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 Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:04 am
I've been reading a lot of manga lately and the topic of manga has come up a lot in the OT thread so I thought I'd create a thread for it here. I do realize that manga is different from regular books so I thought out of respect for those of us who actually do read I'd keep the subject seperate from the book thread.
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:16 am
I can attempt to review some of the manga I've read but hell I don't even understand all of it! xd
Loveless
Yeah this is a shonen ai manga. *L* It's definitely made to make the fangirls squee and it does a very good job of that!
In Loveless the kids all have cat ears and tails until they "become an adult" which basically means to have sex. Then they lose them, which so far they haven't really gone into detail about. Do they just fall off??? Does it hurt? Anyway, I'm pretty sure this detail is thrown in there to make girls squee, which again it does a good job of. The main character Ritsuka is a kitty boy which... yeah. I love kitty boys. Okay now for the real summary, I promise!
Ritsuka hasn't had it easy. Two years ago for reasons he doesn't understand he completely changed. He went from being a popular normal kid to being someone completely different. His mom became abusive, saying that he wasn't Ritsuka anymore and he began seeing a therapist to try and find the "real" Ritsuka. On top of that his older brother (who protected him from his mother) is not only murdered, but burned alive and left in Ritsuka's seat in school. The boy is a trauma sponge!
So the day he starts a new school he meets Soubi, an adult (no ears! I don't know his age but I'm going to guess between 18 and 20) who says he was Ritsuka's brother's friend. Immediately Ritsuka accepts Soubi and the two go off to make memories. That's not any kind of euphemism or anything either. Ritsuka likes to "make memories" (take pictures) with people because he knows he forgot his life two years ago and this way if he forgets again at least he'll have his pictures.
That's when things turn weird... er. Did I mention that Ritsuka's 12? Well in true Japanese style he's 12 yet he looks probably... 15 and his female friend (also 12) is probaboly about 5'5" with a C cup. Yeah... 12 my a**!
Anyway, things turn weird when Soubi senses a fighter nearby. That's when the action part of the manga kicks in. As it turns out Soubi was Ritsuka's brother's "fighter", and before big brother died he left Soubi to Ritsuka. They battle with words, which in turn become spells. (So if he says "A thousand needles pierce your flesh" it happens.) Ritsuka is Soubi's sacrifice, he takes his damage and gives him strength. This is also where a good bit of the shonen ai stuff happens because apparently the best way to give a guy strength is to kiss him. I'll have to remember that.
Ritsuka of course is very "OMGWTF?!" about this battle stuff, but he knows it has something to do with his brother's death so he is going to stick with it until he finds out the truth.
There you have the point of the manga. There's battles, there's Ritsuka's desire to find out why his brother was murdered, there's Ritsuka's growing love and distrust for Soubi, and there's Soubi's growing love for Ritsuka all going on at once. This doesn't even touch on the girl who is in love with Ritsuka and the guy who loves her! *L* GAH!
It's definitely a girl thing, but I don't read things that are overly girly so it's not painful. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in maybe peeking into the shonen ai world. It gives you a good bit of the romance and drama of it, as well as two pretty boys kissing, but you know that with Ritsuka being a kid and the whole ears thing, you're not going to get anything too squishy.
Only issue 2 is out in America right now but up to five is out in Japan and six is being released in Shoujo Beat (in Japan) right now. There's also an anime out in Japan which can be found via fansub and is well worth finding!
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 10:57 am
Other than my monthly reading of Shonen Jump, I don't read much manga anymore.
My favorites, however, include:
-Happy Lesson
-FLCL
-Megatokyo (Yes, I know, it's American-made, but I count it)
-Bobo-bo Bo-bobo
-The Ring
-Hikaru no Go
-Deathnote
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:46 am
Death Note! I stopped reading it though... um... spoilers... lots of spoilers... If you're reading it as it comes out and not the scanslations you don't want to highlight unless you don't mind BIG spoilers.
I stopped reading it not long after L died. First off I didn't want to believe he was really dead, then when they introduced Mellow and Near it just didn't interest me anymore.
But it makes me happy that in the end Raito goes out like a b***h. xd He deserves it!!! I don't hate him but he's a jerk to Misa and he freakin' killed L!!!
If I get the urge to cut my hair I should cosplay L again and bring Donovan along. He did L cosplay recently.
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:17 pm
I don't read manga. sad
Partly because I don't have the money, partly because most of the manga I'd be interested in are also anime series, and I'd rather watch the anime than read the manga in most cases. Because, well, most of those stories I've already seen,and then reading them is just...well, boring after that. o_O;
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:27 pm
A lot of anime and manga on the same property are way different. Two of my favorites, Happy Lesson and FLCL, are prime examples. The protagonist of Happy Lesson is even a different person!
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Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:12 pm
I like watching the anime but you get a deeper understanding of it if you read the manga generally speaking.
Petshop of Horrors is four episodes long but the manga is... ten issues I think with two or three stories (which are like the episodes) each.
A lot of the manga I'm into isn't anime though. X-Day and Confidential Confessions are two I love but X-Day is too short to be an anime and Confidential Confessions... eh I don't know that there'd be interest in it.
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Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 10:46 am
Not to mention the fact that some manga that are adapted into anime have major differences between them. Some characters' storylines change in anime (such as Trigun), and some of the manga chapters are never adapted at all.
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Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:35 pm
Hellsing, that's one that there's a fairly decent difference in the manga and anime, and I'm only on the second volume!
For instance in the anime Alucard gets to dramatically ask Victoria if she would like to come with him rather than die, meaning of course if she'd like to be a vampire. In the manga it's a little less dramatic with him asking if she's a virgin. xd Only virgins can become vampires in the manga.
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:50 pm
I'm quite aware a lot of manga wind up being very different, but the thing is, I have trouble getting through the parts that ARE adapted in the anime I can't get into the other stuff.
Which is why I can't get into the FMA manga (even though I found it online. I will not reveal my sources. ...here)
But mostly it's the money issue. I'm a huge comic fan, so reading manga isn't much of a stretch. But I'm a nonworking 17 year old so I get only so much money.
Which I quickly blow on comic books. xp
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Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:23 am
Yeah manga is definitely expensive. eek Last paycheck I spent $80 on manga and that was even getting like ten bucks off I think. Now this paycheck I've got a ton of stuff to pay for and I don't think I'll be able to afford any Yami no Matsuei manga and I'm getting rather whiney about that. *L*
I NEED MY FIX!!!
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Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:57 pm
What's worse, is big stores like Border's, Barnes & Nobles, and Waldenbooks have large exclusivity contracts (at least here in Washington). So if I want quality manga, I have to pay out the butt for it at those locations. The only way I can get it any cheaper is at the local comic book stores, but they get it months to even a year after release!
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Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:02 am
Barnes & Noble and Books a Million are where I get my manga but they can't sell it for any more than it's printed price can they? Most manga is $10 an issue I think that's pretty standard. Of course Hellsing is more but there's always exceptions.
I think when I have some extra cash I'm going to scour Amazon.com for used manga or something. I've never gotten anything used there that wasn't in good condition and their shipping is always pretty fast.
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Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:32 pm
The local comic shops tend to sell their manga cheaper. I got The Ring 0 recently for less than $10, and I think the cover price was a couple bucks more than that. I had previously gotten the first Ring manga at the same place on clearance for $1, and it hadn't even been out for more year at that point.
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Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:44 pm
I haven't read any of the Ring manga yet. I keep meaning to but I just haven't gotten around to it. I'm just now reading my second Yami no Matsuei and I've had it for two weeks. It's not that I'm not interested it's jsut that I've been reading/doing a lot of other stuff.
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