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Posts Tagged Bleach
PR: Viz Media Releases Weekly Shonen Jump Pack Print Edition
By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, April 18, 2014
LEAP INTO THE WORLD OF MANGA AS VIZ MEDIA RELEASES NEW WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP PRINT EDITION "JUMP PACK" ISSUE 2
New Print Issue Features 100+ Pages Of Manga Content,
A 3-Month Digital Subscription And An Exclusive
Blue-Eyes White Dragon YU-GI-OH! Collectable Trading Card
VIZ Media's WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP manga (graphic novel) magazine returns to its roots in print as it gives North American fans a special treat with the release of the WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP Jump Pack 2014, Issue 2 available now. The jam-packed print edition contains more than 100 pages of the world's most popular featured series and is an ideal way to check out what the digital WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP magazine offers.
The WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP Jump Pack is available in the U.S. and Canada exclusively through retailers serviced by Diamond Comic Distributors and also from leading online anime/manga retailer Right Stuf. The WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP Jump Pack 2014, Issue 2 is rated 'T' for Teens and will carry an MSRP of $19.99 U.S. / $22.99 CAN.
The latest Jump Pack issue features the current hit series, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL, by DEATH NOTE and BAKUMAN。 artist Takeshi Obata, as well as chapters from continuing fan favorites such as BLEACH, NARUTO, ONE PIECE, YU-GI-OH! ZEXAL and much more. The issue also includes a promotional code for a 3-month weekly digital subscription to the magazine along with a limited edition Blue-Eyes White Dragon YU-GI-OH! trading card with exclusive variant art from Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of the YU-GI-OH! series.
WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP is the world's premiere manga brand and leading weekly manga magazine. The digital version published by VIZ Media features the latest installments of some of the world's most popular manga series released every week to English readers on the same day as the magazine's general print release in Japan. Currently serialized titles include the sci-fi action series, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL (based on the novel of the same name which is the source material for the major motion picture, Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt!), and the recently launched STEALTH SYMPHONY, with story by Ryohgo Narita (Durarara!!) and bold artwork by Yoichi Amano. These join other popular series such as BLEACH, ONE PIECE, NARUTO, NISEKOI, ONE-PUNCH MAN, SERAPH OF THE END, TORIKO, and WORLD TRIGGER. The latest new chapters of monthly series BLUE EXORCIST and YU-GI-OH! ZEXAL debut on the closest Monday after their Japanese release.
Tags: All You Need Is Kill, Bleach, Kubo Tite, Naruto, One Piece, Shonen Jump, Viz Media, Yu-Gi-Oh
Viz Media and We Love Fine Team Up for Shirt Design Contest
By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, March 27, 2014
Sharpen your pencils and plug in your tablet – Viz Media and We Love Fine have teamed up to hold a Bleach t-shirt design contest! And it's awfully cool.
The rules are pretty simple – do an original t-shirt design using Bleach characters or symbols, and submit! You can't use any official artwork or the Bleach logo, but fanart and snazzy designs are accepted and encouraged.
The grand prize includes a paid-trip to Anime Expo, and multiple cash prizes through the tiers of winners. One design will be chosen to be sold as t-shirts in Hot Topic, while all winning designs will be considered for print and sale through We Love Fine.
The judges for the contest are nothing to sneeze at either – Crunchyroll, Hot Topic, Masashi Kudo (editor of the Bleach manga), Yujiro Hattori (character designer from the anime) and Kubo Tite himself, creator of Bleach!
The deadline to submit is April 8th, 2014. Good luck and much fun to all those who submit!
Tags: Bleach, Tite Kubo, Viz Media
Review: Weekly Shonen Jump – July 29th, 2013
By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, August 3, 2013
Back when Viz Media launched their digital edition of Shonen Jump, I was quick to subscribe. I did this in spite of being cranky over the loss of the print edition and honestly didn't intend to even read the new digital version. Still, I did want to support such a bold move in the industry that was edging towards simultaneous releases. That was 2011.
This is August 2013. I've since become an enthusiastic reader of the weekly digital magazine which comes out Monday mornings in North America. This was helped in part by now owning an iPad for reading it on. For me, comics and PC browsers do not mix. The app process is so simple too – just open the app and hit download. Within a few seconds you have over 200 pages of high quality, brand new chapters of manga to read. No internet past the original download required.
And the price? I honestly don't know how they can do it at this price right out of the gate – $24.99/US for a full years' worth. For that many pages of manga every week. Manga which directly supports the creators and publishers. Win. Win. Win. This cheap serialization, with print editions coming later for collecting, is exactly the kind of digital and print combo I've always hoped would come of the hefty shift in the publishing world.
I'm going to start writing a bit about random issues of Shonen Jump beginning with today's post. I don't plan for this to be every week occurrence, nor do I read every manga running (everything but One Piece and Naruto). Editions like this week's prove the perfect opportunity to start as they feature not only new chapters of the regular series, but a special one shot by one of their creators as well. Let's get reading!
Tags: Bench, Bleach, Digital, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, Magazine, Manga, Nisekoi, One Punch Man, Shonen Jump, Toriko, World Trigger
Otaku USA: On The Shelf – June 12, 2013
By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, June 13, 2013
Another week, another list of new manga – another week of lots of manga. Huzzah! This week's On The Shelf on Otaku USA has been posted, but it will also be my last On The Shelf article for Otaku USA. It's hard to believe I'd been doing it nearly two years!
For those still looking for the weekly list, new books will continue to be posted every week here on Kuriousity as normal. On The Shelf mini lives on!
A Devil and Her Love Song (Vol.09) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Arata: The Legend (Vol.14) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Demon Love Spell (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
His Favorite (Vol.04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossoms Pink [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Knights of Sidonia (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Loveless (Vol.11) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
No.6 (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Vol.15) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
One Piece (Vol.67) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
One Piece Omnibus (Vol.06) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pokémon Adventures Platinum (Vol.08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Vol.10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Sankarea: Undying Love (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Skip Beat! (Vol.31) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Sleeping Moon (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Trigun Maximum Omnibus (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Categories: News, On The Shelf, Release Lists
Tags: A Devil and her Love Song, Arata the Legend, Attack on Titan, Bleach, Boys' Love/Yaoi, Dark Horse, Dawn of the Arcana, Demon Love Spell, Haganai, Kisses Sighs and Cherry..., Knights of Sidonia, Kodansha Comics, Loveless, No.6, Nura Rise of the Yokai Clan, One Piece, Otaku USA, Pokemon, Rurouni Kenshin, Sakura Hime, Sankarea, Seven Seas, Shonen Jump, Shoujo Beat, Skip Beat, Slam Dunk, Sleeping Moon, SuBLime, Toriko, Trigun, Viz Media, Yu-Gi-Oh
Swag Bag: Biz With Viz, Passion and Perils
By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, May 23, 2013
It's been March since the last Swag Bag! Well that won't do, now will it? While my post about TCAF outlined a bunch of my most recently purchased comics, there's been lots of manga bought between the last Swag Bag and that post. Because I'm too lazy to go through my bookshelves to find each and every one, let's take a look at some notables!
Always the must have buy is Sailor Moon (Vol. 10) which I'm loving more and more every volume. This point in the story was broadcast only briefly on television, and these manga volumes were more difficult to find, so while I'm familiar with the story, it all feels more fresh and new and full of surprises since I have less familiarity with it. Eternal Sailor Senshi!
Then it's my why-do-I-keep-buying-this-series with Dawn of the Arcana (Vol. 09). Loki keeps getting the short end of the stick, and I find the relationship between Nakaba and Cesare so lacking in chemistry. I think it must be some tiny sliver of hope Loki gets a happy ending that keeps me reading. I hope I'm rewarded for my diligence…
Much more satisfying were new volumes of Bleach (Vol.56), Toriko (Vol.15) and A Devil and Her Love Song (Vol.08). Toriko is still one of my favourite manga series running now, though I'm a little sad to see it dissolve to chapter upon chapter of one on one fight scenes in the current issues of Shonen Jump. On the flip side the current chapters of Bleach have been really great – actually super relevant and interesting flashbacks!
And last up from Viz Media recently was Pokemon Adventures (Vol.16), which continues the adventures of these two new Pokemon trainers who are really, really entertaining. Flip those gender roles! The male trainer is obsessed with making Pokemon beautiful, while the female trainer is a wild girl (like Tarzan wild) who wants her Pokemon to be the strongest.
In other worlds of young people doing interesting things – I picked up Arisa (Vol.10) where we finally know who the King is. There are still some motivations left to be explored, but I'm glad the one secret is finally out in the open. It's more classic mysteries on-going in Young Miss Holmes (Vol.03-04) where the adorable lead makes it a joy to read, even when plot itself gets a little bogged down in details.
And the biggest buys recently were Mobile Suit Gundam the Origin: Activation (Vol. 01) when it came out back in April, and The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame this past weekend. Both had amazing production values – really nice work done on the design and packaging. I wasn't sure how I'd like the Gundam manga but actually really, really liked it. As the original Gundam story, it felt simple and streamlined while containing everything that makes the franchise so popular. Very easy to read, and I look forward to more. Passion was also great, but in a very different way. Gengoroh Tagame's work is always shocking, and I was really curious to see which of his works would be in this book. Picture Box did not hold back!
And lastly during my visit to Toronto, I picked up some out of print books from The Beguiling. Hollow Fields (Vol.01), First Love (Vol.01) and In These Words (Vol.01). Sadly I doubt I'll ever see second volumes of First Love and In These Words, which is sad because they were both great reads and I've been looking for them a while. I also bought two new bara anthologies which star many of the artists we'll see in Picture Box's Massive anthology next Spring.
That does it for this week's Swag Bag. As always, feel more than free to share what purchases you've made recently and if you'd recommend them!
Categories: Swag Bag
Tags: 801Media, A Devil and her Love Song, Arisa, Bara, Bleach, Boys' Love/Yaoi, Dawn of the Arcana, First Love, Hollow Fields, In These Words, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Mobile Suit Gundam, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Seven Seas, The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame, Toriko, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Young Miss Holmes, Yuri
Otaku USA: On The Shelf – May 8, 2013
By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Oops on my belated posting of last week's On The Shelf! But I was at TCAF, so can you blame me? I'll have some write-ups on my recent trip there later this week. You can read my thoughts on last week's new manga by checking out On The Shelf for May 8, 2013 with this week's new manga coming soon!
Bakuman (Vol.19) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Black Bird (Vol.16) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Bleach 3-in-1 (Vol.05) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Claymore (Vol.22) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Dance in the Vampire Bund (Vol.14) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Dengeki Daisy (Vol.12) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Heroman (Vol.04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Hunter x Hunter (Vol.30) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
La Corda Doro (Vol.17) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Naruto 3-in-1 (Vol.05) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Naruto (Vol.61) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Otomen (Vol.15) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pokémon Adventures (Vol.16) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Psyren (Vol.10) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Strobe Edge (Vol.04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tegami Bachi (Vol.13) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Wandering Son (Vol.04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
We Were There (Vol.16) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Zero's Familiar Omnibus (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tags: Bakuman, Black Bird, Bleach, Claymore, Dengeki Daisy, Fantagraphics, Heroman, Hunter x Hunter, La Corda Doro, Manga, Naruto, Otomen, Pokemon, Psyren, Strobe Edge, Tegami Bachi, Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Wandering Son, We Were There, Zero's Familiar
Swag Bag: Searching for Shinigami, Knife-Makers and Reasons to Smile
By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, February 10, 2013
It's a Viz Media week for me today as I get caught up on several on-going series from their Shonen Jump, Shoujo Beat and SuBLime imprints. So many great goodies to be had! I've also been keeping up on their weekly digital editions of Shonen Jump, but that'd be a whole post in itself someday – and maybe it might be, if people are interested?
For now though, it's the collected editions and I start with Bleach (Vol. 55). It's the start of a new story arc now, which is a big relief after the previous few books which I found pretty dull and silly after the huge Aizen fight. It was fun to read scenes in this volume where everyone is chummy. Defeating Hollows and defending their town is now something the leads do between class and lunch at Ichigo's house. However, things turn bad quick when…! Some people show up I won't spoil, but I will say this… could you really not go for this particular mission, Uryuu? Really?!
My second dose of Shonen Jump collected was Toriko (Vol. 14). I have so much love for this series! I hope it's selling okay, I'd hate to think of it stopping in English because of it's… strangeness. In this volume Toriko goes off to find a missing knife-maker while Komatsu is left behind to tend to the self-confidence of the knife-maker's disciple. While there's some of the usual scary monsters, weird food and humanly impossible survivals, most of the volume is actually pretty light-hearted fun as Komatsu makes a new friend, and Toriko continues to treasure the friendship he has with his new partner. Ah, shonen bromance…
Then for some shoujo, I picked up Kamisama Kiss (Vol. 12). This volume looks more about the swamp yokai and her human boyfriend then Nanami and her cranky fox-demon but I see plenty of adorable and funny moments to come. Plus, Julietta Suzuki's artwork is really gorgeous. It gets better with every book – some of the full body character spreads in this volume are fantastic!
Far less cheery a series is A Devil and Her Love Song. I bought and read volume seven the other day, and what a downer! It's a beautifully drawn story with some really heart-wrenching emotional scenes about friendship and love, but this volume had little in the way of progress towards happy times. In fact, not only are things more strained than ever between this group, hearts of the most loyal are broken, and now we're seeing more glimpses of Maria's traumatic, repressed past. I need a tissue.
Then it was time for some boys' love as I work to get caught up on the three SuBLime series I'm following before their third volumes come out later this month. From one of my favourite artists, Hinako Takanaga, is Awkward Silence (Vol. 02). It's a really cute story about a young man who can't express his emotions outwardly, and has little inner dialouge and doodles to show what he's really thinking inside. That's about all there is to it, alongside his caring, baseball playing, boyfriend. More adorable hijinks shall occur, I'm sure.
Quite the opposite communication-wise is Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love (Vol. 02) where the lead character is a little pretty boy who is very open and direct about what he wants, and that happens to be an older friend who works at a neighbouring shrine and who cared for him growing up. Drama! And the fine line of underage dating – beware!
While in that series' it's the smaller who tries to control the situation, in His Favourite (Vol. 02), I'm confident that the smaller guy is going to continue being freaked out and unsure about the frequent advances of his popular and good-looking friend, whose insistence on loving him brings the ire of his school's female fans. I really love Suzuki Tanaka's art style, especially when she draws really cleanly and more 'cartoonish'. His Favourite is a little more BL generic looking for her titles, but there's a short story at the end of this second volume that I love the look of and really catches what I try to describe so flimsily as cartoonish.
Categories: Features, Swag Bag
Tags: A Devil and her Love Song, Awkward Silence, Bleach, Bond of Dreams Bond of Love, Boys' Love/Yaoi, Hinako Takanaga, Kamisama Kiss, Manga, Shoujo Beat, SuBLime, Toriko, Viz Media
Otaku USA: On The Shelf – February 6, 2013
By Lissa Pattillo on Wednesday, February 6, 2013
So, last week? Not much manga. This week? Wooooow on the manga! So, so much! Where do we start? Where do we begin? How am I possibly going to carry home all the books I hope to buy tomorrow!? Hard to complain about an issue like that though I suppose.
With new volumes of Bleach, GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Negima!, Pokemon, Sailor Moon and many more, you can check out my write-up for this week's On The Shelf at Otaku USA.
Ai Ore (Vol.08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus & Liars Game (Vol.01) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Genshiken Omnibus (Vol.03) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Haganai: I Have No Friends (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Kamisama Kiss (Vol.12) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney (Vol.04) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Negima! (Vol.37) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
One Piece 3-in-1 (Vol.05) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Pokemon Adventures Platinum (Vol.07) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Sengoku Basara Samurai Legends (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Skip Beat (Vol.30) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Stepping on Roses (Vol.09) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tenjo Tenge (Vol.11) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tags: Alice in the Country of..., Bleach, Dawn of the Arcana, Haganai, Kamisama Kiss, Kodansha Comics, Manga, Negima, Nura Rise of the Yokai Clan, One Piece, Otaku USA, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Skip Beat, Slam Dunk, Toriko, UDON, Vertical Inc, Viz Media
Otaku USA: On The Shelf – January 2, 2013
By Lissa Pattillo on Sunday, January 6, 2013
It's the first new manga of 2013! 2012 went out soft with no new volumes of manga released in its last week, but distributors and publishers worked to ensure that the new year was much more stacked to start. Get those gift cards ready!
You can read my thoughts on the new year's first week of releases over at my On The Shelf article for Otaku USA.
Cage of Eden (Vol.08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Caramel [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
I've Seen It All (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Love Makes Everything Right [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Message to Adolf (Vol.02) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Ninth Life Love [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Oresama Teacher (Vol.12) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Ultimo (Vol.08) [Amazon CAN, Amazon US, RightStuf]
Tags: Bleach, Cage of Eden, DMP, June, Manga, Omnibus, Osamu Tezuka, Otaku USA, Otomen, Stan Lee, Vertical Inc, Viz Media


So this is how it'll work, I've picked out 3 Fanarts, 3 FanComics and 3 Fanfics! So they'll be the feautred works on the main site. BUT, i'll be posting the rest of the works in batches as well each day. So you can find all of their links as well. So the Featured work is the first bold link, and the rest follow after.
NekoPata-Fanart of Muffin's strutting her stuff! Find them on Tumblr!
AngelFire- Fanarts of Muffins, and Toby/Sarah, Find them on Tapastic!
Anna- Fanart of Toby being a proud Math Nerd, Find them on Tumblr!
Yuli-FanComic of Danny & Nathan in a photobooth! Find them on Tumblr!
Cannibal Croissants-Fanfiction of DannyxNathan, Chapter 2-3 can be read on Archive of Our Own, and their Tumblr!


We're big baseball fans here at JPG. Joe is a lifelong Phillies fan. To use his words, it was "pretty freaking awesome" to work with Ashley and David (that's David Buchanan, formerly of the Philadelphia Phillies, and now the Tokyo Yakult Swallows) including their engagement shoot at Citizens Bank Park. From the ballpark to the reception at Center City's epic reception venue, the Crystal Tea Room, Ashley and David made their day unforgettable. In fact, right from the start, it was clear that these two were far from anything cliché.
Their "first touch" set the tone. Rather than spoil the traditional first look as Ashley walked down the aisle with a first look, the couple decided to share a moment before the wedding in a different way. Joe and Stacey made sure to remove everyone else from the area to give them as much privacy as possible, and then just told them to be themselves and enjoy this privacy, a rare feeling of freedom for couples on the wedding day. David's reaction to Ashley is what we always hope to document for all of our couples: He's a tall, confident southern gentleman, always saying sir, and minding his manners. Seeing him show such raw emotion for Ashley added a powerful moment to their amazing day. It's nice to see a groom bring his ideas of what's creative and artistic to the process. Plus, we lucked out with perfect Philadelphia fall weather—crisp autumn leaves falling in Rittenhouse Square. It's hard to ask for more from a portrait session in the city.
As far as the party at the Crystal Tea Room, it took no coaxing to get a group of young, professional baseball players to inspire action-packed shots. David, Ashley, and team members from the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs mentioned right away that they wanted to get rowdy for the champagne shot. A prompt—"Act like you just won the World Series!"—and the excitement started rolling. The rest of the night was full of dancing — especially lots of line dancing where David was happy to take the reins and lead everyone on the dance floor.
It was an incredible celebration. We couldn't have asked for a sweeter, more enthusiastic couple. Enjoy some of our favorite photos from Ashley and David's big day below, and read more about their inspiring first touch at PhillyMag.com.
Congrats and wishes for a long and happy life together! Best, Joe G.


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Science backs biodiversity policy
To make international environmental agreements work, effective political framework, farsighted policy and good science have to blend in equal measures ... MORE ...
at Wednesday, November 21, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
From behind a half-closed door
Truth as seen and heard from outside a room may not be the same as that from inside the half-closed door. The recently-released Malayalam movie Ayalum njanum thammil (between him and me) builds on this truth.
We have heard of similar stories many times over. A doctor in a corporate hospital is accused of medical negligence because a patient under his care dies. There is protest outside the hospital. The media – especially the television channels – are there in full strength. Each journalist has his own version of the story.
In Kerala with a strong socialist background, the incident takes another overtone. It brings back the oft-repeated themes of neglect of the rich for the poor and the insistence of corporate hospitals to make money above everything else.
Like Ustad Hotel that was released earlier this year, Ayalum is a story of emotional bonding between two males, of two generations. The younger one grows from a boy to a man in the process of this bonding. The hospital where the young and the old doctors meet in the hills of Munnar is appropriately called Redemption Hospital. The stone walls of the hospital redeems the two men.
Unlike in Ustad Hotel, the director does not lose his grip of the narrative. No scene is felt to be extra.
Ravi Tharakan is an ordinary medical student. So ordinary that he takes seven years to complete a five-year medical course. Forced into doing two years of rural service in the hills of Munnar, he meets Dr Samuel. Life and the senior doctor make a man out of Tharakan.
"It is not difficult to diagnose or to treat," mentors Samuel. "It is difficult to take a decision on what is to be done." Ayalum is about a tough decision that Tharakan had to take later.
Where does the personal become professional? Can a doctor refuse to treat someone because of personal animosities? Can a doctor's professional judgement on the need for surgery override the wishes of close family members of the patient? Can a doctor lie to protect his colleague? Ayalum raises many questions.
Maybe these questions are as old as time and will continue for generations to come. Ayalum manages to tease out a credible story from these questions.
Actually, the promotional stills for Ayalum do not tell the truth. They call the movie a romantic story. The young characters appear on the posters. The central character – Dr Samuel – is hidden behind these promotional pictures. Maybe the elderly Pratap Pothen is not as glamorous as Prithviraj (who plays Ravi Tharakan) and his contemporaries Narain, Samvrutha Sunil, Remya Nambisan and Rima Kallingal. But Pothen plays the keystone character that gives meaning to the movie.
Pothen's character elevates the movie from a run-of-the-mill campus romance to one dealing with the deeper philosophical questions of life. Pothen handles the character deftly, giving it space, depth and understanding. His guidance to Prithviraj's character is not just professional, but also personal. He sees a certain strength in the young doctor which he nurtures. He overrules the wishes of a mother who does not want her son to go through a simple surgery.
There is something about Prithviraj. He evolves easily from the prank-loving, romantic medical student to a responsible, conscientious doctor. As the bearded and greying Ravi Tharakan appearing in the beginning of the movie, he gives his character a presence.
What Ayalum fails is in doing justice to the women characters. Four women play critical roles in the movie – Samvrutha the lover, Remya the doctor at Redemption, Sukumari the matron-nurse and Rima the personal assistant to the corporate hospital's chairman. Each one has done her part well. But none of them have a long screen presence in the movie.
The songs in the movie do not interrupt the narrative and the visual sequencing is without much jumps. The mountain mist of Munnar adds visual beauty, though this is not the first Malayalam movie to have used the mountains as a location.
And that exactly is the movie's strength. Without the pretence of setting out to do something different it touches the viewer in a very non-deliberate manner. The viewer comes out neither elated nor sad after the movie, but entertained and introspective.
Metaphorically, Ayalum takes the viewer from outside to inside. In the beginning of the movie the viewer is kept outside the half-closed door of a surgeon's consulting room. At the end the viewer knows what happened within the room. In the two hours between this early and late shots, the viewer enters into the doings and undoings of the medical profession through the lives of doctors Ravi Tharakan and Samuel. The viewer comes in.
Ayalum is a simple story; nothing that you or I are not aware of. The beauty is in how director Lal Jose tells the story along with the scriptwriter, cinematographer and the editor to ensure that the movie does not lose steam in the process of the viewer coming into the surgeon's consulting room.
at Saturday, November 03, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
Labels: Kerala, Malayalam cinema
North-South divide blurs at Hyderabad
Some of the world's poorest communities live in areas richest in biological diversity and the richest live in areas poorest in diversity of life. Obviously, the frugality of these poor communities has helped the rich reach where they have ... MORE ...
at Friday, October 26, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
Biodiversity needs action on money front
Even before the Eleventh Conference of Parties (CoP-11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was inaugurated at Hyderabad, the battlelines were drawn in the two pre-inaugural press meetings ... MORE ...
at Saturday, October 20, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
Biriyani and suleimani
Anwar Rasheed's Ustad Hotel has a unique theme. It explores the relationship between a grandfather and grandson, set within the canvas of a throbbingly popular restaurant serving biriyani and other Malayali Muslim dishes on the Kozhikode beach.
It is a movie made for two actors – Thilakan as Uppoopa (grandfather) and Dulquar Salman as Faizie. Both give their best. Equally talented Siddique, Mamukoya, Vijayaraghavan, among others, support them.
Ustad is a male-dominated movie. It starts with shots of Faizie's father's desire to have a son. In the process his wife delivers four daughters and then Faizie, and dies in the fatigue of repeated childbirth.
The only female character worth mentioning is Shahana, Faizie's love interest. Nithya Menon as Shahana is beautiful. There is one sequence where her delightfully innocent thrill lights the screen when she prods Faizie to hitch a ride in a truck at night and then they run away from the wandering hand of the truck driver. But beyond this sequence she does not have much screen presence in the movie. Since she does not get the individual attention that is required, her talent is not drawn out.
The motif is of Kozhikode's biriyani and the milk-less Suleimani tea. Into these Uppoopa adds all the regular ingredients plus mohabbat (love). However, when director Anwar Rasheed cooks his biriyani in Ustad Hotel he does not get it right. Many of Rasheed's ingredients have gone haywire. He has cooked the biriyani far too longer than needed.
Multiple sub-plots unravel in Ustad. Many threads are left untied. There is a hint at tension of belief between Faizie's grandfather and father. The grandfather is Sufi whereas the father is conservative. The grandfather is spartan by choice, father wants to earn more and more.
Some sequences jar – a European chef who flies in to Kozhikode at the right moments; a tantrum-throwing fiancé; a young chef throwing a live chicken at the hotel's top honcho; and obnoxious food inspectors and journalists who turn amiable within a week.
The last sub-plot is unnecessary and is disjointed to the movie. To teach Faizie the lesson that there is far more to food than its making, Uppoopa sends him to Madurai to his friend, who is modelled on the real-life hero Narayanan Krishnan, a five-star chef who turned into a social worker to give food to the old and homeless. Cooking biriyani for the chef's team and serving special children, Faizie earns their loving gratitude. When Faizie returns Uppoopa has left for Ajmer and Faizie takes over the Ustad Hotel.
It is difficult to believe that Faizie, who after his bonding with Uppoopa (two hours of film time) still wants to return to Europe, has a change of heart after going to Madurai. The ending would have been more believable if Faizie had willingly taken over the hotel as Uppoopa walked out from the hospital into the Ajmer sunset, cloth bag on shoulder.
It is difficult to understand why the director did not edit the movie into a terser narrative. Good movies tell the story directly and without distractions. Some of the movies that we remember over years – Oru CBI dairy kuruppu, Manichitrathathazhu and Meesha Madhavan – did not permit us to leave our seats because they said nothing more than was needed.
Ustad Hotel is beautifully shot. The image of Uppoopa brewing sulaimani tea on a platform on the beach, while Faizie interrogates him on his romance, or the Sufi dervishes whirling near the waves, or the hotel team looking through the broken windshield of the nearly-dead delivery van, leave a strong impact. Stringing these visuals is the innovative storyline of a grandson changing his worldview after being forced by kismat (destiny) to spend time with his grandfather.
However, what Ustad Hotel does not do is to exploit the potential of these ingredients and deliver a movie that will be remembered. That is the disappointment.
at Wednesday, July 04, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
Labels: biriyani, Kerala, Kozhikode, Malayalam cinema, Usthad Hotel
'Green economy' — a new environmentalism
The biggest environment meeting of the decade is around the corner. From June 20 to 22, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development will be held at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil ... MORE ...
at Tuesday, June 05, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
No clear road map on emission cuts
Being against binding emission cuts is all very well, but a growth strategy based on frugal carbon use must be in place ... MORE ...
at Sunday, May 13, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
How green is the company?
The Green Company (Greenco) rating initiative of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) got rolling in early March, with the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) getting its certification ... MORE ...
at Monday, March 26, 2012 2 comments: Links to this post
Selling dreams in God's Own Country
A hoarding on a highway has to be bold, strategically located and has to have a quick-to-read message. That hoarding along the highway in Kerala had all three qualities. "Take a quick gold loan for your child's school admission," it said in bold type. At the bottom was the name of the company offering the facility.
I thought I had read wrong. I confirmed from Raji. She confirmed from me.
For us - born in the 1960s and schooled in the 1970s - the message did not gel. Access to education was every child's right and pawning the family gold was the last resort for any parent.
Neither is Kerala going through an economic depression nor is there a shortage of low-cost schools. Obviously there are parents who would stretch beyond their means to admit their child in an expensive private school. The hoarding was meant to attract them.
One evening in 1987, I had got into the cushion-less Kochi-Hyderabad compartment attached to the Chennai express and left the state to earn a living. I continue to return on holidays and to handle family emergencies. Kerala has surprised me every time I return.
Riding a bus between Thrissur and Thriprayar, I noticed posters on flex fabric in many bus stops announcing that a student from their community had reached a certain stage in a television program competition. Congratulations! TV channels are many and so are reality shows, competitive rounds, winners and advertisers.
Together they weave a dream that is Kerala. While the tourism department sells the dream of God's own country, the advertisers sell dreams to God's own children.
Kerala has three kinds of consumerism. The first is spawned by those who live in the state and have gained in affluence with the economic liberalization. The second is by those who live on remittances from abroad. And the third is by those who come to the city on holidays or pass through as tourists.
I have seen in faraway Cotonou in Benin, West Africa, Malayalis toiling to send money to their families. They choose to live a frugal life to send that extra dollar; somebody back home uses that money to buy the branded shirt.
Consumerism drives economies. But for it to be sustainable it is better if the money used for buying the goods and services is also generated from within the region. Remittance-based consumerism unfortunately plays the most significant role in Kerala.
The Malayali in Cotonou, like many of his counterparts in Dubai, Riyadh and Singapore, sends home eight out of the ten dollars he earns. The Malayali doctor in the USA spends one dollar out of his 10 during his holiday in Kumarakom and represents one out of 10 non-resident Malayalis. The doctor guides the discussions at the Parvasi Divas functions.
Kerala's consumerism is mostly disembodied. The ones spending usually do not know the tears and sweat of their fathers, brothers and children working under the desert sun to send the money home.
Riding the Thrissur-Thriprayar bus, I noticed more than half-a-dozen young men speaking Bengali across seats. Presumably they were traveling to take up assignment in a restaurant as waiters, cooks and cleaners. An indication of microcosmic globalization - Kerala is drawing cheaper labor from other parts of the country. I wonder what happened to the Malayalis whose jobs were replaced.
Job insecurity in Kerala is not something that my generation can understand. Getting a job in the state was next to impossible in my time. Otherwise I would not have caught the train traveling north from Thrissur station. But getting a job and losing it was improbable then. The trade unions would not have permitted that (even though their alacrity would have forced many a companies to shut shop).
Forget not having money, even the threat of not having money can be disastrous in Kerala. You cannot keep your poverty to yourself. What do you tell your neighbors? How would you buy the gifts for weddings, childbirths, birthdays, Christmas, etc., etc.? Even if you are poor you cannot be seen to be poor.
Raji often recounts memories from her tharvad where extra rice was cooked for every meal to serve the wandering mendicant. These ancestral homes, where the joint family lived, do not exist anymore. Along with them vanished the social security for the poor and the needy, within the family and outside.
Little wonder that Kerala has the most established system of lottery ticket sales and prize draws. The population density of lottery-ticket vendors increases closer to a place of worship.
The demands are many, and the resources not always unlimited. Even if not for the school admission, the gold loan will come in handy for buying clothes for the child participating in the reality show.
at Friday, March 16, 2012 4 comments: Links to this post
Labels: dreams, Kerala, reality shows, Thriprayar, Thrissur
Biodiversity not adequately understood
It is the lesser known of the two framework conventions that emerged at the Rio Earth Summit of 1992; it also deals with a concept more difficult to comprehend … MORE …
at Friday, March 02, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
Soil organic carbon could soon be key part of climate change talks
The top metre of the world's soil contains more than three times the carbon that is stored in the atmosphere. This carbon bank holds the future to global environment sustainability and could play an increasingly significant role in future climate change discussions and carbon trading ... MORE ...
at Thursday, February 23, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
India needs green muscle at Rio+20
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil will have a different kind of carnival this year ... MORE ...
at Friday, February 10, 2012 No comments: Links to this post
Nigeria Rumblings - Equity crucial for fuel subsidy
My op-ed on Nigeria's fuel subsidy appeared in the Hindu Business Line. More ...
Divide and sell
One Wednesday afternoon the fixed line telephone in my Chennai home died. Suddenly. The broadband internet connected through the same cable was working.
I called the customer relations number. "This is Madhav, how can I help you sir?" asked the voice on the other end politely. The human voice came after 5 minutes of computer-talk that took me through the significance of numbers 1, 2, 3, 4. I explained the problem. I heard him typing into his computer. He gave me a request number and assured that the engineer will come on Thursday morning.
"We are collecting feedback from our customers, sir," said Madhav. "Can I take a minute?" I assured him that I will give feedback as soon as my phone is repaired.
Thursday afternoon I called again. It was Sheela at the call center. "What's the problem, sir?" I repeated the problem, I gave her my service request number. She assured somebody will come next morning. "We are collecting feedback ..." My response was the same.
Friday afternoon and Saturday morning we spoke with Raghav and Kumar. "Server linkage problem", "outage", were among the many reasons that they gave us. The problem, I felt, was affecting more than our line and the engineers at some end, somewhere, were working overtime to sort out this major issue. I felt bad for being impatient while the company's engineers were finding the solution to a larger telecom problem affecting thousands of customers.
On Saturday evening my wife Raji and I went to the relationship center. At 7.30 in the evening Lakshmi was visibly harassed. She must have been answering many like me. She took down my complaint again. I said that our complaint has been recorded innumerable times before; our phone is still dead. She said, "now that you have come to us we will send an engineer tomorrow." To pacify us she asked us to use the house phone and call somebody, somewhere. Raji went to the phone booth and I could hear her having a not-so-pleasant conversation with somebody at the other end.
Flash back to 1986. The television boom after the 1982 Asian Games had reached Thrissur in Kerala and my father, after much market research, bought a television from Mr Thomas's shop. To catch the airwaves it was necessary to hoist the ladder-like antenna from a 40-foot iron pipe harnessed to the wooden rafters of our house with tiled roof. Though secured with stay wires to all the coconut palms in the vicinity, the slightest breeze would shift the antenna's alignment and the spots that appeared on our TV screen would grow to become ever-bouncing tennis balls and obscure Neethi Ravindran's face and voice.
This was not all. Unlike the robust units of today, the television sets of the mid-1980s were temperamental and had frequent breakdowns. Suffice to say, my father made innumerable phone calls and Thomas made as many visits to our house on his Vijay Super scooter to repair the delicate contraption.
Though the transaction ended when my father carried out the television from Thomas's shop the relationship had only begun. And in the then small town of Thrissur, Thomas did not want to annoy an existing customer and put off future customers (asking the opinion of friends and neighbors was part of the pre-purchase ritual those days). The transaction had a name, face and person associated with it.
I don't remember to whom I spoke when I ordered my fixed line and broadband connection in my Chennai home 30 months ago. Neither do I remember who came to install the connection. My link with them was severed as soon as the transaction was completed.
Perhaps the two of them representing the same brand may not know each other and may be working for two companies that have contracted from the main company - one company marketing the product and the other installing and servicing it.
The call center which took my complaint calls (located in Bengaluru to service the requests from all over the country) would possibly be owned by an entirely different contractor company, with no power over the doings or undoings of the sales or servicing companies.
Poor Madhav, Sheela, Raghav and Kumar at the call center or Lakshmi at the relationship center, who are at the receiving end of the customers' ire may have no way of coaxing, cajoling or threatening the engineers employed by the servicing contractor company to visit my apartment to rectify my problem. Their domain is as large as the computer screen in front of them - typing messages such as "customer called again, wants the fault to be repaired by this evening." This is as unfair to them as it is to me, the customer.
Epilogue: On Sunday forenoon the engineer came to our house, checked the telephone, went down to the main junction box for our apartments, fixed the line that had jumped off the point and presto our phone was working. His investment: 10 minutes of his time. Our cost: 100 hours of down time, more than a dozen phone calls navigating through a maze of recorded instructions, a trip to the relationship center costing three hours and fuel, and increased adrenalin flow.
at Thursday, January 19, 2012 5 comments: Links to this post
Colonial cousins
In August 1999, I attended a workshop for environmental journalists at FOJO, the journalism school of Kalmar University in Sweden. There were 20 of us, mid-career practicing environmental journalists from developing countries across the world. We talked much about how it is to be an environmental journalist in our countries.
What struck us more than environmental discussions was the fact that all of our countries had gone through a colonial past. It showed me, graphically, how a handful of West European countries had controlled the lives and destinies of almost the entire world.
"Colonialism" is a rather academic word for Indians of our generation. Maybe for our parents it would have been a palpable, tangible concept. But for us it was in textbooks. I remember it being repeated in the rallies of the Students' Federation of India at my college in Thrissur. You would know how "seriously" colonialism was referred to if I told you that we even had a strike, then, in Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, to demand that the South African Government release Nelson Mandela from prison.
I felt colonialism in my bones when I lived in West Africa. Like how "Gulf" money hangs in Kerala, colonialism hangs over the air of many of these countries.
West Africa is predominantly Francophone – Benin, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Chad and Senegal. The Anglophone countries (those that were former British colonies) are like islands in a sea of French-speaking world – Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the tongue-shaped The Gambia. The two former Portuguese enclaves are Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde.
A lazy afternoon at a roadside eatery in Kpalime, Togo.
Almost all the countries in the region got their independence between 1955 and 1960. Ghana was among the earliest – in 1957. Benin, Nigeria and many other countries celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2010.
Half a century is a long time for any nation-state to take charge of its own destiny. Driving through Ghana, and through the streets of Accra, one can see a country that has taken stock of its own needs. Ghana is far more self-reliant in agricultural and industrial production than its neighbors. The markets sell domestically-produced products at competitive rates. Arterial roads are world-class. As the national football team climbed through the ranks in the 2010 World Cup matches, proud Ghanaians drove their cars with flags fluttering. When Asamoah Gyan stood to take the penalty against Uruguay, an emergent nation cheered and prayed silently.
When I landed at the Abidjan airport in Ghana's western neighbor Côte d'Ivoire in early 2010, I saw French soldiers guarding the hangar. The French are still involved in the politics and economy of Togo, Niger, Benin and most of the other Francophone countries.
The British left when they left; the French stayed back. And that essentially marks the difference between the Anglophone and Francophone countries of West Africa.
Ghana has its own currency – the cedi. You needed a few thousand cedis to buy a US dollar. When this value touched 10,000 in 2007, Ghana issued the Ghanaian new cedi, which was US$ 1 to cedi 1. Currently the value of the new cedi has fallen to around 1:1.62. At this realistic exchange rate, which reflects the size of the Ghanaian economy vis-à-vis the US economy, the country is regulating its imports, exports and domestic production.
With the exception of Guinea, all Francophone countries use the Communauté Financière d'Afrique (CFA) Franc as the common currency. Since this currency has the support of the French treasury, each of these countries have to deposit 80% of their foreign currency with the French treasury. In other words, sovereign governments have control over only 20% of their forex earnings. The return – French backing ensures convertibility across the globe and stability that a common currency can give in comparison to the volatility that multiple national currencies could have created in the region.
The flip side is rather severe. The CFA is locked to the Euro at a fixed conversion rate of CFA 655.96 to a Euro. This means that it can swing anywhere between 450 and 520 to a US dollar, depending on the greenback's health vis-à-vis the Euro.
Let's put this graphically. US$1 = 1.62 new Ghanaian cedis = 16,200 cedis. Benin, whose economy is a fragment of the Ghanaian economy, the rate is US$1 = CFA 497. You get my point?
No wonder that my Indian friends in Cotonou are predominantly importers – bringing in rice, oil, commodities and FMCG products. They do export cashew nuts in which Benin has quality advantage. But predominantly the Francophone countries are importers with absolutely no competitive advantage with exports, given the artificially overvalued CFA.
During the period we were in Benin, Raji and I have a standard repartee. "Is product X available in Cotonou?" one of us asks. "If it is available in France it will be available here," comes the reply.
What did this mean to us? Blowing up US$ 100 while shopping is as easy as snapping one's fingers. The smallest currency note is CFA 1,000, the equivalent of Rs 100 but in real terms worth Rs 10. When I got air filled into the tyres of my car I paid CFA 500, the equivalent of Rs 50. I earned in dollars, lived in a good part of the city. Half of Benin lives on less than two dollars a day.
If only Sahir Ludhianvi's words could be translated to French, Fon, Adja and many other West African languages – "Wo subaha kabhi to aayegi."
at Sunday, January 01, 2012 1 comment: Links to this post
Labels: Africa, Benin, colonialism, FCFA, Ghana, India, Niger, Nigeria, Togo
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl