What Are You Reading?

[Foggle]

Excel Saga volumes 9-26. Reaction: 10/10. - I think the fact Excel Saga is now my second favorite manga of all time says a lot about how awesome it is. I said this before in the Greatest Manga Series thread, and I'll say it again: I dare you to find a smarter, funnier, well-crafted, well-drawn, well-scripted, and well-cast manga.

You can't, because there is none.   

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Great Teacher Onizuka. Reaction: 9/10. - I admit, I was getting a little bored with the series during the lost fieldtrip money arc, but those last 100 chapters more than made up for it. Overall I think it's an excellent story with great humor. I have to say that the art can be a little cluttered, and character designs are often hard to differentiate, but the fact that Onizuka really is one of the greatest characters in anime/manga makes up for it in my book.

That arc you fixate on was really short, though, and barely took up that much of the story. And when I said that the manga went downhill with the 2nd half, I should clarify that I really meant the last quarter of it or so, and even then I still mostly liked the series. I just found that it had some stupid plot points by then. The thing with the female teacher introducing a points system into the school for the teachers was pretty dumb, IMO, and having her control a group of kids who knew martial arts was way too ridiculous, even for this series. It's still one of my favorites, though, but I definitely think that the first 150 chapters or so were distinctly better than the last 1/4th of the manga.

The whole thing is better than Shounan 14 Days, though. That series just recycled all of the elements that we had already seen done so well in GTO, except with more ridiculous gags (in a bad way), and worse writing.

Rurouni Kenshin volumes 8-10. Reaction: 9/10. - The Kyoto arc still hasn't picked up steam, but it's certainly well-written so far. I know that this arc gets really good, so I'm hoping that the return of Aoshi, teappearance of Hiko, and the reunion of Kenshin and Kaoru at the end of volume 10 is a signal for the excellency I've been promised in future volumes to come.

The early parts of the Kyoto arc are great, but more so in retrospect than on your first run through the series. At any rate you still have a long way to go before the end of the arc (IIRC, this arc ends on volume 18 of the manga). I also think that the TV anime version of this arc was excellent. It's the one part that the TV anime got right, whereas the first season had too much filler, and the last season was nothing BUT filler.

Slam Dunk volumes 4-6. Reaction: 9/10. - That basketball game was looooong, but still, it was pretty awesome. Sakuragi's behavior did annoy me at parts, though, but I still like him. I wish I could elaborate more on what I liked and disliked, but's it's been two months since I read these volumes, which shows me that I need to do these progress logs more regularly. 

Rukawa's character type is the one that annoys me more in series like this. That said, both he and Sakuragi become less like their original selves and more interesting characters as the series progresses.

Hikaru no Go volume 1. Reaction: 7/10. - I loved this anime when it was on Toonami Jetstream when I was in middle school, but revisiting this beginning...it's alright, but not that interesting to me anymore. Hikaru is a lot more of a jerk and "shonen"-protagonisty than I remembered, although Sai is still pretty cool. I'm going to read more, because I know where this story goes, and I have good memories of the anime, but this first volume disappointed me as a point of re-visitation.

I read the manga first, so I stopped the anime when I realized that it was just a carbon-copy of the manga. I think the series picks up steam around the time that Hikaru joins the Insei, but it's been a while since I've read this manga, myself, so I'll need to look into it again as well.

Fullmetal Panic! Sigma volumes 1-2. Reaction: 9/10. - I read this so I could vote in the Greatest Manga Thread, and liked it so much that I read two volumes worth before I knew it. I haven't watched the animes yet, so I knew nothing about the series going into it, but all the same I found it interesting and addicting and really like Sosuke and Kaname. After reading these volumes, I'm definitely going to watch the anime as soon as I can and go through this story in it's entirety, cause it really is quite good.[/quote]

Before you read more of this manga, I first suggest taking a hiatus from it to watch the 1st anime. It's nothing great (well, I really have a lot of love for it, but it is out of bias for being one of the earliest anime that I watched on DVD), but it is the beginning to the story (which Sigma doesn't cover). After that, watch TSR, which I believe the first 2 volumes of Sigma covered, but the anime was much better than the manga, in this regard (and even the original light-novels as well, IMO). Then, continue reading Sigma from that point on. That said, I would recommend reading the original light novels first and then Sigma, but I can vouch for Sigma being pretty faithful to the novels as it is, so either way is acceptable.

Attack on Titan - I've completely caught up on the series, and I think it's okay, but not as great as everyone makes it out to be. Mainly, I am not very invested in a lot of the characters, even the better characterized and developed ones like Mikasa and Armin. It's a good series so far, and I'll keep up with it, but if the story drags along as it did in the first few chapters after the end of the Female Titan arc I wont hesitate to drop it. So Far: 7/10.

Yeah, pretty much my thoughts on the series in a nutshell.

It's not as bad as some of the haters make it out to be, but it's not really that great of a series, either.

[LumRanmaYasha]

That arc you fixate on was really short, though, and barely took up that much of the story. 

I know, but it did last around a volume or so IIRC, and I was already burned out on the series from the previous arcs and didn't find it that interesting until the end. I don't think it was bad, only that it was where I was starting to lose interest in the series until they went to Okinawa, which and after which the series kept my interest and enjoyment in it until the end. I did think elements of the final arc were a bit ridiculous, but I still enjoyed it well-enough, and I really did enjoy the manga overall, and I'm going to read Shounan Junai Gumi after I'm done with 20th Century Boys and Pluto.

Rukawa's character type is the one that annoys me more in series like this. That said, both he and Sakuragi become less like their original selves and more interesting characters as the series progresses.

That's good to hear. I don't dislike either of them as they are now, but I'm glad to know they'll get some good character development as the series progresses.

Before you read more of this manga, I first suggest taking a hiatus from it to watch the 1st anime. It's nothing great (well, I really have a lot of love for it, but it is out of bias for being one of the earliest anime that I watched on DVD), but it is the beginning to the story (which Sigma doesn't cover). After that, watch TSR, which I believe the first 2 volumes of Sigma covered, but the anime was much better than the manga, in this regard (and even the original light-novels as well, IMO). Then, continue reading Sigma from that point on. That said, I would recommend reading the original light novels first and then Sigma, but I can vouch for Sigma being pretty faithful to the novels as it is, so either way is acceptable.

I was planning to watch the animes before I continued with the manga, so I will.  I'll also try to read the light novels. Are they all legally available, or will I have to read fan-translations like with the Sigma manga?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's good to hear. I don't dislike either of them as they are now, but I'm glad to know they'll get some good character development as the series progresses.

Well, Sakuragi will still always be a knuckle-head goof-ball, and Rukawa will still always be an ass a times, but Sakuragi grows a more serious passion for Basketball as the series progresses, and proves himself to really be more clever than you would think he is capable of being in the beginning of the series, and Rukawa becomes a better teammate over time rather than just the team's Ace to tries to act solo all of the time out of pride.

I was planning to watch the animes before I continued with the manga, so I will.  I'll also try to read the light novels. Are they all legally available, or will I have to read fan-translations like with the Sigma manga?

The first 5 main story volumes were published in English and released by the now defunct Tokyo Pop. That said, they may be hard to find, but the anime covers up to that point in the story-line, anyways. Everything after that was never officially released in English, anywhere, so you will have to rely on fan translations for those, but the fan translations were expertly done, and the people who did them put a lot of effort into them to make it really feel like you were reading an actual well-written novel, so they are totally worth reading. Early on when I was reading some of the later novels, I had to reply on crappy translations (not crappy from being inaccurate, but rather from bad grammar and lot's of typos). However, since then, I recall that the novels ended up getting proper translations from better sources, but I honestly don't remember where the links to those translations are, anymore, so I'll have to look it up again, sometime later.

[Rynnec]

With Tobi from Naruto, he's a completely contrived villain who is more of a vehicle to spew out twisted ideals about the world rather than being an actual believable character who feels like he naturally progressed to the point that he did.

"Look!! There's nothing in my heart!! I don't even feel pain!!"

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

"Look!! There's nothing in my heart!! I don't even feel pain!!"

"I will destroy this reality and create a new one!" (Or some shit like that...)

Seriously, the guy isn't even a character. He's just another emo-vessel for Kishimoto to write stupid lines for.

Also, have you seen Y Ruler of Time's list of the top 5 stupidest evil villain plots in manga? Tobi's on that list for a good reason.

[Rynnec]

Yep. I think you linked to it a while ago. What's worse is that most of the stupidity Y pointed out about Tobi's plan happened when he was still "cool".

I liked Tobi back when he had his mask on, but ever since he lost it, he just became an emo-bitch. I can't take him even remotely seriously, hell, I can hardly take the series as a whole seriously at this point.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I love Neo Ultra Mike's thoughts on the latest chapter of Naruto over at Toonzone, as it honestly sums up everything wrong with the series right now:

Kishimoto: Alright now it's time for Naruto and Sasuke to charge forward at Obito-Flower... I mean Obito Ten Tails Jinkurrki. Yeah that sounds better, kind of.
Kishimoto's Editor: Wait a minute, didn't you already establish Senju DNA is the only thing that hurts Obito anymore?
Kishimoto: And?
Kishimoto's Editor: Sasuke doesn't have any Senju DNA, so what's he going to do?
Kishimoto: Uhhhhhhhh.......... I mean uh..... I mean uhoffffffffffffffff course he does!
Kishimoto's Editor: What? Where.
Kishimoto: Well uh it turns out that uh... yeah what did Orochimaru give Sasuke like 600 chapter ago?
Kishimoto's Editor: The curse seal?
Kishimoto: Well it turns out that curse seal uh was also made with Senju DNA cause uh Orochimaru probably also had that.
Kishimoto's Editor: I don't think he did-
Kishimoto: Well he did now!
Kishimoto's Editor: Yeah well even if that was the case shouldn't Sasuke not even have that anymore as that was removed from his body entirely?
Kishimoto: Uh... Juugo gives him some energy which recharges it which allows him to cover up the Susanno in curse seals and thus give him an aura of Senju DNA.
Kishimoto's Editor: ... You just made that up randomly didn't you?
Kishimoto: No this has been in the plan for years man.
Kishimoto's Editor: No it hasn't. I mean, why would Juugo even know to let out his chakra enough to boost Sasuke's to get the curse seal back? And why if the curse seal had Senju DNA in it, did everyone feel it as chakra, when it's been established senju and chakra energies are different?
Kishimoto: Look this is totally sensical and everyone will be cool with it.
Kishimoto's Editor: Yeah, name one person who likes this plot twist.
Jacob T. Paschal: (Overherad) Wait Sasuke has senjuu DNA? That totally makes sense! This chapter is so great.
Kishimoto: There see? People like it.
Kishimoto's Editor: Isn't that the same random voice that actually thought the tree that bears a fruit that gave people Chakra made sense and wasn't a continuity ruining failure of epic proportions?
Kishimoto: Yup.
Kishimoto's Editor: (Sighs) Okay what's in the rest of this?
Kishimoto: Okay we start off with everyone looking at Sasuke and Naruto, a two page spread of the foxes chakra powering up young Uzumaki-
Kishimoto's Editor: Okay a waste of one fifth of the chapter. Then what?
Kishimoto: Then the explanation followed by Orochimaru explaining he can't do anything.
Kishimoto's Editor: That also feels pointless.
Kishimoto: No cause it leads to a comedic scene of Karin puching Sugitesu.
Kishimoto's Editor: Uh why?
Kishimoto: Cause I keep telling you a woman being angry and randomly hitting a guy for no real reason is funny. Why is that still such a foriegn concept to you?
Kishimoto's Editor: I'd ask why it's a foriegn concept that you find that funny but since our reader base laps it up, I don't care. So then what?
Kishimoto: Well then the second hokage notices Naruto and Sasuke and talks about them.
Kishimoto's Editor: You know this feels even more pointless. Wasn't the whole purpose of having Naruto and Sasuke charge forward last chapter to actually get the action going again?
Kishimoto: That will happen eventually but see this builds up things.
Kishimoto's Editor: What things?
Kishimoto: Because see talking about Naruto reminds him of his brother when he was hokage and-
Kishimoto's Editor: No.
Kishimoto: Huh?
Kishimoto's Editor: You are NOT having more unneeded, poorly timed flashbacks.
Kishimoto: But... but half of Naruto is unneeded flashbacks.
Kishimoto's Editor: Sorry but you wasted that last time when you expanded the chapter just to have 5 pages of it just be scenes we already seen and didn't need to see again.
Kishimoto: But but... but this is new material-
Kishimoto's Editor: I don't care.
Kishimoto: But it shows the meeting of the original kages.
Kishimoto;s Editor: No one wants to see that.
Jacob T. Paschal: (Offscreen) Wow the first five kages! Super cool man.
Kishimoto's Editor: Seriously who is that guy and how does he keep answering back?
Kisimoto: Don't worry about that. Anyway see in the meeting Harishama is over bowing his head to try and be respectful cause see he wants peace between the kages-
Kishimoto's Editor: No!
Kishimoto: But see there's tension because the Kazekage wants more money for his Bjuu beast because the sand village doesn't have a stable economy and I guess they can't just like move or anything if they don't live in a place with viable resources.
Kishimoto's Editor: Stop talking!
Kishimoto: And see everyone's arguing but Harishama just wants peace-
Kishimoto's Editor: Stop wasting time!
Kishimoto: And see it's all symbolic because the five hokages land and get ready to fight and that's how the chapter ends. So see, it is important.
Kishimoto's Editor: No it isn't!
Kishimoto: But... what about the kages-
Kishimoto's Editor: Look as YOU established not even a year ago, these guys were NOTHING compared to Madara, who isn't even the big threat now and is fighting with Harishama. Why is them being here signfiicant? Why waste so much time on flashbacks of characters not related to these events or groups already on the same side for some symbolism already shoved down our throats on people who won't contribute anything?
Kishimoto: Oh come on it shows unity and strength.
Kishimoto's Editor: You can't just have moments build up on unity if this is just going to end with Naruto alone stomping out Obito. This is just why I told you to drop that chapter building up Shikamaru and his dad building up a plan, or on showcasting Sakura if again it doesn't lead anywhere.
Kishimoto: But this will.
Kishimoto's Editor: Yeah you keep saying that, and guess what? NOTHING HAPPENS!
Kishimoto: It makes us all lots of money because people still are eating up these chapters, and stretching this fight into it's twenty eight inning hasn't seemed to negativley impacted our sales any.
Kishimoto's Editor: ... Okay, that's ONE thing you said today that's made sense but still what about integrity, or listening to what your fans say.
Kishimoto: I'm finishing this story the way I want so that's my integrity, and if we really are making some people happy, who cares what some other people have to say? No one's making them watch it and if they're only continuing forward to complain, then that's their tastes, not mine. Let them like or dislike my work: I'm doing what I want and going out by hitting all the notes I wished to before hand. Maybe it's not the Naruto people have in mind but in the end it's still my Naruto, believe it... or not.
Kishimoto's Editor: (Sighs) Fine, we'll put it in. Curse you and your ability to make a speech every so often that is actually kind of moving.
Kishimoto: Yeah besides we're still making people happy, especially that one guy.
Jacob T. Paschal: (Offscreen) Hey want to hear why I think this story's pacing works yet for some reason think One Piece's story doesn't?
Kishimoto's Editor: (Groans) I really need to just say "whatever" and stop questioning things, cause talking about them with people who aren't logicial is just making my head hurt more.

[Grave]

Ughhh...Naruto....It has been so goddamn boring that it's downright painful to read. You know, I don't like Naruto to begin with, but compared to the quality of the manga now, the early stuff almost comes off as legitimately good. At least that stuff went somewhere. I feel like with this extremely long war arc, Masashi Kishimoto is trying to establish that Naruto has evolved as a series both in scope and depth, and he's clearly trying to shove philosophical and psychological themes and whatnot down people's throats with these character. The only problem is that, Kishimoto is not Togashi. He doesn't have the talent to pull this kind of stuff off. Say what you will about the Chimera Ant arc's faults, and it does have plenty of them, but it also had legitimately great writing. Gon and Killua went through some excellent character development that came as natural based on the events unfolding before them, and Meruem's character development as a villain was expertly handled, and once again made sense based on who he was as a character to begin with.

Don't get me started about Naruto's flaws. I can go on for some time there. But yes, Tobi, before revealing that he was Obito was definitely a lot more interesting. Since he was revealed as Obito (I swear, I hated this idea to begin with) the series itself took a nose dive, and then to top it all off it's as if there's no competent character in this series so everyone has to rely on Naruto (I hated that in DBZ, and I hate it in everything else as well).

I love Neo Ultra Mike's thoughts on the latest chapter of Naruto over at Toonzone, as it honestly sums up everything wrong with the series right now:

Yeah, he got a chuckle outta me as well. Jacob's been on the brunt of lashings as of late.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Jacob deserves the lashings. I have no problem with a guy who's opinions I downright don't agree with, but JTP seems to be under the deluded notion that his opinions are truth itself. This guy is praising Naruto like it's the second coming, yet is complaining that nothing is happening in the Hunter X Hunter anime lately (or, pardon me, "nothing interesting"). I pretty much highlighted all of the important shit going on in this week's episode the day before he posted that, but apparently he must have fallen asleep when watching it.

In fact, let me show you!

Here's what I wrote:

So, this week we learn that the selection process has already started, and entire villages are being wiped out in the process. Meanwhile, some of the old squadron leaders are now allying themselves with the true king. As for Gon and Killua, they have gone their separate ways for the time being. Now Gon is alone and has two chimera ants attacking him while using the darkness to their advantage, and at the same time he has another one with a cloaking ability stalking him. Killua on the other hand has gone off on his own to be a bad-ass and kill a whole mess of chimera ant soldiers that are attempting to start the selection process early.

So, yeah, shit's finally going down, now. And on top of that, we even get some good old fashioned politics thrown in for good measure!

And Jacob's response:

Wow, nothing of interest happened in this episode.

I'm guessing it didn't have enough contrived plot twists for him.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I honestly don't know what Jacob considers "good" or "interesting." It's one thing to not like watching One Piece dubbed and all, and another thing to somehow hate the series now after quitting it during Fishman Island and contradicting his former opinions, but he's raving about new Bleach and Naruto chapters even though many of them barely  are progressing the plot at all (like what is the case for most of both series' recent few chapters), and thinks a Hunter X Hunter episode chock full of plot development and set up for some intense happenings is boring? I just don't get it.

His "my opinion is better than yours because I know more about japanese animation production" attitude rubs me the wrong way as well, as well as his consistently and unfailry negative opinions towards dubs. If Jacob had his way, there wouldn't be any dubs or subs and we'd all have to learn japanese in order to watch anime at all. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

I don't know how else Monster should have ended for certain people to like it.

Spoiler

If Johan would have died at the end it would have ruined the whole point of the story.

[close]

What happened was the best possible outcome.

[Foggle]

Yeah, the ending of Monster was perfect.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Who doesn't like Monster's ending? I want names. 

I thought the ending was perfect because 1. Johan's ideal plan going awry due to a factor he didn't consider, Whim's father, was the last event that destroyed his myth of being a "Monster," and showed he really was just a human being all along, the final scene of the series, showing his hospital bed empty, effectively illustrating that "the Monster is gone," and 2. Tenma avoided having to bear the burden of killing a person, and could stick to his morals by saving Johan, a human beings', life, and could return to live his life helping people and saving people's lives. There are probably other reason I could say the ending works, but I feel thematically and in terms of the character arcs the ending was really the only sensical way to close the series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, the ending of Monster was perfect.