What Are You Reading?

[LumRanmaYasha]

What? Did you think I only read manga? 

Admittedly, I don't buy superhero comics as often because I don't find the price/page ratio cost-effective most of the time, but I take advantage of sales and deals whenever I can. 

[gunswordfist]

I just finished Flash: The Return Of Barry Allen. That was the first time I found myself enjoying the character The Flash and a story he's featured in in a comic book.

[Avaitor]

Is anyone else hitting up the Marvel Unlimited deal? You have until the 20th to get a month of it for only a penny.

I just did, and I'm trying to decide what I'm going to go through first. Probably Ms. Marvel.

[Avaitor]

Well, I read the first Ms. Marvel arc, and it's pretty decent so far. This is definitely written for younger audiences, and it shows, but it fits that role well. Primarily since Kamala is a likable character, and it's being very fair to her Pakistani roots and building her world up. I'll definitely try to read the rest of what's available next.

After this, I might give Superior Spider-Man a try. I've heard good things about it.

[gunswordfist]

Tonight, I read Volume 7 of America Vampire. I found out what the main villain of this arc is. eep!....

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I used some spare cash that I got as a gift today and bought the first 3 volumes of Vinland Saga, which I've been meaning to start reading for a while, now. I was going to buy Knightquest, but the only copy that I could find was in pretty poor condition.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I hope you enjoy it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I read through A Silent Voice on CR.

[LumRanmaYasha]

What did you think of it?

[Spark Of Spirit]

It was decent.

Spoiler

I mean it was great. 

As a story about bullying it sure went the whole nine yards not only looking at the various motivations and factors that might lead to it, but also the effect it can have on individuals. On the other hand, there's a good message of true friendship and tenacity without giving up as well as a theme of repentance and forgiveness that runs throughout that also helped quite a bit. The movie sub-plot added a lot to this as well.

It also helps that the characters were multi-sided. Even some characters I had no real sympathy for (mostly Kawai) grew on me as I learned more about them and where they were coming from. The two Sho-chan's remained my favorite characters, but the rest were just as engaging. It's a shame it wasn't very long, but then there wasn't much more story to tell.

The only thing I'm not sure about was what exactly that part at the ending meant when Ishida saw the kid and his parents. What was that about? Was it implying something about him that I didn't catch?

All in all, it definitely deserves every bit of praise it's earned.

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's just uninspired PSA bull-shit.

Spoiler

It also happens to be the best manga of last year, and among the best that I've ever read.

[close]

Now go read REAL.

On another note, I'm enjoying Vinland Saga so far, though I'm only 10 chapters in. I usually don't like extended flashbacks, but Yukimura is a good enough writer to place something like that early on in the story rather than interrupt a more interesting story-line by haphazardly forcing something like this on readers as exposition at a much later point in the story (you all know what I'm referring to, here).

I also like that Askeladd, despite being antagonized by Thorfinn, doesn't strike me as a one-dimensional villain. That's really about all that I can say so far, though, since I'm still not even past the first volume yet.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Now go read REAL.

I was hoping it'd be at CR, too. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

It's still on the list!

On another note, I'm enjoying Vinland Saga so far, though I'm only 10 chapters in. I usually don't like extended flashbacks, but Yukimura is a good enough writer to place something like that early on in the story rather than interrupt a more interesting story-line by haphazardly forcing something like this on readers as exposition at a much later point in the story (you all know what I'm referring to, here).

I also like that Askeladd, despite being antagonized by Thorfinn, doesn't strike me as a one-dimensional villain. That's really about all that I can say so far, though, since I'm still not even past the first volume yet.

Askeladd is a villain in every sense of the word, but his motivations are interesting as how he chooses to achieve them. By the end of the first part, you really get a sense of who he really is. It's a contrast of the two most important father figures in Thorfinn's life. Both his real father and Askeladd, and where they both end up leading him. The relationship between good and evil figure heavily into forming who Thorfinn becomes. It's quite a fascinating journey.

The only thing that sucks about Vinland Saga is how nobody literally seems to know it exists. An anime of the first two arcs would go a long way in fixing that.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It was decent.

Spoiler

I mean it was great. 

As a story about bullying it sure went the whole nine yards not only looking at the various motivations and factors that might lead to it, but also the effect it can have on individuals. On the other hand, there's a good message of true friendship and tenacity without giving up as well as a theme of repentance and forgiveness that runs throughout that also helped quite a bit. The movie sub-plot added a lot to this as well.

It also helps that the characters were multi-sided. Even some characters I had no real sympathy for (mostly Kawai) grew on me as I learned more about them and where they were coming from. The two Sho-chan's remained my favorite characters, but the rest were just as engaging. It's a shame it wasn't very long, but then there wasn't much more story to tell.

The only thing I'm not sure about was what exactly that part at the ending meant when Ishida saw the kid and his parents. What was that about? Was it implying something about him that I didn't catch?

All in all, it definitely deserves every bit of praise it's earned.

[close]

Spoiler

I'm glad you liked it.  I loved it for everything you mention; it was a tight and well-written exploration of the consequences of bullying, as well as themes of repentance and friendship, with well-rounded and understandably human characters. Keeping up with it's final third last year was one of the best experiences I had reading a currently-running manga, as you probably could have figured by all the praises I sung about it. 

As far as your question goes, the father of the kid that bumped into Ishida is implied to be Keisuke, who was one of Ishida's old friends at the beginning of the series who later turned on him and bullied him, and then later saved him from drowning after he fell from the balcony. There's a few potential thematic reasons it may have been included, one of which being emphasizing the theme of how there's often more to a person and their life than what you might see from your interactions with them, and another being that your future might not always turn out the way you expected it to be, but there's always good possibilities open to you so long as you embrace your past mistakes and move on. That's what I took away from it, at least.

[close]

On another note, I'm enjoying Vinland Saga so far, though I'm only 10 chapters in. I usually don't like extended flashbacks, but Yukimura is a good enough writer to place something like that early on in the story rather than interrupt a more interesting story-line by haphazardly forcing something like this on readers as exposition at a much later point in the story (you all know what I'm referring to, here).

I also like that Askeladd, despite being antagonized by Thorfinn, doesn't strike me as a one-dimensional villain. That's really about all that I can say so far, though, since I'm still not even past the first volume yet.

I find he way the flashback in VS is placed is akin to Berserk's; we jump right into a lot of action to hook the reader and get a sense of what to expect from the series later on, see a glimpse of who Thorfinn is as a person, what his goal is, and set-up for the larger story-line, and the flashback allows us to see how he got to that point and see how the rivalry/antagonism between our protagonist and the antagonist originally manifested. It has a different effect on your perception of the character as opposed to the series starting out with Thorfinn as a child and the story progressing linearly from there. The flashback itself only comprises a volume's worth of content (half the first volume of the U.S. edition), so it doesn't interrupt the story for too long.

Askeladd is a very well-rounded character and is likable, even sympathetic in a lot of respects. He's more of a villain-protagonist rather than being the villain, but he still very much lives up to the villain part of that and does a lot of humanly evil things. You'll learn more about him as you continue further in the series.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've encountered my fair share of fans on the Internet, but it's just unfortunate that the manga sells so poorly in the West. It's a shame, too, because I really dig the high quality hardcover editions that they put out. It's very fancy, and the cover artwork looks great. That said, if you owned a huge manga/comic book collection (which I don't), then I imagind it would frustrate you how it stands out too much from all of the paperback editions of other stuff on your shelves. But honestly, stuff like that doesn't really bother me at all.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It was decent.

Spoiler

I mean it was great. 

As a story about bullying it sure went the whole nine yards not only looking at the various motivations and factors that might lead to it, but also the effect it can have on individuals. On the other hand, there's a good message of true friendship and tenacity without giving up as well as a theme of repentance and forgiveness that runs throughout that also helped quite a bit. The movie sub-plot added a lot to this as well.

It also helps that the characters were multi-sided. Even some characters I had no real sympathy for (mostly Kawai) grew on me as I learned more about them and where they were coming from. The two Sho-chan's remained my favorite characters, but the rest were just as engaging. It's a shame it wasn't very long, but then there wasn't much more story to tell.

The only thing I'm not sure about was what exactly that part at the ending meant when Ishida saw the kid and his parents. What was that about? Was it implying something about him that I didn't catch?

All in all, it definitely deserves every bit of praise it's earned.

[close]

Spoiler

I'm glad you liked it.  I loved it for everything you mention; it was a tight and well-written exploration of the consequences of bullying, as well as themes of repentance and friendship, with well-rounded and understandably human characters. Keeping up with it's final third last year was one of the best experiences I had reading a currently-running manga, as you probably could have figured by all the praises I sung about it. 

As far as your question goes, the father of the kid that bumped into Ishida is implied to be Keisuke, who was one of Ishida's old friends at the beginning of the series who later turned on him and bullied him, and then later saved him from drowning after he fell from the balcony. There's a few potential thematic reasons it may have been included, one of which being emphasizing the theme of how there's often more to a person and their life than what you might see from your interactions with them, and another being that your future might not always turn out the way you expected it to be, but there's always good possibilities open to you so long as you embrace your past mistakes and move on. That's what I took away from it, at least.

[close]

Spoiler

Oh, I was wondering if that was him, but couldn't be sure. Mostly because we knew the least of him of all Ishida's former classmates. But maybe that was the point? That there was still more out there that we didn't know about, just as there is always more out there we don't know about in regards to other people.

Either way, it was a great read. Thanks for singing its praises for so long!

[close]