People Be Asking If Batman Can Solve The Kira Case But That's The Wrong Question To Ask. The Better Question

People be asking if Batman can solve the Kira case but that's the wrong question to ask. The better question would be: who's more unhinged about planning? Batman or Near?

Arguments on both side:

Batman has contingencies for contingencies, including how to take him down if he ever goes rogue. The utility belt has shark repellant. His safehouses have safehouses.

Near accounts for literally fuck-all that can ever happen, including Mello's lack of a plan, thus resulting in him being able to take advantage of the chaos created and come out on top.

Let the 🎂🎂🎂 begin 🥳🥳🥳

it's the first day of near's birthday party! today's prompts are:

toy | strategy | the star

please tag your gifts with #nearsbday or mention @nearsbday in your post! if you are posting to archiveofourown, you can add your gift to the collection.

as a reminder, there are a few rules for party guests which can be found right here. for more information on how to participate, you can visit this page or read through the submission guide.

alt text: graphic in shades of blue. a banner at the top reads "august 17: day 1." there are three boxes on the left side of the image, which read in order: toy, strategy, the star. at the bottom lefthand corner, there is a piece of text that reads: tag gifts with #nearsbday or mention @/nearsbday in your post! on the righthand side of the image is a blue-toned manga cap of near from death note. he is laying on his stomach and playing with an action figure.

[Eroica Musical Rant] Wanna talk about media-mix?

(Series masterlist)

So, now the question I want to attempt to ask is: why? Why is this a thing? Why did somebody decide to produce, write and direct this musical even though they lack the textual understanding needed to know how?

And perhaps the answer lies in a phenomenon that’s been under fire in the recent years called: media-mix. Which, instead of consuming one piece of media contained in its medium, i.e. manga, we now live in a world where industries are creating an ecology of media with the same piece appearing in different mediums. In describing media-mix in the context of cinema, Andrew Zahlten wrote:

“[I]magine that in 1958 one entered a theater to encounter a double or triple bill that might include a comedy from the Company President series or a special-effects film such as The H Man, then returned home or continued on to food and drink. This was cinema proper, defined by a specific mode of production and, importantly, a specific space and practice of spectatorship. By the 2010s, audiences might watch the ninja character Naruto in the anime series on tv while drinking Naruto soda and browsing the Naruto website or playing the online game on their phones. In the morning they could read the manga on the train and receive tweets generated by a Naruto kyara-bot while chatting with other fans online. […] What was once cinema now entered into a less localizable space of media woven into the fabric of everyday life. […] On top of a bounded media text for consumption we find constellations of characters and worlds that are accessible via multiple, multidirectional engagements. […] Such a relation is not entirely new—just as film has always entailed connections to other media—but increasingly obvious and consequential.” [1]

The manga and anime industry has an extensive history of media-mixing their properties. From Tezuka Osamu’s Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) appearing on chocolate and children's goods [2], to Kadokawa Haruki’s “dilution” of pure cinema through adaptations. Kadokawa, if you’re familiar, is one of the leading publishing houses in Japan, owning LOTS and LOTS of manga and anime properties.

And while Zahlten did not mention them, some of the most common products of media-mix are live action film adaptations and theatrical musicals. Zahlten seems to argue that the purpose of media-mix’s is to weave media into every corner of everyday life, creating more media exposures to the images of the text being promoted, letting it diffuse into the public conscious.

Hence, if someone isn’t a reader, they can always watch the anime adaptation. And if they don’t want to watch 54 episodes, then there’s always a 1.5-2-hour-long film adaptation where your favorite fictional characters are usually played by new upcoming actor or famed idol. And if you’re a fan of the stage? We got you covered too. You are sure to receive the whole experience just by sitting through this one production hahahahahahahahahaha …

On another hand, I would argue that these adaptations target the already existing community of fans in a similar way that merchandizes do. It promotes consumerism relating to a property they are familiar with, and perhaps may feel obligated to participate in this aspect of fan culture. A great example of an intellectual property being heavily media-mixed into many aspects of everyday life, if you recall in my short video a while ago, is The Rose of Versailles, created by Ikeda Riyoko – Aoike’s contemporary.

It is likely that during the past year as Aoike Yasuko celebrates her 60th anniversary as a mangaka – an amazing feat – her team might have decided to use the opportunity to boost exposure to her works. And I stand by that, more Aoike Yasuko exhibitions, books, prints, merch, GIMME ALL OF IT. But in this age of media-mix, and an adaptation of some sort is sure to garner some kind of attention – positive AND negative – and since the anime industry is kind of difficult to barge into with a 50-year-old work right now, a musical seems to be their next choice. (I would not have mind if they gave it to Guy Ritchie and so we can have another Man From UNCLE type film, but that’s just me.)

So, after everything, what have we learned from the lukewarm adaptation of From Eroica with Love?

Is it that perhaps each medium has a specific language, and when one seeks to adapt them into another, one has to translate the tone from the original to the target medium, and not just copy down every line and call that a script? Yes.

Is it that perhaps decently good actors does not necessarily a good production make? Yes.

Or is it that perhaps certain properties don’t need to be media-mixed … at all?

References

[1] Andrew Zahlten, “Introduction,” in The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, and Media Ecologies (USA: Duke University Press, 2017), 1–2.

[2] Marc Steinberg, “Candies, Premiums, and Character Merchandising: The Meiji–Atomu Marketing Campaign,” in Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012), 40, 45, 59–63.

Near x OC (Corrin) mood playlist for Near's birthday party 2024 @nearsbday

Day 2: Memory

synopsis: compiled series of letters exchanged between Near and Corrin - close friends since Wammy's days, now young adults with vastly different callings in life

Written for Near’s birthday party 2024 @nearsbday​

Chapters: 5/19 (Part I) - Day 3: Comfort

A selected compilation of letters exchanged between Near and Corrin - close friends since Wammy's days, now young adults with vastly different callings in life.

I will put him in my pocket and carry him around

Tiny!Near.