Of all the OEL manga out there, this seems to be the least sucky, IMHO. My gf thinks otherwise.
So who here took a shot at Dramacon and has something to say about it?
I bought the book based on your recommendation, and I agree with you, for the following reasons:
However, the author has a ways to go with her art style. Sometimes she forgot to level off her character's heads and gave them triangle chins.
To be precise, I like it because the author portrayed real life in the United States rather than ripping off some Japanese idea as if she was living in Japan. Dramacon isn't something that a Japanese guy could produce because it's based on the different, emerging otaku culture of the West.
i'm actually really interested in reading this, and no oel stuff has caught my eye before. i love, say, genshiken and otaku no video and stuff, and i think any fan can connect to those sorts of behaviors on a very general level. but american anime fans (try as they might) are in a different subculture than japanese otaku. the details are all different. if we were really in the same market, with the same tastes, hellsing would have been a modest success and uc gundam would have sold millions. nobody's talking about OUR subculture, see, and (being an equally bizarre pile of wonderful crazy) it's worth talking about.
Dramacon
Synopsis: WEEABOO WEEABOO
>>5
with a name like "dramacon"... no shit?
> with a name like "dramacon"...
...I was expecting it to be about furries.
OEL fails.
>>4
Is there really that much to talk about? Our culture, as it were, is mainly centered around the consumption of material made for and by another culture's subculture. There's no equivalent to Akihabara, Comiket, the huge mass of doujin circles pumping out high-quality material, both parody and original. One might counter Comiket with a large anime con, but the two serve very different core purposes.
>Our culture, as it were, is mainly centered around the consumption of material made for and by another culture's subculture.
that's sort of exactly why I find it so interesting.
>>9
Yeah, that's kind of the point. It's totally different then a Japanese convention or a view of the Japanese fandom. It's a different point of view that a Japanese author wouldn't write about.
I guess I can see that now. Being part of it though, I think causes a sort of shame or defensiveness when seeing it portrayed on the page. I can feel a little of that in myself, at least.
I found it interesting that one of the more common criticisms about Dramacon was that it wasn't realistic or that it would give the wrong impression of what goes on at a convention.
Take this for instance. I just read it today.
http://www.gomanga.com/webmanga/index.php?series=aoi
Again, a western comic about fandom, but I liked it a lot more than Dramacon. It's basically a harem comedy patterned after the Love Hinas or Comic Parties. Quite a bit of the dialogue made me cringe, but there were also a couple of parts where I genuinely laughed. I think the difference is that it isn't and doesn't try to be in any way realistic. The right-to-left layout is fucking retarded, however. Meanwhile the last thing I remember seeing in Dramacon was an attempted rape. In the middle of a convention.
On another note, is it just me or does the OEL stuff tend to feel a lot wordier than translated manga?
>>On another note, is it just me or does the OEL stuff tend to feel a lot wordier than translated manga?
It is.
anyone here BEEN to any real cons lately? total, misrepresentation.....thats all i have to say, i wonder why you guys say its accurate of wapanese people because, it totally doesnt. im not gonna say any more as else would be "slander" and totally mean. lol you guys ever gone to megatokyo forums? basically, couple of people reviewed it, buncha mods too, they hated it, all of them. what was more funny was, the author actually started posting on that thread, and started claiming slander slander! lol, i suppose all the guys tehre were in like, their 20s and late teens, and the girl who writes dramacon is only 15-16 years old ya know hahahahaha, that was one funny affair....
and, cant trust a company that also produces trash like so
http://tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?propertycode=TSL&categorycode=BCM
Genshiken = rocks the hizzouse though
but, thats just my 2 cents....
>the girl who writes dramacon is only 15-16 years old ya know
She's 25. Although if she had been 15, it would have explained a lot.
O_O 25?
>>15
the megatokyo forums aren't exactly a shining example of the fandom
>>15
Ah yes, the Megatokyo Forums, that legendary home of intellectual banter and enlightening debate.
Personally, I'm a guy and I loved this manga. I read through the Megatokyo forums and noticed that much of the criticism came from people who hadn't even read the book. And the author (who kept a pretty level-headed attitude), claimed slander only once, saying it was bordering on, if not delving into the realm of slander, based on the fact that people hadn't read it yet and were bashing it incessantly.
I am a huge shojo fan and Dramacon piled that on by the ton. The attempted rape scene actually shocked me and the plot, while being standard fare, kept me entertained. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. I think I liked it because it was nice to see a OEL manga that actually went into the North American con aspect of it all. Even though it wasn't all true (took a slightly idealistic view of it all), I loved it.
So I learned a couple of things today: (1) NEVER go to the MT forums for reccomendations and (2) Use your own judgement. If it looks like you'll like it (or the genre in general), give it a shot.
>>21
Why the hell would you ever go to the MT forums for anything??
Well dont go. Because Their shit and they know it.
can't be too picky when it comes to AmeriManga. besides, anything's better than ShitterBox. bump.
I liked Dramacon... it's miles better than any of the OEL shit I've read. It has its weak points, yeah. But I really liked Matt. I found her boyfriend (what was his name? uh... D something.) to be pretty flat, but oh well. And there were a few plot elements she either rushed or skipped out on... I think this would've done better spread across more than one volume.
She has some stuff to fix, but it's still one of the best available.
>Meanwhile the last thing I remember seeing in Dramacon was an attempted rape. In the middle of a convention.
That took place in their hotel room... but I'll admit, I'm not too fond of the "OMG RAEP :'(" plot device either.
I wonder if this is wrong, but the art of this comic so turns me off that I don't feel like reading it.
Is her skill getting better?
http://www.cosmogirl.com/archive/0,,8b81vm4r_539,00.html
Holy shit she draws for Cosmo Girl?!
>>27
Comparing August to February, and to the older stuff on her website(where I must say she does show a lot of talent in the non-anime galleries) it looks like she might be following the Piro slide of eyes set father and farther to the sides.
>>29 is right! Her layout section in particular is very nice, and even those west-style character designs are at least well-done. What a strange contrast with her hideous "manga" section.
