×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
What are you reading right now? Why?


Goto page Previous    Next

Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Manga
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:34 pm Reply with quote
Since the anime came out, I went to see if After the Rain ever got new chapters. I was happy to see that it was updated and is up to chapter 49. It's still great and it's started to touch on a few things that I always wondered about: spoiler[What's the deal with Kase (the chef), Kondo's ex (though it was a short cameo), what lead to Kondo divorcing, and Akira's feelings on resuming track.]
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:39 am Reply with quote
Ever had that thing where you don't know if you should drop something or not? I'm kind of at that point with Nabari no Ou right now. Now, if I were only 1 volume in, I could see calling this prematurely, but I'm in the middle of vol 6. I did take a break after vol 4 (some RPG came out, I think?), but I know I am certainly capable of devouring manga, when they want me to. Even with very handy plot summaries at the start of each volume, I still don't feel super invested and I find myself going "what sides were these again? What were their objectives?" etc., but I also don't feel like I have good feel on most of the characters either. I kind of wish it'd just pick one thing and focus on it more, I guess?
If anyone else has read it, does it pick up, or should I like it by now? I know I've read manga in the past where I enjoyed the early volumes, but it didn't become "bingeable" until later (Gunslinger Girl comes to mind).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 7:37 pm Reply with quote
I read all of Future Diary in like two days and..........yeah, it's pretty dumb. xD

Dat author has no concept of LOGIC. Or realism. Art was good. Action scenes were drawn well and other things. And it was indeed suspenseful.

But yeah, mostly dumb. And also uncomfortable because middle-school kids wtf

I'm going back to my comfy shoujo fluff now. Lol
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 6:36 pm Reply with quote
Just finished Prison School and was absolutely disappointed. There was a lot of good in all of it, but the finishing stretch was unnecessarily dragged out, and the conclusion felt awful and out of character.

Plus, spoiler[my Kate and Mari ship didn't come true].
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 8:53 pm Reply with quote
killjoy_the wrote:
Just finished Prison School and was absolutely disappointed. There was a lot of good in all of it, but the finishing stretch was unnecessarily dragged out, and the conclusion felt awful and out of character.

Plus, spoiler[my Kate and Mari ship didn't come true].


PLEASE OH PLEASE tell me he doesn't end up with spoiler[that creepy pee-obsessed psychopath Hana]

Because that ship is all kinds of effed up. Sad
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 6:08 am Reply with quote
spoiler[At least so far, he doesn't end with anyone. He even turns Chiyo into a man-hating USC president in the last chapter]. That said, there's gonna be an epilogue in April which could change things around.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 12:17 am Reply with quote
Some stuff as of late!

Saiyuki-Tokyopop never finished the Reload series (which is a direct sequel), so I had to use the internet to help out on that one, and omfg, the artwork for it was like HxH all over again. Maybe Tokyopop was waiting for a version with actually finished art or something? Anyway, it's an easy read that's exciting and fun with a cast that clicks well together. I'm kind of surprised I never bothered with it in my youth, since it was clearly one of Tokyopop's better series, imo.

Otherworld Barbara-it's pretty, it's Moto Hagio, but I have no idea wtf was going on honestly. Like, I think I got the overall plot of the story, but I'm also not entirely sure what the point of it all was. I definitely like her other series that have been released so far, I hope they'll do Cruel God Reigns at some point.

Immortal Hounds 1-4-this is kind of like a reverse Ajin in many ways. All the people here are, by default, immortal, except a group that is trying to spread a disease that basically removes that immunity. It's just as violent as Ajin at times though! I think Ajin is more exciting, but this is a pretty good series too and I am eager to read more. It's also leagues better than Devil's Line, which wants to be Tokyo Ghoul so badly it physically hurts. At least this does want to be its own thing and is a lot more interesting to read.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 12:50 am Reply with quote
I just binge-read volumes 1-7 of Takane to Hana and I freaking love it. I'm going to go buy volume 01 in English tomorrow to support the series. Anime hyper

......even though I have the same volume in Japanese....it's actually a bit difficult to read and understand. Confused

I'd rec this manga for not just shoujo fans but anyone who wants a great rom-com with two fantastic protagonists. I know I praised Last Game for this too...but Hana is a WAY better character than Kuujou who was actually kinda hard to accept and connect with for being so incredibly dense that it hurts.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Coup d'État



Joined: 29 Dec 2017
Posts: 179
PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 7:29 am Reply with quote
After really enjoying Fumi Yoshinaga's non-BL manga, I decided to give her BL a chance. It's very much not my genre, but since I like the mangaka so much, I thought it wouldn't hurt. I got pretty much everything there is, other than 'Flowers of Life' vol. 4, where I settled for a Japanese edition due to the price.

I'm reading 'What did you eat yesterday?' vol. 6 at the moment. Honestly, I'm not sure wether I like this one. Usually, my problem with BL stems from how homophobic, misandristic and unrealistic it's written. Here, though ... I can't believe the main protagonist (Shiro/ lawyer) likes his live-in boyfriend (Kenji/ stylist) one bit. I understand that he doesn't want to be outed at work and that he doesn't want to openly go out with his bf, but he also treats him coldly at home. He shows no affection, he lies, he hides stuff and is generally an unpleasant person.

Kenji on the other hand seems very nice, honest and sweet. I just can't help to pity him while reading, and that's not something I enjoy when reading manga. He's so overly happy about the smallest gesture of kindness, he deserves better.

On a side note, the food doesn't really help either. In general, I love cooking, but I hate the taste of seafood and fish in any way, so I can't relate to most dishes. Oh well.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Mon Feb 26, 2018 4:35 am Reply with quote
Read Sand Chronicles, it was pretty easy to binge, I must admit. I really quite enjoyed this series, I feel like most romance series tend to bother me because they take forever for the couple to get together and it's kind of mostly about either them getting together, or if they get together early on, them getting to their marriage. Here, since it tends to jump ahead in time (by 3-6 months most of the time, though some gaps are larger, like 2-6 years), it also has the lead's romantic life and just life in general actually progress and move forward. She falls in love, she falls out of love, she dates more than one person, and it's not shown as a bad thing, but a natural thing that just happens over time. I was also satisfied by the end, which I kind of wasn't expecting, considering spoiler[she does end up with first boy], but since she grows so much as a person over the series, that was the real appeal and the real reason I highly recommend this series.

@Coup d'Etat
What Did You Eat Yesterday isn't a BL manga in the least. It has gay leads, but that doesn't automatically make it a BL. Much in the same way, things like My Brother's Husband and Yuri on Ice aren't BL either, they just have gay lead characters (in the case of the former, it's even written by an openly gay mangaka who normally does do hardcore Bara manga, sex manga by gay men for gay men). What Did You Eat Yesterday in particular actually runs in Morning, making it a seinen. Usually you can tell by just the magazine it runs in, but I also ask the questions: Is it explicit? Would this action be just a regular romance gesture if the couple was straight (such as a basic kiss or hand holding)? If the answer to these questions are "no" then "yes", then it's just a regular manga with a gay couple to me, not a BL.
If you want to check out one of her actual BL series, I would highly recommend Gerard & Jacques. The thing I find nice about her BL series in particular is that if you're not into the explicit scenes (like I am not), you can basically skip over them, and still get a really good series that isn't just about build up to sex scenes. And G&J barely has an explicit scenes compared to some yaoi that has major stuff every other chapter. I wish other BL stuff I've read is as good as Fumi Yoshinaga's stuff is.
As for me on the series, I kind of tune out during the cooking show portion, but I bet my step-dad would dig it! I do enjoy the non-cooking portion though. Kenji does deserve better though, I do agree.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:13 am Reply with quote
Done some more binging!

Let Dai 1-15 (complete)
I had long heard this described as "the Korean Banana Fish" (for reference, Banana Fish is my favorite manga of all time and the anime better do it justice!) and while I would disagree with this statement (the similarities are mostly surface level at best, like when comparing any teenage mecha pilot to Shinji, even if they aren't whiny), it's still a very addictive read and a good series in its own right. Though there are certainly some parts that annoyed me, like, Ash would never dare hurt a single hair on Eiji's head (the closest he gets to 'injuring' him is probably shoving him out of the way of a bullet), but Dai literally starts the series by beating the ever loving hell out of Jaehee, stopping to kiss him in the middle, then finishing it up with burning him with a cigarette. Like, seriously? And they he beats him to within an inch of his life at least one other time. It makes him seem more like one of those terrible shojo manga boyfriends, but Dai actually does change for the better during the course of the series (starting with not beating his boyfriend to a pulp due to some falsely perceived sleight at him). I'll admit, at first, they were a pretty hard couple to swallow, but by the end, I was definitely behind them and rooting for them and could see that they should be a couple
Fortunately, the series has some great supporting characters who get as much page time as Dai and Jaehee do. Eunhyung and Haru are both major characters and an absolute joy to read as well.
Also, I will admit that I do tend to have more trouble following manhwa at many times compared to manga (I feel like manhwa can be more jumpy at times, especially for shojo, I dunno), but I followed this one perfectly and it was so damn addictive. So yes, I definitely do recommend this manga (I got my set for really cheap, even if it was 2/3rd ex-library, I'll let it slide)

Bastard (complete)
To clarify, this is the web manhwa, not the heavy metal ecchi fantasy manga series from the late 80s. In fact, you can read it free online right now (because it's Line Webtoon).
It feels like whenever I read manhwa thrillers or horrors, I just need to take a deep breath and go "who hurt you, Korea? who?" and yep, this happens here too. As much as I enjoy my gory manga, most of them have too much of an element of fantasy to truly frighten me because there's just so way it would take place in real life. Ajin is awesome, but we don't have immortals. Junji Ito is awesome, but he does sometimes go a bit over the top (like with the fish in GYO), making it a bit less horrifying. But Bastard has something in common with fellow Korean webtoon Killing, Stalking in that I look at both of them and go "yep, this could definitely be happening right now, right this second". And both series also involve serial killers who seem to like torturing their victims first. Who has hurt you, Korea?
This series in particular involves a high schooler with one glass eye and who hits his home tutor in the head with a large mallet in chapter 1. There's also an adorable new transfer student! But I really don't want to spoil too much on this series, since I do want people to read it and it is free and stuff (it's about the equivalent of 5 vols long, which isn't too terrible long either). I think the ending let me down, but the journey was pretty epic, so I can't be too mad at it, but yeah, the ending wasn't super good.

Tokyo Ghoul 1-14 (complete)
Well, I wouldn't say "complete" complete, more like this was season 1. I enjoyed it, but also think it was kind of overrated. I often had trouble following the artwork during fight scenes, I will admit. I feel like it's so popular that it's in Walmart now, so most everyone has probably read it already who wants to, but it's solid, but not as good as Ajin at the end of the day. I also read vol 1 of TG:re, I'm rather hoping the trans character won't become a joke or dismissed or something, but I'm cautiously optimistic on that. I'll admit, I've had some spoilers given to me on TG:re (because I couldn't keep my damn eyes off them online, bad zawa!) but the major one is actually pretty easy to guess in vol 1 anyway so... yeah

Juana and the Dragonewt's Seven Kingdoms vol 1
Seven Seas, not publishing a monster girl ecchi harem?! *gasp* But seriously, I think Ancient Magus' Bride did so well for them that they're trying other things in the same line and yeah, this feels like it would be in the same company and AMB. I do like how this series has mostly animal characters and only one human so far (though I don't recall seeing any cat people yet!) Sometimes, I thought the manga felt like it jumped around a bit too much, but I am excited to see where this one goes in the future, too!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:18 pm Reply with quote
Hidan No Aria

After showing the 12-episode anime to a friend, I really enjoyed rewatching it and badly want to know how it ends. It's always been a guilty pleasure of mine; Aria is my favorite female tsundere and I love her romance with Kinji (who is my favorite harem lead)

Thought I like all the characters in the cast except for Shirayuki who is the embodiment of everything I hate in a female character lol (I hate yamato nadeshiko and I hate yandere a good deal more). I will take Onodera over this annoying, airheaded stalker.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
moniker



Joined: 15 Mar 2018
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:42 am Reply with quote
Holiday Love

Its been a while for me reading the latest chapters of manga I read, that includes Holiday Love. I dont know whats so interesting about cheating husbands and dysfunctional married couples, but yeah here I am reading about it. Maybe because its grounded and based on real life situations. Since I like my entertainment mediums close to reality as much as possible.

I just finished reading the last 20 chapters of ReLIFE before reading this. I still have more to read after I finish Holiday Love and catch up.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Cam0



Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Posts: 4884
PostPosted: Fri May 18, 2018 4:23 pm Reply with quote
I'm reading Sankarea. I rewatched the anime and then started reading the manga to see what happens next. I'm at chapter 20. Rea is cute and while Chihiro is a relatively generic romcom main character he is still easily likable. Those two work well together and it's the kind of ship I can immediately get behind. The story is invoking a feeling of uneasiness right now which is something I like.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 7:36 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I was pretty skeptical of Tokyopop's return. In fact, I still am! But they actually do seem to have this cool initiative of publishing manga work by women from various parts of the world (though they all seem to live in Europe at present, at least) and different backgrounds. Pretty sure these were basically all published by Tokyopop Germany and now US is going "oh, I wanna get in on this, too!" and I guess they kind of had to give in to Stu or something. But it really seems like all sorts of various parts of Europe are really understanding how to make their manga look and feel like actual manga and not just a pale imitation (seriously, why is the US still so bad with this?) Viz got Radiant (French comic) just recently, but Tokyopop is actually a bit ahead, it would seem. They have 5 series currently planned in this "international women mangaka" line, so one of the first they put out (and the one I've read thus far) was Goldfisch vol 1. Of course, none of this new line matters in the least if the products themselves are still garbage or shovelware, so the big question is: does this line look like it's going anywhere and is it worth anyone's time?

So, Goldfisch is a shonen, and it definitely feels it. And while Morrey is your typical shonen lead a lot of the time, he's an enjoyable lead and isn't too stupid or too reckless. But he also has something that most of your typical shonen heroes are missing, and that is a definite curse with very little positives going for it (most of the time, shonen manga "curses" are just "blessed with suck", but this actually seems like it would be incredibly inconvenient). Morrey has a "Midas Touch" curse and turns things he touches into gold. As one flashback shows, this includes his own clothes and any food he might try to eat (he has this mutant otter pet thingy that helps with stuff like that). So anything that he touches will turn to gold which means even his allies can't touch his hands and he can't really touch anything except for things he intends to turn to gold for whatever reason (it IS a solid way to stop an enemy from attacking, I will admit). So the series is about trying to get rid of the curse, basically.
Also, the world is interesting and the characters are fun. A strange quirk of the world is that basically all of the water seems to be poisonous and will mutate people if they're in it too long (and we have seen people in the series with mutated limbs and stuff). An actually useful trait is that Morrey is immune to the mutation water (not something that came with the curse, he was just always immune to it).

So, I am definitely interested in reading more (not sure when vol 3 will come out in Germany, been a bit of a large gap since vol 2, already over a year while vol 1 to 2 had about 9 months gap). I'm sure Tokyopop most likely put this out due to getting a cheap deal from TP Germany (and beggars can't be choosers), but if they keep getting solid stuff like this, they might actually have a chance to be relevant once again. I also picked up vol 1 of Kamo (part of this same "international women mangaka" thing), so hopefully that will also be good!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Manga All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 146 of 154

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group