The Volume Rating Thread

I can't really see how his involvement will ever turn out to be vital to the core story, and that's why I'm not too hot on these new Chinese characters. Ling is likeable enough, sure, but he's just another character in search of the philosopher's stone at this point. I'm hoping the Chinese/Ranma injection will serve some grand purpose by the end, but I'm not expecting much.

The next few volumes should be good, in any event. Ed meets his father, who seems to be Father - the obvious villain of FMA - and the Ishbal slaughter is finally going to be shown. It's taken forever in the manga for the Ishbal story to enter the main picture.
 
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Train_Man: Volume 1 - 8.5/10

Going into this, I had a feeling I'd like it. When you can relate to the troubles of a character, understand his/her logic and feel how he/she feels then it's near enough a certainty that you'll be able to get something out of a story involving that character.

My main (and really, only) complaint with the story is that, for a story supposedly based on reality, I find it hard to believe it actually happened. If a scruffy looking nerd stood up to a drunk and got the hot woman sitting next to him hit hit by doing so, I can't picture the woman giving the nerdy guy her phone number in reality. Likewise, I find it even more difficult to imagine a hot woman following that up by sending the nerd an expensive gift. These things do not happen to losers.

If the above events had really occurred, the nerd would've got himself knocked out, the women would've laughed and that would've been the end of it. A feeble guy trying to act like an hero always ends in failure.

I also find it hard to picture internet people being quite so nice and helpful. If a thread was really made by a virgin asking for advice, surely the piss would be taken out of him and he'd be called a faggot over and over for not having any balls? Real people are not kind.

My final issue with the believability of the story lies with the leads quick transformation from a guy who couldn't even call a girl to a guy who had no nerves over meeting the same girl in the flesh for a date. If it were real, surely the guy would've been ******** bricks over the thought of actually going on a date with a girl? I mean, he had enough trouble just getting his sentences out over the phone!

...but, ignoring my issues with how real the events depicted in the manga are, the story is very sweet and filled with warmth. As a reader, I found myself cheering for the lead from the start, wanting him to succeed. And, ignoring the events that lead up to the actual date, I found the interaction between "Train_Man" and "Hermes" to be very real and cute.

At first I thought the art would distract me - preventing me from thinking of the "beautiful" woman as..well, beautiful, but I ended up liking it by the end of the volume. The long faced, almost cartoony style seems out of place in an age where realistic artwork is the norm, yet it added to the stories charm if anything, taking nothing away.

Overall, a great first volume. I've ordered the other two volumes and will read them whenever they arrive. Train_Man will most likely get a 9/10 from me by the end.

Asa mo, Hiru mo, Yoru mo - 7-7.5/10

Basically, a Bitter Virgin clone that isn't a clone - it came out long before it. I just think of it as a clone because I read Bitter Virgin first and, quite frankly, Bitter Virgin is far better.

The male lead in Bitter Virgin was gentle. On the other hand, Asa's male lead grabbed a rape victim (he wasn't aware) by the wrists and stuck his tongue down her throat.
I couldn't help but feel sorry for the female lead of Bitter Virgin because of what she had endured. On the other hand, I wasn't sure about Asa's female lead because not much in the way of detail was provided and what happened to her wasn't as horrible.
In Bitter Virgin, the female leads transformation from a girl scared of all males to a girl who didn't judge all males because of one was slow and didn't strike me as being far from reality. On the other hand, Asa's female lead changed too quickly because of how short the story was, making her come across as being somewhat fake.

Etc, etc...

My other, non-Bitter Virgin related issue lies with a 60 page chapter that had nothing to do with the story and was never given a conclusion. At first I thought it was going to be a chapter that showed what happened to the female lead andresulted in her being afraid of males, but that turned out to not be the case. Seriously, it was just plain random.

The series wasn't horrible but I recommend you read Bitter Virgin instead.

Dear Friends - 7.5-8/10

A short, 4 x 60 page story about a bitch who uses everybody changing into a better person after she gets cancer and learns the value of friendship. It wasn't bad, but it failed to get a high score because some of the interactions between the characters seemed forced as a result of the short length.

If you've read Deep Love and liked it, you'll probably like this as well.
 
Aion said:
If a scruffy looking nerd stood up to a drunk and got the hot woman sitting next to him hit hit by doing so, I can't picture the woman giving the nerdy guy her phone number. Likewise, I find it even more difficult to imagine a hot woman following that up by sending the nerd an expensive gift. These things do not happen to losers.
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A couple of points: the woman didn't give Train Man her phone number. She, and several other passengers, took his address at the police station. He got her phone number from the express package she sent. I read somewhere that sending people gifts to thank them is not uncommon in Japan.

I also find it hard to picture internet people being quite so nice and helpful. If a thread was really made by a virgin asking for advice, surely the piss would be taken out of him and he'd be called a faggot over and over for not having any balls? Real people are not kind.
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Heh, that's what I was thinking. But the story was based directly on what was written in the forum thread, so perhaps the Japanese people who frequent forums are polite and helpful and not spiteful ********s like their western counterparts. That guy from Eurogamer must be an exception to the rule...
 
Ah, yes, my mistake - I forgot he got her number when she sent him her number. But, all the same, she wanted his address and then later sent him her number, along with gifts. If anything, that makes it even more difficult to believe.

I didn't get why such a big deal was made over him trying to act manly in the face of an old fart. If all it took to get women was for me to grapple with an old guy, I'd do it.

Eurogamer: Are you referring to me? There isn't any one person on EG who acts like more of a dick than the other posters. /confused
 
She didn't send the number as such; it was listed somewhere on the packaging because she used express delivery to send what was quite an expensive gift. It must be a regulation.

I'm talking about the Japanese chap with whom you had an entertaining barny in the Persona 4 thread.
 
Oh? I was wrong again, then. I must learn to pay better attention and not flick through pages fast when I'm enjoying something... ;___;


Oh (x2), Paragraph Wizard. I hate that guy. I can understand why he has a fanclub - he's intelligent and is from Japan - but he's insulting and bores me to tears.

The funny thing is, I was right about Persona 4 - it is P3.5: Yellow Remix.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I read somewhere that sending people gifts to thank them is not uncommon in Japan.
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True, These are usually unexpensive things most of the time, except if you feel really grateful. You even take gifts when you visit some friend (usually food or drink).

It's also customary to bring small gifts to close friends and family when you go on a trip. Very cheap stuff thougth. And gifts and visits must be returned as well.
 
Bradherley's Coach - 8/10

With the limited amount of 10/10 stories out there, I'm always on the lookout for anything serious and twisted. If there's anything that can get a reaction out if me, it isn't the usual dumb school comedy series, so I go for the opposite.

Bradherley's Coach fits the bill. It's set in Europe in the early 1900's, the country matching best with England. It's about girls from orphanages getting picked to join the opera troupe of one of the most powerful nobles (the forth, to be precise) in existence - Bradherley. The girls view this like we'd see winning the lottery today - jumping from rags to riches. The girls are picked based mainly on their looks.

What the girls don't know is about a plan Bradherley put forward to parliament after something serious occurred at a prison. (There was a riot, the result being a lot of death and injuries.) Seeing his chance in the aftermath, Bradherley suggested taming the wild urges of the inmates serving life at prisons by offering a 'lamb' to counter their violent and lustful needs after a certain amount of months, preventing any further riots by allowing the inmates to give into their urges by offering them one innocent victim who would be sacrificed for the greater good.

The 'lamb' would be tricked into thinking she's being taken to Bradherley's estate in a coach, get taken to a prison instead, then get lead into a room full of 30-60+ inmates and, finally, the prison guards would then watch on as the inmates beat and rape the girl over and over. This would be allowed to continue for as many days as it took for the girls to die.

For handling the payments given to the orphanages for the 'lambs', supplying the girls and basically taking all the risks, Bradherley gained more power within the government and maybe even was allowed to evade paying taxes. There were a lot of benefits balanced against the risks. But, really, what risks were there in allowing inmates who wouldn't ever leave prison to have their way with girls with no family; girls who wouldn't be remembered?

Following the short introduction of a girl leaving her orphanage, blissfully unaware of her fate, the manga started off by showing a fairly graphic rape sequence. It didn't disturb me - I've seen one too many doujins on the internet to be easily disturbed, as well as a fair few other things - but I have read that some of the early parts of the story made some people stop. But, after the opening two chapters, the chapters that followed didn't show that kind of thing quite so graphically, instead mainly focusing on short stories involving different girls outside of the prisons...or, in other words, the events leading up to them becoming 'lambs'. The mangaka showed what happened to the girls in detail at the start in order to get the readers to fully understand what the girls had to endure and then stopped so as to not make the series pornographic. There was even a chapter telling the story from the perspective of a few prisoners; a chapter that was good because it helped me understand how the prisoners handled the situation they found themselves in.

What I loved when reading this series was the art. It was drawn with the intention of being realistic in an attempt to make the events more believable and disturbing, and it worked a treat. I couldn't spot any flaws in the art, either. The mangaka is meant to be pretty famous and, if this effort is anything to go by, I can see why.

Anyway. To sum it up, Bradherley's Coach is an excellent series to read...if you can handle a story that's realistic to the point of being disturbing. It's short enough to read in one go, it only lasting for eight chapters, and the fact that each chapter tells the story of a different girl (or two) keeps it fresh. I had no problems reading it from start to finish. I highly recommend it to lovers of short stories who are either twisted or have strong stomachs.
 
That sounds thoroughly horrible and exploitative. Against my better judgement my download is in progress.

Hiroaki Samura is the mangaka of Blade of the Immortal and Ohikkoshi. And, yes, he's amazing.
 
Just read it on MangaFox, like I did. The scans start out large, meaning you don't have to zoom in contantly like you need to to read scans that you download.

I don't know anything about BotI, but if he created it then I'm interested because of his art alone. One day, I'll look it up on MangaFox.
 
Aion said:
Just read it on MangaFox, like I did. The scans start out large, meaning you don't have to zoom in contantly like you need to to read scans that you download.
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Nah, it's all right. I use IrfanView, which automatically displays the full-size images.
 
Aha! I wasn't aware Irfan had an option for viewing images at full size. I've used it for ages for my screenshot needs and never noticed.


FMA 12

Ever since volume seven, each chapter has seemed like a setup volume for the next. Nothing ever seems to get resolved.

In volume 12, there was a lot of fighting but no deaths. No-one won, no-one lost and the story goes on without any real chaanges of note. It's bugging me how I'm almost expecting nothing shocking to occur at the moment.

Want examples of how the story is dragging on? Scar, who was introduced at the start, is still on the loose. In volume 12 he was allowed to escape AGAIN. And, despite Maes dying near the start, his death still hasn't been avenged...hell, Mustang doesn't even know who killed him! It was only a volume or so ago where the characters sat down to talk about his death some more...

But, despite how the story seems to be aimless right now, I keep wanting more. The lack of any resolution to the various plot threads is what's keeping me wanting to buy more volumes. Maybe that was the intention of the mangaka all along - to start off fast, pulling readers in, and then slowing down to milk it once her fans were hooked. If that was her masterplan, it's worked on me!

Not sure what rating to give - nothing really changed in this volume, so my 9/10 rating for the series as a whole is kind of stuck in place.
 
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I don't know if you're calling them "Chinese" to be deliberately "funny", but I don't see the point.

Plus, what iisan said. They aren't as good immediately as some of the new characters who turn up later on, but they prove their worth as the series continues.
 
I'm calling them Chinese because they dress in Chinese clothes and their country is called "Xing". There's nothing funny about random Chinese people appearing in FMA.
 
Exactly, they're "Xingese". You wouldn't use "Chinese" unless you were trying to make a point, but I don't see what it could be.
 
Let the pedantry contest begin!

"Xing (Chinese: 邢) denotes a Chinese surname"

"Xing: the Chinese word meaning "star" (星)"

;)

In all fairness I think you're kinda blowing this out of proportion ilmaestro - It's not like Aion said anything racist. To call characters Chinese because to all intents and purposes, they seem to be Chinese seems fair enough to me.
 
Train Man vol1 - 10/10
Fantastic. I can't remember the last time I was so throughly entertained.
Thanks for bringing this series to my attention, Aion.
Shame that TBD is out of stock on vol3...
 
ayase said:
Let the pedantry contest begin!

"Xing (Chinese: 邢) denotes a Chinese surname"

"Xing: the Chinese word meaning "star" (星)"

;)

In all fairness I think you're kinda blowing this out of proportion ilmaestro - It's not like Aion said anything racist. To call characters Chinese because to all intents and purposes, they seem to be Chinese seems fair enough to me.
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But you would only do it to make some kind of point, given that they have an explicitly different word that is used in the series. I'm well aware of the existance of "xing" in Chinese, that doesn't really change anything. It's hardly the most insightful thing in the world to point out that they "appear" to be Chinese, so I was wondering what the ulterior motive was.

But yes, I probably blew it out of proportion slightly. Still don't see why it was needed, though.
 
Yubisaki Milk Tea 2 & 3 - 8/10

There be spoilers ahead. If you're reading this series (I doubt anyone is) stop here.

In the first volume our crossdressing freak of a protagonist decided that he was, in fact, a lolicon, choosing his cute, underdeveloped childhood friend over his elegant classmate. This devastated lonely, isolated Classmate, who requested that Crossdresser -- dressed as a girl -- remain her friend. He somewhat reluctantly obliged.

But Loli already knows about crossdresser's gender bending and sees him/her/it together with Classmate, holding hands. She gets upset, so Crossdresser, having vowed never to upset Loli, decides to brutally break all ties with Classmate. Cue more devastation. But this is not the end of it, for when Classmate makes a friend, Crossdresser becomes insanely jealous and wants her back.

In short, this **** is messed up. The protagonist is a complete ****, but at least he recongnizes and acknowledges this fact. It's no work of art, that's for sure, but it has an undeniable soap opera appeal. And there's plenty of fanservice. The art resembles a less refined Ken Akamatsu's, but it does the job and the girls (er, except the loli) are sexy.
 
ilmaestro said:
ayase said:
Let the pedantry contest begin!

"Xing (Chinese: 邢) denotes a Chinese surname"

"Xing: the Chinese word meaning "star" (星)"

;)

In all fairness I think you're kinda blowing this out of proportion ilmaestro - It's not like Aion said anything racist. To call characters Chinese because to all intents and purposes, they seem to be Chinese seems fair enough to me.
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But you would only do it to make some kind of point, given that they have an explicitly different word that is used in the series. I'm well aware of the existance of "xing" in Chinese, that doesn't really change anything. It's hardly the most insightful thing in the world to point out that they "appear" to be Chinese, so I was wondering what the ulterior motive was.

But yes, I probably blew it out of proportion slightly. Still don't see why it was needed, though.
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You aren't Japanese, you aren't Chinese, you aren't asian. Stop acting like I'm being racist by uttering the word "Chinese" when I'm all doing is stating the obvious - that the author was heavily influenced by Chinese culture and copied from it, changing the name of a country from China to Xing since her world isn't real. Lots of people call the Xing characters Chinese.

Blame god for making you a white English person instead of having a go at me over nothing. It isn't my fault you can never be considered a true otaku because of your skin colour, despite you owning more JP DVDs than an average JP.
 
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