What manga are you reading now?

Aion said:
You got excited over the first volume, when it only starts to get really good from episode five onwards?

The anime goes bad towards the end - the last two episodes - because Madhouse went for a filler ending. There are supposed to be other changes Madhouse made before the ending but Madhouse were very faithful up until the seventh volume at least.

I'm going to start reading volume seven just now. Once I get to volume ten I'll decide if I should order 13-14.
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Yep, up to the fourth eps it's pretty generic, but then enters the Teresa arc.
After the second episode of her arc, I was hooked already. Her death left me heart broken, I was expecting something different, such as she becoming the main villain of the series or something like that.

Anyway, I'm really glad I postponed dispatching my review copies for review. Ben must be cursing me though =P
 
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chaos said:
Yep, up to the fourth eps it's pretty generic, but then enters the Teresa arc.
After the second episode of her arc, I was hooked already. Her death left me heart broken, I was expecting something different, such as she becoming the main villain of the series or something like that.

Anyway, I'm really glad I postponed dispatching my review copies for review. Ben must be cursing me though =P
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Oh, you got a copy of the R2 version of the first volume early. I thought you were referring to the single disc R1 first volume. Since you've already seen the Teresa arc in full, I can fully understand you being able to get into it.

It must be nice to own a website and get free review copies because of ownership (and it's good you've gotten a review copy - it means the release date isn't going to be pushed back again.) Did you have to contact/beg Manga or had Paul already set up a relationship with Manga prior to handing the wheel over to you?

As for Teresa...

It's too bad she couldn't play a larger role in the series, her being the best character in it and all. But, if she had played a larger role, it probably would've gotten dull seeing her own everything over and over. Instead of that, she went out of the picture when she was still amazing and will remain as a great character in my memory.


Anyway. I've read volumes 7-10 since last posting. I'm getting a little tired of seeing nothing other than fighting and very, very little story progression. The sound effects make it worse, with 'DO GA GA GA GA' constantly appearing and me having no idea what that's supposed to sound like other than baby talk. It wasn't so bad in the anime because of the wonder of motion, as well as colour and sound.

I know two things about Claymore I didn't before reading the manga:

1: The first ten volumes are near enough identical to the anime. I expected to see a ton of changes going on some of what was said when the anime aired, but I'm now at the point where the anime diverged and there have only been one or two new scenes.

2: When I watched the anime, I thought the usage of the 'Quick Sword' skill was a way for Madhouse to save money because they were running out. However, it turns out that the author used the skill exactly like it was used in the anime It really sucks when you have to accept that an arm is moving faster than the eye can see - it makes it difficult to follow the action on black and white pages.

I'll re-read volume ten and then move onto the last two volumes I own later today. I'll then have to wait for sloooow TBD.
 
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Aion said:
It must be nice to own a website and get free review copies because of ownership (and it's good you've gotten a review copy - it means the release date isn't going to be pushed back again.) Did you have to contact/beg Manga or had Paul already set up a relationship with Manga prior to handing the wheel over to you?
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It's good when it's not bad, if you know what I mean :p
Paul introduced me to the PR person of most anime companies in UK, but gettting review copies and freebies to give away involves a lot of begging, imploring and threatening. There's a certain manga company that ignores us altogether.

Aion said:
As for Teresa...
It's too bad she couldn't play a larger role in the series, her being the best character in it and all. But, if she had played a larger role, it probably would've gotten dull seeing her own everything over and over. Instead of that, she went out of the picture when she was still amazing and will remain as a great character in my memory.
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Now that you mention, she did left the series in place where you can think of her as the greatest character in the whole series. Her character development in these few episodes were really well done.

I won't comment on the rest of the manga until I manage to get it and read, but I'm really looking forward to it.
 
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I've now managed to read through all twelve volumes of Claymore. It's going to be awhile before I can read any further because TBD still haven't sent my FMA order, let alone my order for volumes 13-14 of Claymore. Slow bastards.

I'm starting to lose interest in Claymore, anyway. It started out average, became godly once the flashback arc started, stayed at around the same level for a lengthy period because of the introduction of awakened being 'boss' fights and some likeable characters...and then it started to all get a bit boring. It's now at the point where the story isn't really advancing at all, the fights aren't as entertaining as they once were because awakened beings are now old news (it was once something to kill one, now it's awesome to kill 10) and most Claymore skills have been used before and new characters are getting thrown into the mix for the hell of it. There just doesn't seem to be anything other than 'boss' fights at the moment.

The mangaka has tried to mix things up a bit by throwing in a time skip - a tried and tested method of refreshing an aging story - but sod all has changed because Claymores don't age physically once they reach a certain level of maturity. I don't think the mangaka has a bunny he can pull out of the hat to make Claymore become awesome again. I think he/she is going to try by throwing in random Teresa cameos and short stories involving her, but that just shows desperation in all honesty.

Unless it returns to being awesome somehow in the next few volumes, I think it's good the anime ended when it did. Like Teresa did, it's better to end on a high. I'll still follow the manga regardless now that I own so many volumes, though - I want to see it through to the end.
 
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Since TBD STILL haven't sent my FMA books, or my last two Claymore books, I decided to go back to the Suikoden III manga due to my now owning 7-11 volumes and me only having read 4/7 previously.

Re-reading the first volume has made me regret not picking up the full series when Amazon were selling it for cheap even more. Without a doubt, it's the best video game adaptation ever. It manages to remain as a very good story without any of the gameplay elements, which is more difficult than you'd because because the removal of gameplay and leaving only the story sections leaves many holes that need to be filled with new dialogue or, depending on the situation, new scenes altogether. The manga author clearly has talent, drawing lovely character art and adding some nice extra character development by doing things such as showing how Huge met and befriended Fubar.

I don't really want to pay £5.50+ per book for the remaing four when I've ordered so much recently. ;____;
 
Read volume 3 of Astro Boy over the past few days. "The Greatest Robot on Earth" was one of the stories in the volume (the other being the much shorter 'Mad Machine'). The former is probably most famous as the story that inspired Naoki Urasawa's 'Pluto'. I enjoyed it, but it is very childish and it's starting to grate. The first story was exceptionally long (about 200 pages) and that really drags it out a bit. I prefer the shorter Astro Boy stories :]
 
Just finished Vampire Knight 6, really enjoying this series and its a nice change from the shonen titles i usually go for.
 
I've just finished reading the whole of Battle Royale.

I then re-watched the film and I would say I much prefer the Manga due to the backstory parts for nearly every character which made them much more rounded characters which gave you an understanding into their motives, very similar to watching the backstory stuff in the early series of Lost.
 
Ditchdigger said:
I've just finished reading the whole of Battle Royale.
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I must look into this at some point. :)

I'm up to chapter 25 of "Satan 666". I'm finding the story rather average. If it doesn't pickup shortly, I'm afraid I mite be dropping it, and I hate dropping things.
 
After failing to get into the first of my nine Saiyuki volumes because of various reasons (including it having average art, a lack of fluidity between panels during action sequences and seemingly very dull story), I've turned to Ai Yori Aoshi, which I own 10/17 volumes of.

The first volume was pretty good. The backgrounds are poor, often just being plain white with the characters on top, but the character art is very pleasing on the eye. And the story, despite being a bit too distant from reality for my tastes, it coming down to a woman lusting after a man she knew as a child and wishing to serve/marry him, has made for enjoyable reading up this point. My only concern is that a story that could've ended at the end of the first volume will get tedious quickly, but I'm fairly confident it won't bore me.

The bonus point of Ai Yori Aoshi is that there's full boob nudity, nipples and all. Very well drawn, too, if I might add. I think the boob factor is the only reason it was serialized in the same mag as Berserk. :D
 
Wait, don't you seem to be enjoying this for the same reasons you were ragging on DearS? Apart from your now obligatory "acceptable reality" related comedy.
 
ilmaestro said:
Wait, don't you seem to be enjoying this for the same reasons you were ragging on DearS? Apart from your now obligatory "acceptable reality" related comedy.
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Aion said:
The bonus point of Ai Yori Aoshi is that there's full boob nudity, nipples and all. Very well drawn, too, if I might add. I think the boob factor is the only reason it was serialized in the same mag as Berserk. :D
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DearS does not have much of this. Ai Yori Aoshi characters are much prettier in my opinion.

But I see your point ilmaestro.

I also own the Ai Yori Aoshi manga and wanted to get the anime version of it.
 
iisan said:
I've always wanted to read battle royale. It's definately worth checking out then?
Might just pick up volume 1 next time I order some manga.
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Yeah it's definitely worth checking out. They've just recently brought out an Ultimate Edition which is 5 hardback volumes with 3 volumes of the paperbacks in each which works out cheaper than buying all the paperbacks.
 
Ditchdigger said:
iisan said:
I've always wanted to read battle royale. It's definately worth checking out then?
Might just pick up volume 1 next time I order some manga.
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Yeah it's definitely worth checking out. They've just recently brought out an Ultimate Edition which is 5 hardback volumes with 3 volumes of the paperbacks in each which works out cheaper than buying all the paperbacks.
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It is also worth looking at the book. I have seen the Ultimate Edition about and I am going to get them once I have caught up with some other manga.
 
Reading Tsubasa Chronicle at the moment. Very underwhelmed, but there's something oddly endearing about it that makes me want to finish the 3 volumes I've got (halfway through the second volume at the moment).
 
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