D'awwwwwwwwwww. That's just an adorable picture. I love Apollo/Midnighter. It's just... nice to see a gay couple that actually, y'know, are a couple and do couple stuff over a period of time rather than... I dunno, whatever Northstar is doing ("I'm gayyyy and I must adopt an AIDS baby and various other things that make a political statement and are pertinent to Today's Issues but not actually have a meaningful relationship that is not constantly interrupted by brainwashing or robot zombies or something!"). They kind of get together and stay together. Well, in the comics I read.

I understand in Midnighter's comic, they have him running off to Afghanistan or something and referring to Apollo as his "wife" (haha, it's cool because women are stupid and inferior and steal our precious bodily fluids and the purity of our essence and also Midnighter's not really gay!). I am going to pretend that NEVER HAPPENED. IT NEVER HAPPENED.

I've been thinking about the differences between comics and manga for a while now and I still don't feel like I've gotten a bead on what exactly it is that makes so many attempts at combining the two into such huge, colossal failures. That's why you will now be subjected to a TL;DR post about my thoughts on yaoi manga. My opinions should be taken with a grain of salt, as I have read tons of manga and watched tons of anime, but I've consumed relatively little in the way of comics. OTOH, I hear and see way more from people who are exactly the other way around, so maybe it'll still be valuable.
( Read more... )
P.S. Japan really does have meat-flavored snacks. MEAT.

I demand that those assholes on 495 stop clogging up the highway for no damn reason at all. Because I want to shoot things. With bullets >:(

aslfjsldfj.

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SNK isn't like that manga with the -longs (I have already forgotten the name; I just remember there were a bunch of characters named Bailong and such) because at least that manga was so horrible it was unintentionally hilarious. There was uke whining, there was splooge, there were extremely improbable fight scenes and spears that could penetrate magic bulletproof vests! This manga is just... god. GOD. WHY. There's just... WHY.

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GOKUDERA IS NOT AMUSED

So I finally read about a volume of Deadman Wonderland.

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The first half of Biomega is what might happen if you took Junji Ito and then gave him focus. Like, usually, Ito kind of does short stories that explore one extremely weird idea (HEY GUYS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU HAD LIKE 29834792734 PINTS OF OIL IN YOUR BODY?) and then moves on, and even his Tomie series is really a series of loosely connected one-shots. So the main purpose of any one manga is to be as bizarre as possible.

Biomega is bizarre, but in a tightly controlled sort of way. In the first half. In the second half... DUDE I DON'T EVEN KNOW.
( Read more... )
I am now up to Chapter 30 or so. Do I like Biomega? Yes. Do I have any idea what's going on? NO.

ETA: The ending is really, really weird and sudden. But at least it's a happy ending?

( I just had what might have been my weirdest, most awkward conversation with anyone in... well, probably at least a year. )

P.S. I feel I should state for the record: telling someone you're an anime fan and then saying you like, say, Akira, is kind of like telling someone you're an avid reader and then citing your Harry Potter collection as an example. Everyone has watched/heard of anime like Akira, so it's a good bet they don't really know what they're talking about. Or have been living under a rock. Or both!

I'm sure there's good, compelling American manga out there, but it is not Incarnate. Ohh, a group of undying immortals who someone's killing off? Why, that doesn't sound like Highlander or Baccano or American Gods or anything! At least it's got good art, right?

...Oh, the art styles's ripped off of Tite Kubo, with pages cribbed right from Bleach?

Brb, lolling forever.

P.S. If I can somehow get my hands on a copy, I would like to post and mock it. That's a big "if".

You know what to expect from an Urasawa Naoki manga, right? Shadowy, poorly defined menaces, Arc Phrases, vast conspiracies? Well, that's exactly what 20th Century Boys delivers on. Well, that and GIANT ROBOTS.

Also: I briefly flipped through Ultimo, which is the Takei Hiroyuki - Stan Lee combination manga about... um. A good robot and an evil robot and they fight. I'm simplifying here; I think they're karakuri ningyou or something, and Ultimo is the good one and Vice is the bad one and they're destined to fight and also learn about humanity.

I liked Shaman King and everything, but uh. Vice appears to be Ren with his yandere turned to MAX and Ultimo is basically a super-bishie sparkle Lyzerg. And... why the hell would you spend your time making super-powerful robots that exemplify good and evil? I mean, wouldn't you at least TRY to make good robots and then they end up turning evil? Like, even if you want to see if good or evil prevailed, why would you give them enough power to destroy Japan? Couldn't you just make a good stag beetle and an evil stag beetle and have a beetle throwdown? And if your purpose was to see if good or evil won, why would you make more than two robots, anyway?

This has to be the most pointless eventual showdown in history (AND IS BASICALLY HAO VS YOH ANYWAY WTF).

Also, the robots all need human masters and it turns out there are more robots out there with various human masters who fight the main character.

Wow, that sounds kind of fami--

WELCOME

TO

SHAMAN KING

2.0

!!!!111one!

I'm not even kidding.

This looks like a promising horror manga. Plus it's drawn by Nangoku Banana, and I like her.

Also, if you like shoujo, there's a cute story about a witch in Sleeping Prince. I almost never read shoujo, so it's a huge coincidence I came across it at all >.>

I got the first book of 20th Century Boys, another Urasawa Naoki about a group of kids whose secret society (1967) is somehow connected to a cult in the present (1997). Unfortunately, they've all but forgotten what it was the society was about, and what they promised each other they'd do when they became adults...

Since I have lost at least one pound and I'm planning to buy a volume of Pluto for every such pound shed, let me tell you that Urasawa Naoki is one of my favoritest manga authors evar. He's responsible for a number of titles, but I've only read Monster and Pluto, and they were both woooonderful.

I love the way the characters look so distinct and I love the nameless vague foreboding and GODDAMMIT STOP MAKING ME CARE ABOUT YOUR ROBOTS, IT'S ALL GOING TO END IN TEARS.

Pluto is a retelling of one of Tezuka Osamu's Astro Boy stories, The Greatest Robot on Earth. The main character, Gesicht, is a police detective trying to crack the mystery behind an unusual and disturbing set of murders that have been cropping up lately. First Montblanc, a Swiss robot known for his love of nature and his tireless work rescuing people lost in the mountains, and then a famous robot rights activist are brutally killed, with no real evidence left on the scene except the use of nearby objects to create the image of horns protruding from the victims' heads.

In Volume 1, we get an introduction to the murders, as well as Brando, a famous robot prize fighter; North No. 2, a weapon used to destroy countless fellow robots during a previous war; and Brau 1589, the only robot ever to take the life of a human being, who now resides behind a secured barricade, cackling about the humans who want to turn him into scrap but are unwilling to destroy him until they can figure out what went wrong with his AI.

I like everything about this series, including its sympathetic treatment of robots, the suspense, the awesome backgrounds, how it is sometimes about the actual murders but mostly about what it means to be human, and everything everything everything :D.

THANK you. I hope some assholes listen to you. Lordy, I remember reading in a freakin' FATAL FRAME forum that the characters didn't "look Asian" and therefore in any resultant movie, they should be played by white actors.

ARRRGH I HATE EVERYTHING.

Here, have a history of the Wilhelm Scream.

Have you read BLAME!, the caraaaazy cyberpunk manga with cyborgs and lost technology and gravity gun explosions?

There is a spinoff series called BLAME! Academy, which takes place in a high school. So, basically, there are massive energy discharges, beheadings, and spider-legged headbots everywhere. It's.... DELIGHTFULLY TRIPPY.

Day 3: I'M GETTING IT, DOOD

Seriously, I'm starting to understand this game! HURRAH. I wish you didn't have to have all these pupils just to learn skills, though. It's like some sort of horrific Bernie Madoff pyramid scheme where sure, you can learn all those nifty skills just as soon as you level your pupils. What, now that your pupils are a high enough level, you want them to have nice skills, too? I'VE GOT BAD NEWS FOR YOU, DOOD.

I still can't believe you need different sexes within a single class to unlock different classes. Blerg.

Also, rewatching the X Files.

Monica Reyes really gets on my nerves. I thought John Doggett would be the more annoying replacement goldfish since he's so ridiculously skeptical, but no. Reyes is missing something and I'm not sure exactly what it is. Mulder had crackpot theories, he ran off to pursue angles based on nothing more than a hunch, and oftentimes admitted he had no real reason to think the killer was a giant fluke man. Which is pretty much consistent with Reyes.

Maybe it's their delivery styles. Mulder knows what he's talking about sounds ludicrous and David Duchovny has the deadpan snarker thing down. Reyes... doesn't sell it, maybe. Why does she believe in everything (and I mean everything)? How come no one treats her like the bureau pariah, even though she's spouting the same things as Mulder? Shouldn't she be doing crazy shit in her free time, like seeing if she can lodge a critical mass of pencils into the ceiling? Why does she always act like she's half asleep? Argh.

And on a completely different note, WTF is this. Holy crap.

Want to make your kids vegetarian (and also scar them for life)? Why not make them read Bio Meat?

This manga is about humanity's latest invention: a genetically engineered creature called Bio-Meat (or B-M) that voraciously eats pretty much anything but glass and metal, multiplies every 25 minutes into 10-15 more creatures when provided with food, and is apparently very tasty when eaten regardless of the fact that their mouths take up ALMOST THEIR ENTIRE UNDERBELLIES JESUS. They're handy because they eat trash, though they also kinda sorta eat people, too.

This sounds like the worst invention ever. Apparently, though, it's a necessity for some reason that's never fully explained. I guess people have some sort of food shortage, or something's wrong with the ecosystem?

At any rate, the bio-meat creatures escape containment several times (along with their American counterparts, the U.S. B-M) and end up finally eating 90% of the people in Japan. Everyone abandons the mainland in favor of setting up a dystopian paradise on Kyushu, and for some reason, all the other countries start making deals with Japan to buy the bio-meat and OH GOD YOU DO NOT WANT TO LOOK AT THESE THINGS. I mean, it's an entertaining manga, but... it's kind of like watching headless armadillos with mouth-stomachs and insect feelers eat people, and when they multiply, their little back plates erupt off into more headless armadillos. Guh.

The U.S. bio-meat is this sort of Lovecraftian horror of whiplike fleshy tentacles around a center of at least three rows of chomping molars. Honestly, it's a little like that squid with human teeth.

I mean, why do have to multiply so fast? Why do they eat LIVING THINGS? What moron was in charge of gengineering these things? And how how how could anyone eat them D:

I know zombie comics are supposed to be full of morons (The Walking Dead, anyone?), but that still doesn't help me cope with the throbbing headache of rage when I read one. And yet, I'm unable to look away from the train wreck. Usually, I can justify the stupidity by telling myself, "Well, maybe they live under a rock. Maybe they've never seen a zombie movie."

The protagonists of High School of the Dead have all seen zombie movies. It's by a hentai artist, apparently, so that should tell you about how trailblazing the plot is going to be.

( Why do you do this to yourself? )
I can only imagine the kind of issues the author has.

Also: There is no way I would ever eat Bio-Meat. Jesus. They're like sentient abs, but with lizard legs and leech heads and they open up and it's like VAGINA DENTATA WITH A SIDE OF COCKROACH. How could... guh... D:

While looking for somewhere to read Kurosagi Delivery Service, I discovered another manga which is actually fairly entertaining called Kurosagi. In this case "sagi" refers to a con man or swindler. There are three types of sagi:

Shirosagi: ordinary con men who prey on normal people
Akasagi: criminals who use the opposite sex and emotions to prey on people
Kurosagi: criminals who prey on other sagi.

Guess which type the main character is? Kurosaki (ha ha :P) was once the victim of shirosagi activity. Specifically, they swindled his father out of so much money, the elder Kurosaki tried to kill his family and then himself. Only the eldest son survived, and now he goes around cheating the pants off of shirosagi.

I don't know much of anything about Japanese law and even less about promissory notes and stolen cars, but it's a pretty entertaining read, you get to see smug snakes have all their finances wiped out, and I like Kurosaki a lot. He's a baby-faced little brat :).

There's also apparently a j-drama starring Yamapi, and a movie, but I haven't seen them yet.

TWENTY MONTHS?! Ace's mother carried him for over 1.5 YEARS?! Jesus H. Christ on a pony, how the hell did she manage that?

Things That Did Not Surprise Me When I Learned They Were True in One Piece
* were-reindeer exist
* so do whales as big as an island
* you can fly to the moon on an airship, and it's called Fairy Vearth

Things That Completely Blew My Mind When I Learned They Were True in One Piece
* it's possible for a woman to be pregnant for twenty months without having a psychotic break and embarking on a crazed killing spree to summon Meteor

...and also maybe the part after that, wtf monkey balls is going on?

Wait, a theory. There was a reason he needed to be in there that long. HE NEEDED TIME TO FULLY DEVELOP HIS ABS. I mean, check it out for yourself. Those are God's own abs, dammit. You could wash clothes on those abs. You could make rubbing impressions on those abs. You could block a needle umbrella with those abs (as demonstrated by Neuro), lulz.

In conclusion, abs.

NOOOOES NOT SHIN. HE CAN'T BE DAMAGED, NOT WHEN THIS IS the first chapter in which I ever remember him breaking his standard >:( expression (usually accompanied by his trademark pose, which I like to refer to as Trident Proctology Exam). And love for Mizumachi. That man has BRASS BALLS, I tell you ♥.

Eyeshield, you know how to pull all my strings like some sort of horrible geeky meat-puppet. And, uh, Bleach, are you going to be done out-XXXTREEME-ing yourself any time soon? Cause your drawings are really cool and all, but like 90% of you is either "ZOMG TRAINING" or "I'm not left-handed". Srsly, stop plz, unless you want to steal the title of Most Dragonball from Naruto.

And Naruto, uh... WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH THIS?! The hell?