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RIGHT TURN ONLY!! - Yotsuba and RTO

I have to disagree with the conventional wisdom regarding Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution. I have also been getting review copies of this series, and I will admit that after the first volume of TNR, I absolutely hated it, but because I had gotten Vol. 2 as well I decided to give it a shot. The plot actually picks up a fair bit, and the book actually makes you care about the characters, which I wasn't expecting. It's not brilliant by any stretch, and as far as harem comedies go it's nowhere near Love Hina or anything, but it went from being a D- to a C series. Anyone who wants to read my thoughts in more detail, feel free to read my review of the first two volumes here.

Lovely Complex got a positive review! Huzzah!

Ahem.

I was hooked by the manga when Shoujo Beat gave the first chapter preview some time ago. I don't know...something just clicked and I've been making an active search for Love*Com ever since.

I was surprised when I learned from the anime how fast they spoiler[abandon their initial crush. I was fearing some bogged down He/She-Doesn't-Love-Me angst galore] but apparently the main characters are at least slightly smarter than the average shoujo leads. Razz

It's kind of sad the anime got into she-and-her-angst mode right now though. Poor girl, the lady doth cry too much.

Now that I know the first volume of the manga is out...ah goodbye 10$+taxes.

Yotsuba&! sounds interesting. I've seen it in my school library but never picked it up even though it looks like it's from the same creator as my favorite Azumanga Daioh. Guess I gotta check it out sometime.

I think the reasons I like Eyeshield over other sports manga I've read are: 1)The action's more intense, 2)The supporting players get more "screen-time" and 3) Most of the players aren't really physically fit. They just have the potential to be stronger; but in the mean-time, they really have to come up with strategies to compensate for their weaknesses against other teams.

Thank god for more Yotsuba, I thought ADV had completely forgotten about it! I need to get that ASAP as well.

I didn't realize that LoveCom was Lovely Complex either, even after I've been anticipating every episode of the anime ><

I disagree with the Tezuka rant.

Carlos has it backwards. Tezuka products are hard to find because old manga doesn't sell in the U.S. market. Bookstore buyers see what sells and what doesn't, and they pack what sells. And if the bookstores order it, the publishers are willing to reprint as many volumes as the bookstores want. If Tezuka sold to the American manga-buying public, then he would be on every shelf in small, cheap, widely-available volumes.

There have been no lack of attempts to bring Tezuka to America. Even before the more recent stuff were such titles as Adolf and Black Jack. Nothing of his has ever sold well in the U.S. (with the possible exception of the first Astroboy Graphic Novel -- but later volumes of that title too hardly sold at all).

In Japan, Tezuka is widely availabe in small bunko-size books, but that's because the people who grew up on Tezuka stories want to reread them. In America, there is no such nostalgia.

In America, the number of people who want to read Tezuka books is pitifully small. I'm one of them. So frankly, I'm glad he's in the ivory tower, because if he weren't there, he'd be no place at all.

Wow... two years later and ADV manga FINALLY has their act together and released Yotsuba& Vol. 4. I thought they'd never get back on their feet. I hope they learned their lesson in not taking too many series at a time.

I still want them to continue the ARIA series (i.e. one of the most greatest slice-of-life series EVAR)...

alice: I think you're short-changing the appeal and value of the old-school titles in the market. If their age was really a barrier to sales, then girls who could be as young as 13-15 wouldn't be writing letters to Keiko Takemiya in Shojo Beat. Nor would Bananafish, Astro Boy, or Lone Wolf and Cub have been able to complete their respective runs in the U.S. Hell, there are a lot of titles which were published around the same time many younger manga fans were just born, such as X, Baby & Me, and Ranma, but those do ok. Meanwhile, newer titles like Tough and Revenge of Moufflon got discontinued. So age is not the only factor here.

As for previous releases of Tezuka titles: 1)The market for manga in general was smaller back then, and, as a result, 2) The prices were usually higher than those of other TPBS. In addition, as Kagemusha pointed out, they were usually dumped on the market with little-to-no advertising. The other problem is a lack of synergy. For example, back when Raijin was publishing the City Hunter, FOX released the Jackie Chan movie in the U.S. and ADV put out the anime, for some reason, Raijin refused to take advantage of it, even though it could have led to more sales for all three companies.

Lovely Complex, semi-positive review... *v* One of my favorite shoujo manga of all time, although the anime and live-action movie are a liiiittle scary. It's not one of the best titles out there, but if we could get more shoujo manga heroines who AREN'T just nice and sweet (and more male romantic leads who aren't stoic and necessarily physically attractive, although I'm sure Otani has his fangirls), the world would be a better place.

you know... after reading that review, i'm kind of interested in checking out Gintama.

Wasn't it Hawthorne who wrote a tale about a doctor who fed poison to his daughter until she became poison? So the idea's been around awhile. In a way, one could even argue Medusa, whose look could turn one to stone & whose blood was a deadly poison, was just an earlier variation of the idea.

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RIGHT TURN ONLY!! - Yotsuba and RTO