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RIGHT TURN ONLY!! - 20th Century Girl




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minakichan





PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:29 am Reply with quote
Yeah, I'm also of the opinion that Monster >>> 20th Century Boys. The latter is a nice read with improved art, but the story just isn't as impactful...

Thankfully, Urasawa's other work, Pluto, also comes out today. It seems a little more atypical for Urasawa, but the feel is quite a bit more Monster-ish than 20CB was... even if the series happens to be about Astro Boy.
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posterior_praiser



Joined: 21 Oct 2007
Posts: 296
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:40 am Reply with quote
Def. have to agree on Tsubasa. The storyline got SO (unnecessarily?) complicated that it's hard to know up from down. I didn't really 'get' very much from this arc of the story. It was just too much. And it doesn’t get any better in the 'makes sense' department. Tsubasa is one of those stories that you really want to have FINISHED so as to read it all at once and tie everything together.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:44 am Reply with quote
I stopped reading Monster when it kept being stuck in road trip hell. I'm liking 20CB slightly more, even though it feels like a Japanese Forrest Gump at times, because it's not shoving all the dirty laundry in my face early and trying to force me to take sides. That Nick Cage/Alex Proyas "remake" might also have something to do with it, though. Rolling Eyes

Quote:
Ugly art, however, is nothing compared to the real forehead-slapper in this volume: the adolescent male fantasy bit where the Hot Girl Who Didn't Do Anything from the previous volumes shows up at Kurono's place, asks him to take her in, and does all sorts of fanservicey things.


I thought it was supposed to be a spoof of the typical hentai plot. But maybe I'm giving the guy more credit than he deserves.
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:51 am Reply with quote
20th Century Boys is the first Naoki Urasawa title I've ever read, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I love all the intertwining plotlines and the vivid art that allows you to easily tell which character is which no matter what the situation. At first, the size of the cast is daunting, and it gets even more so later on, but when the plot threads cross over, it gets easier to keep track of them all.

My favorite part is that the fight against evil never goes smoothly. In fact, spoiler[the heroes end up spending most of their time playing right into the villians' hands. ]

I'm looking forward to collecting the volumes of this for my growing collection.
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bahamut623



Joined: 23 Jun 2005
Posts: 1463
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:21 am Reply with quote
I sometimes forget that Kenji has been my avatar here since the day I joined this forum.
Anyways, I've heard several people before say that they weren't so into 20thCB in the first volume and that it gets going later on, but I remember being hooked right away. All the little teases thrown at you from the beginning were enough to hook me. I'm really excited to be reading this series again; I stopped somewhere in the second arc to wait for the official US release, so it's been a while. Heck, I think I even heard who Friend was once, but for the life of me I can't remember.

Just about every single manga review site has had a review for either 20th or Pluto or both this past week. I also think the sales of Astro Boy volume 3 will go up a bit, since all of those reviews mention it.
When Billy Bat is inevitably licensed, I wonder who will bring it over. It's a Kodansha series so Viz might not get to have it, meaning Del Rey will jump on it. As for Monster, I consider myself an Urasawa fan, but I've never read it. I've consider reading it or watching the anime several times, but I just never do. Something about it just doesn't attract me the way 20thCB or Pluto do.
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sepherest





PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:41 am Reply with quote
Gah, they're releasing 20th Century Boys already?
I must go pick this up......
Now I just have to wait for the Monster anime release.
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doctordoom85



Joined: 12 Jun 2008
Posts: 2091
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:01 am Reply with quote
Been looking forward to 20th Century Boys, my copy should arrive by Friday.

As for Tsubasa, I don't find anything too confusing aside from: A) the main villain's ultimate goal (I suspect that's a future plot twist anyway), B) why they think they have a chance of spoiler[redeeming c!Syaoron. The guy had his chance to grow his own soul/heart, he didn't, and now he's committing mass genocide. Time to count your losses and just try to warm up to the new Syaoron, Sakura., C) missing supporting characters: what the heck are Syaoron's mentor and that Dr. Kyle guy up to?, and D) Sakura, I understand why you left the group, but I still think it was an idiotic move to put it lightly.] All the Xanatos Gambits/Roulettes (for those unfamiliar with TV Tropes, basically really complex plans) are just something to enjoy, I don't need to understand every single detail. Then again, I have an odd thing about finding things confusing? Last two episodes of Evangelion? Understood it fully on the first watch. First volume of Baccano? I had to watch it three times before finally putting some pieces together. Anime smile + sweatdrop

Gantz is still in the "hang on, it gets better" stage right now, but I still had fun here. As for spoiler[Kishimoto moving in with Kurono], it was basically her only safe option since she'd die if she tried to move in with family/friends (they'd figure out spoiler[there are two Kishimotos], and then Gantz would blow up her brain). It did allow Kurono to show that he's still a shallow person at this point in the story. As for Nishi's actions, hey, the other guy pretty much was nonchalant about pulling the trigger at Nishi's head. That's psychotic behavior right there, what if he aimed the gun at the little boy or his grandma? Okay, Nishi shooting him back was going overboard, but I wouldn't exactly feel it was completely unjustified.

Note: oh yeah, and I've heard CLAMP has said Tsubasa will have a happy ending. Rrrrrrrright. That would either take some serious retcon or lord knows what. Maybe they meant bittersweet ending, which would be more feasible.
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lys



Joined: 24 Jun 2004
Posts: 1006
Location: mitten-state
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:34 pm Reply with quote
Awww... I really, really liked The Magic Touch. I can't deny that the setup and characters are pretty shoujo-cliché (and it's completely true that all the guys look alike), but I personally thought the humour and characterizations were handled really well. Because the story started out as a one-shot, which spawned a 3-chapter-story, which then became a full series, I'm hopeful that the weird pacing will even out in future chapters now that the preliminary stuff is out of the way (and as the artist gets more experience, since this is her very first series).

Anyway, the first volume made me laugh a lot, and laughter is usually what gets me to fall for a given series, so I'm looking forward to future volumes!

The YourFont site looks really interesting too! Thanks for sharing that!
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kyokun703



Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 2505
Location: Orgrimmar
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 11:08 pm Reply with quote
Oh goody, now I can type illegibly as well as write illegibly. Awesome!

People say typing is so impersonal, but there really isn't any other option for me.
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