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Manga Discussion/News Thread |OT5| We Post on Wednesdays
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Putting my take on Freezing aside, you know the rest is true. I'll take a manga with lots of deficiencies over the next cardboard cut-out I pull from jump. So many series are also getting tired and should be re-tired. Magico is one off the top of my head that is just skipping on water. Beelzebub needs a serious kick in the ass. Cage of Eden has been rolling bullshit and they need to stop playing character shuffle. Don't even get me started on RtV2. HSDK...not going there either. Then you have the big 3 camping the perpetual safety net. At least Negima is dead.
We need more FMA, Chrno Crusade, FMP, even Kekkaishi. Mangaka should just start from scratch.
I have an idea.
Not get pissed and say "I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable with me helping that other girl. I have her contact and if it is OK with you, I'll help her out. It is also OK if you come with."
Instead "Shut up, you don't know shit. I didn't help her cause...OMG shut up. I'm so mad at you, a girl who probably hasn't said a mean thing in her life."
But saving your friends or righteous heroes aren't inherently bad concepts in a manga. FMA had all the things you were complaining about but it was a top tier shounen battle manga. It's all about execution, pacing your manga appropriately, and delving into dark themes without failing spectacularly.
FMA was about family firstmost, not friends. There were also a lot of battles with inner demons and surrealism. In fact, often it was about leaving friends behind to pursue your dreams. It did not batter the concept and wrap the entire narrative around it. Often characters were selfish, misguided, and flawed. Many concepts were dark and unnerving. It wasn't even just about the great execution and pacing. So many themes were explored outside what you see in most running action shounen. There were a lot of layers compared to the flatness I currently read.
FMA is on a whole different level compared to the examples I cited.
Blue Exorcist also had shit about brothers and inner demons and what not and it ended up looking silly compared to FMA. I'm not denying that FMA did a lot of things differently than your run of the mill battle shounen manga, but Arakawa is a god tier writer which is why they all worked perfectly.
gundamkyoukai
Member
Your joking FMA was about family yes but friends also play a huge part in every arc , hell the last arc is everyone coming together to beat the bad guy .
You said it was often about leaving your friends behind and that hardly happen in the manga at all until the end.
FMA was everything you normally see in some Shonen family , friends , never giving up , doing things your way etc etc but its so good because Arakawa is a great writer more than anything else.
Not read Blue Exorcist in a while but it was mostly good from where i left off.
Last chapter i read one of the brothers get lock up, has gotten that bad since then ?
gundamkyoukai
Member
Well it was also cancel so who knows how it would have end up .
Not sure about god-tier, but Arakawa had a good sense of pacing, wasn't a shit writer, and knew where she wanted to go & how she wanted to end it, which all meant that as far as shonen manga goes it was brilliant.
Really, it's always execution. Think about what JoJo handled by Mashitma would be like.
Really, it's always execution. Think about what JoJo handled by Mashitma would be like.
gundamkyoukai
Member
EDIT I figure out who you mean .
I'm talking overall. The dynamics and relationship between Rin and Yukio aren't as good as Ed and Al
gundamkyoukai
Member
Dedication Through Light
Member
gundamkyoukai
Member
You were expecting more people to get kill ?
It was the other way around for me after
Hughes's death
Killing off to much characters and most people end up not caring anymore .
When it comes to kicking ass Roy was the star of FMA when the manga end he was broken lol.
Crash Station
Member
Crimson Grave vol 1
I like this. Fun fantasy world starring an atoner demon guy and an uber-powerful girl with a red double-bladed sword. Has potential.
I like this. Fun fantasy world starring an atoner demon guy and an uber-powerful girl with a red double-bladed sword. Has potential.
I would take any regular shounen shit over Kekkaishi any day of the week. Manga suffered from the worst pacing I have ever experienced from a weekly and the setting was stale as fuck, it was basically Kagami Harisugawa before that even came out.
Also if most weekly manga had even a fraction of the humour in Beelzebub, I wouldn't even be complaining.
I thought we could be friend... but now I'm no longer sure.
Ugh...I hope this doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the scene when I watch it in English in a few months.
I'm black and I always thought it was just a fun, goofy scene. :/
The entire story had Ed/Al leaving behind Winry and Pinako to pursue their path. It was an event paralleling Hohenheim which contradicts the hate directed toward him from Ed. There were also occasions where they had to morally balance Winry's safety against their current actions. So the concept of leaving your friends behind was central to the plot.
It certainly wasn't a great manga but it was at least different. I enjoyed the misdirection and the story around Chushinmaru. Flawed but fresh. And that follows my point how that is better then a more polished generic shounen that feels like a rehash.
Gintama. And I want more out of Beelzebub then jokes at this point. The battles, if you can call them that, have been terrible. Gintama is the master of mixing together action and humor. Beelzebub isn't doing well with the former.
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I also don't buy the "execution only" comments. I just believe that is flat out wrong. A lot of writing, meaning original ideas, comes from within themes. Having multiple intertwined concepts regarding the power of friendship is expanding your writing. That's not necessarily executing better then other manga who do not intertwine their concepts and just push out generic crap. OMG we are friends, so we are super power when we yell each other's names. Guh.
A series like FMA shares many themes with the mangaverse but uses them where others don't. And Arakawa does of course execute them properly. My favorite part of FMA is Hohenheim, his back-story, and the parallel I spoke of with Ed. While there were definite let-downs with the ending regarding him, his back-story and conflicts with his family were great. Most shounen are lucky to even catch a whiff of all the dynamics there. Is the trickery, past coming back to haunt him, genocide, son following in the father's footsteps, mysterious travels, family abandonment, etc... all about execution? I don't think so and that's just one piece of the narrative.
I'm still not quite sure how Kekkaishi was 35 volumes long. I liked everything about Kekkaishi except for how much it felt like it was being dragged out. Which is weird, really, as there really was a lot of stuff to actually get through but it always felt like it was something to slog through.
It doesn't bother me at all if the theme is overused or what the theme is. What gets done with it will ultimately matter a lot more than the theme employed itself. I can't think of a single time where the themes used were what got to me rather than what was actually going on.
I'm fine with the standard "hard work, friendship, victory" jumpology (which btw gunbo you could've just said this instead of a paragraph) but themes are still sort of a thing, even if their importance varies by the reader.
As in, uh, let's say we have two series with equal execution and one has better theme.. you get what I mean. I've already exhausted my annual literature energy with this post.
As in, uh, let's say we have two series with equal execution and one has better theme.. you get what I mean. I've already exhausted my annual literature energy with this post.
IM Dal-Young is one the world producers of brain poison, random forced drama and shock value is all his got.
gundamkyoukai
Member
I don't call seeing somebody many times over the course of the manga leaving them behind .
Also they did not have to morally balance anything when it comes to Winry Ed and Al was as good as you can get .
Often an underlying theme is pretty much an idea of what is going on. Using what I mentioned, Hohenheim traveling would be what is going on. There's a lot of mystery and fun when the story turns that way. However, that's the theme of abandonment. It could have been wrapped up with say, he is doing all this as he made a promise to a dying friend. Or it could be as simple as a revenge justification. Those are generic and what most manga pull out of their hats. Instead, we are given a unique fleshed out back-story. The themes in this one are betrayal, story origin, haunting past, regret, etc... On the surface you could call that narrative expansion "what is going on." But that label is the same as one would apply to the boring promise to a dying friend or the revenge route. It's just that in FMA what is going on has a bunch of themed layers that not only entertain but are absolutely integral to the plot.
Sometimes it is fun to just tune out and read. That's where my shitty romcoms come into play. But battle shounen for me at least is different. The lack of a work that stands above the pack just annoys me. Just one is enough.
That's your interpretation I guess. But I still saw it as a prominent part of the story. This was especially tense when Winry was with Kimblee.
Retcon:
I enjoy peace.
Relaxed Muscle
Member
The drama is not that bad on freezing, except the whole brother rapist-sadist thing which was so badly handled that I can't understand how the editor allowed such thing.
The action and combat sucks though. That's why is a bad action shounen:
"Accel!!"
"Sorry but I have....double accel!"
"AGHHHH...*hack MC power activated* triple accel!"
Kono S o, Mi yo! 1-67
At first I was like
But then I was like
Best series I've picked up for a while. The premise is ridiculous and it's a borderline h-series, but it just made me laugh too damn much.
Oh, the funny smut series that becomes a very awful romance drama shit mid way.
A Huge Battleship
Member
Kono S o, Mi yo! 1-67
At first I was like
But then I was like
Best series I've picked up for a while. The premise is ridiculous and it's a borderline h-series, but it just made me laugh too damn much.
At first I was like
But then I was like
Best series I've picked up for a while. The premise is ridiculous and it's a borderline h-series, but it just made me laugh too damn much.
The latest chapter made me almost say "fucking finally" outloud
Kono S o, Mi yo! was once great but for while now the pacing has gone to shit and it it refuses to go anywhere, only taking cheap micro steps to keep readers reading.
It was once it's own thing but now it's taking the route to become like those other shitty romance manga that have nothing left but just refuses to end.
anyway I really like the reaction shots I wish the mangka would stop trying to stretch it and end it and make something else.
It was once it's own thing but now it's taking the route to become like those other shitty romance manga that have nothing left but just refuses to end.
anyway I really like the reaction shots I wish the mangka would stop trying to stretch it and end it and make something else.
Well it's not like Kekkaishi is universally hated or anything. I remember alot of people enjoying it after it was finished and flawfuls liked it to. Personally I couldn't stand it, and I didn't just "try" it, followed that shit for a good while. I'm not really one that believes in something that is different is inherently better than something that is tried and true.
Edit: I actually went out of my way advising against it, but people liked it after that. So in case anyone finds my hatred towards Kekkaishi offputting, try it for yourself first. If you have similar taste to my own, avoid it like the plague.
Also Gintama isn't "most of the other weeklies" it's the exception not the norm. (Is not following Gintama, don't hurt me)
For me it felt like the characters took to long to develop and the status quo was just too bland. My comparison to Harisugawa earlier is that, for the most part they are isolated in that one area which prevents them from exploring and that in itself hurts by limiting the scope of the story, for me anyways. Yoshimori's and Tokine's relationship not budging at all didn't help it at all. Masamori was probably the most interesting character.
I feel like I'm missing something here, since everyone including the boys are cute in Idol Pretender.
gundamkyoukai
Member
The ending was also really weak and the pacing made it worst .
It's not something i would ever read over to tell the truth .
Dedication Through Light
Member
Well one new manga joins Shonen Jump Alpha
Guess it will be my first encounter with Rurouni Kenshin franchise.
Guess it will be my first encounter with Rurouni Kenshin franchise.
you havent read kenshin? not interested?
Dedication Through Light
Member
Hadnt heard much about it, apart from major series thats currently running, I havent read many series that were before I was in manga (2009). Is it worth reading? Looking for other complete series to read once I finish Air Gear and Flame of Recca on my backlog.
gundamkyoukai
Member
Kenshin is good IMO you should give it a read .
I just sorry that this new manga look like it going to be worthless and the new anime is fucking trash , it destroys one of the best arcs in the manga .
Vampire On Titus
Member
People actually like Freezing? Read a couple chapters until I couldn't take the boredom and pandering anymore. I checked back months later and there was some weird rape thing going on. I'm not sure of the context since I wasn't keeping up with the story, but something tells me that amidst all the ridiculousl busts and grating fan-service, Freezing didn't find the time to handle something like that with appropriate taste.
Freezing is a mess.
Freezing is a mess.
ugh, pick something else from the regular lineup.
my nakama
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Why is it that it is so difficult for me to jump into anime? Hmmmmmm. I can read manga for hours but when it comes to anime.... I just get bored easily even if the anime is about the manga that I can read for hours! Hahaha.
Hopefully I am not the only odd one about this thing.
And about Freezing.... it seems like I am just going to skip it. I just read some chapters but I don't like the art or the story enough for me to tolerate its fanservice-ness.
Oh, and by the way, who amongst you guys are enlisted among "Can't stand Fairy Tail" club? I can't be the only one!
Hopefully I am not the only odd one about this thing.
And about Freezing.... it seems like I am just going to skip it. I just read some chapters but I don't like the art or the story enough for me to tolerate its fanservice-ness.
Oh, and by the way, who amongst you guys are enlisted among "Can't stand Fairy Tail" club? I can't be the only one!
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