What Are You Reading?

Started by Dr. Insomniac, December 27, 2010, 04:55:59 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Markness

I never knew about Ashita no Joe until I joined this forum. Is that a bad thing?  ???

As far as sports manga go, I've only read All Rounder Meguru, Teppu, and Toppu GP. The first and last are because I love the respective mangakas (Hiroki Endo and K?suke Fujishima) of those mangas and Teppu looked interesting; it was also completely scanned and short. I'd love to read Rising Impact since Nakaba Suzuki drew it but no one seems interested in translating the rest of it.

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

Quote from: Markness on May 22, 2017, 02:05:24 PMI never knew about Ashita no Joe until I joined this forum. Is that a bad thing?  ???

It's an iconic and historically significant manga in Japan, both as a Shonen sports series and just in general. But it's pretty obscure in the West, and has never been officially licensed over here, so it's not surprising that you haven't heard of it.

Most English-speaking anime and manga fans mostly only seem to recognize the name by it being referenced in other popular anime and manga series, like Bakuman, 20th Century Boys, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

Markness

Unfortunately where I live (Central Texas Bible Belt), it's rare to encounter anyone who doesn't think all anime and manga is just Dragon Ball; usually just the Z anime and nothing more. It gets really annoying when I try to bring up something else and all I get for the most part is "Huh? I never heard of that." as an automatic response. These people don't even acknowledge Akira Toriyama as a mangaka, they just think "Yah! DBZ fucking rocks!" and it makes us level headed anime/manga fans look bad. Sure, every now and then I'll encounter someone who likes One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Soul Eater, and Fairy Tail so they atleast know series besides Dragon Ball are out there but in general, I tend to be the only one in the immediate area who is truly passionate about anime and manga.

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

Bought the first volume of Shaman King from Viz's digital store. I'm planning to go through the series properly from start to finish. I watched part of the anime back in the day, but I never read any of the manga, so most of this series is new to me.

I also dug out my copy of Grant Morrison's DOOM Patrol volume one and plan to go through that as well.

VLordGTZ

#1369
After loving the first two volumes of Nekogahara: Stray Cat Samurai, I decided it was time for me to finally revisit/finish Hiroyuki Takei's previous series, starting with Karakuri Doji Ultimo.  While it was still enjoyable, reading the first volume again has cemented to me that it's easily Takei's weakest start to a series.  To be fair, this was probably due to how messy and underdeveloped Stan Lee's original concept was.  By the fourth chapter, it's clear that Takei had realize this and started to deviate from Lee's "Pure Good vs. Pure Evil" idea, and instead make something more akin to his own style.  I only made it up to Volume 2 the last time I read Ultimo, so it'll be interesting for me to see what happens beyond that point.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 25, 2017, 03:56:28 PM
Bought the first volume of Shaman King from Viz's digital store. I'm planning to go through the series properly from start to finish. I watched part of the anime back in the day, but I never read any of the manga, so most of this series is new to me.
What a coincidence, I'll be interested in hearing your thoughts on the series, E-k.  I read the first 13 volumes about 4 years ago and liked it a lot.  I own the first 24 volumes and my local library has the last 8, so once I'm done with Ultimo, I plan on restarting Shaman King from the beginning.

Outside of reading Takei's series, I've been slowly catching up with Kimetsu no Yaiba, Haikyu, World Trigger, and Yuna of Yuragi Manor which I'm all enjoying.  I'm also currently collecting Ultimate Muscle, and am hoping to have all the necessary volumes to do a full read-through of it by July.

A few other series I'm planning to read soon include:
Black Cat
Bakuman
Gundam: The Origin
(Volumes "V" and onwards)
Fire Force
To Your Eternity


Dr. Ensatsu-ken

I also just picked up the first two volumes of Nekogahara.

First of all, can we all just agree that the art is amazing? I mean, I'm also reading the first volume of Shaman King right now, and the art is very unique and fairly high quality for one of Takei's earlier works, but the utter world of difference between the style that he uses in that manga and Stray Cat Samurai just goes to show you how much he has improved as an artist over the years.

Also, this is probably the best first chapter of a manga that I've read since My Hero Academia. I can't wait to read more of this and Shaman King.

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

#1371
Finished reading the first two volumes of Nekogahara. It's hard to believe that this is from the same guy who made Shaman King. It's pretty bonkers stuff, and kind of written as self-aware schlock, but for me at least it's the right kind of crazy that makes it an entertaining and easy read. The artwork is absolutely insane, though. Going back and forth between this and the first volume of Shaman King really did a lot to display how much Takei has improved his artwork over time. This series definitely isn't for everyone, though, so I can't openly recommend it, but if it sounds up your alley than give it a shot.

I also recently picked up the first four VizBig editions of Dragon Ball. This is more for my collection than anything else, since I re-read the series just two years ago, but I've been flipping through some of my favorite moments of the early parts of the series, and it absolutely baffles me how anyone could claim that Toriyama didn't really hit his stride with the series until much later on in its run. The early material is so packed with wit and charm that it still amazes me to this day how insanely well-composed and clever it is. People who criticize Dragon Ball of being a dumb or cliche series really need to sit down and actually read this shit, because it's some of the best comic book material that I've ever experienced to this very day, and it's full of incredibly good humor and a really terrific flow to its narrative that just puts so many other serializations to shame.

Part of me wonders what would have happened if Dragon Ball had not been adapted into an anime back when it was originally running, and instead got the same high quality treatment as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure while also being released during the same period of time in which legally streaming anime became such a big thing. I wonder if people's outlook on the series would be a lot fresher than what it has been for all of the over-exposure that the series has gotten through the anime over the past couple of decades.

Markness

#1372
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 28, 2017, 01:37:19 PM

I also recently picked up the first four VizBig editions of Dragon Ball. This is more for my collection than anything else, since I re-read the series just two years ago, but I've been flipping through some of my favorite moments of the early parts of the series, and it absolutely baffles me how anyone could claim that Toriyama didn't really hit his stride with the series until much later on in its run. The early material is so packed with wit and charm that it still amazes me to this day how insanely well-composed and clever it is. People who criticize Dragon Ball of being a dumb or cliche series really need to sit down and actually read this shit, because it's some of the best comic book material that I've ever experienced to this very day, and it's full of incredibly good humor and a really terrific flow to its narrative that just puts so many other serializations to shame.

Both the mindless bashers and excessive fanboys (Not directing this at you) burn my nerves. The mindless bashers just think everything Dragon Ball is just the Z anime and act like you are a man-child. The excessive fanboys fall into two camps: the camp that only cares about the Z anime and never reads the manga because of some lazy excuse like "I am too lazy to read x number of volumes!" when they have no problem re-watching the episodes for the 100th time over and the camp that thinks if something isn't Dragon Ball then it "sucks ass".

I bought the second volume of Murciélago last night. I wonder how long the series can stay on the shelf before soccer moms complain?

Rynnec

Quote from: Markness on May 28, 2017, 03:57:42 PM
I bought the second volume of Murciélago last night. I wonder how long the series can stay on the shelf before soccer moms complain?

I'd be more worried about right wing anime fans/MRA's whining and typical tumblr-tard complaining, and I doubt they'll be too loud since it doesn't have an anime yet. I need to pick up the second volume myself, but I did see copies of the first volume being featured on some special shelves along with other manga such as AoT and My Hero Academia at my local Books-a-Million, so hopefully that means it's selling well over here.

The Shadow Gentleman

I finally got around to finally finishing two short manga a while back.

Gogh and the Idiots was fun, and it was a refeshing to have a series where the main characters were likable and interesting right off the bat. Not the biggest fan of romantic plots but I thought the whole thing was handled well and it kept the drama reasonable. I also really dig the art style, and hope to read more of the author's work later.

Benkei in New York was short but the plots were generally well handled. I like good crime stories so I appreciated the different approach this took. And more Jiro Taniguchi is always welcomed.

Quote from: Markness on May 28, 2017, 03:57:42 PM
I bought the second volume of Murciélago last night. I wonder how long the series can stay on the shelf before soccer moms complain?
I highly doubt anything like that will happen.

Spark Of Spirit

I read the first volume of Nekogaraha. It feels like a throwback to that early 80s style trashy manga that just doesn't really get made anymore. I'd definitely read more.
"The world will never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder." - G.K. Chesterton

VLordGTZ

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 28, 2017, 01:37:19 PM
Finished reading the first two volumes of Nekogahara. It's hard to believe that this is from the same guy who made Shaman King. It's pretty bonkers stuff, and kind of written in as self-aware schlock, but for me at least it's the right kind of crazy that makes it an entertaining and easy read. The artwork is absolutely insane, though. Going back and forth between this and the first volume of Shaman King really did a lot to display how much Takei has improved his artwork over time. This series definitely isn't for everyone, though, so I can't openly recommend it, but if it sounds up your alley than give it a shot.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on May 28, 2017, 08:05:30 PM
I read the first volume of Nekogaraha. It feels like a throwback to that early 80s style trashy manga that just doesn't really get made anymore. I'd definitely read more.

I'm glad to see that you both enjoyed it!  While Nekogahara's story is simpler than Shaman King and Ultimo's, it embraces it in an entertaining way and highlights Takei's strong points as a mangaka.  Takei has definitely improved his art since his early Shaman King days, but it also seems that he has changed how he approaches the art in his work as well.  If you compare Nekogahara's art to the art in the last few chapters of Ultimo (which ended and started respectively around the same time), they look quite different.  In Nekogahara, Takei appears to be placing a larger emphasis on the artwork by utilizing larger panels as well as more two-page spreads than his previous works.  Personally, I think this helps make the his action scenes more engaging than ever while also showcasing his full abilities as an artist.  Nekogahara really shows that Takei hasn't lost his touch and is continually trying to improve as a creator.

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

Picked up the fifth Dragon Ball VizBig edition. I'm going to hold off on collecting DBZ for now since my local BAM is missing several volumes and I don't feel like ordering it online due to not having a private mailing address yet. Still, though, it's nice to finally own all of he classic-era portion of the series in high-quality print.

I also picked up Blade of the Immortal omnibus two.

Dr. Insomniac



Ahahahahaha... oh, Secret Empire.

Foggle

Good lord no. What are you doing Marvel? Stop!
I can't believe they canned Silk but this shit gets a major event after already festering for a year. :srs: