Forum - View topicWhat are you reading right now? Why?
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9840 Location: Virginia |
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@classicalzawa
I really recommend you continue with the Sandman. If nothing else it is a trip through every bit of mythology you ever heard of and some you haven't. I don't know if you picked up on it, but the guy with the bag of sand was Constantine of recent movie and TV fame and the longstanding hero of the Hellblazer comic series. Other DC series will be involved as well. For what it is worth, the artwork gets a lot better. Some of the later arcs are probably more your speed but you need to get to them in order. There are a number of spin off series that are excellent as well. I can help with the trade paperback version of Sandman if you get in to it. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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@Alan
Seeing how I know nothing of either the DC or Marvel superhero universes, no way in hell I picked up on the Constantine thing. I don't even know what Hellblazer is (sounds vaguely familiar?) Odds are high I won't pick up on any DC characters except Batman and Robin and the Joker. I would be no better off if it were Marvel universe honestly. I believe DreamHunters was what I rented from the library, and that I enjoyed well enough on its own. And I will keep in mind your offer if I end up liking the rest of v1 enough to continue onwards, thanks! |
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ayanami000
 Posts: 79 |
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So sorry about that. I guess its to long.
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9840 Location: Virginia |
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@classicalzawa
Do not let the first volume of the Sandman put you off on the rest of the series. The last chapter of the first volume is much more characteristic of the series as a whole. It introduces one of the most engaging characters in the series (Death). Also he gets out from under the DC Universe for the most part. I can see where The Dream Hunters might have given you a false impression. However the series as a whole treated everyone's mythology with the same care used there. If you want to try something by Neil Gaiman outside the Sandman series try to find the graphic novel of "Stardust" with illustrations by Charles Vess. It is absolutely beautiful. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Gunnm Last Order - Getting really good so far, as a martial arts manga (even more than the original) it is one of the best I have read so far. However, I spotted an apparent problem with the manga's world building: all cyborgs have bodies whose parts are functionally identical to the human body, hence, all martial arts techniques developed to beat the human body work against any cyborg. Isn't it silly that a martial arts cyborg fighter wouldn't choose to have a body such that martial arts based on defeating a human/humanoid body wouldn't work on him/her?
 The philosophical parts, however, are great and still evoke the atmosphere of the original manga.
Terraformers have become also very repetitive: fight scenes after fight scenes and insect abilities after insect abilities (and animal abilities in general as well including the electric eel man). Characters are also too numerous and I am starting to lose track of them by chapter 35. While the art is very good the writing is a bit lame in my opinion. I don't know why Japanese manga critics loved it so much to put it as the best male manga of 2013 (or was it 2014?). Vagabond, after 150 chapters, this is becoming one of the best manga experiences of my life. I was a fool to hesitate reading this manga because of the art style. Incredible, absolutely incredible. A portrait of the human condition and a treatise of the problems people face in life represented as the issues a ronin deals with. A masterpiece of graphic fiction indeed. Deadman Wonderland, I think that I am beginning to really get bored of this type of thing. Because after perhaps over a hundred series and several dozen mangas that feel very similar to this one I just couldn't care much about all the gore and violence being depicted. I guess shounen manga like this are not for me anymore. Anyway, my favorite violent shounen manga of all time still is Gunslinger Girl, that was a good one. Watchmen, since people here are posting about American comic books I decided to educated myself a little on the subject and I brought Watchmen. So far has been pretty good ride, characters are a bit American cliche style but so far it has been what I expected. It is nice to see westerners making serious "manga", I might try reading Sandman after I finish this one. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Finally finished Gunnm: Last Order in all it's glorious 128 chapters. Its among the best manga I ever read and it's truly a work of wonderful imagination and great emotional power. Together with the original Gunnm represents the finest piece of fiction about cyborgs that I experienced in my life so far. The world building in this second entry of the manga franchise excels in world building, creating truly amazing fictional space countries and a very interesting future solar system that is very unique and different from typical depictions in science fiction. The only criticism I can make about it are the excesses in the fight scenes that make it look kinda silly at some points. But, overall, it is a masterpiece indeed, really great science fiction overall.
I am also finishing up Watchmen, that's a great comic. All characters are interesting, specially Rorschach, Howl and Jon and the themes of nuclear annihilation and it's threat to humanity that was still very present in the 1980's (and even now there are still enough nukes in the world to reduce to ashes all world major cities) are very interesting. As well as it's very dark atmosphere, It's completely different from anything I ever watched in terms of American animation, which is comedic or for small children, this is serious adult stuff, of the type that makes me want to read more. Though I noticed that the book's reason for Earth's life value wasn't very interesting, in fact, they failed to understand what makes humanity valuable: the fact that global civilization, formed by the plans formulated by the minds of billions of individuals, is the most complex structure in the universe. Lifeless planets are just balls of rock and metal, not very interesting and without significant amount of complexity. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Reading A-Channel, pretty good slice of life type of manga. It's nothing very different from K-On! besides the girls not playing any musical instruments, though. The art is also very cute looking, closely similar to the other styles present in the magazine.
Beginning to read The World only God Knows, pretty funny manga as well. It feels just like a typical contemporary otaku shounen manga, the art feels very typical of the manga/anime/games targeted at that demographic as well. And the characterization and plot is also typical. Also started Ajin, very cool horror manga so far. Reminds me a bit of Parasyte, it is not as great as Parasyte was, though. That one was a very special read indeed, I don't expect to find manga that I would find as great as Parasyte any time soon. Also reading A Bride Story, now the plot is developing into something more substantial as well. Koe no Katachi, this one is a special one. Very powerful and realistic manga about school life and bullying. The art is very minimalistic but it fits the manga style very well. So far has been a very impressive read. |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I read the first volume of this the other day and it managed to make me feel genuinely uncomfortable as it reminded me of my own school days. Kids are truly horrible sometimes. I'm looking forward to the next volume to see what happens when they meet again. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Also beginning to read now Seven Soldiers of Victory, American comic which was recommended by Bodacious Space Pirate as being similar but superior to PMMM. So far has been a good read.
I am also reading, besides the aforementioned titles, Nishigahara Holograph. So far has been pretty confusing but I am only beginning to read it, let's see how it proceeds. Though I am finding it slightly pretentious so far and the characters look all the same. |
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zawa113
Posts: 7357 |
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So, during Otakon, at the Kodansha panel, I asked a question and therefore got me a free manga! Wish the panel were on Friday though cus I guess their booth got low on my wanted so I ended up taking a copy of A Silent Voice v2. Of course, I can't read 2 without 1 so yeah, my library system actually has manga.
Kodansha said that this manga is actually selling quite well and they admit they haven't really done much on marketing and there's no anime for it, so it's been mostly be word of mouth. And yes, I intend to spread that word of mouth as well. It's about a boy who bullied a deaf girl back in elementary school and him trying to make things better. The first volume mostly looks at him being an complete jerk to this adorable and kind deaf girl for absolutely no reason at all. But sixth grades aren't exactly the best human beings and kids can be especially mean to each other. The second volume goes back to the present, as the main had karma dealt back to him and his life hasn't ben so great either. But he really does want to make amends with the deaf girl. If you've seen the anime movie Colorful (not the ecchi thingamajig, the more recent movie that Sentai put out, great movie btw), it reminds me a bit of that. At least, starting with volume 2. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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That's the English name for Koe no Katachi. It's a great manga that I am finishing reading right now. It can be a bit melodramatic at some points later on but it is very powerful indeed. It even made my list of top 10 manga. Not that great feat considering I have read only about 80 different manga so far.
I am also finished up reading Watchmen, that was a great comic, I think it was the finest of the few western comics I have read, it's really great and transcends the limitations of western comics. The characters are all great, interesting personalities and the themes of the comic reflect on the Cold War which was still occurring at the time. It is a superhero comic only in name, essentially. Now I need to finish reading Seven Soldiers of Victory, Morrison. Last edited by Jose Cruz on Sat Aug 01, 2015 1:23 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9840 Location: Virginia |
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@classicalzawa
Do you still need volume 1 of A Silent Voice? You can have it, usual terms. |
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st_owly
Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I just got A Silent Voice 2 yesterday. Gonna read it tonight hopefully. Very much looking forward to it.
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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I began reading Cardcaptor Sakura. Let's see how good this classic is, I have watched the TV series a long time ago, so let's see how much I remember. The art is also pretty good to.
I also began reading Berserk. Yep, the super uber famous one. Very violent so far, though the excessive violence kinda hurts the experience. Also reading Inherit the Stars. That's some hardcore science fiction, in fact the complete lack of characterization makes it more like a documentary style work rather than something fictional. Finished reading A Silent Voice, that's a great drama manga. Lots of girl on girl discussions/fights as well. Finally, I also decided to continue with my reading of A Bride Story. The art is amazing and now the drama is slowly building up into something more interesting. |
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zawa113
Posts: 7357 |
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I've been reading some manga here and there, but I've really been getting all over Fables lately. It probably helps that my professor for my summer class is a big comic book nerd, so of course he's read it. I'm more starting to get into American comics, but whatevs. Point is, Fables is awesome! I've read up to v7, so about 1/3rd the way there and I swear if anyone spoils things, I will find you and I will kill you. My fav characters currently are Boy Blue and Frau Totenkinder. The first couple of volumes were solid, but clearly went with a genre, but now that it's finally free to expand its universe and characters, I'm only enjoying it more as I go on.
However, my comic shop has let me down! They don't have sales every weekend and hell if I'm waiting for more, so I went ahead and ordered up to v12 (and the first Jack of Fables spinoff vol) used online for pretty cheap. I can just get more the next sale I suppose. I'm a bit afraid to touch most of the spinoffs because they might spoil things in the main series, but Jack goes off of issues 34 and 35, and I'm safe there. I heard Fairest goes off of 107 so I'll be waiting on that one. There's just so many damn spinoffs, man! Which is cool, but can be hard to sort out, but I plan to mostly wait until I've finished the main series (now that it's finally just recently finished that is), just in case of potential spoilers, unless anyone can be more specific on things. And since I read all of what I had (why did I only buy 3 more volumes last weekend?), I went to the next best thing. I had downloaded The Wolf Among Us the other day on my PS3 and played the first 3 episodes and that was pretty awesome. Since it's basically a visual novel (with some QTE fights, this is an American game, after all), I'm going to assume there is a "correct" pathway that leads to a best ending, but I'm not looking it up on my first play through (my rule that applies to all VNs, but I am not guessing the correct room path for 999, so then I'll look stuff up online). I'll admit my reading of the comic does make me dislike certain characters and be extra jerk to them, heh. But yeah, so far, the game is pretty damn awesome, but I think it's more awesome if you've read maybe the first 3 volumes or so of the comics, so you have some background. Though I am upset that Boy Blue hasn't shown up, I thought he was kind of part of the office, like Buffkin, and had been there for a good long while. But no spoilers on who the murderer is! I still have two episodes to go! And yeah, I'm a sucker who will probably buy the TPB comic for it when it comes out in late october. |
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