FINALLY SOME ANSWERS!!!! Well, sorta XD It wouldn't be DGM if they spelled it all out helpfully for you
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/lol.gif)
GeneD wrote:I'm kinda struggling with Fruits Basket though, it's one of the series I've always heard good things about, basically since becoming an anime/manga fan, but idk, I'm just not getting into it. Maybe it's too shoujo for me. I'd be happy to hear anything in "defence" of it, I know it's a favourite for a lot of people.
KazeShiki wrote:Well Sengoku Youko ended . . .
TheChocolateGamer wrote:Started reading Koe no Katachi (Silent Voice)
Rusty Claymore wrote:TheChocolateGamer wrote:Started reading Koe no Katachi (Silent Voice)
Get your Heart Trauma Repair Kit ready. It's worth it.
the_wolfs_howl wrote:Hoshi no Samidare chapter 22
AHHHHH TOO MANY KNIGHTS!
artisticDreamer wrote:Read up to PandoraHearts vol. 16. Will probably be getting the next two in the mail today.
How can there be so many plot twists in one series? This should be illegal.
I love it.
Kaori wrote:... This is a sci-fi seinen and a 2009 Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence Prize winner, so why nobody has translated it yet is beyond me. It’s about a group of people called Karma, who inhabit two neighboring planets, and presumably also about the Imuri, who lost a war to the Karma a few hundred years ago and whose existence is pretty mysterious so far. Also, people have an ability called sairin, which is mind-control that allows you to do stuff like compel people to give truthful answers when you question them or even temporarily control their actions. (The main character’s dad routinely uses this technique to question him . . . talk about a domineering parent!)
In the first few chapters we’re gradually introduced to the world and its concepts as Dulk goes through his everyday life as a new candidate, which is a pretty effective way of introducing the reader to the society and the mind-control abilities of the sci-fi world by showing concepts in action rather than info-dumping. However, those first few chapters are sort of like being pulled up the first hill of a roller coaster, and in the second half of the volume we go down that first big hill and through the first loop. In other words, things really take off. ...
The main character is a generally nice and unassuming guy, although he started out as comfortably oblivious to the evils of his society which were constantly going on around him; the scholar Rald is interesting in a “I want to know what this guy is scheming” sort of way but not at all personable; and it looks like the manga is shaping up to largely be about power struggles between people, maybe even extending to dramatic political upheaval having to do with clashes between the governments of the two planets. Pretty excited to read more of this.
Kaori wrote:Imuri vv. 4-5
There are currently 16 volumes out, and the manga is still ongoing, so I am not very far into the story, but so far this manga is incredibly intense, excellently paced, has great world-building, and has fantastically good psychological realism in its characters.
In many ways the story feels like a political thriller because there is just so much going on in these volumes with the turmoil between the two main political groups. But it's also a SF story with its own kind of special ability, sort of like a magical/psychic ability but with a concept and mechanism that are unique to this author rather than just being stereotypical magic. And in addition to all of the political and military things going on in the plot, there is also a great deal that is being gradually revealed to the reader about this special ability, and the way that different people groups have different techniques that they use, and also about the society and the world of the story in general. But this information is revealed in a very natural way, usually as the main character discovers and learns things, so it never seems like the author is just dumping information on us, but it is integrated very smoothly and skillfully into the story.
I also want to touch on the characterization because it's fantastic. This manga successfully does something that I feel like almost every manga tries to do but fails--and that is to make the reader sympathize (and even empathize) with a villain. Now, there are two groups of people that have power in this manga, and both of them mostly have leaders that use extremely unsavory tactics and are really Not Nice People, so one can't say there is a good side and a bad side, but I am designating this character as a villain because he is on the opposite side of the conflict from the protagonist. He, like almost everyone else in power on either side, is a rather bad person and uses a lot of dirty tactics, and one really cannot like him. But the mangaka does an extremely skillful job of showing the reader some of the things that he sees and experiences in a way that makes you feel sympathetic pain and anger for the evil that is done to him, and there's also a portion of the story where you see what is going on from his perspective and see the way that as he decisively tries to take actions to save himself and his men his every step is thwarted and he is headed off by the enemy, and mangaka's techniques very effectively make that reader experience his feelings of desperation and frustration. One also sees and comes to appreciate his ability as a military commander. But none of that makes you like him as a person--he is still a vain, short-tempered, nasty person, and none of those faults are glossed over. So unlike every other manga, where the trend is to portray a villain as being a horrible, unsympathetic person, then show the reader that they have some awful sob story of a background, then pretend that all their faults and the wrongs they have done don't exist and they're a nice person now, this manga actually makes you see things from the villain's perspective and feel the things that he feels as he is experiencing the events of the story, but it does not in the least gloss over the flawed and evil aspects of him as a person. I was extremely impressed by how well that was handled.
The other characters are also handled very realistically, though I won't dwell on them at length; we see a wide range of reactions to some extreme circumstances, but each character responds in a way that is very realistic and believable based on who they are and what their background is. I should also put in a few words about the visual aspect of the story, because things like facial expressions, line of vision (both the reader's and sometimes the characters'), and visual pacing are used sometimes to great effect.
The ending of v. 5 was truly powerful, and I will just leave it at that, because it's impossible to say much of anything about what is going on in the story without spoilers. But this is a manga that is almost impossible to put down, it is just that good, and someone needs to translate it already so the non-Japanese-speaking world can appreciate it for the exceptionally well-crafted piece of work that it (so far) is.
maybe even extending to dramatic political upheaval having to do with clashes between the governments of the two planets
artisticDreamer wrote:Bunny Drop vols 1-9
Why did I do this to myself. Why couldn't I have just stopped reading this. Why???
The first chapter’s floating cows were so amusing that I laughed really hard; the hollow planet with the holes in its outer layer was charmingly quaint.
The second chapter was more elegiac and poetic, commenting on the brevity of human life, speculating about the eventual death of the universe, and giving more hints that immortality might not be everything that Tetsurou expects it to be.
There are enough hints about the larger overarching plot that is slowly going to unfold to keep me more than satisfied; in the meantime, this manga is really all about the journey—and with so many weird planets to explore, the journey is definitely enjoyable. [. . .] A quest for immortality, quaint (and occasionally pulpy) sci-fi, sinister hints, flying trains . . . what more can one ask for?
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