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lys



Joined: 24 Jun 2004
Posts: 1006
Location: mitten-state
PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 8:33 pm Reply with quote
classicalzawa wrote:
Orange omnibus 1
...It's been a while since I've read a 2.5 vol omnibus so quickly...

It is actually a full three volumes of the main story! Each Japanese volume was a little extra-long and included a chapter of an unrelated story (Haruiro Astronaut), which will be collected together in the second omnibus. And it's all so good~ (sorry to be a tease... I lettered it for SS, and I love it dearly!)

After I finished orange, I quickly bought and read Yumemiru Taiyou (in Japanese, also available in French as Dreamin' Sun), Ichigo Takano's previous 10-vol series. And then pored over her website and twitter for the adorable extra comics and drawings she's done of the characters (this kabe-don gag of Naho and Kakeru is unspeakably cute, though the Azu and Hagita version is entertaining as well). I'd say orange is her best and most mature work yet, but her fun, stylish art and endearing characters have made her one of my favourites ever since I read her early work years ago :) I'm sooo excited her manga is being published in English at last!!
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2016 11:31 pm Reply with quote
Hell, you guys publish anything else of hers, and I'm already sold! I'm usually just breathing a sigh of relief whenever 7S doesn't publish more monster girl semi-hentai, lol! In all seriousness though, the stuff that 7S publishes that isn't monster girls and/or bewbs is usually really really awesome, so I almost always take note to at least check it out. Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, Claylord, Certain Magical Railgun, Ancient Magus' Bride, Witch Buster, I'm quite pleased. If only they'd bring back Lizzie Newton too... perhaps the funding from Monster Musume's success could bring it back, lol

It's funny because Franken Fran's cover makes it look like monster girl bewbs, but I've read some of the manga in scanlations (about half of it), and dear god did some of those images burn into my brain, it is NOT a monster girl bewb show, for those who are curious. It's more like Junji Ito meets Black Jack, except somehow more nightmare inducing at times. But I'm still glad you guys got it!

Book 2 for orange is very highly anticipated by me for sure, I'm trying my best to not spoil anything, but I am glad that an anime will give it more of the attention it deserves too.
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st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:31 pm Reply with quote
I need to get Orange. I keep forgetting to as none of the shops have had it in.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 6:36 am Reply with quote
Ugh, I hate it when series go mediocre. Servamp, while appealing to me for having adorable vampire cats (I do love cats more than anything!) is just so sloppily told and hackneyed that it's really hard to read, even with good art work. *sigh* Guess we can't have everything all the time, right?

Train*Train is by one of my (very few) favorite yaoi authors, Eiki Eiki, and this is just adorable slice of life. It's kind of what I came for, and it's totally what I got, but the cast is a lot of fun to read, so that's a big help. For a three volume series, you can give them one note quirks and have it work, so long as they interact well, and they do here. Worth the hunt for me! I still need to get Millennium Prime Minster, then I think I have all her English manga (at least that's been released in print)

And for the bigger one, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. It was pretty good and all, but I really wanted to like it more than I did. The ending went a bit too cliche for me too. I rather wish it had kept up more of the mystery aspect that earlier volumes had, but then, sometime in the third omnibus, it just kind of info dumped everything, which didn't really work for it imo. I think "disappointing" might be the best term to use here for me, because it had too much going for it to call it bad, but it kind of lost what made the first two volumes special at the same time and went more generic shonen route along the way. I think it's worth a read, but I wish I had used the library, as I don't think I'll be reading this one again (but if you want to buy it off me, pm me!)
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9809
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:48 am Reply with quote
@classicalzawa

I'm surprised you are so late to Train*Train or is this a re-read?

Did you pick up the crossover series Princess*Princess from Eiki Eiki's friend and collaborator Mikiyo Tsuda? Of course if you got into that you would have to pick up her earlier The Day of Revolution and Family Complex series.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:12 pm Reply with quote
It's not a re-read, I'm just really late to the party.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9809
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:18 pm Reply with quote
Well, it you haven't tried it yet, you should give Princess*Princess a try. The two friends ran the series side by side in the same magazine with similar titles and a crossover. They both have people living in odd situations.
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TsundereCactus



Joined: 25 Apr 2016
Posts: 3
Location: California
PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Right now I'm reading Wandering Son. It's about two transgender students who become friends and struggle with other students making fun of them and whatnot. My mom bought me the first volume of this and I've been hooked ever since. Smile I'm up to volume three and I'm waiting until I can buy volume four. I've also read the first volume of Oreimo, and I thought that was pretty interesting too. That one's about a teenage boy who discovers his younger sister has an interest in inappropriate video games. You can only imagine what hilarity ensues. Embarassed Laughing
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TsundereCactus



Joined: 25 Apr 2016
Posts: 3
Location: California
PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 2:39 pm Reply with quote
st_owly wrote:
I need to get Orange. I keep forgetting to as none of the shops have had it in.


I just read a review about Orange, and it seems pretty interesting. I kind of want to read it.
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:42 pm Reply with quote
I needed a laugh so I read what's out of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. While I love it, I still like Oresama Teacher more.

Also read some of The Seven Deadly Sins volumes that I got from the Rightsuf Kodansha sale. I have no idea why they kept the random chans, samas, etc. It doesn't detract from me reading it per se, but it does feel out of place.
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TsundereCactus



Joined: 25 Apr 2016
Posts: 3
Location: California
PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2016 12:16 am Reply with quote
TsundereCactus wrote:
I've also read the first volume of Oreimo, and I thought that was pretty interesting too.


I actually just bought the second volume today. Laughing I'm halfway through it Razz
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2016 8:06 am Reply with quote
So I didn't hate that last Wallflower volume, but it just feels lacking. The characters barely grew, the relationships weren't fully explored, and it doesn't even end on a high note. At least it concluded better than Ranma. And you're not saying, 'That's it?!', as much, like with Oh My Goddess. But it's still a case of the author not trying very hard to be exciting. But as long as you temper your expectations, it's ok, I guess.
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st_owly



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
PostPosted: Thu May 05, 2016 3:35 pm Reply with quote
I'm just amazed that the author managed to stretch such a thin premise out for so long. I've only seen the anime, and whilst it was quite amusing here and there, I wouldn't exactly call it one of my favourites. Even 26 episodes started to feel a bit much.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2016 6:28 am Reply with quote
owly: Yeah, she really was coasting on it. But I guess it could've ended even worse than that.
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CoreSignal



Joined: 04 Sep 2014
Posts: 727
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 7:52 pm Reply with quote
Gantz Vols 1-20- very entertaining read so far. Despite (or because) of all the sex and violence, Gantz is a really fun read. It's one of few manga I've read where I honestly have no idea of what happens next. Killer statutes, aliens transforming into elephants, vampires that shoot fireballs, etc. not sure if anything makes sense but it's really entertaining. And beneath all the flashy action, I actually think there's some surprising characterization and character development for some of the characters. The artwork gets better and better too, Oku's super clean style looks great and the photorealistic backgrounds give it a live-action movie feel. I'm starting the Osaka arc/Phase 2 soon, so definitely looking forward to that.


Knights of Sidonia Vol. 15- Finallly picked up the last volume. Overall, I thought KoS was pretty good, though I'd consider it the weakest of Nihei's work so far. I'm a little shocked at all the hate for the ending, I've seen people on /r/knightsofsidionia and MAL, etc. complaining about the ending and even someone on MAL saying "it's one of the worst endings in all of literature" Laughing talk about overreaction.

All the complaints about the ending basically come down to 3 things:

(1) Nihei didn't explain X, (2) it's rushed, and (3) deus ex machina. I didn't find (1) to be a huge issue. If you've read Nihei's previous work, you know he's not much for explaining things or spelling them out to the reader. I think what's happening here is that Sidonia is the first Nihei manga for most people, so new Nihei fans weren't expecting this.

For (2), I somewhat agree. It's true there's basically a unexplained timeskip that happens but again, see Biomega, Nihei has done this before. Not saying it's an excuse but it's part of his style. For (3), to avoid spoilers, many people were upset that a certain character turned out to be alive. I'd actually argue Chekov's gun here. spoiler[remember the gauna Hoshijiro that seemed to have been disappeared from the last couple volumes?]. Honestly, it seems like people were mostly pissed that Nihei didn't do this or that, Y NO Tanikaze x Izana, Tanikaze x Midorikawa !? etc. in other words, "Let me write the ending instead!".

Overall, I thought the ending was decent, not that great but also not as bad as some of overreactions I've seen. Lastly, some people have been criticizing Nihei's artwork in the last couple chapters as sloppy, which I personally find ridiculuous. I guess some manga readers are so used to generic art styles that they can't handle something that looks different.

My final thoughts on KoS- very good series that falls short because of uneven pacing, tropes of the day (monster girls, harem setup) cliche humor, and bland characters. Otherwise, the world building, (at least in the beginning),setting, and action scenes are great. And while I still prefer Nihei's early style, his artwork is still excellent. No other manga artist comes close to Nihei when it comes to portraying a sense of scale or a feeling of being in another world. For comparison, I still like Biomega slightly more than Sidonia. Although Sidonia has arguably a better storyline and more consistent art than Biomega, I can't help but feel that Sidonia is watered-down Nihei. Though, I guess you could argue the same for the last third of Biomega. Anyway, I actually enjoyed Sidonia more than I thought and I'm looking forward to rereading it later.
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