What manga are you reading now?

The Five Star Stories - Volume 1

Read the first book a few years ago, now that I have all of the volumes I have decided to start back at the beginning. I find the world building and the detail in TFSS is truly amazing and I love poring over the artwork.
 
Dominion - Masamune Shirow

Oh my God, it's taking aaaaaaaaaaaages to read. A one-volume novel packed with action and sassy jokes, but the scatty nature of the plot actually makes it slower to digest. It's been three months minimum now and I'm only on page 77 of 200+.

I read one page and I'm already tired of trying to figure out which explosive movement is related to which. Character designs are cute, the comic vignettes are cute too, but I'm finding it very hard to care about the protagonists (Leona's sole defining feature, for instance, is that she likes her tank a little too much). Nor am I that interested in their job; I swear to this point, nothing has been established as being at stake yet. It's just one random police adventure after another with brief spells of 'something more important going on here'.

I feel so bad. So utterly dirty, like I failed at something important. But seriously, I'm not connecting with Shirow's work here.

EDIT:... on second thought, the comedy is not bad at all! One gag had me guffawing for a whole two pages, and one quaint references has police officers in the background going: 'Hey! You finish rounding up those comics reviewers?' Shirow means me! ^_^ In fact, the best comedy happens in the background details, which is unusual.
 
Hrm. I certainly found it an easier read than that, but I think it's probably another case of Shirow the ideas man being more successful than Shirow the storyteller. The story I've always heard is that Dominion was what he wrote on his off days - something daft he could potter with away from the more serious Appleseed. At any rate, I don't think Dark Horse's decision to print the newer release at a smaller size than the old one helps the intricately detailed artwork either.

As a matter of curiosity, have you seen the first oav series? It won't change the episodic nature of the story, but I think the oavs do help considerably to put it in context.
 
Professor Irony said:
Hrm. I certainly found it an easier read than that, but I think it's probably another case of Shirow the ideas man being more successful than Shirow the storyteller. The story I've always heard is that Dominion was what he wrote on his off days - something daft he could potter with away from the more serious Appleseed. At any rate, I don't think Dark Horse's decision to print the newer release at a smaller size than the old one helps the intricately detailed artwork either.

As a matter of curiosity, have you seen the first oav series? It won't change the episodic nature of the story, but I think the oavs do help considerably to put it in context.
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I think much of the problem is simply my out-of-sync expectations. I will admit to knowing nothing about Shirow's work before picking it up, except that he's the progenitor of all things Ghost in the Shell and that this was a historically significant work. (I'm sort of in my 'check out the masters of manga' phase, hence Tezuka, Uresawa, and Umezu being my current reads). I braced myself for something sobering, hard, gritty, slick as ****, and... well, Dominion is not?

Shirow is a man of immense detail but also boundless whimsy. So one page is the eye's equivalent of a tongue-twister. I can't take the images and the dialogue in all at once, which makes for slow reading. Still, since I started connecting with the jokes last night, I'm appreciating his work in a more analytical sense, even if the story and characters aren't my bag. The guy's just... wanting to have fun. And I can't begrudge him that.

Oh, and no, I haven't seen the OVAs. How available are they to buy?
 
Yeah, I think Dominion is definitely far more whimsical than Shirow's other work. It's a real shame that he doesn't give the world he's established any more serious exploration either - it's full of weird little details that really take the imagination.

Aside from the strange, organic buildings, one thing that I'd completely forgotten about until I dug out my copy the other night was the sand-ocean. It's such a throwaway idea and Shirow never explains it in any more detail, but the sea is full of sand! They have submarines that go into the dunes - how cool is that? I kind of wondered if it shares any vague continuity with the post-apocalyptic setting of Appleseed, but sadly I can't find the little Appleseed data book I swear I still have someplace.

The UK release for the first oavs is still easy enough to pick up, although I'm not sure if it has the Japanese audio or not (possibly not). The dub is quite decent though.

Uh, do be aware of a little bawdy humour in the first half though. I often describe it to people as 'Blade Runner with knob gags'...
 
The original Patlabor OVA is long out of print and in high demand. I've been after a copy myself for ages but no dice. But if you're willing to pay... O_O

Alternatively you can try the TV series, an expanded retelling. The sets are available cheap at SecondSpin.

(EDIT: I realise you're probably after Dominion and not Patlabor, but I recommend the latter if you want a futuristic police comedy/drama as it's a zillion times the show the former is.)
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
(EDIT: I realise you're probably after Dominion and not Patlabor, but I recommend the latter if you want a futuristic police comedy/drama as it's a zillion times the show the former is.)
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I demand satisfaction, sir! Well, not really - that is kinda true, but I don't think it's a fair comparison.

The above link is still good if you go through marketplace, but see also here for the second half: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dominion-Tank-P ... 670&sr=8-1
 
Read all of King of Thorn the other day, I enjoyed the animated movie immensely and figured I'd read the manga since it was short. It started off pretty well, nearly non-stop action with some intense moments of survival, but as it went along this came to a hault and we got the story for what went down. Once that happened it got less engaging and had me going "What the ****" several times, a lot of people say the movie is worse and while it didn't include the entire history and tried to explain it partially I think it's better without all the bloated nonsense about Alice and such.

The only thing I can honestly say I enjoyed more in the manga is the reason Katherine is so protective of Tim with her motherly nature & her past with her son. The manga also had some stupid **** like the Furries near the end and Marco ******* DIES then comes back like two chapters later. ****. THAT.

But yeah, I'd probably give it a 7/10, enjoyable enough but around chapter 20 the series starts to lose its luster and main appeal. If you stuck with the race against time survival horror elements it would have easily been a 9/10.
 
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I have just finished volume one of Barefoot Gen, really interesting and really engrossing! I've just received the next two volumes which I'm taking on holiday to read, looking forward to them!
 
Read a few one shot manga's recently, although all of them are guilty of the "THE MOST AMAZING GUY EVER!!" overhyping everything about everyone, i actually thought they where good stories.
 
Just finished Bakuman. vol 5. I have a new second favourite character :D

It's strange how enjoyable this series is to read.

R
 
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