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thebeats42



Joined: 28 Jun 2014
Posts: 43
Location: Manila, Philippines
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:44 am Reply with quote
Fukumenkai Noise.
I saw the picture in a page and I was curious as to what the story is.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 5:47 am Reply with quote
The more I read of 13th Boy, the more I enjoy it really. Some of the people on my favorite manga blogs enjoyed it, and that used book store had v1 so yeah, why the hey not? It's a high school romance, but it does have a few things that keep me more interested than that. There's the childhood love triangle thing going on too, and that promises to show us the pasts of character, and I do approve. But it has to be the mysterious psychic powers and magical talking (and bishie transforming) cactus that has me very much sold. I'm 3 vols in, but the Yen sale and a trade from the internets means I shall have it all very soon, mwahaha!
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st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 11:01 am Reply with quote
@classicalzawa - I'll be adding that to my manhwa pickup list then. I've wondered about it for a while, but it seemed a bit generic. You've sold me on it.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:10 pm Reply with quote
Gakuen Alice

I put off finishing it for so long...good god, once you get past volume 19, all hell breaks loose.
"SCHOOL COMEDY" MY ASS. IT GIVES YOU HAPPY FEELS AND THEN RIPS THEM FROM YOUR HEART AND STOMPS ALL OVER THEM UNTIL YOU'RE A SNIFFLING MESS.

Mikan's parents' love story is more tragic and heart-breaking than Fruits Basket's parents' love story......and yet I feel the worst is yet to come.....
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:33 am Reply with quote
Read the free v1 omnibus of xxxHolic I got at Kodansha's panel at Otakon. So this was actually 3 volumes really. I was definitely hesitant, I'm not really a CLAMP fan, I just think most of their things are average. But I actually really did enjoy this and plan to get another one. I think it has more whimsy and fun than I usually seem to find in CLAMP works, it just works better for me. I also enjoy Yuko, she's pretty damn awesome and Watanuki actually works as the straight man here really well. So yeah, I'm shocked myself that I actually want more.
But I do have one major fear, and that is the crossover part with Tsubasa. So far, it's been minor on the story, but I've read the spoilers online and oh boy. Tsubasa's list of weird plot developments and character reveals makes me think Kingdom Hearts look easy to tackle (I've no real intention to go back to KH, I dropped it after the second game). I do fear too much of that leaking into xxxHolic, and that makes me wary that oh boy! Here comes along something ridiculous to confuse me, especially since I haven't read Tsubasa and don't plan to, woohoo! Even though I've read a fair number of Tsubasa spoilers, I'm still going "...yeah, I still don't get it" so just looking this up on TVTropes won't help here and I think it could potentially ruin what I liked about v1-3.

I recently won a manga lot of Itazura na Kiss on ebay for around $38ish with shipping. Has v1-8. I remember a while back, st_owly had me buy a volume from RightStuf for her that I guess was hard to find over in the UK, so I'm assuming she enjoys the series. And now I do too. Despite Naoki being a massive jerk and me going "what are you doing, Kotoko?! Screw him, he's a jerk!" but I do find it to be cracktastic shojo and Naoki did help them study eventually. I wouldn't call him a jerk with a heart of gold by any means, but I suppose there's more to watch than just him being a jerk. I like his parents though, the mom is especially cool. I've read the first two volumes, but I'm guessing that this is based on some reprint bunko editions or something so that's more like 3.5 volumes I've read maybe? But I do enjoy that the series is already out of high school, we've all seen plenty of high school romcoms with a jerk male lead and a stupid girl, but this probably came earlier on and hey, time actually passed and they're not eternal high school seniors. I'll see if, when I get to the end, how curious I am for what the planned ending was. I've heard the final chapter before the mangaka's unfortunate death is as good a stopping point as any, but that the anime, conveniently licensed by Discotek, has the fully planned ending.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9809
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 7:56 am Reply with quote
@classicalzawa

Tsubasa remains a minor element in xxxHolic as far as I can tell. I've read xxxHolic as far as it has come out to date and gave up on Tsubasa with the first volume without problems.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:11 am Reply with quote
I tried, I really did, but I just find the Sailor Moon manga to be incredibly boring. I made it further than I did last time though, I finished the first arc (last time, I didn't even finish the first volume), though I was rather tuning out towards the end there. Good thing for libraries so I didn't have to buy this (unless you count taxes). I've seen a bit of the anime on hulu, and it's not bad, I can see some of the appeal there (at least of the older series), but I just cannot get into this manga, it baffles me soooo much. I guess if it's your thing, fine, but I just hate not being able to understand a craze (well, with some crazes, like Justin Bieber, I'm in synch with everyone above the fandom age, so that's different, but it seems like fans of all ages like Sailor Moon)
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:15 am Reply with quote
I'm now through 35 volumes of Ace of Diamond and MAN is it GOOD! It's great to see the players, especially Sawamura, improve. Every match has you on the edge of your seat and it's so hard to put the series down. Great stuff.
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TsunaReborn!



Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Posts: 4713
Location: Cheltenham UK
PostPosted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:32 am Reply with quote
Because of the amount of positive comments I've seen about AoD it's going to be my next watch/read Very Happy
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 1:05 pm Reply with quote
Finished Gakuen Alice. For all the heart-break, it does have a good ending (though many fans were unhappy about it), I received it fine.
Pity there isn't more and that none of Higuchi's other works are available in the US.

I crave more shoujo....perhaps Kami-sama Hajimemashita will be next.... Smile

classicalzawa wrote:
I tried, I really did, but I just find the Sailor Moon manga to be incredibly boring.

My best friend isn't that fond of it either. She thinks it's too rushed. I quite like it but it definitely has some problems....

Quote:
I guess if it's your thing, fine, but I just hate not being able to understand a craze

Sailormoon was the first series to combine magical girl with the super sentai genre. I think that alone strongly resonated with everyone. And since each girl was extremely different, all fans could find a favorite girl to relate to or admire; there are nine of them, (eleven if you count the two Chibis...but they're basically copies of Sailormoon herself lol)

The other thing is that it's such an old series, that newbies to it have likely already seen all the tropes and cliches a thousand times before....so if you're a die-hard PreCure or Nanoha fan, Sailormoon will probably not impress you too much...

.......which is unfortunate....because Sailormoon is the reason those franchises even exist.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 1:41 pm Reply with quote
So...what, is the "someone for everyone" thing a bit like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in that way? I suppose that can work ok for the anime, lots of filler means more time to spend with the characters after all. I think the manga is very rushed though, that makes it hard for me to get to know the girls outside of standard tropes. I couldn't latch onto any of the girls in the manga, I just didn't know them well enough other than their main trope (and when Usagi introduces them and tells us their trope, rather than having it shown). Of course, I'm going to be even harder on the manga when stuff like Please Save My Earth and Basara started way before then and seemed to get a lot more done on characterization in the same number of volumes as the first arc here did. And I'd say both series were working with more characters (in the end, I can think of few manga with more major named characters than Basara that are not long-running shonen with mook squads)
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 3:21 pm Reply with quote
Well, you actually don't get to know the other girls that well besides Usagi until you get past the Moon Kingdom arc and into S and SuperS.

But if you're bored now, it probably won't be worth your time to continue...as there are 18 volumes...

I liked Usagi from the start. That's why the series works for me. Anime hyper
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lys



Joined: 24 Jun 2004
Posts: 1006
Location: mitten-state
PostPosted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:17 am Reply with quote
The point about lack of filler in the Sailormoon manga leading to less personality for the girls is interesting. When I initially read/watched the series, I was taking in both forms at once, so they complemented each other: I loved the wispy graceful artwork and romance of the manga, and enjoyed the fun character interaction of the anime (and discovered the fun of the Japanese character songs, thanks to Napster... and then there came fanart and fansites and midis and KiSS dolls—it permeated so many forms of media, I was just completely taken in). For all that, when I picked up the first volume each of Kodansha's Sailormoon and Sailor V releases, it didn't hook me like it had before. I feel a little guilty but I think I've moved on.

I do feel that comparing it to PSME and Basara isn't quite fair, because those works were both aimed at an older "shoujo" demographic and in a different genre of storytelling. CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth and Cardcaptor Sakura, along with Saint Tail and Magical Girls, were a few of the better-known (or at least licensed in English at some point) series running alongside Sailormoon in Nakayoshi magazine.

Chiibi wrote:
Finished Gakuen Alice. For all the heart-break, it does have a good ending (though many fans were unhappy about it), I received it fine.
Pity there isn't more and that none of Higuchi's other works are available in the US.

I crave more shoujo....perhaps Kami-sama Hajimemashita will be next.... :)

Did you ever pick up the first four volumes of Higuchi-sensei's Portrait of M&N, from Tokyopop? It was fun! We never got the last two though... (I picked up v5 in Japanese, but v6 was already oop!)

Kamisama Kiss is delightful!! I'm continually entertained by the character designs and personalities of the various mythological figures in the series. Really solid humour and story too!
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 3:22 pm Reply with quote
lys wrote:

Did you ever pick up the first four volumes of Higuchi-sensei's Portrait of M&N, from Tokyopop? It was fun! We never got the last two though... (I picked up v5 in Japanese, but v6 was already oop!)


I found the premise to be a little....off-putting. Anime hyper Just how well is it handled? If it's strictly comedic, I might be okay with it.

Quote:
Kamisama Kiss is delightful!! I'm continually entertained by the character designs and personalities of the various mythological figures in the series. Really solid humour and story too!


Yes, I'll start it when I finish the anime (I enjoy anime more without expectations lol)

Almost done with Soraoto, and really loving it. The only problem is, there's not enough. Two volumes. Two volumes...buuuuu! Sad
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lys



Joined: 24 Jun 2004
Posts: 1006
Location: mitten-state
PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 9:39 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
lys wrote:
Did you ever pick up the first four volumes of Higuchi-sensei's Portrait of M&N, from Tokyopop? It was fun! We never got the last two though... (I picked up v5 in Japanese, but v6 was already oop!)

I found the premise to be a little....off-putting. XD Just how well is it handled? If it's strictly comedic, I might be okay with it.

It's been a while, but I think it mainly leaned toward the comedic and absurd. It is admittedly still a rather bizarre premise and story, but I found the characters worth rooting for.
Chiibi wrote:
Quote:
Kamisama Kiss is delightful!! I'm continually entertained by the character designs and personalities of the various mythological figures in the series. Really solid humour and story too!

Yes, I'll start it when I finish the anime (I enjoy anime more without expectations lol)

Good plan! I watched a couple episodes of the anime, and I did think them well done and entertaining, as one already familiar with the manga. I usually ignore (or find lacking) anime adaptations when the manga is available, so I think that says something in the series' favour :)
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