Forum - View topicREVIEW: Haruka -Beyond the Stream of Time- GN 1
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Elisian
Posts: 74 |
|
|||
|
CCSYueh- I get it perfectly well. What you are saying is that everyone, and their brother has used that plotpoint. Not just FY, and Harukanaru. It is perfectly on topic. So are all those knock offs too?
|
||||
|
||||
marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
|
|||
|
We're not saying that they aren't used in any other series. We are saying that Fushigi Yuugi and Haruka share a number of them, which is why the comparison is being made. One similarity does not a knock-off make. But once they start piling up, you can't help but think that this is the is a pale imitation of Fushigi Yuugi, at least when it comes to the basic set-up.
I do agree that the later aspects are different, but that does not remove the fact that the first few chapters could almost be Fushigi Yuugi at times. |
||||
|
||||
Sakuya Masaki
 Posts: 34 Location: TX, USA |
|
|||
|
CCSYueh, I think you're really missing the whole point and getting pretty off track here. Nobody is saying that FY was "the original". It's not the first and will not be the last to use this formula. But it used it well and manages to stand well enough on its own whereas w/Haruka, you can't help but draw the very obvious similarities between it and a million other series. FY just happens to be a fairly popular and somewhat recent example and really has a lot of similarities.
You mentioned 12 Kingdoms and I think that's a good example of how you can use some of the story elements that FY used and make a good story. You can find some similarities between 12 Kingdoms and FY: school girl, ancient world, she becomes a queen where Miaka (FY) and Akane (Haruka) become priestesses, FY and 12 Kingdoms both take place in China, etc. But the thing is that 12 Kingdoms does a good job of making this formula story its own as I think FY does. Haruka does not. That's the thing. These days, there's not a whole lotta room to be entirely original. There is just a vast amount of history and stories out there and after a few thousand yrs., it becomes harder and harder to be original. But what you can do is to take elements from classic literature and folklore and use them well to create something original. Haruka totally fails in doing this. Haruka takes the sort of formula used in FY and other series and just pretty much goes paint-by-numbers w/it. Since it's based on a dating sim game, you just get these characters thrown into the typical roles. It doesn't matter what they look like and the mangaka doesn't really even try to do anything different w/their predetermined roles and characteristics. Just make one of them "shy", one of them has to be "fierce", maybe a "little brother type, the "studious" one, etc. It's the same as a dating sim for guys where you'd have the "moe" character, the "tsundere" girl, etc. Even being based on a dating sim, the Haruka mangaka could have tried to actually make an interesting story out of it where you actually can care about the characters, but they chose to go a route where it's really just comes across as a watered down story that just fails. It might be more effective of a manga in Japan where people have actually played the game and may have some attachment to the characters from that, but in America where we don't have the oppurtunity to play the game, it just doesn't work. The bottom line is that it fails to distinguish itself as an original story and it's just not a good manga. |
||||
|
||||
CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
|
|||
|
Just to see how similar these titles are, I cracked open my stack of Shojo Beats & read Haruka. (December issue is MIA at this time, so I had to piece together Tenma's story & I only made it thru March-the Nue issue)
You're all reading WAAAAAAAAAAAY to much into the similarities (which obviously goes for the review. It gets an F) I would say Haruka is far more similar to the 106 volume Hakkenden story published in the early 19th Century From Wikipedia
Not that I've read that, but I do have the anime which is an adaptation. A lord's castle/estate is being beseiged & he offers his daughter to the one who brings him the head of the beseiger as I recall-it's the dog so the princess must be wed to the dog & the 8 warriors are their children From Wiki
Beads. Hm. I do believe Haruka uses beads. As for the boys, I am far more reminded of a different harem title. Shimon reminds me of Momiji/Fruits Basket. And Tenma is much more that title's on-the-outside redhead, Kyo. And the whole lot really reminds me of Angelique's Guardians. I always saw Nakago's people as more like that northern tribe-different & this hated. Akram seems much more like Larva's people-European & invaders from across the waters & the Priestess, like Miyu, is to defend against these oni/shinma. Akram very much seems more the Europeans trying to invade Japan than some indigenous tribe exterminated for being "Not Us" which happens all too often in the real work. For that matter, I always found an uncomfortable similarity between Fushigi Yugi & Neverending Story, down to daddy reading about his son's adventures in the book as they unfolded. From the anime & as far as I got in the manga, I took Chichiri to be a buddhist monk-more Sanzo/Saiyuki & Miroku/InuYasha. I've enjoyed Abe no Seimei as a character since that live action Onmyoji movie Geneon released, but onmyoji have always perked up my interest since Steel Angel Kurumi & the incredibly cute Nakahito (It was so cute when he ran away so the monster wouldn't get his belly button in the manga. Damn, we needed more than 9 volumes of that). Onmyoji are cool & interesting in a way buddhist monks are not. Abe no Seimei was in New Getter Robo, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenoboshi, Shonen Onmyoji & I believe Spirit Warrior. Girl opens book & is sucked in. Friend reads of Girl's adventure. Girl gets out of book, but Friend goes into book so Girl enters to save friend & for 20 volumes or so we get Friend acting like a major beeyotch while Girl does everything to save this Friend costing lots & lots of pain, suffering & death as they pitch their 7 or 8 warriors (I'm not going to mentally count off the warriors of Suzaku at this point to get a count) against one another in a bloody chess match. Girl & her 2 male friends are sucked into another dimension while walking to school by a creature that desires Girl's power. This power makes her the Priestess who will protect the capital from harm & the invading horde/barbarians/oni while Oni leader seeks to seduce the thing that could destroy them over to his side. Because it is such an important office, Priestess has bodyguards. Wow. So fricken similar, isn't it? Magic User's Club is SOOO like Harry Potter, isn't it? Hakkenden, From Far Away, Kyo Kara Maoh, Red River...all come to mind as bearing a greater resemblance to Haruka. THe panels are actually very reminiscent of Angelique'a layout so perhaps with both of them being NeoRomance titles, it's a style the game company wanted used or maybe it is the author's style. I know I've seen similar panel layouts in other titles-I believe in Shojo Beat, but very probably in Vampire Princess Miyu. I still say some of you who like Fushigi Yugi are reading Haruka with an eye to dislike it. Based off a game, Haruka does asssume the readers are players of the game & refers to events as though readers will be familiar with the plot, so reading Haruka is a bit more than simply reading a story unfolding as in Fushigi Yugi. I sort of appreciate the lack of reprise/repetition at the end/start of each chapter as is common a lot of other manga running serially in magazines. It does jump into the situation (probably from the game-or not), but it unfolds, reminiscent of a flower opening as the Nue chapter. It's a slightly different style, but I have run across it before & it's not a bad thing unless one is a very linear thinker. It's like a show that opens into an event happening, then qoes back to explain it. I seem to recall a Supernatural ep or 2 doing this & also Angel. Not all stories have to open with "Once Upon a Time". Some choose to open in the middle of the hurricane. However, I find the lack of a jealous, petty harridan a huge plus for Haruka over Fushigi. I probably dropped Fushigi Yugi largely over Yui. ANd Miaka is an idiot. Akane could become annoying, but she isn't yet because she doesn't have the eats-like-a-pig-or-Saiyan gene & the romance angle with Akram hasn't hit saturation level (every couple pages) as in a lot of the shojo titles I drop or avoid entirely. (Boys Over Flowers). So far she's closer to the heroine of the first 12 Kingdoms or Saiunkoku because so far she's pretty strong. (or we just haven't been exposed to her weaknesses) |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group