Broke down

I finally broke down and bought some manga today that I've been idly paging through each time I go to Borders or Suncoast

Right now, I am splitting time between STONE and HELLSING -- Stone is not the greatest manga of the world, it's a tribute

No really, the artist did the Star Wars manga in Japan, and his style is like a washout literal Western style with the typical manga look -- looks real cool, the story is good, too

Same with Hellsing -- yes, there are some similarities to the Van of a similar sounding name -- the otaku in yamato must really like vampire hunting stories, one of the earliest I remember when I was younger was Vampire Hunter D -- Hellsing is kind of similar in overall concept, with lots of well illustrated action sequences -- good stuff
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A couple of days ago, I finally willed my way through RING 2 -- It seems to me that there is a cultural divide in terms of my appreciation of this movie -- it goes like this, for some reason, Japanese dramas love to extensively use the flashback as a plot driving element

Now that I've seen 1 and 2 of the JPN version, I must say that it is an interesting premise -- it will sound familiar as Ju On and the American version of Ju On (The Grudge) makes its way across American psyches

I think that there are several key values in Japanese culture, one particularly strong one is of the family and maintaining close relationships with people (who mean a lot to you) -- these can be your boss, your friends, your parents -- the key is that they would go out of their way for you

Movies like the Ring and the Grudge -- they seem to indicate the fear of feeling or being different in a deep valued conforming society -- they seem to question whether all those born into a family or in society are of equal value (or worth keeping) -- lastly, who cares for those who are outcasts in society, who will come to save them?

The inherent message is that everyone wishes to be a part of something bigger, and that a primary aspect of that is security -- security from being called a freak, security from a harsh world, etc. -- in essence, it is the passing their negative energy from beyond the grave to disrupt the security of others -- seemingly out of vengeance, jealousy, and a desire to be accepted