What manga are you reading right now?

Non-Eva Anime and Manga discussion

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Postby FreakyFilmFan4ever » Mon Mar 16, 2015 3:42 pm

View Original PostMr. Tines wrote:That'd be "Onii-san" ... Sometimes I wonder if the owner of the UK numberplate ON11 SAN knows what he has got.

LOL! Thanks. Fixed.

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Postby Blue Monday » Mon Mar 16, 2015 6:46 pm

View Original Postrobersora wrote:I have no idea what's going on in these panels, but he definitely is a master at is craft. Nice flow and shot composition throughout! Looking at that beautiful art, the horrible CG-Monster the animated series is, kinda hurts.

I've not the seen the show but I adore the comic; Nihei's blend of fast paced, high concept sci-fi, and his predilection for landscapes and world building, make for an excellent exercise in immersion and storytelling, retaining a strong emotional heart at its core. Knights is exactly the kind of kick I want to get out of my mech manga. More people should read this book, man.
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Postby child of Lilith » Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:00 pm

View Original PostFreakyFilmFan4ever wrote:But I’ve picked it back up again. I really want to see if artist and writer Yu Aida can turn this around into a less dismal ending. But regardless of how it ends, this has been one of the more meaningful reads I’ve had in a Japanese manga in a long while.
Good luck to you then. Personally I have no intention of ever finishing it. Don't want my fond memories of it being ruined anymore then they already have been.
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Postby FreakyFilmFan4ever » Tue Mar 17, 2015 3:47 am

^ At what point did you stop reading? I got into the manga after watching Season 1 of the anime series, which I really enjoyed. Season 2 was so cheaply made and flatly presented that it kind of pissed me off, so I decides to read the manga itself to continue the story and find that ending. Ironically enough, when the actual ending was finally announced I simply couldn't do it at the time.

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Postby child of Lilith » Tue Mar 17, 2015 4:09 am

I stopped after finishing volume ten, but I seriously wish it had been volume six. After six things change and not for the better.

the second season of the anime is pretty crappy, but it does have some value and it's the only way to see certain parts of the manga animated so it's at least worth a look.
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Postby FreakyFilmFan4ever » Thu Mar 19, 2015 5:55 pm

Yeah, for the longest time I only had the first 6 Volumes due to ADV going out of business. It certainly is a nice stopping point, but I dove right into all of the Seven Seas omnibuses as soon as they came out. Well, until the 5th omnibus, anyway. A friend of mine bought me omnibuses 4 and 5 for my birthday. In the cover of 4 he wrote "Come join me in the sadness," and in the 5th "It's cold down here..." He wasn't wrong.

Season 2 was good when it finally got to Triela's arc. And Scarborough Fair is always welcomed. But overall it still pissed me off.

I'll post my thoughts on vol. 13-15 here after I read them. Hopfully you'll find it worth finishing. (And hopefully I won't regret this.)

-------------------------------

EDIT:

So, I finally finished Gunslinger Girl.

The covers really are beautiful:
SPOILER: Show

Goddamn, Yu Aida. What do you have in store for me now?Image


See, I put this series down long ago when that last book was finally announced. I was in the middle of reading the 5th omnibus when it happened, and the thought of an actual ending didn’t go well with me. I mean, yeah. It was forecasted since Vol. 1 that these characters have a limited life span, but the more you got to know these characters and the closer towards the ends of their lives you approached, the worse you felt about it.

I guess I should go back and sum up at least the premise of the book series. Gunslinger Girl is a manga series written and illustrated by Yu Aida, where a secret Italian government organization takes abused/dying little girls and turns them into cyborgs, training to take out terrorists and things like that. They need little girls because the “conditioning” process, by which the girls are brain-washed to listen to the orders of their handlers, works better at younger ages.

It’s a very creepy and unsettling premise. I honestly would have never even given something like this a chance if it were for watching the Season 1 anime and seeing how well realized the concept is and how its aim seems to be critiquing certain men’s over reliance on “moé” narratives and characters as a main source of entertainment.

(I realize that this should be a more nuanced discussion than I’ll be having in this review. Just know that I agree to a certain extent with the argument that the over-abundant presence of moé is a bit off-putting and can be slightly disgusting, while still retreating to watch my Kill Me Baby, Squid Girl, Azumanga Daioh, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and read “Yotsuba&” later on. [MLP:FiM and Powerpuff Girl might also be included in “moé,” I guess.] I guess the line I draw is the overt sexualization or unhealthy obsession of moé, rather than just the passive enjoyment one can and should get out of it from time to time.)

Or, you know, rather than a commentary on the obsession and sexualization of moé in entertainment, Gunslinger Girl (henceforth “GsG”) could simply be a commentary on how quickly children might be expected to mature in some places these days. Regardless, there certainly is awareness on the part of the author about how fucked up the whole situation is, and his narrative treads lightly making nuanced points throughout.

Anyway, after Vol 6 the series definitely takes a turn for the worst. It’s obvious (but not overbearing) that the author is after your soul, and you spend a lot of time watching this terribly sense of decay finally initiate in the narrative.

Those last two books (picked above) depicted the ending. Here’s a quick round of effed-up spoilers:

SPOILER: Show
Henrietta is reconditioned to make her only an agent of death in preparation for the big battle against the terrorists. As a result she no longer remembers the story of the constellations that Jose, her handler, has recanted to her twice. In the battle she accidentally fatally wounds Jose in a blind fit of fury. This devastates her. Jose, remembering back to the death of Elsa de Sica, shoots Henrietta in the eye, who accepts this departure happily. The two kick the bucket together.

Triela also dies. Her two left limbs are shot off in a battle against the terrorists. Her handler, Hilshire, tries to rescue her, but also dies in the gunfire. Prior to that, however, Hilshire felt the need to harvest Triela’s ova, so that way her legacy/lineage will still live on. To outlive the rest of the short-lived cyborgs has been Triela’s goal for a while now.

If you’re not into exposing yourself to spoilers, a lot of important characters die in the last three volumes. It’s terrible and gut-wrenching, but oh, so powerful.

After the terrorist organization is taken care of, Yu Aida pulls and “End of Eva” on us as the Italian government disavow the secret organization and labels them as terrorists as well, giving them the military authority to remove all trace of this crazy unethical organization. The difference here is that the audience reading is all worn of gunfights to the death at this point, which is exactly what the writer was expecting.

BUT..... but..... the ending turns things completely around. Here’s a round of some of the best spoilers in the entire book series:

SPOILER: Show
Petra (the only older college-aged student out of the bunch, conditioned at a later age when the technology became equipped enough to do it) and her handler survive, and Petra decides to remove her conditioning completely. She remembers back to studying to be a ballerina back in Russia, and follows through on perfecting what she’s already learned. She even remembers her real name. She finds that the love she had for her handler wasn’t a part of the conditioning.

Rico and Jean also survive, though it was just barely for Jean.

The last order Jean gave Claes before going on this mission was to defend the garden. (Claes had lost her handler, was conditioned to forget him, and is now the guinea pig for all new technology for the cyborgs.) When the Italian military turn on the organization, she does just that without ever removing her glasses, and without ever firing a single shot. (Her since-deceased handler told her never to wear the glasses during battle. Nowadays she can’t remember where she head that command from.)

Rico, Petra, and Claes are placed on a ship and are out out on the lawless ocean where they cannot be threatened by anyone. Here, they slowly die peacefully, with Claes being the last survivor.

And then there’s the most hopeful time-skip I’ve ever read in a manga. I’m not even spoiling that here, just go read this for yourself. It really turns things around.

In the end, this is the most meaningful manga I’ve read to date, and I do not regret reading it one bit. Whatever lack of subtext and commentary people complain about in Sadamoto’s Evangelion manga is certainly found here. I consider this the “Evangelion” of moé, more so than Modoka. Modoka is, from what little I’ve seen, a fine deconstruction of magic-girl anime tropes. But GsG seems to have a finer detail to its commentary on the unhealthy obsession and sexualization of moé in general. (Though, my opinions might changes once I, you know, actually finish Modoka, which will not take place until after I get caught up in the magic-girl scene.)

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m spending the rest of the night watching Kill Me Baby on Hulu. At least there, I get to see the blonde twin-tailed assassin high-schooler placed in a comedic context where nothing frightens me or bears any consequences.

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Postby Justacrazyguy » Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:48 pm

So, pwhodges told me that I should read the Voices of a Distant Star manga and, seeing it's short length, I decided to read it right away.

It's funny, had I read this a year ago, I would have found it a nice little manga, nothing special, but now... I had tears in my eyes while reading it. I guess I changed withouth realizing it. Isn't that curious? ;_;
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Postby pwhodges » Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:57 pm

Glad you appreciated it! So, I get the sense that, like me, you got more out of it than from the anime?
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Postby Justacrazyguy » Thu Mar 26, 2015 7:30 pm

View Original Postpwhodges wrote:Glad you appreciated it! So, I get the sense that, like me, you got more out of it than from the anime?


Much more! The increased length is an enormous improvement over the anime. There is also the fact that I could, in some way, indentify with the problem they were having. Sometimes I feel as though I'm so far away from the people I love... which, thanks to the location of my university, I actually am, 200 km, in fact! That certainly made it ressonate a lot with me.
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Postby AR-99 » Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:08 pm

Ribbon Warrior 6 scans finally available.

Hell yes, deception pays off!

Inu Yashiki 28 setting up for the eventual confrontation (likely multiple).
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Postby caragnafog dog » Thu Apr 09, 2015 5:41 pm

I was overwhelmed by the variety and character work of Jojo Part 4. My favorite by a wide margin.
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Postby robersora » Fri Apr 24, 2015 6:19 am

Everyone who denies other beings their humanity becomes a Monster oneself.

I’m not hugely into Manga, but now and then I stumble over something, that catches my interest. Uzumaki is one of them Jung Ito's Spiral is creepy and absurd at the same time, portraying a pretty particular kind of horror, while having a touch of Lovecraftian horror thrown into the mix as well. So if you’re into unsettling stuff, go check it out. But be cautious, Spirals are lurking everywhere, don’t succumb to it.


SPOILER: Show
Image
Out of context, I find this line to be hilarious!
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Postby Rosenakahara » Sat Apr 25, 2015 2:41 am

So i decided to read Naruto Gaiden just for the lols and aside from sarada uchiha (kishimoto is well into his "i want to be dragonball" phase with the naming now) being the best thing to come out of this manga in years, this chapter was also hilarious for one reason.

Top kek kishimoto:
SPOILER: Show
So basically Sarada points out all of the bullshit about Sakura and Sasuke being together and why its crazy that she is still even married to him plus she cant even prove that when she doesn't have a damn ring on her finger, also that Sasuke has been gone 12 years being a worse father than vegeta and goku combined (actually vegito was a pretty good father in multiverse but thats not the point) then we get to the best reveal ever: the picture of sasuke in thier house was back from when he was with taki, and upon looking at her face there is the strongest possibility that karin is Sarada's mother instead and the fangirl tears are AMAZING, this is end of series Narusaku shippers levels of salt and i actually want to read more of this just to see how much trollage we can get here.


This chapter in a nutshell:
SPOILER: Show
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
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Postby Baz » Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:08 pm

Yotsuba's dad has a name. And he's rude to Baa-chan, doesn't even compliment her cooking.
SPOILER: Show
Image
Though I definitely feel sympathy for the poor guy in this chapter.

Sigh. I think Yotsuba's time has passed. Hope it gets a good ending.

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Postby El Squibbonator » Sat May 02, 2015 6:14 pm

I've never actually read "The 404 Girl", though from what I can tell it's one of those series that gives you a warm-and-fuzzy feeling without being overly cute. I'm not personally the biggest fan of most series like that (though I do like Chi's Sweet Home, which is about an adorable kitten).
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Postby Alaska Slim » Fri May 22, 2015 4:16 am

Reading the Light Novel of Oregairu, filling blanks the anime and manga left, along with digging into thoughts Hachiman otherwise didn't share. I dare say some lost sticker episodes pop up in here.

One thing the Manga did only once, and the anime left out entirely was Hachiman tendency to describe Yuigahama as a slut, making him appear rather abusive I must say. My *impression* though is that the actual word he's using must have a less-severe connotation (perhaps "hussie"?), as she doesn't seem to react to this quite as I would suspect, nor does she hold it against him for long.



References to other works ABOUND in this iteration, There's like two Dragon Ball, S-cry-Ed, Doraemon and Gundam mentions per volume, but there's also been at least 3 for Pokemon, a mention of Evangelion, one of the works of Miyazawa Kenji, and now, just as I was losing hope that the creator had ever seen it, he makes an appros invocation of Digimon lore. Something only a fan would know.

Right now, I think I've hit the top of the bell curve of writers appealing to my sense of nostalgia. It's probably down hill from here... -o-;
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Postby MuscleRobo » Tue May 26, 2015 9:50 am

View Original Postcaragnafog dog wrote:I was overwhelmed by the variety and character work of Jojo Part 4. My favorite by a wide margin.


Part 4 is great! My personal favorite is Parte V,hey that's the canon way of saying it because Italy I guess, but JoJo part 3 was the first manga I ever read long, long ago. I really loved the characters in Part 4, and for how silly he was Okuyasu had some great character moments towards the end. You might want to invest in getting the Bad Company bucket of soldiers it's only around 2,000 yen on Mandarake and one of my favorite pieces of anime or manga merchandise I have.

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Postby Shinoyami65 » Wed May 27, 2015 6:10 am

View Original PostRosenakahara wrote:So i decided to read Naruto Gaiden just for the lols and aside from sarada uchiha (kishimoto is well into his "i want to be dragonball" phase with the naming now) being the best thing to come out of this manga in years, this chapter was also hilarious for one reason.

Top kek kishimoto:
SPOILER: Show
So basically Sarada points out all of the bullshit about Sakura and Sasuke being together and why its crazy that she is still even married to him plus she cant even prove that when she doesn't have a damn ring on her finger, also that Sasuke has been gone 12 years being a worse father than vegeta and goku combined (actually vegito was a pretty good father in multiverse but thats not the point) then we get to the best reveal ever: the picture of sasuke in thier house was back from when he was with taki, and upon looking at her face there is the strongest possibility that karin is Sarada's mother instead and the fangirl tears are AMAZING, this is end of series Narusaku shippers levels of salt and i actually want to read more of this just to see how much trollage we can get here.


This chapter in a nutshell:
SPOILER: Show







Was bored and decided to read back through the posts. Then I read this and was like WHAATTT :bigeyes:

SPOILER: Show
But honestly, IMO it does make a fair bit more sense for Karin x Sasuke to occur compared to Sakusuke. Also, I'm kind of glad in a weird way that Sakura and Sasuke didn't get a completely happy ending because that would be yet another cheesy, cheap moment in a series constructed out of cheesy, cheap moments. At least Kishimoto has enough sense left in his noggin to subvert fangirl expectations.
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Postby MuscleRobo » Wed May 27, 2015 8:17 am

Long overdue but I'm reading Crows and have plans to continue onto Worst afterwards. I enjoy Bancho/Bosozoku stuff and this is proving pretty fun. I'm only a few chapters in though so I'm just kind of getting started.

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Postby caragnafog dog » Wed May 27, 2015 8:06 pm

Wonky translation aside Vento Aureo was very good. Giorno is an odd departure from previous JoJos but you could definitely see traits of both Jonathon and Dio in him. I like how they're further developing the concept of stands too.

Basically, I want to pay Giorno and Mista protection money.
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