Author Topic: Manga topic: and also probably titles you never even heard of~  (Read 26581 times)

trancehime

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Re: Manga topic: and also probably titles you never even heard of~
« Reply #30 on: March 26, 2012, 11:51:26 PM »
Oyasumi Punpun (here)
This manga was done by Inio Asano, which talks about a young boy called Punpun (who is depicted as a caricatured bird thingy but is otherwise a normal human being, and is seen by everyone else as a normal human being; his family are also depicted in this way) and his coming to grips with adulthood, only intensified once his mother is hospitalized (and his father was taken away due to spousal abuse) and is looked after by his uncle. Readers are shown just what exactly goes on with Punpun as he tries to deal with some of the things humans always have trouble dealing with - relationships, misunderstandings... All that stuff.

personal review - Honestly, I think that this manga is one of the most awesome (and probably, for me, one of the best) coming of age stories I have ever read in my entire life... It's managed to be successfully mature about it despite the rather absurd (but still really well-written) cast, not to mention the extremely open imagination that Punpun has (and that we're treated to most of it as readers! hohoho). Furthermore, the manga does seem to hit really accurately some of the points of real life which can make us people as humans get really down. Asano doesn't pull any punches with this one - you might find yourself laughing one moment but either cringing or crying the next, it's really a roller-coaster like how we see Real Life. Oyasumi Punpun does blatantly tackle more touchy and mature issues as well, such as depression and sex (and the sex that IS in the manga isn't at all gratuitous, though Asano does inject his own flair of... um... surreal into it
Spoiler:
LASER EYES
). But, there was a time when I realized - why is Punpun and his family drawn the way they are, when it's obvious that they're just normal people like you and me? Well, this is something that, for me, made reading the manga an even more immersing experience (
Spoiler:
especially when Punpun's appearance starts slightly changing later on
). I wouldn't really wanna talk about that here, I'd suggest reading it, because it's really damn good. It's a somewhat accurate take on some of the more grueling parts of life, and yet manages to turn that into melancholic comedy.

One of the only bad things I do have to say about that is that this isn't something for the faint of heart - you won't be able to fully appreciate it if you can't really stand depressing stories, nor would you be able to appreciate it for the extreme characters that seem to be written to be "genuine" rather than outright "likeable" (Though they aren't mutually exclusive, it seems that way to me).

tl;dr Oyasumi Punpun is really deep shit, go read it

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Re: Manga topic: and also probably titles you never even heard of~
« Reply #31 on: March 28, 2012, 04:31:10 AM »
On the Inio Asano train, I really enjoyed Solanin.

I guess some could call it "slice of life" but it's nothing like Lucky Star or whatever moeblob thing comes to mind with that genre.  It's the story of a 20-something couple dealing with post college life.  It was very refreshing to read something that was mature in the way it deals with topics and scenarios you just aren't going to get with a cast of 15 year old high schoolers or wizards or something.

The other manga I came in her to post is Hotel. Which is also the main character!  Nice classic sci-fi story.  Think WALL-E but not Pixar happy happy for kids.

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Re: Manga topic: and also probably titles you never even heard of~
« Reply #32 on: March 28, 2012, 08:36:29 PM »
Anne Freaks
In short: Dude kills his mother, wants to bury her, gets helped by a girl in exchange for promising to help her with something, too.
Awesome because: One of the few manga that really manages to pull off the theme of corruption. If that's your thing, go read this now.
Holy shit. This is now one of my favourite series I've ever read. It's like the author went up to me personally, asked me "what would be your ideal romance?", and then I told him and he made a goddamn manga about it. I just ordered all 4 volumes from Amazon and I love you in an entirely platonic sense for introducing me to it.

Spoiler:
I came buckets when Yuri made the 'wrong' choice near the end. It's always refreshing when MCs diverge away from all the saintly kindness that the majority seem to exude from every fibre of their body. Also I would let Anna touch my gun any day of the week.

Probably the hottest shit I read all week and it is still mostly worksafe Himitsu no Akuma-chan
Welp, now I have a fetish for starry stockings. Anyway this was a pretty decent read. Bit too fanservicey and predictable at times, but the humour makes up for it.

Speaking of fetishes:

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge (ongoing)

Synopsis: Haimura Kiri is a seemingly ordinary boy with one slight problem: he is obsessed with cutting other people's hair. One day he meets Mushiyanokouji Iwai, the "Hair Queen" who cannot cut her hair because of an inherited curse. Kiri discovers that a pair of scissors belonging to one of his murderous ancestors, "Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge" is the only thing that can cut Iwai's hair. But unknown to him, their meeting sparks the beginning of a contest to kill the Hair Queen using the cursed tools, the "Killing Goods." Can Kiri protect Iwai from the other owners of the Killing Goods?



It's awesome because: One day I'll come across a survival game series with crazy people and bizarre scenes that I end up disliking. Until then, this is just another one to add to the pile of successful ventures. The early chapters are strangely touching (and almost poetic at times) in the interplay between the two leads, but things soon degenerate into hammer murderers, syringes and other charming objects you'd expect to see in a survival setting. That said, there's notably less 'action' or clear direction to it than other series of the same type, for better or worse.

The other manga I came in her to post is Hotel. Which is also the main character!  Nice classic sci-fi story.  Think WALL-E but not Pixar happy happy for kids.
I read this a while back and it's probably the best one-shot I've read to date. Didn't realise there were other stories in the compilation until now though.

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Re: Manga topic: and also probably titles you never even heard of~
« Reply #33 on: March 29, 2012, 02:24:52 AM »
Did any of you read Bartender?

Well, let me tell you about Bartender that isn't about decanting at such heights....

http://mangafox.me/manga/sommeliere/

Female version, and frankly I love everything about sommeliere since I read it at the bookshops.
it is a beautiful refinement of what women can do at the workplace and that doesn't include baring boobs and letting men grope them. It is a fine addition/sequel story of the original sommelier. 


Welp, now I have a fetish for starry stockings. Anyway this was a pretty decent read. Bit too fanservicey and predictable at times, but the humour makes up for it.


HELP DOCTOR WE HAVE ANOTHER VICTIM.

I know right, this one is truly a fun read all and all.
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