About the fanlisting

What is a fanlisting? Don't you adore things that are self-explanatory? They're just so simple, you don't even need to use any brain cells to understand them. A fanlisting is just that sort of self-explanatory thing. It is a "listing" of "fan"s of a certain subject/character/song (among other things). If successful, a fanlisting can bring together fans from all over the world. More information can be found at either Thefanlistings.org or Animefanlistings.org.

Morita Shinobu

He'll eat your food, he'll wear your clothes (well, Mayama's actually), and if he can't manage to break into his own bedroom he'll sleep in yours. Among other things, this is the sort of human being Morita (I'll be calling him by his last name) appears to be on the surface. But a creation like Honey & Clover can not limit any of its characters to mere comic relief, and although Morita is the epitome of "LOL WTF" he is also by far one of the most complex characters I've ever come across. And without going into a world of detail (which will see me being chased down the street by fans screaming incoherently about spoilers), I'll hazard taking a wild stab in the dark as to just why this character strikes the right notes with me.

Most humans spend their life straining towards something, and if the world could suffer such a clear cut classification, they would then be separated into those who reach their destination and those who don't quite make it. Morita is someone who you would believe would make it. Perhaps he was born to make it - certainly his father was there. What am I trying to say? He has talent. Not just with art. With life. Around Morita there exists a vortex - it draws people towards him, and the attraction may be so inexplicable that you'd think it was backwards.

What must be understood about talent is that it is not effortless. At some level there is a drive, at another there are insecurities and doubts. But what Morita has above all this is integrity. He's the type of person who as a kid (and probably as an adult too, haha) would point out that the King's actually naked, because he says what he sees and he says it so genuinely. When he told Yamada that she was in love, when he yelled at Shuji about Hagu's future, when he agreed instantly to never hate his father's best friend and traitor while Kaoru said no, when he admonished Yamada for making him and Mayama worry - I could go on and on. He may not express himself the same way as others, but that doesn't mean he understands or cares any less. I'd even like to suggest that he's full of blatant subtlety, except the oxymoron twists my brain and I'm sure it'll twist yours.

I should be keeping this short, so - Morita drives me crazy, in fact he drives everyone pretty crazy, and I love him. Oh and, if you're sitting there confused because you haven't seen Honey & Clover and because I haven't really explained anything at all, then you should go watch the show/read the manga because it's the one of the best damn slice of life series to exist. Ever.

Backwards Attraction

I found coming up with a name for this fanlisting incredibly challenging, and I spent more time mulling over it than I'd care to admit. (Thanks goes to Sasa for helping me brainstorm!) Anyway, through this and that Backwards Attraction was discovered and it was so appropriate for no obvious reason at first that it stuck.

The layout happened by itself, with no evident stress on my part (for once). One night I felt like trying out speedpainting on Photoshop, but halfway through decided that it would look good in a layout and changed plans. "Oh god, it's another blue layout" you say? Yes, exactly what I was thinking. Oops.

As per usual, the layout was made in Photoshop 6.0 and coded in Araneae 4.5.2. The image of Shinobu used was from a scanlation by Shoujo Magic. Other than that, all written and visual content unless otherwise specified is copyright © 2006 to Loika.