it is happened in modern society, and the characters with the invariable but fashionable and free from vulgarity costume--boys are long haired, and looks so cool, and girls with sexy and fashion clothes, they have big eyes, looks so beautiful and they are so individuality…
And also with a good body shape that attractive by both man and women. We could know the place of this Manga happened for its obvious impression of the buildings…We could see when Princess Ai is mysteriously transported to Tokyo, Japan. The buildings, signboard of the shop are almost with Japanese character, it is undoubted that it must happen in Japan.
What I mean here is we could know when this Manga created and know the culture of this age just from the Mange itself just by the costume and body shapes and also the environment of this Manga.
Questions
For Bleach (due 5/7)
1) Use Wikipedia and Google to get some basic background information on Manga. Create a short list of 5 ways in which Manga differs from the traditional literature we've read this term. Be sure to explore style and content.
2) As you read Bleach, notice that the importance of the words and the images varies from page to page. Choose a page that consists almost entirely of images and discuss how image use affects your understanding of the story. What can images do that words cannot?
3) Research and define two religious or mythical concepts from Bleach that relate to a) Christianity, and b) Japanese mysticism
4) What do you think is Bleach's main lesson? Provide page references for your peers to verify your argument.
Princess AI (due 5/12):
1) Do some research on Courtney Love--based on your findings, how "biographical" is this manga?
2) How are women portrayed in this text relative to women we encountered in other readings this semester?
3) Costume and body shape plays an important role in manga - provide a brief list of the cultural impressions you receive when looking at these elements in this text. Provide page references to support your argument.
1) Use Wikipedia and Google to get some basic background information on Manga. Create a short list of 5 ways in which Manga differs from the traditional literature we've read this term. Be sure to explore style and content.
2) As you read Bleach, notice that the importance of the words and the images varies from page to page. Choose a page that consists almost entirely of images and discuss how image use affects your understanding of the story. What can images do that words cannot?
3) Research and define two religious or mythical concepts from Bleach that relate to a) Christianity, and b) Japanese mysticism
4) What do you think is Bleach's main lesson? Provide page references for your peers to verify your argument.
Princess AI (due 5/12):
1) Do some research on Courtney Love--based on your findings, how "biographical" is this manga?
2) How are women portrayed in this text relative to women we encountered in other readings this semester?
3) Costume and body shape plays an important role in manga - provide a brief list of the cultural impressions you receive when looking at these elements in this text. Provide page references to support your argument.
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3 comments:
I agree with you that Princess Ai and Little Red Cap are two different characters. They act and look different. Little Red Cap is cute and goodness. Princess Ai is beautiful girl with big eyes. Her costumes and body shape are very attractive for men and women but not for kids. Little Red Cap was written for children. Princess Ai more interesting for adults.
Hi Hin,
I agree with your interpretations of Little Cap and Princess Ai. Like Lidiya mentioned, Little Cap was written for children while Princess Ai is written for an older audience. Also, Princess Ai is a more modernized story with modern values such as fashion. While the story of Little Cap focuses on survival and protecting oneself from bad wolves, Princess Ai emphasizes not only staying alive but also trying to make a career for oneself. I agree that this story has a lot of Japanese culture in style, such as long-haired fashion for males and sexy clothing for females.
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