Forum - View topicANNCast - Super Manga Pals Forever
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deathfromabove1993
Posts: 120 Location: Chicago, IL |
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I agree that CLAMP manga are not as impressive now as they were then. I really liked Cardcaptor Sakura and that was it. The endings to both Tsubasa and xxxholic were disappointing.
Honestly, I don't think I'll be numb to anything creepy and weird like Incest that Japan throws out. It just still amazes that what's disturbing to most people, but it's a normal thing to them. [Edit: Never mind, you found out already. Still listening in] |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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I get that feeling with Tsubasa, since I'm still making my way through xxxHolic and really wish the series weren't connected. However, the xxxHolic connection being a the crux of the CLAMP multiverse is a neat idea spoiler[like with the recent Blood film], Tsubasa just needs to be cut off from it.
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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Great podcast. I'm not much of a manga reader myself, but I'll check out some of the stuff mentioned here when I have the time.
Just chiming in to say that, even if I'm alone in the world in thinking that, I did like Tsubasa -even if it gets really messy and complicated by the last few volumes- because I felt that along with Holic it gives coherence to the CLAMP multiverse (Holic would make no freaking sense without Tsubasa because the explanation for (big spoiler) spoiler[Yuuko's death is connected to the two Sakuras and Syaoran's taboo], plus Clow's importance as a central piece to the multiverse is truly explained in Tsubasa, not so much in Holic. And by the end, all the loose threads are connected and even if your mind's a bit jumbled with too much info and messy spoiler[clone/time traveling] stuff it makes sense as a whole. Plus that Kobato episode in which spoiler[Fai, Kurogane and Syaoran land in Kobato's world post-TRC events] is incredibly adorable and bittersweet in a good way. Of course it goes without saying, I still love CLAMP and I actually quite like Gate 7 -partly due to my love of the Sengoku period- although I'll agree that, at the stage it is now, it's kind of a mess that doesn't make much sense in a bigger picture -the fact that chapters are short and so far apart doesn't help at all- but it's insanely gorgeous to look at. I've been meaning to check out the AoT manga for a while -mostly because I'm [expletive] sick of 13-year-old otaku spoiling it all over the [expletive] internet- but now I'm thinking of letting the anime finish first. I'll think about it for a while, I guess for now I'll start reading up to where the anime is now. |
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Jave
 Posts: 198 |
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It's legal in some countries ya know. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I'm really glad I wasn't the only one who read the first volume of Magi and went "meeeeh?" but I'm also questioning if it will improve. Though I do like the idea of a genie in a recorder and not a lamp (and it's somehow never not hilarious to see a buff naked man coming out of a flute with no head, clearly my highlight of the volume).
As for Attack on Titan, I seriously didn't notice the art because... well in my case, the story bored me after like 3 volumes. Though with the amount of memes, maybe I'll try the anime (I doubt it). So yeah, I read somewhere around 3 volumes and it bored me, I dropped it. |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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Well, Tsubasa has some serious problems with too messy plot and bad execution. It certainly doesn't help that the leads, Syaoran and Sakura, are utterly uninteresting and pale in comparisons with the original Syaoran and Sakura from CCS.
I remember when Tsubasa was coming out and the spoilers for the newest chapter were very long when Fay and Kurogane were important, but after Celes arc the spoilers got reduced to one sentence after a while, as Fay and Kurogane faded into the background and people started to lose interest. Unfortunately, Clamp had not thought about Syaoran and Sakura's characterization through and the story suffered because of it. I also tried to watch Kobato, but I found it boring and unintentionally mean-spirited. For me there is a difference between 'laugh with' and 'laugh at' and in Kobato it is the latter, which I don't like. Also the fact that the main heroine is portrayed as a dumb klutz was not to my liking. |
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gedata
 Posts: 615 |
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The last Bunny Drop chapters do go back to Rin's childhood just for fun.
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Kerberous
 Posts: 107 |
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Why did anyone ever like Clamp ? Their stuff is boring.
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bahamut623
 Posts: 1463 |
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Am I alone in thinking the Tsubasa ending was extremely satisfying?Surprisingly so, given everything that came before it. The last several volumes were a jumbled mess, I know, but Clamp actually made sense of all of it, as far as I remember. I felt like I came away with a complete understanding of what had been going on with all the doubles, etc., which I absolutely did not expect to get from the ending. It made me appreciate the nuttiness of the previous volumes.
I just remember feeling like Fei Wang Reed was still a bit of a question mark to me. That was one character I wanted to learn more about. Anyway, haven't actually heard this weeks podcast but will do so now. |
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Cecilthedarkknight_234
 Posts: 3820 Location: Louisville, KY |
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Great pod-cast overall aside from KNJ again getting a pot-shot. Yes I like series, it's over/ended call me what ever you want I no longer care. That aside It was great to hear from ya again Rebecca. I'm also happy to hear that you are still enjoying Higurashi & Umineko, I just hope you like the twist later on
That aside on the whole issue of incest, being numb to it and so on. Personally I don't have a problem with first cousins in anime or media hooking up that is more of cultural thing that I will admit just doesn't bother me. I've got nothing to say about brothers/sisters bumping each other, aside from keep it in eroge and h-manga where the audience is very niche. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1422 |
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I was perfectly satisfied with Tsubasa's ending too. I especially loved the way the final dialogue exchange solved the series' last big mystery. xxxHolic's ending, on the other hand... Let's just say I hope CLAMP can redeem themselves with however they plan to finish the current xxxHolic Rei series. I wish I had originally read Tsubasa and xxxHolic concurrently as intended by CLAMP. I made the mistake of reading the entire spoiler[pre-timeskip] portion of xxxHolic before Tsubasa's latter half, and that was quite frustrating because I felt that the main action was going on in Tsubasa, and xxxHolic's characters were just reacting to it. |
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Sylpher3
Posts: 85 |
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Interesting discussion on whether taboos/controversial topics in Japanese media should be downplayed or emphasized and outrage the reader. For me it depends on how much I’m emotionally invested in a series: Bunny drop was an earnest, heartwarming slice of life story which I cared for and the ending ruined it, but for Oreimo I would downplay the taboo since it is just an exaggerated, silly harem fantasy I couldn’t take serious.
There probably isn’t one correct way to deal with taboos in fiction which makes it ambiguous. On one hand you deal with an uncomfortable, sick, creepy scenario which can be off-putting in real-life, but on the other hand you deal with just an uncomfortable, sick, creepy fantasy fabricated by the author which caters to some people or is used for shock value. But I guess most people don't want to deal with it at all. |
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Aylinn
Posts: 1684 |
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I didn't enjoy the ending because I never liked the leads and I was so fed up with the mess involving Sakura, Syaoran, and their clones that I sincerely hoped they would all die. |
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1035 |
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With regards to ordering books from Japan, the two main sites are Yes Asia and CD Japan. At first glance, Yes Asia might seem like the better choice because they offer free shipping over $50, but they make up for it with higher prices. The big difference is that CD Japan prices everything in yen and converts it to dollars at checkout, whereas Yes Asia sets their prices in dollars from the start, so which one is the better deal will vary with the exchange rate.
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I enjoyed this episode. I've been reading manga more as time goes on, so I welcome hearing more about it. Rebecca Silverman is one of my favorite ANN critics. The only thing I suggest is finding a third Super Manga Pal; I think that might enrich the conversation, especially with Justin not appearing in these and Zac not being as avid a manga reader as he is an anime fan.
The idea of a Super Manga Pals/Supernerds crossover had occured to me too, but then I remembered that most comic crossovers aren't very good. Except for X-Men/Star Trek. That's mankind's greatest literary achievement. ------------------------------------------------------------------- You know, I've always been faintly curious about Alice in the Country of..., but hearing Rebecca talk about it was the first hint I've had about their content. What the Hell kind of books are these?!? One of the first things that I noticed about Attack on Titan was the routine problems with the artwork. I like Hajime Isayama designs, enjoy some of his characters and I think that it's an exciting story, but if he wasn't doing a lot of other things very right, I couldn't imagine this manga going anywhere. I do like yuri, but all I really want is more. I'm not actually sure what else anybody who enjoys it could want. Then again, I'm not embedded in its culture, so I'm not emotionally invested beyond the works themselves. If everybody became a yuri fan, I think that I'd just wonder how the Hell that happened. I've never read a manga with rape in it, at least that I can remember. (Was there rape in Ayako? It seems like there could have been...) I think that I'm going to treasure that naïveté. |
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