cyphomandra (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cyphomandra) wrote2007-08-20 10:20 pm
cyphomandra) wrote2007-08-20 10:20 pm
Entry tags:
Assorted manga
I am feverish (a well-timed cold) and irritable and surrounded by notecards, with another six days of studying to go. At least shifting to notecards has done away with some of the low level confusion that results from picking up multudinous pieces of paper with tiny handwriting all over them and then squinting at them to work out if they’re vitally important topics or episode notes for Fullmetal Alchemist (I was about to write that fortunately I am unlikely to be examined on the creation of chimeras, thus making it easier to sort notes, but technically this is not entirely true). So. I am also behind by about 6 weeks on this booklog and scheduling a small break. Brief manga notes:
Death Note 4. Liked it a lot. Misa extremely annoying character who propels the plot so successfully in so many differently twisty ways that I ended up liking her in spite of both of us. I really like watching characters competently attempt to enforce their clashing agendas (oh man, there has to be a better way to say that, but it currently escapes me) and then react to various mutual thwartings. Anyway. It left me wondering where the hell they were going to go to next…
Death Note 5. And, while unexpected, this was also really not good. Light wiping out his own memories takes a lot of the tension out of it (okay, so I have faith that he still has a nefarious plan, but this Light is just not as horribly fascinating) and then the entire mad energy of the preceding volumes came to a screeching halt with a plot about Matsuda (most annoying and ineffectual police officer ever) and, god, eight corrupt businessmen? Introduced in a two page spread with details of all their hobbies etc? Arrgh. Volume 6 not currently in stock, anyway, so at least I feel little remorse at having to wait.
Hikaru no Go. V1-16 in scanlations and 2, 3, and 5 in hard copy, and this is really just a place-holder for a series I'm really enjoying. I’ve had the first 4 volumes for well over a year and couldn’t get into them, partly because I was trying to read them in multiple oddly-sized individual windows on Preview and also because for the first volume Hikaru is an annoying brat and Sai is whiny. I feel madly guilty typing that now, because now I love the series, but it is how I felt for at least volume 1 and I feel obliged to encourage others to keep going. What it develops into is much more interesting, and I am now hopelessly fond of most of the characters and the story. I also find reading stuff with multiple tense examination/big game sequences in it helps me study, not least when I feel appalled by how much more committed fictional characters are and go and do some work.
A tiny rant about translation in the hard copies - I dislike, intensely, that they have futzed with the names and taken out all the honorifics. I have a tenuous grasp on these at the best of times and am just starting to work them out, and I need them for other manga. Having everybody charging around all cheerfully unhonorific’d and suddenly having all (some? just confused myself again checking) the names reversed (Kimihiro for Tsutsui and Yuki for Mitani are throwing me most at the moment, and as there’s a bit where Tsutsui calls Mitani by his own name I guess they’re a bit confused as well) is not helpful. I will keep buying the hard copies (am somewhat guilty about scanlations but didn’t realise hard copies only up to v10 until I got to Kinokuniya and well, it’s not like I’m stopping now) but will call everybody by the right name in my head. There is also some creative and inconsistent editing about whether school kids are smoking or chewing gum or setting off fire-crackers, which leads to the ridiculous accusation that Kaga put out his gum on a Go board, and the general toning down of profanity (either that or all the unofficial translators beef it up and, man, I can see where this all ends).
Gokusen, v1 and 2, scanlations from here. Rookie teacher at tough school establishes bonds with difficult kids while covering up the fact that she is the heir to the Oedo yakuza family. While I like the art, series is not grabbing me as have law-abiding character issues (no mafia, no pirates, outlaws only if Robin Hoodish and am negotiable on con people) and also slightly unnerved by teacher-student relationship issues; prob won’t keep going. Has left me with desire to re-read Bel Kaufmann’s The Down Staircase, which I like a lot, and which shows how much teachers can fail to connect with students as well as how much they can do for them.
Death Note 4. Liked it a lot. Misa extremely annoying character who propels the plot so successfully in so many differently twisty ways that I ended up liking her in spite of both of us. I really like watching characters competently attempt to enforce their clashing agendas (oh man, there has to be a better way to say that, but it currently escapes me) and then react to various mutual thwartings. Anyway. It left me wondering where the hell they were going to go to next…
Death Note 5. And, while unexpected, this was also really not good. Light wiping out his own memories takes a lot of the tension out of it (okay, so I have faith that he still has a nefarious plan, but this Light is just not as horribly fascinating) and then the entire mad energy of the preceding volumes came to a screeching halt with a plot about Matsuda (most annoying and ineffectual police officer ever) and, god, eight corrupt businessmen? Introduced in a two page spread with details of all their hobbies etc? Arrgh. Volume 6 not currently in stock, anyway, so at least I feel little remorse at having to wait.
Hikaru no Go. V1-16 in scanlations and 2, 3, and 5 in hard copy, and this is really just a place-holder for a series I'm really enjoying. I’ve had the first 4 volumes for well over a year and couldn’t get into them, partly because I was trying to read them in multiple oddly-sized individual windows on Preview and also because for the first volume Hikaru is an annoying brat and Sai is whiny. I feel madly guilty typing that now, because now I love the series, but it is how I felt for at least volume 1 and I feel obliged to encourage others to keep going. What it develops into is much more interesting, and I am now hopelessly fond of most of the characters and the story. I also find reading stuff with multiple tense examination/big game sequences in it helps me study, not least when I feel appalled by how much more committed fictional characters are and go and do some work.
A tiny rant about translation in the hard copies - I dislike, intensely, that they have futzed with the names and taken out all the honorifics. I have a tenuous grasp on these at the best of times and am just starting to work them out, and I need them for other manga. Having everybody charging around all cheerfully unhonorific’d and suddenly having all (some? just confused myself again checking) the names reversed (Kimihiro for Tsutsui and Yuki for Mitani are throwing me most at the moment, and as there’s a bit where Tsutsui calls Mitani by his own name I guess they’re a bit confused as well) is not helpful. I will keep buying the hard copies (am somewhat guilty about scanlations but didn’t realise hard copies only up to v10 until I got to Kinokuniya and well, it’s not like I’m stopping now) but will call everybody by the right name in my head. There is also some creative and inconsistent editing about whether school kids are smoking or chewing gum or setting off fire-crackers, which leads to the ridiculous accusation that Kaga put out his gum on a Go board, and the general toning down of profanity (either that or all the unofficial translators beef it up and, man, I can see where this all ends).
Gokusen, v1 and 2, scanlations from here. Rookie teacher at tough school establishes bonds with difficult kids while covering up the fact that she is the heir to the Oedo yakuza family. While I like the art, series is not grabbing me as have law-abiding character issues (no mafia, no pirates, outlaws only if Robin Hoodish and am negotiable on con people) and also slightly unnerved by teacher-student relationship issues; prob won’t keep going. Has left me with desire to re-read Bel Kaufmann’s The Down Staircase, which I like a lot, and which shows how much teachers can fail to connect with students as well as how much they can do for them.