What are you reading? (impressions)

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:06 pm

Huffy wrote:

Freesia is great, much more so than most manga in that genre because of the insanity going on.

Exactly. Porn and violence without insane is just wrong.

And of course, it being an Ikki manga makes this win so much more than usual.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:02 am

Believers 1-2
Somehow I feel like I'm way overdue with this. But for porn, it's definitely a good manga.

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 3:12 pm

Looking at your avatar, I remember seeing that the group that was doing Ping Pong just released their first chapter in well over a year of inactivity (it was Piano no Mori, which is quite a fun read). Hopefully this means they're finish up Ping Pong.

myanimelist profile · Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 10:40 pm

Huffy wrote:

Looking at your avatar, I remember seeing that the group that was doing Ping Pong just released their first chapter in well over a year of inactivity (it was Piano no Mori, which is quite a fun read). Hopefully this means they're finish up Ping Pong.

Actually I'm their editor and helped them revive ;D
Piano no Mori chapter 10 should be done soon; and we're currently looking to find resources to restart Ping Pong as well (desperately need a translator)

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:40 pm

Bless your soul. Hope it gets off the ground soon.
I just re-read the first three chapters of Historie, which looks to be a facinating manga. I've heard nothing but steaming heaps of acclaim from people here and elsewhere, and I'm primed to read more of it. Unfortunatally the group who was scanning it seems to be pretty dead, so it looks like I'm going to have to wait to see if someone else picks it up or if it gets licenced (or if I make an actual effort to learn Japanese).
Other than that I'm really digging Solanin at the moment. Very nice pace and tone with great characters, not to mention humor. My Father's Journal is already looking like one of Jiro Taniguchi's better pieces (not to mention one of his most visable emulations of director Yasujiro Ozu). The second short story collection from Yoshihiro Tatsumi should be available within a week, and I'm really looking forward to reading that one.

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:20 pm

1) once every month or so I pick up Anywhere but Here (Miki Tori), flip to a random strip and (sometimes successfully) try and figure out what's going on.

2) A while ago I reread most of Blade of the Immortal to see if I wanted to resume picking up recent issues/volumes. I was really shocked because it used to be one of my favorite comics and now I think it's pretty much the definition of mediocrity and laziness. The art is pretty but nothing groundbreaking. Certainly not enough to save it.

3) On the other hand I think Lupin is worth checking out. I'm not a big fan of the anime but the comic is so much better on account of Monkeypunch's eccentric cartooning (and awesome backgrounds). I don't think it's that funny but don't even really care, the art's so good.

4) I'm reading the volumes of Eden as they come out but so far I'm not sure what I think of it. I should go back and reread Endo's oneshots.

Bookwise, I recently finished Pale Fire (Nabokov), Decline and Fall (Waugh), Foucault's Pendulum (Eco), Jekyl and Hyde, and Alice/Through the Looking Glass. Now I'm into something rather weird and obscure called Mr. P Squiggles Reward by Dennis McCalib.

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:12 pm

Eh, I still think Blade is exellent up until about volume 15 or so (beginning stuff is pretty ho-hum). I mean I still read the prison arc, but it's pretty damn boring. I'm still a huge fan of his characterizations and and suspense storytelling, particuarly in volume 7-9, but the new story is really getting old. I'll definitally stick with it for what comes next (which I've heard is much better) and because of my attachment to the series and the characters, but it has seen better days.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

I'm posting simply to say that Shigurui (as every Japanese manga-blogger can attest to) is made of Win and God, as well as Insanity, Ultra-Violence, Creepy-Looking Male Nudes and Physically/Mentally Handicapped Sword Masters.

Also after actually sitting through all of ep2 of Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi and reading the second volume of the Itoh Inogi manga adaptation I recant my previous statements about it not being very entertaining.

I've also been reading works by Esuno Sakae; the concluded Hanako and The Story-Teller a Boogie Pop-esque mystery/occult title and the ongoing Future Diary, a psychological thriller. Both entertaining. Also been reading Sora no Manimani, a pretty standard (but well-done) highschool semi-romantic comedy, but involving astrology, since I am a sucker for anything that involves outer space (Planetes, Dokyouboshi, Moonlight Mile) or the deep sea (Submarine 707, Blue Submarine 6, the Silent Service).

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 12:10 am

Translate Silent Service! ;] What kind of astrology is involved in that manga? like they go to outer space latter or just watch stars and say how beautiful they are?

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:07 pm

Astrology or astronomy?

And not to be a jackass (well, okay, maybe) but the first time I saw Manimani I simply could not understand what it was doing in Afternoon instead of one of those sappy Media Works moe magazines.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

Astronomy, right.

Also concur on wondering what it was doing in Afternoon, but it does serve as a nice counterbalance to all the weird shit in that magazine.

And plus that magazine is already the size of a full set of Encyclopedia Brittanica, what harm is adding one more title going to do?

myanimelist profile · Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:34 pm

I'd think we want more weird shit actually.

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:28 pm

Yay for weird shit! Though I suppose moe would qualify as "weird shit" for normal people...
I'll also recall the statement I made about The Moment the Cicadas Cry. Loli or not, it's a damn impressive horror story, and I'm not even a fan of the genre. The whole Rashomon-aspect of the series was done very well too, which I never saw coming. Definitally worth watching even if the first ep. is boring as hell. And while it doesn't relate to Japanese censorship, anyone who's familiar with America's (or in this case Canada) ongoing battle against the evils perpitrated by comicbooks needs to watch this 1988 news piece. I wouldn't hesitate to use the term comedy masterpiece when refering to this bit of propaganda. It also features alt. comics pioneer Chester Brown, who against all odds comes of just as creepy and weird as his comics.
On the American published front, everythings pretty much in shit mode at the moment. I'm reading Buddha, which I was too cheap to complete in hardcover, and I'm still waiting on D&Q to publish the new Yoshihiro Tatsumi collection. On the American comics side, the final issue of SOLO (by Brendan McCarthy) was just fucking brilliant. I don't have the energy to write a good description like this man did, but if you have access to a comicbook shop get it.

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:33 pm

Personally I've been dipping a bit into the classics lately, having read about half of Ashita no Joe. I can see why it has the "masterpiece" reputation it does, given the relative sophistication of the characterization and direction in an era when Tezuka's (bless him) cornball cartoony style was the cornerstone of the day. And even though I rarely EVER get truly emotionally invested in fiction these days, I must admit that I got a bit choked up at the huge SPOILER REMOVED part about halfway into the series. (And yes, I know how it ends.)

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

There must be some sort of awesome-sports-manga gene running through the Chiba family: Tetsuya put out Ashita no Joe, and Akio Captain, which are some of the finest classics in their respective genres (boxing and baseball), both of which have produced some great titles.

Oh and to complete my conversion to Suzumiya Haruhi, I have to say that just having watched episode 12 (Live Alive), the central part of the episode, a concert scene, was derived from pure Win and God and the greatest matchup between music and animation in recent memory: the Beck anime had fuck-all on it. Apparently they had 21 genga artists working on that episode, which is like triple~quadruple (at least) the number you would see on an episode of your typical run-of-the-mill anime. The build-up to, and conclusion after, the concert were much more subtle, but impressive nonetheless as well.