What Are You Reading?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well, personally I thought YYH was great up until the end of the Chapter Black arc in the manga (the Three Kings arc was awful, though). The anime was a really good improvement over the manga in general, though. Its one of those rare anime that takes the source material and both faithfully adapts it and even improves on it in certain areas. As for Hunter X Hunter, I think its Togashi's better manga on the whole (though this is yet another case where I prefer the anime to the manga, in this case the 1999 version), but YYH is more of a personal favorite of mine (and in that regard, I'd say the anime version of YYH is better and more consistent than HXH).

Oh, I LOVE the Yu Yu Hakusho anime (it's my 8th favorite anime). It's just that, I tried re-reading it recently and got disgusted at how lazy Togashi's art started to get in the middle of the Chapter Black arc. It's such a great arc in the anime, and the manga version just feels super underwhelming to me nowadays. And Three Kings is flat out tedious to go through in the manga, while the anime version is still great stuff to watch. Whereas, with Hunter X Hunter, I haven't watched much of the anime version to compare it too, and the horribly drawn chapters were not enough to destroy my interest in the stories of each arc, while going through the last few volumes of Yu Yu Hakusho made me wish I was watching the anime instead.

I'd highly recommend it, myself. Just keep in mind that you might not dig the beginning. Its kind of generic and somewhat bland material that doesn't properly emulate the good writing and characterization that the series is capable of. If you make it up to the Kyoto arc and beyond, though, then you're in for a real treat, I'd say.

Thanks for the heads up! I watched the first episode of the anime a while back and liked it, which is why I want to read the manga (I don't have the time to watch 90+ episodes of a shonen anime nowadays). I'm not easily vowed, but I have a good feeling about Rurouni Kenshin and have heard lots of great things about the manga, so unless the early stuff is reaallly boring I probably will stick with it until the end.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh, I LOVE the Yu Yu Hakusho anime (it's my 8th favorite anime). It's just that, I tried re-reading it recently and got disgusted at how lazy Togashi's art started to get in the middle of the Chapter Black arc. It's such a great arc in the anime, and the manga version just feels super underwhelming to me nowadays. And Three Kings is flat out tedious to go through in the manga, while the anime version is still great stuff to watch. Whereas, with Hunter X Hunter, I haven't watched much of the anime version to compare it too, and the horribly drawn chapters were not enough to destroy my interest in the stories of each arc, while going through the last few volumes of Yu Yu Hakusho made me wish I was watching the anime instead.

Oh yeah, Togashi has some HORRIBLE artwork when he's clearly being lazy, though to be fair there's just as much of it in Hunter X Hunter (if not more so), than YYH. That said, I still love Chapter Black in the manga. The anime version made it even better, making it my favorite shonen arc of all time. I really only think the YYH manga truly faltered with the Three Kings arc. The thing about Togashi's writing is that when he's on top of his game, he writes the best material in all of shonen, hands down. However, when his heart is not in his writing and he gets lazy, he can come out with some truly atrocious stuff. He's a really polarized mangaka in that way, IMO. Thankfully, most of what he writes is good material, and that's why he's my personal favorite shonen mangaka that I'm aware of, despite all of the flaws I find in his work.

At any rate, I love both YYH and HXH. If I were to break up the arcs between them, here's how I would personally rank them in terms of overall quality (based on the manga):

Chapter Black (YYH) > York Shin City (HXH) > Dark Tournament (YYH) > Chimera (HXH) > Hunter Exams (HXH) > Zoldyck (HXH) > Spirit Detective (YYH) > Chairman Election (HXH) > Heavens Arena (HXH) >>>> Greed Island (HXH) >>>>>>>>>>>>> Three Kings (YYH)

Everything up through Heavens Arena are legitimately good arcs, IMO, with the top 4 having some of Togashi's most amazing writing (even though I find the Chimera arc to be flawed)

Thanks for the heads up! I watched the first episode of the anime a while back and liked it, which is why I want to read the manga (I don't have the time to watch 90+ episodes of a shonen anime nowadays). I'm not easily vowed, but I have a good feeling about Rurouni Kenshin and have heard lots of great things about the manga, so unless the early stuff is reaallly boring I probably will stick with it until the end.

None of the beginning material is bad in the least. I just meant that its nothing that's deserving of the hype that the series has garnered. If you go in expecting too much you might be initially disappointed. I was just pointing out that the truly great parts of the series start with the Kyoto/Shishio arc. Everything from that point on for the rest of the series is pretty much top quality material, IMO.

[gunswordfist]

That's one of my favorite parts of the whole manga.

Good to hear.

[Spark Of Spirit]

That's one of my favorite parts of the whole manga.

Good to hear.

Not to say they botched it in the anime, but in the manga it's just soooo good and perfectly executed. It made him go from a character I didn't care about to one of my favorites.

[gunswordfist]

Read volume 16 of Rurouni Kenshin last week. If I hadn't watch the anime, I know I would have expected the Soujiro fight to be Kenshin just facing some kid that smiles. It is so much more than that. I didn't know Soujiri was 18 and I wonder if he killed that mean looking baby when he murdered the family. Anyway, it's interesting that Soujiro had surpressed emotions even before he met Shishio.

Can't wait until Shishio vs Saito starts in the next volume

[Pharass]

Read the first volume of The Unwritten today and liked it a lot. The concept about how stories are real and that fiction and reality influence each other has been done before, but it's a concept that appeals to me and Carey & Gross handles it very well. The characters are interesting and believable, both the fictional ones and the historical ones. All in all, I think this has the potential to become a new favorite of mine. At any rate, I'll definitely check out the next volume.

[Avaitor]

Gimme.

[Foggle]

[Avaitor]

John Belushi?

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Some of Dan Slott's Mighty Avengers I got from the library just cause.

Why isn't Pym written like this more often?

[gunswordfist]

I finished Scalped a few weeks ago. Another good recommendation from Dr. Insomniac. That's 3 for 3.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I finally started reading Excel Saga. That said, I only managed to finish the 1st chapter, so I'll reserve my thoughts on it until I finish at least the first 2 volumes.

Other than that, I also borrowed volume 2 of Essential Spider-Man from a friend of mine, again, and resumed reading from where I last left off in the summer, which was with the 23rd issue. For as goofy as the early Spider-Man stories are, they are still fairly entertaining, IMO. I can't wait until I get to some of the more famous stories, though, as those are the ones that I've really been wanting to read.

[Avaitor]

So on Marvel's digital distribution site and app, basically all of their first issues are available to stream for free.

Gogogo.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I've started reading a lot of different manga recently. Mermaid Saga, Urusei Yatsura, Rurouni Kenshin, GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, and  Black Cat.

Mermaid Saga is a lot darker than Takahashi's more popular mangas, but is still pretty enjoyable. Urusei Yatsura is fun, but sometimes the abuse on Ataru gets to be too much for my tastes, and none of the characters are nearly as funny or well-developed as the cast in Ranma 1/2. Both are good reads, and make me want to check out Maison Ikkou soon.

I'm about one volume into Rurouni Kenshin and Black Cat, and I think both are pretty good, but I'm hoping they both pick up a bit in the next volumes. I'm actually kinda suprised that Black Cat starts completley different from the anime, which I've only seen the first episode of, but judging from JesuOtaku's review of the anime, the manga might be completely different in general in it's characterization and development of the characters in it's early arcs, which suprises me.

Of this bunch, GTO: 14 Days in Shonan is my favorite new read. It must take place after the anime/original manga, but I can follow it pretty well even without having seen them, and the story is really gripping. Onizuka is a really fun, awesome, and badass character with a lot of depth to him, and the idea of a former punk taking care of foster kids is a great concept. The other characters are great too, but the designs for the a couple of the female characters look the same a lot of the time and it's hard for me to distinguish between them. I've only read the first two volumes and the fifth and sixth ones, because those were the only ones my library has right now, but I'm definately going to read the rest and check out the original manga and anime series as well!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Shonan takes place during GTO actually. My biggest problem is that it's basically GTO just with a smaller cast of characters and is basically a throwaway sidestory in the end since none of these characters ever show up again in GTO. I think that's my biggest disappointment with it.