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meepsheeps



Joined: 16 Jun 2014
Posts: 399
PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 1:13 am Reply with quote
My Girl - Beautiful SOL manga with great themes and messages. Almost done!!

Next on the list: Hirunaka no Ryusei!
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 11:43 pm Reply with quote
I don't remember how I found out about Record of a Fallen Vampire, maybe I was snooping through the Viz sale and went "hey, I don't recognize that title"? I think that was it. Luckily, it had been out long enough that copies could be found cheap and plentifully online.

So, the basic premise of the story starts off with the vampire king destroying various seals around the world in an attempt to revive his wife. But a group of dhampires (vampire-human mixes) are trying to stop him as the queen almost destroyed the world 1000 years ago. Also trying to stop him is the Black Swan, a spirit which inhabits a host girl every 50 years or so.

But seriously, this series has a major plot twist at the end of almost every volume, so the status quo changes very quickly and that premise is change entirely by the end and significantly changed by volume 2. But I don't know what the most shocking thing here is, that I willingly went along with these changes (I mean, seriously spoiler[aliens? ALIENS?]), that they inexplicably fit the flow, that the whole thing wasn't planned entirely carefully from the beginning (author writings in the back say this), or that the plot was still really easy to follow despite all this. Most manga that have plot twists at this rate leave you scratching your head trying to follow it, but I didn't have that problem here, so that was very nice. I did accept just fine that their vampires are different (because all vampires seem to be different, and at least this one wasn't a bishonen heartthrob love interest). In this case, think of them as pure bred dogs and the dhampires are more like mutts. It is explained that pure vampires have a difficult time conceiving with other pure bloods, hence why there are a lot of mutts. They both live very long lives regardless, but they have different abilities and magic powers (because of course), but vampires will still turn to dust in the sun like Interview With the Vampire, pretty much the only part of the myth intact, but yeah, they're like a distinct species in this series that can breed with humans.

It's really hard to talk about this series though because of the sheer ridiculousness in the amount of plot twists and how frequently the status quo will change. Anything I talk about plot-wise past the first 2 volumes goes into spoiler territory, and this is for a 9 volume series! But I can say that we learn more about our characters as the series goes on, turning them from black and white stereotypes to unique characters that feel almost "human".

One problem I did have was that the action in the first couple of volumes was kind of hard to follow. I got used to the character designs in black and white, but still found them unattractive in color. At least the action improves by v4, but there's also less super fast flashy sword fight scenes that the artist doesn't seem terribly good with.

So I found the first two volumes a little shaky (in part because of all the action), but by volume 3 I was hooked and would probably have no problems understand the earlier volumes now knowing what happens. By the end of v3, I simply had to read more and it only got better as it went on. If you can get past the more "meh" first two volumes and the art work, it's definitely a hidden gem that I would recommend, 8 out of 10 from me.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 9:05 am Reply with quote
I had forgotten Record of a Fallen Vampire. I just checked and I only got three volumes into it before I dropped it. I forget just why, but from your description it just got too weird for me. I don't suppose you still need the first three volumes do you?
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 10:21 am Reply with quote
^Nope, I got them all. In fact, I have duplicates of 2, 3, and 5 because hastings messed up my order (but they refunded me the cost of them).

Anyway, it's a shame you quit there because then the series goes into the past of Strauss and Bridget and that part was really awesome
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Fri Nov 07, 2014 10:56 am Reply with quote
Found the first two volumes of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso in the break room at work so I read those. They covered the first 5 episodes of the anime, pretty much exactly where this week's episode left off. AHHHHHHH!!! Want to read the rest!!!! But most likely no one will bring in the rest. ^^;; ...I wonder if we've got Parasyte somewhere. Will need to check next week.

Bought the first two volumes of Fujiwara Hiro's Yuki wa Jigoku ni Ochiru no ka which were released on the same day. YukiOchi is totally different from Kaichou wa Maid sama! and WOW. It's SO GOOD. I liked Maid Sama! plenty but YukiOchi is quite refreshing considering Fujiwara sensei went from school comedy to fantasy. It's like Arakawa sensei drawing GinSaji after Hagaren.

I think I like Akira more than Takaya. Totally psyched to read more but the next volume won't be coming out until summer next year. =(
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2892
Location: California
PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:12 am Reply with quote
Turns out we do have the Parasyte manga at work so I've been reading that since Monday. I'm in the middle of vol.4 of the kanzenban release. Soooooooo hard to put this series down! I'm totally not into horror and the like but this series is so interest. Migi is rather... cute.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:08 pm Reply with quote
I tried reading the Parasyte manga when if first showed up in Mixxine. I decided I didn't like it then. I think it bothered me that so many people were just gone. I couldn't see it ending well.
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Jduffy78



Joined: 20 Nov 2014
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:01 pm Reply with quote
I'v been reading Death note i'm on vol 3 now i'm liking it a lot.
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 9:46 pm Reply with quote
Started reading Vinland Saga the other day. It usually takes a few volumes for me to come to a concrete opinion about a series. However, I was sold on this series by the end of chapter 1. I'm hoping that Rightstuf will have a manga bundle during their holiday sales.
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TsunaReborn!



Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Posts: 4713
Location: Cheltenham UK
PostPosted: Sat Nov 22, 2014 10:06 am Reply with quote
Managed to power few a couple of volumes first thing this morning.

Claymore 24 & 25
I reread 24 just to refresh myself on the events leading up to the newest volume. Oh my 25 was full of twists and turns and the final chapter of this volume had me shed a tear, but more importantly answered quite a few questions, opened up some more and gave us plenty of fresh information about how the organisation worked as well as a few of the more of the prominent characters.

World Trigger 1
I was quite excited to start reading this. I knew a little about the story and the anime seems quite popular but I have to say I was a little disappointed. The story line had promise, the characters are interesting but the story seems to be aimed at and reads for a younger audience - I thought this might have been the case when I flicked to the opening monologue as he states he wanted to create a manga for first time and returning fans. I feel like the first volume was to tell me the difference between right and wrong as well as to inform me on how Japan "works" socially.

Naruto 67
Now I think Naruto is a great series but the only thing that is keeping me going is knowing that the end is near. It breaks me to say that but it's become such a difficult read and I'm not sure what the hell is going on anymore. I feel there is too much talking and not enough action in this spoiler[war] and there are too many charcters involved to know who is where with whole and who is talking. Maybe it's because I'm at my limit with the series that it's becoming harder to read rather than Masashi's story telling in the final stages.
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 9:49 am Reply with quote
Read the latest volume of I am a hero and i adore this manga so far, it took the usual zombie apocalypse format and went to some very interesting places with it. The latest volume deals mostly with the relationship between the 3 main characters and a new circumstance that is complicating matters. I still have my fingers crossed that this will get a release in english as its the kind of series I put myself in financial woe just to make sure I get ASAP, would also love to see Boys on the run get a release, especially now that the 1 guy who was translating it online has dropped off the face of the earth.

Whenever possible I much prefer to be buying my manga anyway.
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justsomeaccount



Joined: 24 Oct 2014
Posts: 471
PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 7:24 am Reply with quote
Done reading Welcome to the NHK!'s manga (having seen the anime and light novel). I think it was Light novel > Manga > Anime, right? (even though the manga is different than the light novel despite being the same writer and the anime is more like a mix between the other two). Well, the manga was clearly for me the worst of the three, really liking the other two but this manga goes so far with the self-deception and deprecation, weird pacing, twists, awkward humor and overall weird execution that you cannot be involved in the characters anymore. There are good interesting ideas and alternatives takes on the other works, but they never pay off and it becomes too random and unfocused, and all the supposedly cringing hilarious moments fall flat and just become "kinda awkward", mainly because the characters go too far with their personality traits to the unrelatable extreme.

spoiler[Misaki in theory should be more interesting than the other, being now a really conflicted manipulative sick person whose problem comes from her social and mental behavior and state instead of some tragic childhood, and we come to see how her life is in highschool and partners (when she is there), psychiatrics, (alive and normal) parents, etc. with a curious concept about facing unilateral hateful love, but... it doesn't work, specially with the relation Sato and Misaki had during the manga, all the final payoff feels too jumbled and the conspiracy metaphor forced into there. It's also interesting to see Hitomi and her husband's relationship going basically terrible because of Hitomi's problems and how they cross the husband and Misaki to contrast, and I would like this part more if I didn''t lost interest overall. Nanako's character (the want-to-be girlfriend of Yamazaki) is a disaster, instead of being treated like a person, the scene where Yamazaki confesses his loli tastes? Her reaction and how everybody treats her is basically a tsundere, although the scene is pretty much the same (except Yamazaki wasn't leaving town and saying 'fudge it all!', he was only drunk, so there's no emotional punch). But one day Nanako comes back broken because she was denied of one role and basically becomes a naked voyeur for Yamazaki going to his house constantly while Yamazaki finishes his hentai game with her and her voice, and in one moment where Yamazaki wants to come back to the farm and thanks Nanako for everything, she annoyed confesses that she was only with him because she was also a loli-pedo obssesive and then she never appears again, basically made to break all the emotional meaning that Yamazaki tried to put.]

And that's the problem with the manga in a nutshell, , it's full of whiplash not done right so you stop caring and read apathetic to all of it. With that said, I'm kind of glad I read it even though it didn't work for me because of all the ideas and takes to the premise, and it's interesting to compare with the other two versions to see what one took from the other and changed in situation and tone, what works in one and not in the other, etc. Imho the anime is the most emotionally compelling and overall funny (also with the most likable characters), the light novel the most consistent (very very funny at the beginning but then it turns to be serious [and the characters very despicable although still relatable and interesting], but it's still really solid and it made me understand the last episode's motivation that in the anime wasn't very clear), and the manga the most packed of ideas.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Today I finished reading the manga version of Suzuka. The manga goes farther beyond the anime show by showcasing Suzuka and Yamato's twilight days of their high-school lives as a couple.
I found reading the manga to be quite an emotional experience. Their relation has been going through so many more downs than ups that I thought it would be over between them. spoiler[It wasn't until Suzuka found out that she was pregnant that she and Yamato would forever be destined to spend their time together.]
If it weren't for the massive grammar mistakes and the excessive use of honorifics that were present within the first 70-80 chapters, I would've enjoyed the manga to its fullest.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 7:48 pm Reply with quote
I read the first two volumes of Yakitate Japan!, which I got the first four cheap at the used store.

Remember Ultimate Mop Daisuke DX from the ANNina comic column? This so reminds me of that. (Here if you need a reminder). Of course, this is bread instead of janitorial work but it starts off with the baker seriously going "This kid's hands! They are Hands of the Sun! Just the perfect temperature to activate the yeast!" So yeah, that's still pretty similar to the Ultimate Mop Daisuke DX comic right there. So then, Kazuma Azuma (yes, that is his awesome shonen name) keeps making lots and lots of different breads for ten years until the series proper starts apparently, inadvertently having made a bread similar to what the plot has so far called for.

But wait, there's more! It might've taken Ultimate Mop Daisuke DX 45 episodes to have a tragic back story thingy, but it only takes the start of volume 2 to have one involving a guy who looks like Yamaguchi from Cromartie High and his younger sister. Gotta love over the top tragic back stories about 7 chapters in, mwahaha! Then there was a baking competition.

I'll definitely read the four volumes I got, not sure yet if I'll get more. It's weird, I cannot tell if it's like, a parody of shonen (like Eiken is a parody of good fan service) or if it's playing it straight and Ultimate Mop Daisuke DX was really parodying this specific manga or something (it just fits so perfectly well, I know it's supposed to be "all shonen like this", but it really really fits this one). It's definitely fun because it's really like reading a full Ultimate Mop Daisuke DX manga but with bread instead of cleaning supplies.

*edit
Ok, I read the rest of what I had (through v4), it's still ridiculously shonen and I love the guy who looks like Noburo Yamaguchi still. I'm not 100% sure it can maintain my interest for 22 more volumes though because it follows the standard shonen plot shish kabob from Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga, and it ends up being a lot of bread making contests so far. But dammit if I don't want to go out and buy some good breads now. Also, that one dude has crazy reactions to eating breads, sort of like how everyone in Drops of God has crazy reactions to drinking wine. Although I would certainly welcome opinions if I should continue the manga, or maybe get the anime that RightStuf will be releasing soon, or what. (I noted that my local used store had all of 15-26 except for one random volume, so finding it shouldn't be too tough)
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theturd



Joined: 18 Dec 2012
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 7:58 am Reply with quote
A bride's story.
Why: Art is magnificent; non-action, slice of life seinen.
Recommended!
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