Shall we have some manga discussion? - http://www.mmcafe.com/ Forums


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Maese Spt
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"Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Thu 4 Jun 21:09post reply

It's been a while since the last time we talked about what we're reading, right? I'm curious about what recommendations you guys might have.

I myself have recently discovered Otoyomegatari, a series by Kaoru Mori in Fellows magazine (a quite interesting publication itself), and I'm really delighted with it.

The art style is absolutely gorgeous. On the other hand, the slow paced tempo and the overall feeling of the story remind me of Hitoshi Ashinano in some way. In fact, Mori's style looks to me like an overclocked, baroque version of Ashinano's works. It also reminds me of my beloved Gensou Suikoden III; no wonder the whole Grasslands/Karaya tribe scenario was supposedly inspired on the same great plains of Middle-East where Otoyomegatari takes place.

There are only three chapters so far, but I can't wait for the first tankoubon to hit the shelves. It's almost impossible to get all those insanely beautiful images out of my mind; I had not been so impressed by a friggin' comic in years. Take a look at it if you have the chance, if you like artsy-yet-unpretentious stuff this might be your cup of tea.






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Freeter
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"Re(1):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Thu 4 Jun 22:40post reply

GTO returns next week. I don't care if Fujisawa has ADD and will never finish Tokko, more Onizuka is always a good thing.





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"Re(1):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Thu 4 Jun 22:51post reply

quote:

I myself have recently discovered Otoyomegatari, a series by Kaoru Mori in Fellows magazine (a quite interesting publication itself), and I'm really delighted with it.

The art style is absolutely gorgeous. On the other hand, the slow paced tempo and the overall feeling of the story remind me of Hitoshi Ashinano in some way. In fact, Mori's style looks to me like an overclocked, baroque version of Ashinano's works. It also reminds me of my beloved Gensou Suikoden III; no wonder the whole Grasslands/Karaya tribe scenario was supposedly inspired on the same great plains of Middle-East where Otoyomegatari takes place.



I did check one or two chapters of it, and I have to agree: the art is truly breathtaking.
I should check it back again (and hope they keep scanlating it)





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"Re(1):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Fri 5 Jun 03:37post reply

Magi, by the very interesting author of Sumomomomomomo, just started in Shônen Sunday. It's the first chapter so it's still too early to judge, and Sumomo took a few volumes to settle down (if you can even say it settled down, since its main weakness (and strength) was its inability to chose between romance, fight and gag manga, like the good modern Ranma 1/2 it was).
Since the author left SquarEnix for a more serious publisher this time, I think the TV series Magi will get if it's successful enough is already assured to be less shitty than the one Sumomo had.

Bokurano is nearly finished (last episode next month). It was a huge challenge for the author, and I think he can be proud: he managed to keep each new chapter more horrifyingly depressing than the one before. Tomino can die, his successor is already crowned.





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"Re(1):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Fri 5 Jun 06:44post reply

quote:

I myself have recently discovered Otoyomegatari, a series by Kaoru Mori in Fellows magazine (a quite interesting publication itself), and I'm really delighted with it.



YES. Fellows is really cool. Maybe like, the coolest manga publication I've ever seen. I recently got into it and Manga Erotics F (which is not as dirty as it sounds).

Speaking of Manga Erotics F, I finally got my hands on Litchi Hikari Club, which I...erm...maybe "highly recommend" isn't the word. "Highly recommend looking into to see if it's something you might like." Hahaha. It was weird to see a "Usamaru Furuya does Suehiro Maruo" type thing.

Speaking of which, I got Maruo's latest(?) book, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, because it looked like it might give me some difficulty.

I haven't really gotten into anything new lately. I recently bought a large amount of manga, but I was mostly just catching up on older series I hadn't finished yet (Glass Mask, Real and Biomega, for example)

Oh oh! The final volume of Gankutsuo (3) is just...completely insane. Really amazing to look at, even if you aren't interested in the story. It's not like the first two volumes weren't interesting, it's just...3 is totally insane.

I'm ready for the break on Dorohedoro to be over! It's really one of the best manga I've ever read. The characters are all fun and unique, it looks amazing and everything in the story seems planned. That's so rare in manga sometimes...like...you feel that the writer is making things up as they go along (because they are), but with Dorohedoro, the way the plot is revealed seems very deliberate.

The recent developments have totally turned the series on its head, flip-flopping the heroes and villains and making me unsure of who I want to win. There was a big battle a volume or so ago and I was sweating when I was reading it because I didn't want characters on either side to get hurt.

Of course, I've been keeping up with the Shounen Jump stuff, too. One Piece has been so fantastic lately, that unless something extraordinary happens in my life, it makes my week every time. Or at the very least, it undoes the disappointment that Naruto brings me.

Oh, and I need to catch up on March Comes in Like a Lion. It's the only series that has the distinction of making me cry in the first chapter. I'm at least a volume behind on that one.





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Iggy
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"Re(2):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Fri 5 Jun 07:29post reply

quote:
Oh oh! The final volume of Gankutsuo (3) is just...completely insane. Really amazing to look at, even if you aren't interested in the story. It's not like the first two volumes weren't interesting, it's just...3 is totally insane.

What is it? Is it linked to the anime of a few years back, or totally independant and purely based on the book?





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"Re(1):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Fri 5 Jun 07:34post reply

quote:
I myself have recently discovered Otoyomegatari, a series by Kaoru Mori in Fellows magazine (a quite interesting publication itself), and I'm really delighted with it.

The art style is absolutely gorgeous. On the other hand, the slow paced tempo and the overall feeling of the story remind me of Hitoshi Ashinano in some way. In fact, Mori's style looks to me like an overclocked, baroque version of Ashinano's works. It also reminds me of my beloved Gensou Suikoden III; no wonder the whole Grasslands/Karaya tribe scenario was supposedly inspired on the same great plains of Middle-East where Otoyomegatari takes place.

There are only three chapters so far, but I can't wait for the first tankoubon to hit the shelves. It's almost impossible to get all those insanely beautiful images out of my mind; I had not been so impressed by a friggin' comic in years. Take a look at it if you have the chance, if you like artsy-yet-unpretentious stuff this might be your cup of tea.


Thanks for this, I just read first volume and its wonderful. Not to mention the seeing middle asia turkish clothes, and life in manga style made me happy.





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Pollyanna
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"Re(3):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Fri 5 Jun 07:58post reply

quote:
Oh oh! The final volume of Gankutsuo (3) is just...completely insane. Really amazing to look at, even if you aren't interested in the story. It's not like the first two volumes weren't interesting, it's just...3 is totally insane.
What is it? Is it linked to the anime of a few years back, or totally independant and purely based on the book?



It's linked to the anime. Actually, the director did it. Like...drew it and everything. The story starts out kind of like the anime, but it sort of spirals into insanity after the first volume. The story defies the good/bad scale. Whenever I look at the book, I just think "wow, this is nuts" and "wow, this looks amazing."





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"Re(2):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Fri 5 Jun 08:11post reply

quote:

Oh, and I need to catch up on March Comes in Like a Lion.



I love this one, I think it really has a good balance on what the characters are going through, and how they can't properly express themselves due to circumstances. It's great and I'm also something like a volume behind, ha ha ha ha.



The only new on going "shounen standard" manga that I have been following is Hajime no Ippo. The fact that almost every character is designed to have a "main character" charisma is pretty cool. The last chapter was quite to my liking 「まくのうち~~~~っ」 However, lately most of the fights have lost some of their originality and particular flavor (except for -perhaps- Itagaki's ones).



Well, at first it rang a bell due to the title size, but お兄ちゃんのことなんかぜんぜん好きじゃないんだからねっ!! (I don't like you at all, onichan) has a pretty weird thing going on there, it's supposed to be your usual dull fan service / dull loli con story, but... but... BUT! But the main female lead it's just so deliciously insane. The way on how she tries to accomplish even the slightest, most simple day to day task using extreme maquinations, paranoia and secrecy took me straight back to my high school days (not many stories can say that). The first couple of chapters where great, but after that the author seems to tone down a little her crazyness (boo).

Oh, Her "final objective" doesn't make her any healthier and noble either...

Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
That would be, being raped by her nii -chan

End of Spoiler




On a similar note, a manga that came to my notice due to a small US publishing scandal was こどものじかん (Kodomo no Jikan , it's time for the kids). The manga can be viewed from two perspectives: just as the previous one it could be supposed to be a stupid loli con comedy; but what I really think that what the author tried to convey was something like "it's normal for kids to lose innocence, but it's grown ups fault that happens all to quickly" and after thinking like that, every page just scream "if you get on with this, you are sick". Whenever I read this with this mentality, I fell like a military commander that is seeing safely from his desk on a TV screen how rookie soldiers are being eaten alive by strange alien races, and then I start to blurt out complaints about their lack of efficiency. It's marvelous.


Also, I'm not into any kind of drama at all; but 罪に濡れたふたり (we both, showered by sin (?)) was... Unintentionally weird, creepy & theologically incorrect enough to keep me reading until the end.


I'm pretty sure that I'm reading some more interesting things, but that's all the names that I can remember after so little sleep hours this week.







目に焼きつけて、死ぬがいい・・・
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Maou
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"Re(4):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Fri 5 Jun 10:11post reply

Ah, all of Gankutsuou has been in my house forever since someone here (Makondo?) had it as an avatar...I should watch it, especially so I can read it given what you just said, Polly. Wild.

Hmmm, and speaking of Monte Cristo and French things, in the spirit of Random Thread: I beseech IGGY!/Chaz!/friends: I have bought some camembert that is over-rubbery and under-flavorful. Besides the obvious remedies of "buy bleu cheese next time" and "sucker-punch the cheese vendor," what can I do? Maybe if I leave it untended in the refridgerator for a month, it will gain some character? It's like the WWII trenches all over again, but for the first time.





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Maese Spt
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"Re(5):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Sun 7 Jun 11:04post reply

March Comes in Like a Lion looks like my cup of tea, thanks for the input.

A single episode of that Gankutsuou (or whatever the hell it's written) anime gave me several serious ocular disorders, so I wouldn't exactly recommend it, but on the other hand I found the manga actually interesting.

More things. I forgot about it because is not exactly a "new" series, but since some of you guys are into shounen stuff, I might as well bring in Vinland Saga. It's pretty much the only shounen-like thing I'm interested lately (other than old time favourites of mine like Ah! My Goddes and Mugenin), and what actually spurred my interest was this pic, which is pretty muych self-explanatory, albeit a bit misleading: aside from some very punctual over-the-top tibdits such as this, Vinland Saga is a quite realistic, down to earth story. And has a damn well crafted plot too. And vikings. Lots of them.

Oh, and for overall dairy product dilemmas I'd recommend throwing the camembert down the WC sink and, instead of wasting money and effort on overrated french crap, purchasing some QUALITY cheese for a change, like a piece or two of semi-cured Manchego or smoked Idiazabal.





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"Re(6):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Sun 7 Jun 19:33post reply

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Maese on this (at least for the first part of his message).

The problem with good, tasty cheese is that it requires bacterias. But people who don't know what's good and are afraid of everything (Saxons, and YOU) want to use thermized milk (heated to kill bacterias) instead of raw milk, even though the health risks are null with modern farms. And of course, since this is cheaper and allows the cheese to be kept longer, all the industrial assholes agree wholly to this. In France, you have to buy "Camember of Normandy" (where the actual village of Camember is) and keep away from the "Camember made in Normandy" (which is made there, but not with the traditional recipe).

So your camember will not get any better. You might get a unbearable stench and good infections out of it if you let it out long enough, but I'm not sure the taste will be any better.

And I only like bleu cheese in my sauce or my vinaigrette, so I wouldn't know.

AND STOP MAKING ME TALK ABOUT CHEESE.
I'm in fucking ENGLAND. The only cheeses I can buy here are mozzarella and cheddar.





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"Re(7):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Mon 8 Jun 00:12post reply

quote:
Unfortunately, I have to agree with Maese on this (at least for the first part of his message).

The problem with good, tasty cheese is that it requires bacterias. But people who don't know what's good and are afraid of everything (Saxons, and YOU) want to use thermized milk (heated to kill bacterias) instead of raw milk, even though the health risks are null with modern farms. And of course, since this is cheaper and allows the cheese to be kept longer, all the industrial assholes agree wholly to this. In France, you have to buy "Camember of Normandy" (where the actual village of Camember is) and keep away from the "Camember made in Normandy" (which is made there, but not with the traditional recipe).

So your camember will not get any better. You might get a unbearable stench and good infections out of it if you let it out long enough, but I'm not sure the taste will be any better.

And I only like bleu cheese in my sauce or my vinaigrette, so I wouldn't know.

AND STOP MAKING ME TALK ABOUT CHEESE.
I'm in fucking ENGLAND. The only cheeses I can buy here are mozzarella and cheddar.



Well, I´d suggest you Maasdamer cheese for sandwitches and Feta for salads and other cold dishes...

But, back on topic, I ought to reccomend the best comedy manga ever: Grappler Baki (specially the most recent saga Son of Ogre).I thin I haven´t laughed so much in ages!! Unfortunately,those who,like me, can´t read selenoglyphs must contempt with OneManga´s crappy scanlations...

BTW, thanks Maese for telling me about that great page.Now I can kill some time at work!!!





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"Re(7):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Mon 8 Jun 00:13:post reply

quote:

AND STOP MAKING ME TALK ABOUT CHEESE.
I'm in fucking ENGLAND. The only cheeses I can buy here are mozzarella and cheddar.

Oh, have they introduced cheddar there now? How daring! I hope you are enjoying lots of biscuits, and...biscuits.

The pasteurization and thermizing processes definitely do impact the taste. The flavor difference between even a simple unpasteurized brie you can buy in a Migros in Paris or something and a pasteurized one is gigantic.

I'm still leaving that Camembert in there and hoping that the health challenges and near-fatal experiences posed by mold will make it more exciting. Manchego or smoked Idiazabal, you say? Hmm, maybe it is time to give Spanish cheese some attention.

edit: I'm very excited that we're on our first cheese-related derail that I can remember.





人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は...

[this message was edited by Maou on Mon 8 Jun 00:14]

Maese Spt
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"Re(7):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Mon 8 Jun 16:48post reply

quote:
AND STOP MAKING ME TALK ABOUT CHEESE.
I'm in fucking ENGLAND. The only cheeses I can buy here are mozzarella and cheddar.



Quit bitching, you sissy. You can still take a cheap flight to wherever in France you want and purchase enough cheese to feed a cavalry squadron for pretty much the same the price I have to pay here in Tokyo for a miserable 100 gr piece of low quality Manchego.


Hayato, corasón, ya te dije que los scans on line son puro amor, pero tú no me creías. Where is your god now?





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"Re(2):Shall we have some manga discussion?" , posted Mon 8 Jun 22:39:post reply

quote:
Tomino can die, his successor is already crowned.



Speaking of, I have just read the first chapter of Gundam Sousei ( ガンダム創世 ). It's about Tomino portrayed as a "big bad bald mada fucke" and trying to get exactly what he wants from the seiyuus in a voice recording studio and the sponsors of the show. Real life Bright slap was the right point to start the series. Having Ikeda being the first victim of the "Char mania" was quite fitting as well.







目に焼きつけて、死ぬがいい・・・
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[this message was edited by Toxico on Mon 8 Jun 22:40]

HAYATO
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"Re(8):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Tue 9 Jun 04:13post reply

quote:

Hayato, corasón, ya te dije que los scans on line son puro amor, pero tú no me creías. Where is your god now?




Sí, la verdad es que tenías razón: en casa no me sirven de nada, puesto que sabes de sobra cuánto me gusta tener mis scans ordenaditos y grabados, pero desde el curro...

Empecé puliéndome "Shamo" (soberbio!!!) y ahora estoy hacia la mitad de "Baki-SoO" (LOL @ Pickle raep!!!). A ver si lo termino de una vez para poder comenzar otra comedia clásica que he visto por ahí... Riki-Oh!!! XDDDD

BTW, that turkish bride manga looks awesome. Unfortunately, the plot doesn't seem very enthralling to me. Perhaps it's just a matter of time that things set themselves in motion, who knows...

As for Vinland saga... well, I'll get into it for sure, it's just that I have other priorities (i.e. Garouden, Riki-Oh, etc), nothing else...





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"Re(6):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Thu 11 Jun 16:04post reply

quote:

More things. I forgot about it because is not exactly a "new" series, but since some of you guys are into shounen stuff, I might as well bring in Vinland Saga. It's pretty much the only shounen-like thing I'm interested lately (other than old time favourites of mine like Ah! My Goddes and Mugenin), and what actually spurred my interest was this pic, which is pretty muych self-explanatory, albeit a bit misleading: aside from some very punctual over-the-top tibdits such as this, Vinland Saga is a quite realistic, down to earth story. And has a damn well crafted plot too. And vikings. Lots of them.



I'm glad to see some love for Vinland Saga. I was immediately addicted to it. It's a fun, smart, immaculately executed comic. The best thing about it is it's consummate commitment to great storytelling. In spite of the mind bogglingly detailed art, it's a real breeze to read.

I'm kind of hesitant to bring this up, but has anyone else read The World Is Mine ?

If you want to read something a bit different, something really really intense, I highly recommend it. It's incredibly violent, and even vile at times, but it never feels cheap. It's gruesome and disgusting, but it's also really meaningful. Like, I really think it's profound at points.

It's a bit slow to start, the art is really unpalatable to most, and it might come off as obnoxious at the beginning, but I urge you to read 2 volumes before drawing judgement, because it develops into one of the most personally intense and CRAZY stories I've ever seen or read.

It's the kind of comic where a quiet panel that makes no extra effort to draw attention to itself can end up being absolutely devastating. At first glance it seems deliberately provacative, but if you stick with it you might find it to be one of the most thoughtful things you've read in a while.





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"Re(7):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Thu 11 Jun 17:13post reply

quote:

I'm glad to see some love for Vinland Saga. I was immediately addicted to it. It's a fun, smart, immaculately executed comic. The best thing about it is it's consummate commitment to great storytelling. In spite of the mind bogglingly detailed art, it's a real breeze to read.

I'm kind of hesitant to bring this up, but has anyone else read The World Is Mine ?



I was hesitant to check out Vinland Saga at first. It was recommended to me numerous times, but always by people whose tastes didn't necessarily coincide with mine. Your endorsement is good enough for me, though...so I'll finally check it out.

I haven't read "The World is Mine", but I'll give it a shot once I clear up my backlog. I just ordered a bunch of random manga...mostly stuff I had seen mentioned in "S" Magazine.

Getting back on Fellows, I forgot to mention that I love the short intro "stories" at the beginning of each book. Since the covers are all so nice and the intro stories are not likely to be reprinted, it wins the distinction of being the first manga magazine that I'm compelled to buy every copy of.





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"Re(8):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Thu 11 Jun 19:13post reply

I'm surprised Fellows gets mentioned at all, but I'm strangely not surprised that Pollyanna likes that magazine!

For the people that like Fellows, I'd also recommend checking out Uchuu Kyoudai (宇宙兄弟) or Gunjou Gakusha (群青学舎). They've kinda got the same kind of feel, I think.

I still love Giant Killing a lot.





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"Re(9):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Thu 11 Jun 19:50post reply

quote:
I'm surprised Fellows gets mentioned at all, but I'm strangely not surprised that Pollyanna likes that magazine!

For the people that like Fellows, I'd also recommend checking out Uchuu Kyoudai (宇宙兄弟) or Gunjou Gakusha (群青学舎). They've kinda got the same kind of feel, I think.

I still love Giant Killing a lot.



Funny you mention Gunjou Gakusha. I just bought the last volume of that. I found that the stories were pretty hit or miss, but once I got used to the artwork, there was a lot to appreciate about it. Aki Irie is really good at drawing people touching each other! It must be a delicate art, because I've never seen anyone else do it so well.

Incidentally, I got ended up with a subscription to Morning Magazine, so I've been following Uchuu Kyoudai since it started. Can't say much for the art, but considering the content, I've enjoyed it quite a bit.

On the other hand, I love the artwork in Giant Killing, but can't get into the story. I think I need to like soccer more.

Man, those are three series I never thought would come up.





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"Re(10):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Thu 11 Jun 22:42post reply

quote:
Man, those are three series I never thought would come up.



Man, I never thought you would have already read all three of them!

I didn't realise how good Aki Irie was at drawing people touching each other till you pointed that out! All this while I just kept feeling there was something special how she draws the characters but couldn't figure out what it was.

Also you mentioned that you read Morning magazine, is there anything else in there that you might recommend? I've been interested in following the magazine for a while but never picked it up.

And speaking of magazines, Dengeki Daioh has completely lost their direction after the renewal. I don't know what I'm supposed to think about that magazine anymore.





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"Re(2):Re(10):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Fri 12 Jun 08:48:post reply

quote:
Man, I never thought you would have already read all three of them!


I guess I read a lot of stuff. I used to get quite a bit of manga for free and now I have so much that I need to move into a new apartment just to hold it all.

quote:
Also you mentioned that you read Morning magazine, is there anything else in there that you might recommend?


As for Morning...ehhh...it's hard to recommend anything in there. Normally, I would say "just pick up an issue and see what you like", but the titles in any given issue are horribly sporadic. Like, you're lucky if you get three chapters of Piano no Mori in a year. I used to wonder if they could ever manage to get Vagabond, Hatarakiman and Zipang in one issue together. Now that Hatarakiman has stopped, it'll never happen.

There are a number of series in there I enjoy reading on a week to week basis, but I wouldn't buy the tankoubon for. If you like the crazy-looking art style, Dias Police is pretty decent and I've recently enjoyed Tokyou Kaidou (東京怪童) which reminds me a bit of an American indie comic or something. It hasn't hit any big emotional climaxes yet, but it looks great and I think it has a lot of potential. I'm not sure if there's a full volume out yet, though.

I like Himawari okay...but I would only buy the tankoubon if they were on sale...hahaha. It's about manga, but it lacks focus so much that it took me several chapters to figure that out. I would say it's about "girls" mostly. The art is cute and the characters are fun, though. They introduced one that draws Three Kingdoms yaoi (much to my delight as a Three Kingdoms fan, not a yaoi fan).

Everything else is kind of..."topic based". Like, I think Kami no Shizuku is ridiculous, but if I liked wine, I might enjoy it. Then there's this totally over-dramatic manga about making...cups? Pottery? Some guy broke a cup and killed himself a few months back.

Hmmm...if you like kabuki, Kabukumon (かぶく者) is kind of cool. The art didn't look so great at first, but lately it's starting to look more and more like Vagabond. Very dramatic story.

On a somewhat related note, every recipe I've tried from Cooking Papa has been as awful as the artwork.

By the way, if you don't read Morning, how did you find out about Uchuu Kyoudai?

quote:
And speaking of magazines, Dengeki Daioh has completely lost their direction after the renewal. I don't know what I'm supposed to think about that magazine anymore.


Coincidentally, I picked up an issue of that recently and realized immediately that I was not its target demographic. Too moe. I want to say too "otaku", but my gashapon of Garma burning says that I might not have the right to criticize.





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[this message was edited by Pollyanna on Fri 12 Jun 10:21]

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"Re(3):Re(10):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Fri 12 Jun 13:01post reply

quote:
By the way, if you don't read Morning, how did you find out about Uchuu Kyoudai?


I was flipping through this このマンガがすごい! book in the bookstore and I decided I'll just buy all the manga in their list that I wasn't already reading. Which mainly comprised of... Uchuu Kyoudai, I think.

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll probably pick up the first books for the titles you've mentioned to see which ones I like.

With the direction the thread is going now it's safe to mention good! Afternoon and that I really love Halcyon Lunch! It's one of those "completely random" manga but keeps the target demographic towards adults. I didn't know it could be done so beautifully.





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"Re(4):Re(10):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Fri 12 Jun 16:36post reply

quote:
Then there's this totally over-dramatic manga about making...cups? Pottery? Some guy broke a cup and killed himself a few months back.

This looks hilarious. Can you remember the name of the manga?

quote:
I really love Halcyon Lunch! It's one of those "completely random" manga but keeps the target demographic towards adults.

Halcyon Lunch is the ultimate awesome. I think it's even on par with the short story in Ohikkoshi of about the life of a female mangaka, which was so fast you had to stay on each drawing several seconds to understand everything it implies.
I really like the fact that Halcyon Lunch never keeps things pending for more than one or two retort. Some manga would have introduced the dog, then, one or two pages later, the characters would have reacted dramatically when they would have discovered it was not... normal, to say the least. In Halcyon, it happens casually, "hmm, I think this dog is a zombie", but it doesn't startle the main character any more than that. The pace of the humour and the way everyone acts like everything happening was totally normal reminds me of the Arrested Development for a reason.





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"Re(5):Re(10):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Fri 12 Jun 18:18post reply

quote:

This looks hilarious. Can you remember the name of the manga?



http://morningmanga.com/lineup/13

Hyougemono...erm...Heugemono?

I haven't actually read the manga, despite having a Morning subscription for like...2 years. My impressions have been as follows:

1: This is totally ugly.
2: Dude, it's just a tea cup. Chill out.
3: Whoa, that guy just killed himself! Sweet!





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"Re(5):Re(10):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Sat 13 Jun 00:17post reply

quote:
The pace of the humour and the way everyone acts like everything happening was totally normal reminds me of the Arrested Development for a reason.

...or Murakami Haruki for that matter. I would read an AD-esque comic for sure.





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"Re(6):Re(10):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Sun 14 Jun 14:36post reply

Woah, so much stuff to comment now that the thread has been rescued from that gastronomic hijack!

Halcyon Lunch is great, but that's not suprising at all coming from that crazy Samura guy. One of the things I enjoy most of Mugen no Juunin is, precisely, the humorous pills the author likes to drop here and there (specially on the omake pages). Hiroaki Samura's smile is truly a pleasure.

In fact, the whole Good! Afternoon project seemed a bit pointless to me (and I'm still sceptical about it), but I guess it's OK as far as it gives us an excuse to have a monthly dosis of Samura, now that Mugenin is likely to end somewhat soon. And how could I forget Fujishima's schoolgirls, too.

I'm worried about Vinland Saga now that the "prologue" is over and the best character is gone for good. I'm not sure if I'm going to be interested on the main character's vicissitudes and the new direction the story is likely to take.

The intros on Fellows magazine are marvelous, yeah. Not only are they interesting per-se, they also contribute to give the magazine that artsy feeling. But I guess they will be compilated at some point, on the tankoubon of their respective authors regular series. Last number was Kaoru Mori's turn, and I hope we can get that short story as an extra on the first volume of Otoyomegatari. Like somebody said earlier, that woman's artwork is just breathtaking, I have no words to describe it.

More things. I tried 3gatsu no Lion and I was delighted with it. Such a nice discovery! Cheers to whoever bringed it up into the conversation. The only problem is that it doesn't seem easy to find the volmes in Book Off, and buying first-hand, full-price manga goes against my principles. But I'll manage somehow; chasing down the prey is half of the fun.

Finally, to continue with the name dropping, I shall recommend "Nazo no kanojo X", by Riichi Ueshiba. Yet another Afternoon series, but I'm an Afternoon whore so what could I do. I like his unpretentious, somewhat rough style; it is full of personality. Maybe it isn't the greatest story ever, but it has some smart twists that take it a bit far away from your average gakuen love comedy. Urabe and her perverse traits are totally lovable, and there are plenty of little details and fetishes that add charm and uniqueness into the mix.

And I think that was all for now!





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"Re(7):Re(10):Shall we have some camembert?" , posted Mon 15 Jun 04:02post reply

I really like Kongou Banchou.

It doesn't have amazing writing, it doesn't have an amazing plot or unique structure, and you already know that the hero is going to beat the stuffing out of whoever it is that he's faced with.

Yet in spite of all that, I find myself desperately wanting to see the hero use his wholly unstated power of indeterminant size (think Raoh; when somebody needed to die, his fist would grow in aribitrary proportion to emphasize how puny his opponent is) to crush whoever it is he needs to while spouting some platitudes about how a real man ought to live.

There are plenty of other, good manga that I should probably be reading instead.





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"Kah, kah, kah ka ka!" , posted Tue 15 Dec 08:46:post reply

This is way off the first page of the cafe, but I still felt like adding something to it since I do have things to say, perhaps someone would browse back to it by accident and will manage to read these comments? Not likely. Lucky you if that's your case.

The first manga that has caught up my attention as of recent is baby steps. Baby steps is a marvelous sports manga about a person who has the talent of not having any talent, he covers up for his inherent weakness with hard work and deductive abilities, leading him to learn things slowly, but perfectly. The manga itself is written to befit this unlikely hero perfectly, with proper, realist focus in the actual sport that is being played and a typical but still clever character portrayal. It's great.

Another manga that picked up my attention to some point is Until death do us apart. This is a very down the ground action series with nice drawing and fast paced action, the Hero itself is just another take to the concept of Sato Ichi and the supportive cast is quite decent and while the normal plot is fun and easy to foresee, the subplot that actually gives the namesake to the story is quite MUCH harder to imagine. This one is OK.

This one surprised me quite strangely; the title is The Book eating girl and the clown who seeks to die, the main setting is about a dumb girl who is in love with nothing but reading and she is currently coercing a former teen writer that has come to despise literary work to write stories for her. While the basic premise foretells the typical gut disgusting shoujo, little by little the manga starts to focus on the inherent personality flaws of the characters and on how they ended up so screwed up in the first place. There is a certain "mystery" take to how the mains past is being revealed little by little and is portrayed through comparatives between details of the events in the manga, and tendencies of writers and book. Gets more and more interesting and slightly deep with each big storyline event discovery.

Evil heart has an extremely interesting premise, but seems to fall on short as it's advancing in the story : The basic concept is that the main character is a small kid who suffers from extremely violent outbursts and gets into trouble oftenly for literally going insane when is the time to beat up somebody, this is further explained due to the background of his family and upbringing. The series does not praise this as a positive factor but instead we have several characters trying to save the main from his self destructive violent nature. To further correct the character of the protagonist, he is introduced to an aikido teacher so that he can become an apprentice. If you don't know Aikido is a "soft" martial arts that focuses on self control and control of the enemy actions, focusing mainly in stopping the enemy / conflicts without injuries to one self nor the opponent, it's also a high discipline art that in which the learning not only should have impact your fighting style but in your way of living as well.

Lastly Butterfly is a manga about a swindler that can create illusions and goes around creating fake ghost so that she can charge cash for exorcism them, the two lead teams consist of the... u-erm, a female young middle school brat (the swindler)that can create the illusions used for the job and a generic high school student, that has the ability to dispel these illusions by simply not believing in them at all (something that the swindler finds quite odd and rare). As usual with these pseudo mystery stories, with every swindling case we get to see a little bit more and more of the character persona and certain weird, dark secrets on their past.







目に焼きつけて、死ぬがいい・・・
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[this message was edited by Toxico on Mon 4 Jan 19:10]