The Volume Rating Thread

The mangaka seems to have a thing for incest. At the end of the book there's a side story about one of the main characters when she was 13 or 14.

One day she catches her paedocest freak of a big brother sniffing her uniform. Now, rather than punch him into orbit as you would expect, she calmly wonders if he's in love with her. When he kisses her on the lips while she pretends to be asleep, all bets are off. And, later, after she sees him with a girl, she laments that he never confessed his feelings, as -- in her own words -- she "wouldn't have rejected him"

omgwtf indeed
 
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Strawberry Marshmallow 1 - 8/10

Confused the hell out of me to begin with. So the initial colour pages (which western publishers are always too cheap to print) were clearly written after the first few chapters, where several main characters look completely different. Once I'd addressed the problem of why there seemed to be two of Chika and no Miu, and Nobue had shrunk and become blonde I could start to enjoy it.

And it is (as I expected from the anime) a nice enough, slightly cutesy slice of life comedy. Far less abstract than Azumanga, but a little more anarchic than Yotsuba (perhaps due to the oldest main character only being 16) it occupies a pleasant middle ground between calming and comedic slice of life stories which I'd recommend to any Azuma fan.

Finally though, a word about the font Tokyopop have used. It's terrible. It's a mixture of lowercase and capital letters in a jumbled, childish style which doesn't make it easy to read especially when tired. Even the hateful Comic Sans would have been preferred over this.
 
Read Great Teacher Onizuka Vol.1 last night and thought it was really funny. There are already quite a few good characters. A little more ecchi than i realised but it kinda adds to the shows humour. 8/10
 
Shakey said:
Read Great Teacher Onizuka Vol.1 last night and thought it was really funny. There are already quite a few good characters. A little more ecchi than i realised but it kinda adds to the shows humour. 8/10
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You should read Sayonara Zetsubou sensei then its much better
come come to my side!!!!!


IT IS Inevitable!!!!
 
Reading Rosario + Vampire.
Harem Shounen with a supernatural twist. I'm loving it so far, but I have only finished V3. I have a few more to go through yet...
 
Yubisaki Milk Tea 6 & 7 - 8/10

In volume 6, the main character fondles loli crotch and, dressed as girl, kisses his (male) best friend. He also, in a glorious double-page spread, sucks on his hot sister's nipple. Oh, and he decides that he's more in love with himself as a female than either of the two (three if you include his sister) girls in his life. What more needs to be said? I got nothing.

By the seventh volume he seems to have sorted himself out and made a decision about which girl he wants, but he's still having problems saying goodbye to his female persona. Aside from some loli lesbian near-sex and more sibling tongue tennis, this volume was remarkably tame. Damn. It's just as well, then, that a further ten chapters have been fan translated and are available online. Woo!
 
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^ from the title I was thinking it would be a very innocent (or pseudo innocent full of loli) series. Not sure what to think of it...
 
I'm not going to do a review proper because it already has a (16/16) review on MAL and I'm feeling lazy. Sorry!

Lament of the Lamb - 7-8/10

LotL is a gradual descent into the darkness of the mind. There are very few main characters, and most spend the majority of the series brooding. It's a compelling read because of the gloomy sense of hopelessness the series has. The cast reflect the situation by very rarely smiling. It's depressing to read, certainly, yet I always found myself wanting see what was around the corner, despite the often sluggish pacing.

Reading it, I couldn't help but be sucked in. When I first received the first five volumes way back, I started reading the opening volume at around 1 AM and stayed up until 6-7 AM to read through all I had. That's how much it absorbed me; pulled me into its bleak world.

The most fascinating aspect is, without a shadow of a doubt, the relationship shared between Chizuna and Kazuna; the brother and sister of a cursed 'vampire' lineage. They grew up not knowing each other, Chizuna suffering from her need to suck the blood of others from childhood, living off her father, and Kazuna living a relatively normal life. However, Kazuna's life all changes when he starts lusting for the blood of others and, after going back to his old family home, runs into his long lost sister. They start living together shortly after this - Kazuna seeing his mother in Chizuna and Chizuna seeing her father in Kazuna. Chizuna is best described as twisted, having had a love-hate relationship with her father because, after her mother's death, he started seeing her as the replacement for her mother due to her resembling her, and she depended on him for blood. With Kazuna in the picture and her father dead, the roles are reversed - he takes blood from her - but he still fulfills the role of being the replacement for her father, him resembling their father. It's hard to get a firm grasp on their relationship - they aren't brother and sister in actions, as them kissing highlights, but they also are not lovers.

What ultimately let the story down was its lethargic pacing and 180 ending. In the sixth volume in particular, too much time was spent on needless subplots. One subplot involved a character trying to uncover the truth behind the suicide of Chizuna and Kazuna's father, going over old ground and then vanishing. Although it did open the path to the big twist of the series, far too much time was spent with the 'camera' on this mostly pointless character. As for the ending, it came close to ruining the entire story; ending on an illogical high after all looked lost at the end of the next to final chapter. In short, if the story had been 'tighter' and chapter 47 hadn't occurred, it would've been a far more enjoyable story to read.

Worth reading? Yes - it's different enough to be worth the time of most - but it's far from perfectly executed.
 
Onani Master Kurosawa: 9/10

While Onani starts out purely as a Death Note parody about masturbation, complete with Light's 'Just as planned!' faces and in-depth planning, it quickly takes a turn for the serious, delving into anti-social behavior, bullying, first loves and, basically, school life in general. Think of it as a realistic school slice-of-life (with masturbation in the girls’ toilet!) about Light, without Death Notes and his popularity, and you wouldn't be far wrong.

NHK deals with many similar issues, such as not making friends out of fear of rejection and hiding away from the world. There's even a 'contract' with a weird girl in both, though what the contracts involve differ greatly. Both are very hard-hitting if you can relate to the struggles and emotions of the series’ respective leads. The only real difference is that, where as there's a good balance between comedy and drama in the case of NHK, the two often being blended together, in the case of Onani it's more along the lines of the story getting progressively darker as it goes on.

I hope Onani gets released in English at some point since I want to own it. But, until then, I recommend everybody ignores the title, as well as their initial impressions and reads it. By the end, you'll more than likely love it, and like me, add to your top manga list. I know I couldn’t stop reading it once I got into it.
 
I can wholeheartedly agree with the positive review of OMK. This is probably the most surprisingly outstanding manga you will ever read, and one of the most genuinely emotional. It also has an all-time level plot twist and tremendous denouement.

I'm not aware that the manga has even been physically published in Japanese, though, as opposed to on the web. The (also initially published on the web, for free) novel it's based on has recently been physically published under the (brilliant) title "Catcher in the Toilet", but I couldn't see that getting an official translation.
 
By "all-time" level plot twist, are you referring to...

The twist when Kurosawa discovered Takigawa had a boyfriend, after she had previously lead him on? If so, I saw it coming the moment Kitahara told him pain would be coming his way.

At first I thought Kurosawa and Takigawa were going to get together at the end. She seemed to be going out of her way to talk to him and Kurosawa got to the point where he wandered aimlessly in the hope of finding her. She even asked him to go the movies with her and revealed stuff about herself to him that she said she'd never told a guy before.

It was the ultimate sucker punch when she turned up at school together with the afro guy, and even I felt it. It was hard not to pity him as he tried to keep going, ignoring his feelings... only to end up seeking revenge.

On reflection, he never had a chance with her, as his 'dream' where he screwed a lifeless version of her highlighted. She desired someone happy and friendly, and all he - at that stage anyway - had to offer was masturbation and books. But it still wasn't right how she did things that would lead any guy to get the wrong idea, only to go in the opposite direction.

On the plus side, at least his actions towards her, after seeing a painting of hers, resulted in him becoming a better person. I found it hard to swallow that anyone in his position would bounce back from that AND have the mental strength required to deal with being abused by his entire class for months, but I still had to respect him for his balls.

The conclusion was excellent, I agree. He'd become a totally different, far more social person. And, as a result, he even managed to get it on with a girl he once 'pranked'; a girl who'd had him beat up. The change in her character, as well as his, showed how much people can change with time.

I could relate to the lead very easily. The way he looked down on others, ignoring his own flaws and thinking to himself, "How easily amused these simpletons are, going about their lives without thought. They annoy me." - It reminded me of both Light and, to a lesser extent, myself. I guess it's easy judging others and a lot more difficult to judge yourself and change...

...Anyway, yes, it surprised me. When you start reading and see the lead 'squirting his hot man juice all over the wall', you don't expect it to become a gripping, top tier psychological drama. It's a must read.
 
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Yes, that's the plot twist I was talking about.

I had an inkling that was what was going on, but not so much from Kitahara's comments in the toilet - at that stage I just thought she'd gone so freaky yandere that she was actually going to kill him - more from the fact that I thought the only reason she would wish harm on Takigawa was if she was going out with a boy she (Kitahara) liked.

Since I wasn't sure this was Kurosawa himself, although he was the only super obvious candidate we had, once Kurosawa met Takigawa outside the cram school and she said she would tell him something tomorrow, I was a bit worried for him. That it turned out to be freakin' ota-king himself was the real turn of the knife! Then when you go back and look, it's totally plausible.

But yeah, I felt sick to my stomach for Kurosawa after that, he was probably even more convinced than us readers that Takigawa was into him.
 
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ilmaestro said:
Yes, that's the plot twist I was talking about.

I had an inkling that was what was going on, but not so much from Kitahara's comments in the toilet - at that stage I just thought she'd gone so freaky yandere that she was actually going to kill him - more from the fact that I thought the only reason she would wish harm on Takigawa was if she was going out with a boy she (Kitahara) liked.

Since I wasn't sure this was Kurosawa himself, although he was the only super obvious candidate we had, once Kurosawa met Takigawa outside the cram school and she said she would tell him something tomorrow, I was a bit worried for him. That it turned out to be freakin' ota-king himself was the real turn of the knife! Then when you go back and look, it's totally plausible.

But yeah, I felt sick to my stomach for Kurosawa after that, he was probably even more convinced than us readers that Takigawa was into him.
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Now that I think about it, I lied - I only became certain of what was to come at the same point you did; when he caught her outside of cram school. When Kitahara first warned Kurosawa in the toilet, I thought she was getting jealous because she liked him.

It's plausible, yes - the afro guy had been spending a lot of time with Takigawa at cram school, and they clicked because of their positive, happy personalities. But, still, going Takigawa's previous interactions with Kurosawa, where she'd almost aggressively hunted him down, it seemed so... unnatural for her to have no interest in him. She gave out all the wrong signals... I mean, he even talked of finding her soulmate, making it sound like she was talking about him!

I almost wish they had just got together and that was that. If Kurosawa had started coming out of his shell, I think they would've made a good couple. There wasn't enough development time given to his proper first relationship, it kind of being chucked on at the end... not that it was bad.

I don't dislike Takigawa, but at one point - because of her likeable personality - I was thinking of adding her to my MAL favourite character list. But, in the end, I added Kurosawa because of him having balls of steel; courage I wouldn't have had in his situation.
 
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Btw, since you're a 'true white otaku', can you recommend any similar psychological dramas - the NHK/Onani type that I can relate to?
 
Aion said:
I don't dislike Takigawa, but at one point - because of her likeable personality - I was thinking of adding her to my MAL favourite character list. But, in the end, I added Kurosawa because of him having balls of steel; courage I wouldn't have had in his situation.
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Yeah, I mean, I'd **** Takigawa all day, every day, forwards backwards and upside down, but she drops a lot in my estimation as a likable character with the way she leads Kurosawa on, intentional or otherwise. Kurosawa is a very a-typical character in many ways, which helps, and does have some truly redeeming features - if I had anything like a MAL favorite characters list I'm sure he'd be on there.

I can't think of anything else similar off the top of my head, but this could be because I'm stuck wondering how to take "true white otaku" ^^; I guess you might want to check out the first four episodes of Aoi Bungaku, which are the adaptation of Ningen Shikkaku/No Longer Human, the lead character has some common traits with Kurosawa, maybe, but it's a very different, and indeed very much darker work.
 
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