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The Spring 2018 Manga Guide


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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2018 2:51 pm Reply with quote
I've occasionally seen DDDD compared to 20th Century Boys in terms of how it gradually introduces its cast and story elements, but now that it's being released in English I've been re-reading the whole thing from the beginning, and it really feels like Asano managed to do a much better job setting up his story than Urasawa ever did. This has pretty much caught up with Watamote and D-Frag as my go-to "if you can read only one currently-running manga" recommendation.
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everapril



Joined: 24 Apr 2009
Posts: 112
PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 12:14 pm Reply with quote
Ok the synopsis and reviews have me intrigued BUT my only previous exposure to this title is through headlines announcing its back on hiatus (again). Have to admit that gives me pause. Am I going to be left high and dry with this story or does it reach some satisfying narrative points along the way? Does it seem like it’s heading toward a conclusion at this point?
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 1:08 pm Reply with quote
everapril wrote:
Am I going to be left high and dry with this story or does it reach some satisfying narrative points along the way? Does it seem like it’s heading toward a conclusion at this point?


There are a lot of chapters that, while not exactly "stand alone", could be read independent of the rest of the story and be found satisfying in and of themselves. In terms of the trajectory of the overall story, every character with a series-long arc entered the final part of their arc before the manga went on its latest hiatus. (In Fullmetal Alchemist terms, the story has reached the part where they're about to spoiler[attack Central].)
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Coup d'État



Joined: 29 Dec 2017
Posts: 179
PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 4:20 pm Reply with quote
I love this feature. It's always giving me a 2nd chance to see new publications. The initial announcements don't always hook me up right away, and a 2nd view may still convince me to buy some of these.

I may pick Wotakoi up after all. Initially, I thought the couple was hiding their hobbies from each other and thought that concept was stupid.
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Morry



Joined: 26 Jun 2016
Posts: 756
PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 4:44 pm Reply with quote
Elder Sister-like One is definitely a winner for me. Perfect mix of cute and uncomfortable to make the overall tone bittersweet with horrific implications.
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 5:14 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for bringing back this feature, ANN! The last time this occurred, there was at least one title that I was reading and shared my thoughts on in a more in-depth manner than what I am normally used to doing. This time, the title that I have been reading is The Elder Sister-Like One and I have been enjoying it. It’s a nice, if slightly slow, read that contains heart, which initially surprised me based on its origins. The reviews here for this series are interesting to read and I’ll go through them one-by-one if that’s okay.

Silverman: Your review, I think, pretty much accurately describes the appeal of the series and helped put to words other aspects of the series that I had trouble describing myself. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on it and for some reason, my head deduced that if you fairly gave a positive review to the To Love-Ru series, you would give a positive review of this series as well.

McNulty: I think that you may looking at the series in not quite the right way. I’ve been viewing it as more of a slice-of-life that takes its’ time developing the lead characters’ relationship as something that contains heart, but also a feeling of deliberate unease considering Chiyo’s past that will slowly be touched upon in later volumes. I also don’t think the designs are unoriginal as I haven’t seen that type of style drawn in the way it is here in other series and it’s still appealing to look at. All I can say here to you right now is that the series gets better in later chapters and take this sentence for what it’s worth.

Loveridge: I can see why you would say that the monster designs aren’t that much to write home about, but it still gets the job done in my book. While it may not seem much now, Chiyo and Yuu both get time to develop in later volumes in a bittersweet fashion and it’s one of the series’ notable points that has me engaged with it in the way I currently am. I can still see where you’re coming from as I too wondered where it would go based on it’s origins. I still enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this one, though

I once found it unlikely that this series will ever get an anime, but ever since Happy Sugar Life was announced to be getting one, I don’t know what to think anymore. Anime dazed

Sorry for the long post.


Last edited by Joshua Zarate on Tue May 29, 2018 5:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Princess_Irene
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Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2599
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 5:57 pm Reply with quote
Joshua Zarate wrote:
if I may ask an unrelated question that I’m bringing up here due to you mentioning in a past manga guide that you may or may not do so, but have you been following up on the To Love-Ru series?


I have! Or at least, I've been collecting them - I had a very busy time between that guide and this, so I haven't gotten to do much more than flip through them and gaze longingly at my shelf. Crying or Very sad Series like that one and Elder Sister Like One remind me why I should never judge a series by its genre. (Not that I do all that often, but I have my moments.)

Quote:
Sorry for the long post.


No apologies needed! Very Happy
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grooven



Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 1424
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 10:31 pm Reply with quote
Thank you so much for this guide! I'm not up to date on manga at all and it is good to see what is out there. Back in the day hardly anything got translated, now there's so much to pick.

I have to say the mermaid on had me super interested. I'm a sucker for shoujo and fantasy.
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Scalfin



Joined: 18 May 2008
Posts: 249
PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 2:47 pm Reply with quote
One IUI not working being "unbelievable," there hasn't been much testing on the functional life of frozen sperm (while there is evidence that some amount can be viable after the terms established, there's nothing on how much would be) and the amount being stored in such a way is fairly negligible compared to the amount being produced and used the normal way anyway. Basically, it's less realistic to assume that insemination would be feasible than the opposite.

Quote:
Sadly, this depiction of romance is endemic to YA literature outside of shoujo manga, so Defying Kurosaki-kun isn't actually doing anything that isn't actively being done elsewhere in the genre.


[facepalm]

Quote:
When she first has an encounter with him, he doesn't win any points when he rips off a button her hair has been tangled in rather than allow her to touch him to untangle it, and she retaliates by cutting off his ponytail when he gets gum in it.


That makes it sound more like she's a bully.
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2018 5:40 pm Reply with quote
Princess_Irene wrote:
I have! Or at least, I've been collecting them - I had a very busy time between that guide and this, so I haven't gotten to do much more than flip through them and gaze longingly at my shelf. Crying or Very sad Series like that one and Elder Sister Like One remind me why I should never judge a series by its genre. (Not that I do all that often, but I have my moments.)

Thank you for responding. I just wanted to hear if you were still interested/enjoying the series enough since doing a preview for it on ANN to continue reading it. Even though I have a noticeable bias towards that genre due to consuming a lot of it during my early months in the fandom, there always exists possibilities to be pleasantly surprised with some series within it (Those two you mentioned are good examples) to have enough heart and/or charm to them to be a fun read. I’m glad to hear you feel that way and I hope that more people that are somewhat skeptical can be a little bit more open-minded in general. That would be a good thing in my eyes.
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R. Kasahara



Joined: 19 Feb 2013
Posts: 646
PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2018 12:40 pm Reply with quote
Coup d'État wrote:
I love this feature. It's always giving me a 2nd chance to see new publications. The initial announcements don't always hook me up right away, and a 2nd view may still convince me to buy some of these.

Same here. If I wasn't currently swamped with new (and new to me) manga (including Wotakoi), I would dig into this installment a bit more, but right now I'm reading just a few of the reviews and bookmarking the rest for later.

I am sort of interested in the new edition of Fullmetal Alchemist, one of my favorite manga of all time, but sadly, I can't spare the shelf space right now. It's like a replay of the situation with last year's Akira box set Confused
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Scalfin



Joined: 18 May 2008
Posts: 249
PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2018 2:03 pm Reply with quote
It's interesting that Sacrificial Princess seems to be about ethnic tension, as the original Beauty and the Beast story is widely suspected to be a parable about arranged marriages with people from a different culture and ethnic group (whether it be the next town or region over or, horror of horrors, outside France), with the beast's being "crude and unrefined" especially being an expression of his having norms and customs different from whatever part of France the reader was in, as the French still tend to see little difference between foreignness and lack of culture of barbarity. The ending can thus be read as a wife patiently turning her husband from a beast in a human/Frenchman.
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LegitPancake



Joined: 26 Jun 2017
Posts: 1291
Location: Texas, USA
PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2018 2:52 pm Reply with quote
Is the FMA manga hardback an omnibus? Or does Viz seriously intend to publish all 27 volumes individually like this? If they have a 3-month gap between releases, that would take nearly 7 years, and cost a collector $540 retail! Why couldn't they have made them 2-in-1? Sorry Viz, but it just doesn't make much sense.
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R. Kasahara



Joined: 19 Feb 2013
Posts: 646
PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2018 3:37 pm Reply with quote
LegitPancake wrote:
Is the FMA manga hardback an omnibus? Or does Viz seriously intend to publish all 27 volumes individually like this? If they have a 3-month gap between releases, that would take nearly 7 years, and cost a collector $540 retail! Why couldn't they have made them 2-in-1? Sorry Viz, but it just doesn't make much sense.

The new FMA hardcovers seem to be based on the Japanese kanzenban edition, which ended up being 18 volumes.
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Calico



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 383
PostPosted: Thu May 31, 2018 8:51 pm Reply with quote
I'm glad to see the manga guide back!

I read the first chapter of Heaven's Design Team and it was absolutely terrific. Not sure if I'll pick it up digitally or just ask Kodansha to put in in print in their survey and wait a while. Though in the meantime, I think I'll check out Cells at Work since Rebecca's review reminded me of it.
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