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Got the Blade of the Immortal omnibus. I've read the first third of it (equivalent to one volume), at first, I found it a bit confusing to follow, but I think I've got it now. They really should be using black backgrounds for flashbacks though like other series do, it would make it a bit clearer (or change the border, lots of options, just pick something to make it look different). I saw at the start the notes about how the manga has been flipped, and that is by moving the panels around whenever possible and only flipping when necessary. I do rather wish they went the extra mile to just have it all unflipped though. For the late 90s when all manga was flipped, it's a good plan, even if the scarred eye on Manji switches a bit too often. But I gotta say that the image looks like it was blown up much of the time, it's kind of obvious. But another major oversight from Dark Horse is that I saw a couple of times, it said "see glossary" so I was like "ok, where is it?" and I still have no damn clue. It wasn't at the end of volume 1. It wasn't even at the end of the book. It wasn't at the start of the book. Did they seriously forget to include the glossary in the omnibus edition? I double checked the book, there's a glossary for vol 2, the middle vol, but I double checked, vol 1 has two cases (one says "shinobi-metsuke", I don't remember exactly where the other one was) and of course, that term isn't in the available glossary in the damn book.

So I'm not entirely sure what I think of the story yet, I clearly forgot that I tend not to get into these sorts of stories (just stories that take place in that era, I suck at Japanese history as is and these stories tend to demand a basic knowledge of it which I lack, making them harder for me to get into), but I do want to at least finish omni 1. If the series is done with flashbacks for the most part, I think I'll be able to follow it a lot better now. But I'm so damn disappointed with Dark Horse's presentation, do they not have a proofer for anything there? They printed the entire wrong page once in their semi recent Elfquest omni 1 (fortunately, you can find the correct page online for free and just print it, like I did). I feel like, yes, other publishers get the occasional typo, but only Dark Horse messes up entire pages and forgets to put a necessary glossary in an omni reprint.

At least vol 10 of One Punch Man is still sweet. The volume had 3 chapters worth of side stuff, but sometimes, I sort of prefer the side stuff to the main story. I just love how Saitama doesn't seem to notice or care about his power, so even though he accidentally runs into the bad guy, he just has no idea. One of the side stories saw King being useful for the first time, not in combat, naturally, but it's funny to see him somehow be actually useful. I just love King in general and why he's S-Rank 7. It's still enjoyable and it's still completely ridiculous, it knows what it wants to be and it does it so well.

@classicalzawa

Yes, that first flashback is a bit confusing, but I expect that was Samura's decision not Dark Horse's. For what it is worth, subsequent volumes have a black border around at least some of the flashbacks.

I think that the business of rearranging the panels is part of their license. Since it is a Kodansha title I expect any attempt to change the license terms would be expensive or result in Kodansha taking the rights back. In any case, to un-flip the book they would have to go back to the original artwork and re-letter the whole thing. This was apparently worth it for Oh My Goddess! but I doubt this title has that big a following.

Speaking of original art work, I find it interesting that you say it appears to be blown up. According to Previews the Omnibus version is 5 3/4 inches by 8 1/4 inches, that is the same size as the original trade paperbacks. I wonder if they lost their original masters because I don't see any problems with the original trade paperbacks. In fact they originally published it in comic book format at 6 1/2 inches by 10 1/4 inches with no obvious enlargement problems. It wouldn't be surprising, the first issue came out in June 1996 over two decades ago. They continued to publish it in comic book format through November 2007.

I wouldn't worry about the history of this period. Other than the culture historical events are not a factor. It does take place beginning in 1782. (see the note on the seventh page of the book) Did they print the interview with Samura in the omnibus? He admits he deliberately made it not completely true to the period to prevent "complaints about accuracy from the samurai freaks".

About the glossary, don't feel bad. It didn't make it into the original trade paperback either. It was a short paragraph on the inside cover of the comic book version just above "About the Translation". Since I do have the comic book version and was able to dig it out of my storage catacombs I can provide the missing information.

Onmitsu: A ninja of the Edo Shogunate. Performs secret missions and spying as well as assassinations.

Shinobi-metsuke: (lit. "ninja-censor") An intelligence officer (both administrator and field agent).

also from that issue: Mount Takao: Temple mountain on the western outskirts of Edo, famous for its colony of Japanese macque monkeys.
Honsho: An artisan's district in Edo
Kassai: A district in Edo.

Actually each issue of the early comics had a glossary which differed with the content. Those were just from issue 5. Strangely enough, on page seven of the first issue where Manji writes on the wall after killing the priest, there is an asterisk after "(2nd year of Tenmei)*" That explanation didn't even make it into the comic book version. I had to Google it to find that it was 1782.

Hmm, it's hard to describe the blown up texture, but it just feels like the textures have obviously been manipulated somehow. I read plenty of oversized manga, but the art all looks like it was drawn that way, but here, it just looks... off somehow. The more straight line ones look normal, but it's like anything with shading just looks a tad fuzzy to me. You know how, when a page goes from color to black and white and it has that look? That's what it reminds me of, except I don't think it was color in the first place. So some panels will have that look, and others will look normal.

Oh, one thing I did forget to mention, the book is dedicated to Toren Smith, which is very nice of them to do.

@classicalzawa

Maybe Barnes & Noble will get it in and I can check it out. Certainly your description doesn't give me any reason to replace the original trade paperbacks. It sounds as if they no longer have the original files and Kodansha won't or can't provide them with good copies of the original artwork.

Toren Smith and his Studio Proteus provided them with almost all of their early manga titles. They have been publishing very little new manga recently. I think they may be getting out of manga or being squeezed out. Dark Horse is basically an independent comic book publisher with a manga side line.

When I first got into manga there were only three non hentai publishers active in the US. Viz, Dark Horse and CPM. Antarctic had put out some manga but shortly announced that they would not do anymore. It was perfectly possible to buy all of the manga solicited in an issue of Previews.

I just finished Fullmetal Alchemist. I don't know why I've been putting off reading it for so long but it's superb. 10/10

I've just started reading GTO. I've seen the anime before and it's really good. Hoping the manga is better. Are the prequel, sequels and side stories good?

@TwistTale
I have read 14 Days in Shonan, and that one is awesome too. It takes place during GTO, but I'd just finish GTO before doing 14 Days. Hilariously, even though it's an interquel, 14 Days immediately starts off with a Haruhi Suzumiya reference.
I'll get on "Early Years" eventually, lol. If you are unaware, GTO is actually the sequel, "Early Years", or Shonan Junai Gumi, actually was created first, but I think Tokyopop marketed it as GTO Early Years to draw more attention to it. Not a bad plan, though it still didn't sell that well (at least Vertical finished off SJG)

Been reading Saikano. Its a very dramatic romance and the way the girl is portrayed is very "Moe" indeed. Its like a prototype of Moe since this manga is from 2000, which was a few years before that concept cristalized in otaku culture. The manga's art features a lot of chiibi style panels and a lot of more abstract/simple art. Also the author used a lot of photographs for the backgrounds. Overall being an interesting read and better than the animation so far.

Started reading Eden: It's an Endless World. It seems really interesting in many ways. The world seems very rich and has a ton of potential. The art so far seems very detailed and nice. The action scenes are nice. It also seems very... brutal. I'm only 16 chapters in, but there has already been rape, gory violence and a little kid being used to clear a minefield. Not for the faint of heart for certain. Seems like just the thing for me.

There has been some political/conspiracy stuff and some technical dialogue that has been a bit difficult to follow, but nothing seriously confusing. The first chapter though was quite overwhelming. It was a massive info dump with like over 100 pages.

I had read Eden a few months ago. Really good manga although not quite of the highest level (it had some issues regarding its worldbuilding since it felt very post apocalyptic at some point and then for a large fraction of it became a manga about drug dealers in Latin America which felt a big inconsistent in terms of tone/atmosphere (which reminded me of the lack of consistent world building in the Fallout 2 game) and also the ending left a lot to be desired). Still it was a very worthwhile read which has that cool sci fi feeling that I usually seek in manga/anime like Evangelion, Nausicaa and Gunnm.

Finished Saikano, the ending left me in tears. While the first 3-4 volumes were ok the manga builds up and becomes extremely powerful (at least if you can digest the way it is portrayed). Right now I would rank it among my top 15 favorite manga.

I am reading A Drifting Life right now. It's a manga about manga in the 1950s when Japan was beginning to develop its comic culture. Manga is such a vast universe when despite reading manga for years, 99% of the names cited I never heard about.

I also read the first volume of happiness. Which is an ok manga about vampires, like Agame ga Kill it's not something I think is worth reading more than a couple of volumes.[/list]

Scum's Wish anime made me check out the manga....and I ended up spending my entire Friday reading it lol.

This manga could also be called "Everyone Has Serious Mental Issues". Because they do. Yup, almost every single character is totally messed-up in the head. There are three normal ones: Narumi, (Hana's Onii-chan), Moka, and Ecchan's cousin, Atsuya.

Moka is still my favorite. She is the most stable of the female characters and also the least selfish. You probably wouldn't expect that from a loli Clingy Jealous Girl trope character but she's quite strong; emotionally. She deserves way better than Mugi though. I hope she finds someone nice.

Ecchan is my least favorite.....but Akane is no picnic either. Ecchan really really pissed me off though. And to think I actually felt a little sorry for her at the beginning, thought she was just a nice but unfortunate girl; uh nope, she turns into a selfish bitch.
spoiler["Yeah, let's take TOTAL advantage of my "friend's" vulnerable state so I can satisfy my own sexual desires for her while masking that "This is really for your sake". Oooh, she just got dumped by the one she loves, NOW I HAVE HER ALL TO MYSELF. GOODY, TIME FOR MY SEDUCTION PLAN!!"]

.....................wow, Ecchan. F**k you, a thousand times over. I hate her. spoiler[She throws away her morals and lets her lust take over.] I absolutely HATE characters like this. What's even worse is when the characters have the nerve to insist they "love you" while committing such despicable acts of selfishness. afja;lfjalfjkafjalfj
"Love"!?
"LOVE......!?"
SCREW YOU. Twisted Evil

You wouldn't know what "love" was if it punched you in the face!

Been reading A Bride Story, a very atmospheric slice of life manga set in 19th century turkey although it's complete lack of a central plot can make it a rather confusing. Still it's art is of awe inspiring quality and the manga is characterized in general of extremely high quality of narrative.

Also read Inio Asano's A Girl by the Shore which was very dramatic literary manga. Literary in the sense that its written like a rather short novel and not a continuous serialization. The art style is also quite unique being very realistic in the backgrounds (which look like protographs) and regarding the characters although some elements of the character design specially the eyes still follow certain "mangaisms". The story also unfolds in a rather unconventional fashion: you need to use your brain a little to work through it.

Beautiful Fighting Girl - Not a manga but a book by a Japanese psychiatrist about otaku. Interestingly, he finds it weird that people can be sexually attracted to the highly stylized "anime" style that became predominant in pornographic manga magazines at the time he was writing the book (around 1999). I wouldn't think it's weird since it is an exaggeration of features males usually find attractive in females (look at wikipedia). I wouldn't think one has to be an otaku to be sexually attracted to the images pornographic manga/anime, just be a sexually developed and healthy male.

Also he doesn't actually define clearly what an otaku is: he said "people sexually attracted to anime" then he says that pornographic manga became all anime style. Well, thats an internal contradiction: it implies that if everybody who reads pornographic manga is an otaku than that population is much bigger than the population of "proper" otaku. Also, I felt confused by the way the translation handled some things he said. Overall I felt more confused than informed there: in the end otaku is a nebulous concept but apparently are people who tend to be able to interact with media in a multifaceted way, being detached and critical of it as well as attached to it but in becoming a creator of fan media parodying it. Also he was saying why there is no such thing as a "Disney otaku" I would say it's pretty obvious: it's because Disney movies are very simple and limited in quantity so they lack the required cultural complexity and multidimensionality that satisfies otaku preferences and feeds their life style. Because in sexual terms, they can and do make pornographic manga out of movies like Frozen.

Man, I feel kind of bad saying this, but I think I'm really starting to get sick of My Love Story. As much as I enjoy not having a pointless love triangle/unwanted harem in a romance manga, when half of your text bubbles are Goda thinking "I love her" to himself, it starts to get kind of annoying. At least this time, Goda and Yamato make a bit of progress in the realm of being comfortable touching each other, but my god, it has taken 11 volumes! I feel like the last 5 or so volumes have been almost the exact same thing, it's really starting to grind on me. I'm actually glad there's only two more volumes, because if it dragged on like a Rumiko Takahashi manga, I think we'd all suffer for it.

On the other hand, I actually like So Cute, It Hurts!! more with each volume as characters finally become more comfortable in their own skin. This volume seems to be starting the final arc at the end of it where the main boy goes off to college (but the main twins are a year younger, so they're still in high school).

Also read the first four volumes of The Demon Prince of Momochi House (which I got super cheap during a 70% off sale, so why not?) and it's part of that genre of "girl moves into old school Japanese house filled with yokai stuff" that Kamisama Kiss honestly does better, but DPMH does pretty well in its own right too. Although I do sometimes find the story flow a bit hard to follow in moments, I hope that improves as it goes on. But we here have a normal girl and a human boy who has some yokai powers sort of, and he's also trapped to the house (which has more pocket dimensions in it than the Tardis, so it's hardly a small place either) as its guardian. The story is mainly focusing on the relationship between the girl and the boy, which is fine because there isn't a whole lot of major plot yet, but there are some short stories that are often bittersweet. I do look forward to reading more though!

I also got the final volume of Give to the Heart because remember, Netcomics is publishing physical books again! Anyone who read just the first volume or two is probably expecting it to stay as a terrible romance with a semi-abusive guy, but it moves to scifi pretty quickly starting about half through the series. The series also shifts from Sooyi, the girl, being the main to Ganok, the guy, being the main. Yeah, Ganok probably isn't the best boyfriend, not going to excuse that, but he does genuinely love and care about Sooyi. It is a really addictive read, and thankfully, it's about more than a terrible relationship. And I like scifi. And I also like that the ending isn't just completely happy either, it's bittersweet. There's also a spinoff following three of the characters long before the events of the main series that I do look forward to checking out.

Void's Enigmatic Mansion also hit its last volume (I wanted more though!) and it's been a while since I've read the last volume, but it's still a good series. I really do want to go back and re-read it (once I get it back from my friend, that is), since I probably forgot things that ended on a cliffhanger. But we did get to see the story of the last person in the mansion, and it was worth waiting for.

I also got the last vol then re-read all of Afterschool Charisma, which is about clones of historical figures in high school (yes, there is a clone Hitler), but while it might sound similar to the old TV cartoon Clone High, AFC is a drama, through and through. There's a lot of twists and a lot of changes happen pretty fast during the series, so really saying too much would be spoilers. I'm kind of not sure what I think about it overall at the end, I'm not entirely sure I followed certain parts of it (like spoiler[who was for protecting the clones and how again? What side was Hitler on exactly? What was the ultimate plan to protect the clones again?]) eh, I'd be curious to hear what others thought of it.

I've been working on my manga backlog a little, I'm being "good"! I still have quite a backlog though. With the Light is a long one though, the volumes are big, 500 pages each (except for vol 8) and I'm halfway done the series. It's definitely educational, I am learning some more practical things about people with mental disabilities (the manga always points out that things differ between all cases though), but it's also a good family slice of life/drama. And it does address other childhood problems (for example, one kid suffers abuse). And, as an American, I'm also learning more about grade school in Japan and how it works in general. So from our view, that's also pretty interesting (but would've been "normal" to Japan and so less interesting to them). Even though there is some forced drama (the father has to change jobs suddenly! for example), I don't really mind it too much. Also, I'd say that the mother is the main character, no question. I do highly recommend the manga for reasons that aren't educational though, which is good. Also, it's possibly the only manga I've seen that doesn't have ads for other manga in the back, but for books on autism (from whoever owns Yen, I'd assume). Shame that the series only ended because the managaka passed away though. When I get to the outlines that Yen included in the last volume (I understand these were later fully drawn by someone else, but it was after Yen put out vol 8), I'll see how well I can follow those (I am curious)

Also reading Tramps Like Us, which I hate the name of (You're My Pet, the original Japanese name, is a lot better, imo), so I just try to ignore the stupid name that TP picked out back in the day. I also find I don't really like to marathon it, I'm reading maybe a volume and a half at a time I find. But it's really good too, I like how Sumire loves and needs Momo, but not necessarily romantically. Although it does complicate her relationship with an actual guy that she'd maybe want to marry (Momo is her "cousin"). It's kind of a weird set up for a relationship between the leads, but it somehow makes it seem like it works naturally, which is impressive.

Gantz - I like alien genre ( sci-fi )
Terra Formars - Like i said i like alien genre =) ( sci-fi )

Finished reading Beautiful Fighting Girl. So far I regard it as the best academic book I ever read about manga/anime. While I felt confused in the beginning I liked in particular the last chapter and it really made me appreciate manga/anime in a way that before I only understood implicitly. What I mean is that the author explains that manga works by using each character as a piece of a plot machine, the characters in manga/anime and not fully well developed literary characters of a Dostoyevsky novel instead they are pieces of a whole theme and the manga is propelled by their interactions and not by their instrospective side. While I agree with the author that this applies to most manga I disagree with his generalization. Some manga have characters that are well developed as individual characters: Vinland Saga (exp. Askeladd), A Girl at the Shore and Ashita no Joe, for instance, in particular Inio Asano's work is very literary stuff. Although it's true 99% of the manga do not try to develop their characters to the same level as these exceptional titles.

After the life changing experience that was reading Ashita no Joe, the best manga/anime title I ever experienced, I found some fan translations of the author's other work. I am reaching Tiger Mask now which I am finding very entertaining and powerful but still is very simple and easy to read. One of the issues I have with it is the fact that they overexplain things to make it easy for the audience to understand some plot elements but besides that it's a very cool title.

I also began to read Master and Me, some nice cute Yuri manga by Itou Hachi. Too bad only a little of it has been translated. I need to learn Japanese so I can read this stuff!

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