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Alan45
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Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 8:22 pm Reply with quote
As far as I'm concerned, Tokyo Pop has poisoned the well. Regardless of where they are from, I don't intend to ever buy any of their titles. While I will not say "never", the only way I can see buying from TP would be if they picked up and finished a title I was already invested in that they or some other company abandoned. However, I really doubt that will happen.
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kacapatri



Joined: 23 May 2018
Posts: 2
Location: Indonesia
PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2018 2:36 am Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
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


Read this one quite a while ago. It's a quite fun series if you don't expect too much from it. Though I think the story was a bit sloppy toward the end
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KittyEponine
ANN Staff


Joined: 07 Mar 2018
Posts: 53
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2018 1:17 am Reply with quote
Rereading Citrus. More like a yay and a nay. Yay because the first couple of chapters were good. Nay because the recent chapters we sad and drama triggering.
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Cam0



Joined: 13 Dec 2009
Posts: 4884
PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:58 pm Reply with quote
I finished Sankarea. I was mildly disappointed by the ending, but otherwise it was a good manga. There was a nice amount of tension in the air throughout the manga. Also I liked Darin's eyelashes

Started reading Akira. I'm like 2/3rds the way through the 1st volume. Storywise seems good so far. The story is opening up at a nice gradual and reasonable pace. It's not completely overwhelming me with infodumps like Eden: It's an Endless World! did at the beginning. I haven't really bonded with any of characters yet. Kaneda has been a bit of an asshole so far. The art is amazing though. Backgrounds are amazing and every panel is so detailed. The detailed art really helps me immerse myself into Akira's world. Not the biggest fan of the character designs, but they are alright.
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IchigoK90



Joined: 13 Aug 2005
Posts: 1634
Location: Scarborough, Ontario
PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2018 3:18 am Reply with quote
Posting for the first time in years on these forums.

Don't have as much time to read as much manga as I used to, but of the series I still keep up with it's your typical shounen fare of Boku no Hero Academia, Ace of Diamond Act II, Shokugeki no Souma and of course One Piece.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:21 am Reply with quote
Let's see, what have I read since I last posted in here?

Assassination Classroom is the big one, finished that! It starts off a bit slow, and has some short comedic arcs, but whenever it hits its stride, it is truly addicting. It reminded me a lot of GTO, with the teacher helping the troubled students and stuff. And both series give us short arcs to really highlight particular students. I also really enjoyed seeing Class A and Class E compete academically (not to mention how they depicted tests as giant RPG monsters that were fought, a really clever way to make them interesting!) Unlike GTO though, AC actually does have one student who is more "main character" than the others and I really liked Nagisa. I'm sure part of it was seeing this tiny androgynous guy turn out to be freakishly good at assassination (a talent he himself didn't know he had).
So I really did enjoy it, but I can also tell that it's a series that's probably going to fade from memory for me. I would still recommend reading it at least once though!

I also started Swan (I've read through vol 6)! I'm really sad now that CMX never finished this series (they published 15/21 volumes! 6 more to go, if you wanna pick it up, Seven Seas!) I can't even find scanlations past vol 5 or so, so there's no way for me to ever finish Swan (at this point, but I'm really hoping that complaining will cause the universe to notice and then spite me later to force me to call myself out on my incorrect statement). But I am still MORE than excited to keep reading what I've got here! The art is this gorgeous form of "extra" that only old shojo tended to do. You've got the "eyes blank with extreme shock", the extreme "upside while holding their head and screaming from anguish" poses and other "overly dramatic shouting" poses, and backgrounds with lightning, sparkles, flowers, etc. And then, it seems at least once during any dance sequence, this giant two page spread with the background (often themed to the ballet, for example, Swan Lake with the dancer(s) in various poses going across it. It's the sort of technique that can only really work in manga, I will say.
Also, the plot is completely addictive and difficult to put down (though also rather dense, which is nice). Unlike sports manga or anime from the era where 1 game would take 2 volumes or more (or 5 eps or more, think Slam Dunk, whose entire 32 volumes took place over about 4 months of real life time), this almost feels more like the modern Yuri on Ice or Megalo Box era where a lot of competitions can be fit in to less space without feeling rushed. I think this works because yes, we'll get the awesome shots we like, but not as much fluff or focus on minute detail, and instead, focusing a lot more on inner thoughts. However, unlike boxing matches or skating routines, ballets in real life really are hours long events so there really does need to be a lot of real life fluff cut here to make it compact. But the important thing is that it doesn't feel rushed or compact, it just is. I think being able to let the reader drink in those elaborate ballet poses and giant two page spreads does help make it satisfying though. Yes, sometimes the 70s shojo style can be ridiculous, even a bit funny, but it's so charming, I adore it!
Also, I like that the manga does educate the reader a bit on ballet plots and some famous dancers (from pre 1970s, of course) and the history of ballet. And some of the ballet dance moves (which I instantly forget anyway), which are there as translator notes on the page, typically.
I just really need someone to get those last 6 volumes (or the whole series, ideally) and put it out again! It's funny, I think years ago, I would've pegged Vertical as being the company, but now, I definitely put it on Seven Seas. And since Seven Seas puts out reader surveys every month, I'll be putting Swan in for quite some time (because unlike Rose of Versailles, Swan's rights are up for grabs!)
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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1857
PostPosted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:34 am Reply with quote
I read the first several volumes of Berserk despite having seen the anime. I'm technically not further than where the anime left off (the infamous Eclipse), but I highly recommend the manga over all three anime adaptations if you have time. Seriously. The amount of detail and characterization that the anime leaves out is unforgivable. You truly feel every bit of pathos from this story in these pages and the inner-monologue of Guts and Griffith. The final standoff between Guts and Griffith, which was a single sword strike battle, was a chapter and a half's worth of inner-monologue... and it was great and intense. Not to mention Guts' backstory is far better experienced here than in the anime, since it leaves in many details that the anime lost.

For instance, Guts was sold off by Gambino to be a sex slave. This traumatizing experience explains why, when a noble offers Guts money later in the story and gives him a friendly pat on the shoulder, Guts is reluctant to be touched and snaps at the noble.
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Sentire



Joined: 21 Apr 2008
Posts: 981
PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 8:18 am Reply with quote
classicalzawa wrote:
Let's see, what have I read since I last posted in here?

Assassination Classroom is the big one, finished that! It starts off a bit slow, and has some short comedic arcs, but whenever it hits its stride, it is truly addicting. It reminded me a lot of GTO, with the teacher helping the troubled students and stuff. And both series give us short arcs to really highlight particular students. I also really enjoyed seeing Class A and Class E compete academically (not to mention how they depicted tests as giant RPG monsters that were fought, a really clever way to make them interesting!) Unlike GTO though, AC actually does have one student who is more "main character" than the others and I really liked Nagisa. I'm sure part of it was seeing this tiny androgynous guy turn out to be freakishly good at assassination (a talent he himself didn't know he had).
So I really did enjoy it, but I can also tell that it's a series that's probably going to fade from memory for me. I would still recommend reading it at least once though!


Hi Classicalzawa! Did you watch the anime for Assassination Classroom, before reading the manga? And if so, is that having an effect on how you are perceiving the series? Or do you always have the habit of reading the manga first, then watching the anime? Just curious. I know I typically like to read first, then watch something. That is, if I have my choice but it usually depends on the timing.

As for myself, I am currently reading "The Ancient Magus Bridge" (Mahoutsukai no Yome) which I just adore! It brings out the same feelings in me as "Natsume's Book of Friends" (Natsume Yuujinchou). I don't mean they are similar storylines, just that they seem to evoke the same emotions from me, if that makes sense? It is multifaceted in that there is a seriousness to it, but sprinkled with comical moments and lightheartedness. I want to get to know the characters even more than I do, which I am hoping continues to develop in future volumes. I am only on volume 4, but I refuse to watch the anime series until I am further along. I am trying to be very diligent and watch out for spoilers... but I better get a move on or eventually it will be something I just can no longer avoid.

I finished volume 2 of "Plum Crazy!" (Kijitora Neko no Koume-san) which is a big ball of cuteness! Having a bad day at work? Then, this is the manga for you! Especially if you appreciate cats. It is lighthearted, amusing and makes me smile.

"Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler" (Kakegurui) is a little bit of a mind trip and it will be interesting to see how this evolves. I have only finished volume 2. Yumeko is a little scary Shocked, and I am hoping Ryouta strengthens in character a bit more. This is one of those series in which I can see myself either loving or hating it at the end. Please, please, please let me love it!

"She and Her Cat" (Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko) was special and I loved how it was told from the perspective of house cat, Chobi. I could see myself as Chobi’s owner, Miyu (*ahem* quite a few years ago), so it was interesting to picture how maybe my own cat would have had an internal dialogue about me. (Cats have internal dialogues, don’t they?) This one is not all fluff and cuteness, though. There are serious points in the story and I took away two things - the strong bond between Chibi and Miyu, and how Miyu, a young, single, hardworking Japanese woman, deals with the challenges of her stage in life. There is only one volume and I would definitely recommend this.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
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Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16935
PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 11:31 am Reply with quote
Sentire wrote:
I am only on volume 4, but I refuse to watch the anime series until I am further along. I am trying to be very diligent and watch out for spoilers... but I better get a move on or eventually it will be something I just can no longer avoid.


Yea you better get a move on slow poke. Others of us are waiting to watch it as well.

Sentire wrote:
"Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler" (Kakegurui) is a little bit of a mind trip and it will be interesting to see how this evolves. I have only finished volume 2. Yumeko is a little scary Shocked, and I am hoping Ryouta strengthens in character a bit more. This is one of those series in which I can see myself either loving or hating it at the end. Please, please, please let me love it!


Another series you need to hurry your butt up with so we can get to the anime series. Razz


As for me I'm neck deep in a few series and planning to start a few others.

Dragonar Academy - I'm on the fence with this one. I'm on vol 4 and I am enjoying it but it needs to deepen up a bit with the plot. With recent events hopefully that will happen. I'm not a fan of the loli elements with Eco herself (young Eco anyways) but I do enjoy the various Dragon designs. Especially Rebecca and her dragon.

Sekirei - The booby show with a heart of gold as it was affectionately called. I'm happy to finally be able to get into the manga. Especially since they never finished the bloody show. Plus with it being released in these collected omnibus volumes I can read more at once.

Hybrid×Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia - This is simply T&A guilty pleasure goodness. Yes there's a plot....but let's be honest that's not what the manga is about.

Testament of Sister New Devil - Slightly more plot then HxH but not much lol. More simple T&A ecchi guilty pleasure fun.

Ancient Magus Bride - A very enjoyable series for sure. Great characters and a great story. I'm only on vol 2 myself.

Horimiya - This scratches my sweet romcom bone very nicely. Sometimes in between the T&A and serious manga I like something a little more light hearted.

Sweet Blue Flowers - This a very sweet (ha!) and cute series. I really like the art. Reminds me of a sort of oil painting in a way. A definitely much more sweet and less creepy yuri series than say Citrus.

Citrus - I was enjoying this one but now it's getting too cliche' and tiresome.

KittyEponine wrote:
Rereading Citrus. More like a yay and a nay. Yay because the first couple of chapters were good. Nay because the recent chapters we sad and drama triggering.

Exactly. This was not a nice light hearted yuri series like SBF or even Bloom Into You which has a similarity with the whole 1 sided feelings (at first anyways). Now it's become so cliche' and more manipulative. Plus the romance really is not going far even though they are supposedly dating now.

I also want to start a few others soon once I get caught up on these. In particular I want to read the single shot Eclaire, and then get to I Hear the Sunspot & A Silent Voice.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:35 am Reply with quote
I just got caught up on Dimension W through the current volume, #10. This reads like an end to the series, wrapping up most of the open questions. It even has a couple of epilogue chapters. However, according to the encyclopedia the series is now on volume 14 in Japan so apparently not the end. Now I have to sit down and watch the anime.

Sweet Blue Flowers is complete in four omnibus volumes. It remains sweet. I hated to see it end. This is by the author of Wandering Son, which Fantagraphics has apparently given up on.

Horimiya is a continuing delight. I love it when the main characters actually talk to each other.

The Testament of Sister New Devil manga is now complete at nine volumes. This takes the narrative to the end of the first anime season. It also has a couple of epilogue chapters which are not for the faint of heart. The Burst side series does away with the need for plot progression and concentrates on the "home" side.
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Sentire



Joined: 21 Apr 2008
Posts: 981
PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 4:27 pm Reply with quote
Alan45 wrote:
I just got caught up on Dimension W through the current volume, #10. This reads like an end to the series, wrapping up most of the open questions. It even has a couple of epilogue chapters. However, according to the encyclopedia the series is now on volume 14 in Japan so apparently not the end. Now I have to sit down and watch the anime.

Hi Alan45,

What did you think about the Dimension W manga? I really liked the anime (can you tell by my avvy?), and now I am thinking I may need to give the manga a go. I haven't even glanced at it.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 5:06 pm Reply with quote
Got Go for it, Nakamura!, the LGBT one shot that Seven Seas just put out recently and the first one to have guys, not girls, for the leads. Nakamura definitely looks a lot like a Rumiko Takahashi lead, I'd probably put him closest to Yusuke Godai from Maison Ikkoku. Nakamura is also more shy, not loud and obnoxious like half of Takahashi's leads tend to be. As for the comedy, it's just right, in my opinion. Humor is more likely to be derived from things like Nakamura having a pet octopus and thankfully, no jokes are made at the expense that Nakamura is gay. All in all, this is a really cute one shot and I'm glad that Seven Seas brought it over!

Also finished Astra: Lost in Space, because you make a group of kids do survival in the wilderness or a post apocalyptic setting and I'll be like "hell no" but you do that same thing in space? Then I'm sold instantly! But anyway, yeah, I quite enjoyed it! It didn't overstay its welcome, it kept things moving, and it kept the mystery building the whole time. It also kept its cast the right size so it was able to develop them all really well, actually. Definitely recommend it if you like the genre!

Still reading Swan, the vols are pretty dense, so I don't need to rush things. But it's still awesome and I am going to be so sad when I get to the end of v15 and know that there's nothing more for me to read! There's not even scanlations! Still, I really love the series, it's a shame to see it OOP and forgotten.

Also started finally reading Pokemon Adventures! I make it no secret, I still love the games. The show, while I have nostalgia for it, isn't what I would call "good" though. The manga though? It can be pretty insane! An Arbok is literally cut in half at one point, how is Nurse Joy gonna fix that one? But also, the story was never strong with Pokemon, especially early Pokemon, and the manga went even further off the rails with it than you can imagine. But it's a lot of fun, and for the Red/Blue arc only being 3 vols long, it somehow doesn't feel too rushed either, which is perhaps what I find the most strange about this whole thing.

Captain Harlock, yeah, that bored me to tears. Like, I get trying to create a mood, but my god, can we move at SOME point here? Anyway, not for me, not interested in more.

Golosseum, ok, this was basically pure spectacle and nothing else. Literally no substance to any of this. If you see some random "wtf, manga is weird!" images from it, that's basically all you'd get from the full volume too. So enjoy your incredibly random Putin knockoff slicing a tiger's head off with his hand image, that's really all there is to get from the manga anyway. It tries to have a plot, but it's sloppy and just terrible. If you're here for the art, just know, that's all you're getting.


Last edited by zawa113 on Mon Jul 23, 2018 8:53 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Alan45
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Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9812
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:04 pm Reply with quote
@Sentire

I enjoyed the manga version and recommend it. While having the same plot as the anime it has enough differences to make it it's own story. I think it may have an additional arc not animated but my memory of the anime is a bit fuzzy. I watched the anime streaming up till the departure for Easter Island. Now I have to dig the disk out and watch the whole show. Volume 10 takes the story through the end of the Easter Island arc. I agree that Mira is a great character and I like that she gets a substantial role and isn't just a "sidekick". I kind of freaked when she lost her head early on.

I'm now about halfway through the second volume of Dead Dead Demon's DEDEDEDE Destruction, I give up. I'm sure there must be a plot here and some point to the characters off the wall antics, there really ought to be. However I will leave it to others to try to figure it out. So far no demons at all, just weirdness.

I've also finished the first volume of Fruits Basket Another this I enjoyed and recommend. We have a whole new generation of the Sohma family but without the transformations. There are the beginning of some mysteries here, including why the Sohma people seem to know who the heroine is without introduction even though she doesn't know them. We even get a second generation of the president of the old Yuki fanclub except the daughter is a Sohma generalist, she venerates all family members. The heroine is markedly different from Tohru. She had a social rejection by classmates (apparently in pre school or grade school) so severe that she has been hiding her existence ever since. She does show signs of some improvement though.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:44 pm Reply with quote
Some more new vols from that big pile I got at the comic show last weekend!

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 1
Great debut, I'm looking forward to more of this one! I'm not typically into series that take place in anything feudal Japan (partly because anything before Meiji Restoration on the history scale and I am super duper lost) and while I've, naturally, instantly forgotten when this was supposed to take place, I guess it has sort of a Mushishi feel where, whatever, doesn't matter, something feudal-ish. And the story itself is interesting and I want to see where this is going. So I'm on board for vol 2!

Black Torch 1
Like... I read this... I remember the cat was pretty cool...but I can't remember much else. I wouldn't call it "bad", but "forgettable"? That sounds like a good word for it. It seems competent enough, it just doesn't quite have that "grab" going for it either.

Sword Princess Amaltea 1
So, Tokyopop, which we all know and hate (or, more accurately, hate Stu Levy) is at least trying something new with "international women of manga". I've read and quite enjoyed Goldfisch and Kamo, which felt fun and breezy to read through and actually deserve to be mentioned around mega-hit Radiant for European-created manga, but Amaltea? Easily a "worst of the year" contender (though Golosseum is still worse, albeit for different reasons). Amaltea is basically trying to be a pure gender flip "prince rescues princess" story except it never really aspires to be anything beyond that and in the end, that just makes it boring. It also seems to think that continually pointing out the males as being fragile and emotional is quirky or funny but it really just falls completely flat for me. You established that women became dominate to men because only women can use magic, and yet, I have yet to see a single bit of magic from anyone in the entire vol, so way to waste something you could have used to be interesting to your plot and/or setting. Now, I actually did think to myself "would I think this was ok if it was more stereotypical with the prince doing the rescuing and fighting?" and the answer is simply: no, I would still think this is boring and uninspired as all hell. If just flipping the gender of a cliched story is literally all you have going for you, I feel like there's really not anything worth saying here. There's better manga about role reversals, better manga about gender reversals, and a hell of a lot of better stories about fantasy adventures. Just read Rat Queens or something instead of this, seriously! Also, the story flow was boring and pretty terrible, so reading it was a chore. And y'know what? I think this series somehow STILL fails the Bechdel test! How is that even possible?
There's really nothing to see here, move along!

Promised Neverland 4, 5
More good stuff! This manga just keeps being tense and addicting and awesome and I am always eager to see where it's going next! At least this one finally doesn't have as big a cliffhanger as I'm used to with this series.

That Blue Sky Feeling 1
LGBT continues! This one seems to fall along the lines of "Gay people exist? And they're like normal people? FOR REAL?" but at least it's not mean about it either. I can actually definitely respect the manga for going the path of "this guy wants to be friends with a gay guy, but isn't gay himself", except it seems to be hinting that maybe he just doesn't know if he's gay or not yet? But it's cute and innocent enough for now that I want to continue it. But between this and Go For It Nakamura, if you had to pick which one is the stronger title that I enjoyed more? I'd probably go with Nakamura for right now.

Claudine
I'm out of LGBT manga for the time being, it would seem! As a trans man myself though, I did find this more interesting than most may. Others can certainly enjoy it for its awesome 70s shojo art and just being 70s shojo's unique brand of "extra" as well. Claudine in this case though, appears to have grown up in a time where "transgender" both wasn't really a common word or concept like it is today, which certainly did not help him in his life. In fact, only one character seems to truly regard him as a man. While I do think Claudine is a bit more on the "tragedy porn" side of things, it's still worth the read because 70s shojo is awesome.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:57 pm Reply with quote
Alan45 wrote:
@Sentire

I enjoyed the manga version and recommend it. While having the same plot as the anime it has enough differences to make it it's own story. I think it may have an additional arc not animated but my memory of the anime is a bit fuzzy. I watched the anime streaming up till the departure for Easter Island. Now I have to dig the disk out and watch the whole show. Volume 10 takes the story through the end of the Easter Island arc. I agree that Mira is a great character and I like that she gets a substantial role and isn't just a "sidekick". I kind of freaked when she lost her head early on..


Guess I should go add that to our Wish List on RightStuf lol.
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