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The Paradise Kiss MMF is winding down, but there are still some new contributions to highlight. Proving once and for all that manga isn't just for kids, Derik Badman shared his academic paper, "Talking, Thinking, and Seeing in Pictures: Narration, Focalization, and Ocularization in Comics Narratives," for which he used Paradise Kiss as an example: Were I able to spend the … [Read more...] about MMF: Weekend Edition

There are a couple of new MMF contributions to mention today, and both take time to bestow some praise upon Isabella, the "elegant transvestite." Over at The Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh dusts off a 2005 column on Paradise Kiss and freshens it up with some new thoughts. I love his insightful take on Isabella's function in the story: I was initially a bit annoyed by the … [Read more...] about MMF: The Isabella Appreciation Society

Each day brings more terrific musings upon a terrific series! Today, we have three! At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson has posted a review of the first volume and makes a nice comparison of her own initial avoidance of the series and Yukari's preconceptions about the members of Paradise Kiss. Just like with NANA, I was pulled into this series from the first chapter and hooked … [Read more...] about MMF: Another Day in Paradise

The Paradise Kiss MMF has just begun, and some fantastic submissions are already coming in! Ed Sizemore at Manga Worth Reading has posted his thoughtful take on the series, which includes this observation on the role of realism in the story: The series has the feeling of a fairy tale. Not the light, frothy ones that get told today, but the original ones that blended a sense … [Read more...] about The Paradise Kiss MMF is Underway!

Paradise Kiss is a five-volume josei series by Ai Yazawa that originally ran in Zipper, a Japanese fashion magazine. It's the story of Yukari Hayasaka, a stressed-out high school student who has always done what was expected of her and has never had a dream of her own. This changes when she meets the members of Paradise Kiss, a group of fashion design students who ask her to … [Read more...] about MMF: An Introduction to Paradise Kiss