posted
It's supposedly growing by leaps and bounds, but I really haven't warmed up to it. I've bought maybe 15 different volumes, most of them leave me cold. The ones I've liked - such as "What's Michael" or "President of Japan" - have been further removed from what I'd call the basic manga style. I still haven't even read the Sandman/Death manga book that came out last summer; Death just doesn't look like Death to me in a flouncy skirt and big innocent eyes.
One of the books - Planètes - had the inscriptions "100% authentic manga" and "Real Manga" on some of its ads, so is there phony manga?
posted
I'm slowly turning into a manga fan after being converted into an anime fan by my husband.
He's reading "Planetes" and likes it a lot. I think what they mean by "100% authentic manga" is that it reads the traditional way, from right to left. Dark Horse especially (I LOVE What's Michael) will make it so it reads like a western comic book and reverse the plates for printing.
I'm reading "Fake," about gay cops in New York. And "Fruits Basket," which is what one of my favorite anime series is based on, starts coming out this month. The one thing I don't like about a lot of manga is how crappy the art looks. It's such a big business in Japan, a lot of the art seems very rushed and low on detail. There are some notable exceptions ("What's Michael," for instance), but that's what's kept me from jumping in whole hog.
-------------------- Geek Watch
From: Standing beside you in Ferndale, MI | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
"What's Michael" is very cute. One of my favorite manga series is "Mai, the Psychic Girl." "2001 Nights," which is a sci-fi anthology that has a very realistic feel, is another favorite of mine.
quote:Originally posted by Suddenly Seymour: I'm reading "Fake," about gay cops in New York.
How interesting! One wonders how much a (likely straight) Japanese manga writer really knows about what it's like to be a gay police officer in an American city.
[ February 03, 2004, 08:51 PM: Message edited by: Stu ]
Registered: Jul 2003
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It's a very romanticized version. Nobody seems to care at all, which is nice. There might be an off-handed comment here or there, but mostly, it's a straight-forward (so to speak) romantic comedy cop story where one guy (Dee) is pursuing another (Ryo) who isn't sure of his feelings and is unintentionally a bit of a tease. Then there's JJ, who's constantly throwing himself at Dee, and a new chiefish type (I forget the title) who has the hots for Ryo. Throw in a couple cute teenagers, and it's a fun story.
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From: Standing beside you in Ferndale, MI | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I like manga pretty well. Having trouble keeping up with some of it as its coming out too fast [I've lost track of Blade of the Immortal, Aqua Knight, Oh My Goddess and Ranma 1/2]. I've been trying to get all of Lupin III and Cyborg 009, and Leiji Matsumoto's Galaxy Express 999 is one of the best comics out there, IMO [I rank Matsumoto with Alan Moore and Alejandro Jodorowsky as the best writers int he medium at the moment.]
Registered: Oct 2003
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I also really like Oh My Goddess (Btw, Amentep, maybe if you just bought the collections, rather than the individual issues, you might have an easier time of it. Just a thought... )
Matsumoto's great, I wish I could get English language versions of his Yamato stuff, as Star Blazers is my all-time favorite anime.
-------------------- "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
From: Outpost Gallifrey | Registered: Dec 2003
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My favorite manga/anime convention -- the giant, stylized drop of sweat that appears on a character's head to indicate "chagrin" or any number of similar emotions...
Registered: Jul 2003
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I think it's funny that whenever a character is thinking perverted thoughts, they get a nosebleed! LOL
-------------------- "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
From: Outpost Gallifrey | Registered: Dec 2003
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Depending on how and how often it's uses, I'm often a fan of characters going all chibi (turning into freaky little kid versions) on you. It can be really funny. I think it usually works better as a visual effect in anime, though.
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From: Standing beside you in Ferndale, MI | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I was a big fan of manga like "Akira", "Appleseed", "Grey", "Xenon", "Crying Freeman", "Lone Wolf & Cub" and "Fist of the North Star" back in the '80's but don't really read much of it anymore. I almost never like how its been interpreted by american artists because they never seem to get it quite right (it takes more than just big eyes and girls in sailor suits).
From: New York, NY | Registered: Jul 2003
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I'm a big fan of manga. Some of my favorites are CLAMP School Defenders Duklyon, Naruto, Shadow Lady, Shaman King, Demon Diary, & Gon (a great wordless manga about a small dinosaur). I like what I've seen of What's Michael but I havn't been able to find it anywhere. I even have a full collection of Sailor Moon manga.
posted
I like manga, too, particularly shoujo manga. I'm reading two series right now.
Bride of Deimos a horror anthology from the seventies that revolves around a demon who falls in love with a girl his sister, Venus, wants to possess. (The sister has been turned into a rotting corpse and wants the girl because she's a kind of reincarnation of Venus.)
Les Bijoux about the child of a dwarf and a hunchback who's destined to overthrow an opressive regime. Or something like that. The catch is the child (teenager, actually) changes from male to female at random intervals. Kind of like Ranma 1/2 only serious.
-------------------- arachne3003.deviantart.com Current Obsession: Birds of Prey/Secret Six
From: Canada | Registered: Jul 2003
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If anyone's interested, there's a half-page article on shojo manga in the 2/16 issue of TIME MAGAZINE, page 97. It mentions Death (and contains artwork of the title character), as well as others.
Manga is doing so well that DC is planning to launch a manga imprint called CMX this year, according to the article.
As for me, I read single issues of Lone Wolf & Cub and Mai: The Psychic Girl back in the '80s, but neither grabbed me. I did enjoy They Were Eleven, a four-issue series in the mid-90s, though it was rather sexist.
-------------------- The Semi-Great Gildersleeve - writing, super-heroes, and this 'n' that
From: The Stasis Zone | Registered: Jul 2003
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I saw a tiny bit about CMX. Will it be original, western-made mango, or are they licensing stuff from Japan? The little I found about it didn't say.
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From: Standing beside you in Ferndale, MI | Registered: Aug 2003
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