What Are You Reading?

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Yeah, so, I finished reading Stardust Crusaders about two hours ago. I couldn't help it. I just didn't feel like doing anything else until I had finished it; it was just that damn good to me. And boy, were those final battles fucking intense. From D'Arby the Gambler all the way to the final bout with Dio, I was on the edge of my seat and just had to keep going and going because it was all so damn engrossing. And man, the fight with Vanilla Ice, fucking brutal, more so than even the fight with Dio, imo. I also finally came around to Jotaro, and really appreciate his calm but calculating personality. He's not as fun as Joseph, but I do think he's a great and interesting character in his own right. So, in the end, I loved all the main characters of Stardust really strongly.

I guess I am somewhat disappointed with Dio, because I felt that he didn't really have the charisma to him he had in the first part, but he was still an excellent villain. I loved the final battle between Jotaro and Dio. It was a tense life and death struggle the whole time, and only barely did Jotaro achieve victory, but when he did, it was so, so satisfying. Overall, reading part 3 has really shown me just why this series is so loved, and why people consider it the pinnicle of the battle shonen genre. Because it is. Honestly, I have not seen a series that had so many varied battles, so many of them non-violent and physical even, with so much creativity, and never a overused element. Not just the fights, every character was likable without the annoying cliche behaviors one expects of battle-shonen characters. Hell, Joseph's silliness aside, the cast felt like genuinely real people, and they said and did things that "normal" people would do, at least as far as that description applies to manga. Now, while I don't think part 3's story as a whole is better than part two's, I also think it's strong in it's own right and fascinatingly so considering that it took the format of villain of the week battles and made it into something incredibly addictive but never repetitive. I loved Battle Tendency, but it's Stardust Crusaders that has finally pushed Jojo's into my being one of my all time favorite manga now, and not only that, but my all time favorite Shonen Jump manga as well. It just has it all. I look forward to reading Diamond is Unbreakable and beyond as soon as the summer rolls around.

Agreed on all fronts, good sir.

I'll try and finish SC sometime this week. I'm at the D'Arby the Gamer fight, which becoming my new favorite fight.

[Daxdiv]

I don't know why I delayed it so much, but I finally made the time to read Volume 8 of Animal Land. I will say that is probably is one of my favorite volumes so far. Poor Taroza and Moko, at least Taroza got stronger and was more motivated to complete his goal of a utopia where Animals can live in peace and not eat one another. Glad that Volume 9 should be arriving at my doorstep tomorrow, cause that cliffhanger probably would have left me in suspense and try to hunt down the scans.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Whoa...you guys remember how I bought Watamote volume 3 on April 4th? I just found out that volume wasn't supposed to come out until April 22nd! I went and checked some in-store versions, and my copy is most certainly legit, so I gotta wonder why Strands was selling it over two weeks early and for only $3. And the thing is, this has happened before; back when I bought The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato volume 5 last December, not only did I get it for $2, but three weeks earlier than anyone should've. I'm not even sure how this happens, but it's most certainly strange...

[Daxdiv]

Hmm... the only bookstore I go to is Barnes and Noble and I either order stuff from Amazon or RightStuf. I only get my shit earlier from RightStuf since they tend to do that and have a long history of that. But then again, I don't really go into the city as much as I would like.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I visit this bookstore called Strands every friday. They sell both used and new books, but most of the used books they sell are in like-new condition and they sell several old, out of print titles as well, and most of their stuff is $2 off the normal prices at other bookstores while some stuff can be up to 70% off. I've managed to find and buy lots of great stuff there this past year, including titles I couldn't find at nearly as good a price elsewhere (last week I got Black Lagoon volume 3 there for $3), but the fact that they have sold stuff that shouldn't have been released yet 2-3 weeks early twice now is still strange.

I visit B&N sometimes, but nowadays I just buy most of my manga and anime from Rightstuf and Amazon. I have gotten stuff early from Rightstuf as well (the Ranma 1/2 blu-ray, for instance), but never for as cheap or as early as I got Watamote volume 3 at Strands. 

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Just finished Stardust Crusaders. Man, that was one awesome final fight, and a perfect way to end the struggle of the first 3 parts. While I still somewhat prefer BT, but its easy to see why SC became so popular. The battles are just so creative, and some of the best weren't even physical fights. I eagerly wait to see the rest of the series animated, and what the rest of the manga is like. I'll probably start DIU after I get some headway in my backlog.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Freed from the shackles of school, and recovering from being sick due to work-exhaustion, I managed to read some more manga recently.

Ashita no Joe volumes 19-20 - I have nothing more to say about this than I didn't already say in the ANJ anime thread back in March. An incredible ending to a fantastically written story, and one that sealed this series as my favorite manga.

Rohan at the Louvre - The only other Jojo's-related manga outside of Stardust Crusaders to be legally available in english. I probably should've waited until I finished part 4, since from hat I understand Rohan is first introduced there, but this worked well as a stand alone story. The story is not particularly stand-out, since it's short, but Araki's artwork was gorgeous in full-color and Rohan was an interesting enough character to make this a page-turner, and I appreciated the backstory and development he was given here, which makes me interested in seeing him in the main manga. A good read, at the end of the day.

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall volume 1 - Very interesting so far, especially since it promises some backstory on the world of AOT, and Kuklo and Charle are already more interesting characters than Eren and Mikasa. I might try to keep up with it since it's a monthly series, only 6 chapters currently out, and it's a fast read.

Attack on Titan: Junior High volume 1 - Well...this ain't no Haruhi-chan I tell you what. Lame, boring chibi humor that barely plays with the series' characters and tropes. Bleh.

Rin-ne volume 14 - Skipped a few volumes, only 'cause the library had this and RN isn't a series that's very plot heavy anyway. This volume basically contained Renge's debut, which was interesting, and I do like the character. The series is still a fun read, though sadly not on the level of the best comedy manga out there, especially not UY. I'm still going to keep reading it, though.

In the end I didn't get to finish Black Jack or Phoenix before the school year ended, but my local library has them, so I'll fix that as soon as possible. First I'm going to just finish off Kuroko since I still have 50 chapters of that to finish before I'm all caught up. After that I've got plenty of stuff I want to read and finish but I'm still figuring out the best way to prioritize it all.

[Dr. Insomniac]

At about Chapter 7 of Ashita no Joe. I can tell that the translation is odd early in the books, with lines like "Joe used our children to pleasure himself!" going on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The first few volumes were done by someone else, but they seem to be mostly accurate to the source material. The translations get much better once Hox takes over, though. His feel more like what you'd expect to find from official translations if they were done by Viz or some such company.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm at Chapter 33, with the Rikishi fight. 140 chapters or so to go.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Nice! The series really starts to pick up during the Juvenile Prison arc and gets better from there on out. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on Joe and Rikishi's second fight, and it's aftermath.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If you're going by the scans (which go up to "chapter 108"), the chapter count isn't really accurate since a large chunk of those are just clusters of chapters put together in one. But, either way, it's irrelevant, once you get to the Hox scans which are separated by volume.

Also, if you want to see why I said this series has more balls than most modern-running shounen manga, then just wait until you get to the end of Part I. And don't spoil it for yourself by reading Wikipedia or anything like that.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Unless I get banned from this forum  , I'll be sure to talk about it. So far, I like Danpei and Rikishi the most. I'm still wondering what Joe's beef with Miss Yoko is though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Unless I get banned from this forum  , I'll be sure to talk about it. So far, I like Danpei and Rikishi the most. I'm still wondering what Joe's beef with Miss Yoko is though.

Hox does a great job of explaining it in his article, but I can't really recommend reading that until after you finish the series since it's very spoiler-heavy.

As for how I initially interpreted it, myself, though, I think it has to do with Joe thinking of Yoko as "fake." She's a philanthropist, sure, but to Joe a true do-gooder who just does good things unconditionally is pretty much non-existent. In his mind, Yoko is just acting charitable for the publicity, or to at least feel better about herself. And, in a way, he's not entirely wrong, and I think Yoko realizes this to some degree when she starts retaliating by antagonizing him in return. If you really think about it, her organizing the boxing match wasn't really for Joe or Rikiishi's sake, and it sure as hell wasn't for the other inmates. I think she really did want to see Joe get smacked around for hitting a little to close to home and offending her, and at the same time she could justify it by saying that she was doing it because Rikiishi wanted to fight him, and by making it an organized fight, he couldn't get into trouble for it. That's just my interpretation, but the early translations make it kind of ambiguous with how the dialogue specifically plays out.

[LumRanmaYasha]

If you're going by the scans (which go up to "chapter 108"), the chapter count isn't really accurate since a large chunk of those are just clusters of chapters put together in one. But, either way, it's irrelevant, once you get to the Hox scans which are separated by volume.

AnJ has 171 chapters according to MyAnimeList, so if he's on chapter 33 he does have about 140 chapters to go.

Also, if you want to see why I said this series has more balls than most modern-running shounen manga, then just wait until you get to the end of Part I. And don't spoil it for yourself by reading Wikipedia or anything like that.

But don't get the wrong idea. The end of part 1 isn't amazing and impressive just for being "ballsy," but because of how well it's written. It's consequences affect the characters in serious, lasting ways and do not just resolve themselves quickly and without real effect like it would in most modern shonen series. It instead results in a fascinating personal struggle for Joe that no other modern battle or sports shonen series could write better, as far as I've seen.

Unless I get banned from this forum  , I'll be sure to talk about it. So far, I like Danpei and Rikishi the most. I'm still wondering what Joe's beef with Miss Yoko is though.

Cool, Danpei and Rikishi were both favorites of mine at this stage as well, and they really are great characters through and through (and you'll see why soon enough).