Annarasumanara

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?

 I thought Annarasumanara was really interesting both plot-wise and stylistically. I was only able to read up until chapter 9, but I quickly became invested in how relatable the story was. The artistic choices made by the author/illustrator to add real objects (money, toys, flowers) is really neat and even though the images stand out so much from the art, it still seems to fit into the illustrations. I think that's a big part of what drew me to this comic.

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect?

 I think this story is relatable in a similar way that My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is in that it follows a young adult struggling with the realities of society. Topics in this series like Yun Ai's struggle with money and the expectations of Ildeung's parents for him to be at the top of his class are both relatable to me. I think money is a stressful subject for most young adults, especially now thanks to the coronavirus. I know for a long time in middle and high school my parents' expectations for me were very high grade-wise, and the stress of that still affects me today.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you choose; what changes would you make?

 I think this comic could be easily adapted into a physical comic book, for the most part. There are definitely places where images could be cut to develop them into separate pages. But I don't think illustrations that flow into each other would be as easily altered. I could also see Annarasumara adapted into an animated series. The issue of flowing illustrations could be easily solved with animation. I think experimental animation techniques similar to those used in Madoka Magica could be used to animate patterns and designs utilized in this series in a visually interesting way.

4. In what ways does this story seem more adapted to an online environment?

 Annarasumanara is absolutely meant to be read on an online environment as a webcomic. It's clear just from chapter 0 that the author/illustrator has a great understanding of their medium by utilizing one very long image in which individual illustrations are all connected and flow into each other (patterns into hair into faces). 

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