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xparrotSo I am definitely back on an anime & manga kick. Have watched or rewatched a few awesome anime (am inflicting Princess Tutu on the bro now; it remains one of my favorite series of all time. Also the bro keeps calling Drosselmeyer "Dross Whedon" which if you know Tutu and you know Whedon is...way, way too appropriate XDXDXD;;;;;) and I've also been reading manga (my Kindle is great for that, I've found, as long as it's not a series like GetBackers with tons of little tiny illegible text everywhere.)
So, for anyone looking for recs, three entirely different series I've recently devoured. (Mostly spoiler-free reviews/squee - the plot points I mention are mostly from the first volume or so.)
First up, Urasawa Naoki's Monster (there's an anime, too, but I've only read the manga). It's a seinen (adult male-aimed comics) but rather than going for the sex or hyperviolence, Monster is suspense/drama. A brilliant young brain surgeon saves the life of a boy in West Germany in the mid-80s; ten years later the Berlin Wall has fallen, the doctor is a successful head surgeon at a top hospital, and then the boy returns as a serial killer obsessed with his one-time savior.
It's a dark story as you might expect, but it's not pitch-black; there's as much hope as tragedy, with themes of redemption running parallel with the horror. (Not supernatural; minus a bit of behind the iron curtain alt-history stuff it's played straight.) The characters are well-drawn (characterization-wise as well as visually; the art's very solid and fitting to the story) and when the plot gets into gear it's hard to put down.
I also cop to being amused that while most of the cast is German or Czech (...and no, I have no idea how accurate the languages used are, though given most manga's track-record with English I wouldn't get my hopes up) the noble, heroic, idealistic and idealized doctor protagonist is Japanese. (Don't get me wrong, I love Tenma; I'm a sucker for those doctor chars who consistently put saving others' lives over their own. But it's nice to know American authors aren't the only ones guilty of such nationalistic tropes...)
Then there's Katsumoto Kasane's Sono Te wo Dokero (aka Hands Off!), an 8-volume shoujo manga about three psychically gifted high school boys. I'd read this a few years ago when it was coming out in English; reread it now and aww, I love this series so dang much. It's absolutely ridiculous angst-fluff, with more brooding boys and friendship and hurt/comfort than you can shake a stick at. The ridiculousness is less in the psychic element (I really like how all their powers are handled; they're atypical and original) and more in the plots - one soon starts to wonder about the crime-rate in Japan; how many times can one boy possibly get kidnapped in a month? But who cares when it's this cute.
I'm not always big into the bishounen shoujo (it's really hit-or-miss for me; I love shoujo HS romance but the borderline-not-quite BL stuff like Yami no Matsuei sometimes leaves me cold) but Sono Te hits me right in my squishy fangirl id. The series is super-slashy without quite being slash - Katsumoto's done some BL, but the lead boy of Sono Te, while physically tiny and often mistaken for a girl - much to his dismay - has a girlfriend (who I rather love - she's a grade older and taller than him, and they start dating because she asks him out, as she notices he's absolutely adorable. I like a girl who knows what she likes and goes for it!) His cousin's feelings, now, are rather more ambiguous; but Tatsuki's got enough other issues, what with being tortured by a power he never wanted. And then there's Yuuto, who I have to adore, as Yuuto is basically Sha Gojyo if Gojyo were an aura-reading high school student (down to the long red hair); he's a flippant playboy and a terrible tease who absolutely loves his friends and will do anything for them.
So, yeah, the story's basically fanfic-level hardcore emo-porn, and I love it. I also love Katsumoto's art; she's got this sketchy loose fluid style that's really dynamic and emotional - the action can be hard to follow at times, but it's got so much feeling. And by feeling I mean AWWWWW:
Last is the BL classic Love Mode, which is...well, if you like Boys Love you probably know it already, and if BL's not your genre then I don't think this one would change your mind. Most of the relationships are questionable at best (two of the main couples are an adult seme with a teenage boy uke) and there's dubcon elements to a lot of the sex (the outright rape is generally perpetrated by the bad guys, but there's accidental - or "accidental" - dosing with aphrodisiacs - more than once - not to mention the stories concern the trials and tribulations of the owners and employees of an exclusive male-to-male escort service, so...) And its mood swings wildly between comedic raburabu and outrageous tragic angst.
That being said, I love it, partly because when in the right mood I'm a sucker for unabashed BL (I can't explain why; it's a cross between the entertainment I get from crazily OTT OOC badfic and an appeal to my highly questionable romantic sensibilities) and partly because it's got Haruomi x Kiichi, which hits all my crazy messed-up codependent OTP buttons. In BL I nearly always prefer the seme chars (the uber-seme especially; I do gravitate to the badasses) but there's a particular dominating, manipulative, just-this-side-of-a-complete-emotional-basket-case uke type that often gets me (see my own boy Quest, down to the long hair and glasses) and Kiichi's an archetypal example.
And now, speaking of Quest, gotta get back to that writing; I've got a quota to fill...!
So, for anyone looking for recs, three entirely different series I've recently devoured. (Mostly spoiler-free reviews/squee - the plot points I mention are mostly from the first volume or so.)
First up, Urasawa Naoki's Monster (there's an anime, too, but I've only read the manga). It's a seinen (adult male-aimed comics) but rather than going for the sex or hyperviolence, Monster is suspense/drama. A brilliant young brain surgeon saves the life of a boy in West Germany in the mid-80s; ten years later the Berlin Wall has fallen, the doctor is a successful head surgeon at a top hospital, and then the boy returns as a serial killer obsessed with his one-time savior.
It's a dark story as you might expect, but it's not pitch-black; there's as much hope as tragedy, with themes of redemption running parallel with the horror. (Not supernatural; minus a bit of behind the iron curtain alt-history stuff it's played straight.) The characters are well-drawn (characterization-wise as well as visually; the art's very solid and fitting to the story) and when the plot gets into gear it's hard to put down.
I also cop to being amused that while most of the cast is German or Czech (...and no, I have no idea how accurate the languages used are, though given most manga's track-record with English I wouldn't get my hopes up) the noble, heroic, idealistic and idealized doctor protagonist is Japanese. (Don't get me wrong, I love Tenma; I'm a sucker for those doctor chars who consistently put saving others' lives over their own. But it's nice to know American authors aren't the only ones guilty of such nationalistic tropes...)
Then there's Katsumoto Kasane's Sono Te wo Dokero (aka Hands Off!), an 8-volume shoujo manga about three psychically gifted high school boys. I'd read this a few years ago when it was coming out in English; reread it now and aww, I love this series so dang much. It's absolutely ridiculous angst-fluff, with more brooding boys and friendship and hurt/comfort than you can shake a stick at. The ridiculousness is less in the psychic element (I really like how all their powers are handled; they're atypical and original) and more in the plots - one soon starts to wonder about the crime-rate in Japan; how many times can one boy possibly get kidnapped in a month? But who cares when it's this cute.
I'm not always big into the bishounen shoujo (it's really hit-or-miss for me; I love shoujo HS romance but the borderline-not-quite BL stuff like Yami no Matsuei sometimes leaves me cold) but Sono Te hits me right in my squishy fangirl id. The series is super-slashy without quite being slash - Katsumoto's done some BL, but the lead boy of Sono Te, while physically tiny and often mistaken for a girl - much to his dismay - has a girlfriend (who I rather love - she's a grade older and taller than him, and they start dating because she asks him out, as she notices he's absolutely adorable. I like a girl who knows what she likes and goes for it!) His cousin's feelings, now, are rather more ambiguous; but Tatsuki's got enough other issues, what with being tortured by a power he never wanted. And then there's Yuuto, who I have to adore, as Yuuto is basically Sha Gojyo if Gojyo were an aura-reading high school student (down to the long red hair); he's a flippant playboy and a terrible tease who absolutely loves his friends and will do anything for them.
So, yeah, the story's basically fanfic-level hardcore emo-porn, and I love it. I also love Katsumoto's art; she's got this sketchy loose fluid style that's really dynamic and emotional - the action can be hard to follow at times, but it's got so much feeling. And by feeling I mean AWWWWW:
Last is the BL classic Love Mode, which is...well, if you like Boys Love you probably know it already, and if BL's not your genre then I don't think this one would change your mind. Most of the relationships are questionable at best (two of the main couples are an adult seme with a teenage boy uke) and there's dubcon elements to a lot of the sex (the outright rape is generally perpetrated by the bad guys, but there's accidental - or "accidental" - dosing with aphrodisiacs - more than once - not to mention the stories concern the trials and tribulations of the owners and employees of an exclusive male-to-male escort service, so...) And its mood swings wildly between comedic raburabu and outrageous tragic angst.
That being said, I love it, partly because when in the right mood I'm a sucker for unabashed BL (I can't explain why; it's a cross between the entertainment I get from crazily OTT OOC badfic and an appeal to my highly questionable romantic sensibilities) and partly because it's got Haruomi x Kiichi, which hits all my crazy messed-up codependent OTP buttons. In BL I nearly always prefer the seme chars (the uber-seme especially; I do gravitate to the badasses) but there's a particular dominating, manipulative, just-this-side-of-a-complete-emotional-basket-case uke type that often gets me (see my own boy Quest, down to the long hair and glasses) and Kiichi's an archetypal example.
And now, speaking of Quest, gotta get back to that writing; I've got a quota to fill...!
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Date: 2011-01-24 05:18 am (UTC)And yes, quota, work on that!! ^_-
Also, *cough* G-defend *cough*
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Date: 2011-01-24 05:48 am (UTC)And yes, yes, G-defend, I know (wish Japanese were easier to read! XP)
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Date: 2011-01-24 06:55 am (UTC)MONSTER is the only manga that I'll put on the same level as One Piece--but, of course, it helps that I read the whole thing in a matter of, like, three days and in the middle of the night at the time, so I was a little shaky by the time it was done and I don't think any other horror manga ever managed to do that for me.
Love Mode... objectively, I get why it might not appeal to everyone, but Kiichi really made that manga for me. I originally fell for him because of his devilish personality (and Reiji's rageful reactions to Kiichi messing with him) but all the shit Kiichi went through? Hit pretty much every button I had. (It helps, too, that Kiichi has the strongest ties to characters beyond just his OTP--you really could just about ship Tien Li/Kiichi and Reiji/Kiichi pretty seriously, too.) Also, I like that Kiichi's storyline made emotional sense, especially when you go back to read the earlier scenes with him, you suddenly GET all the little subtle things you missed before. I appreciate that a lot in a manga.
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Date: 2011-01-24 07:14 am (UTC)Love Mode I'd read half of a while back, but the scanlations I had then vanished somewhere around v.8-9. So this was my first time reading the whole thing, and yeeeeah, Kiichi pushes so many buttons; he's so messed up but he...hides it? Only not exactly, because he's a crazy bastard (omg what a scary doctor I can't even); but considering his history it makes total sense that he's got such, erm, special ways of showing his affection.
I gotta admit, too, I really liked the final-volume reveal with that flashback moment of ~almost~ with Reiji/Kiichi - I don't ship them (I am pretty hardcore OTP with the Haruomi/Kiichi, even if Haruomi probably deserves better XP) but it makes sense with who they are and how they grew up, and, like you said, explains that edge that's always between them. It felt like something the mangaka had known was true between them all along. And also...I don't know how to explain it, but when it comes to incest in BL/fic, it's usually this all-or-nothing thing....like, either you have siblings who love each other entirely fraternally (if obsessively) and there's no question of anything else; or it's an erotic relationship and that colors everything. It's interesting to see it as an unrealized element that's there but not everything - the Aoe brothers still have a strong (if a bit screwed up) fraternal relationship and it's neither because of or besides what other feelings might have existed.
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Date: 2011-01-24 09:07 am (UTC)...I started reading MONSTER once. Freaked myself out and had to stop XD
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Date: 2011-01-24 09:16 am (UTC)I'd say Monster is worth the ride, but yeah, ymmv!
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Date: 2011-01-26 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 03:31 pm (UTC)(I might have to look into Sono Te, thanks for the rec!)
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Date: 2011-01-24 10:39 pm (UTC)Sono Te is great fun, hope you enjoy it~!
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Date: 2011-01-25 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 08:41 pm (UTC)Clearly I should read MONSTER, since I adore both Sono Te and Love Mode....thanks for the rec!
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Date: 2011-01-24 10:42 pm (UTC)Just to be clear, absolutely the only thing that MONSTER has in common with Sono Te & Love Mode is that I like them all. But it is a great series!
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Date: 2011-01-24 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 03:30 am (UTC)(I actually bought a bunch of Katsumoto's other manga while I was in Japan - she mostly does short stuff, 1-2 volumes, so I don't think a lot of it's been licensed or translated. What I read was cute - maybe I should scanlate some ^^)
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Date: 2011-01-25 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 06:04 am (UTC)Shall start on Wolf & Spice as have been told it's good. Other then that?? Fic hunting! I love all the new stuff when you've been out for a while and re-entering!
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Date: 2011-01-25 06:28 am (UTC)Wolf & Spice I've never heard of - I was planning on checking out Baccano and Durarara next ^^
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Date: 2011-01-25 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-25 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-25 06:39 am (UTC)(...now I am thinking about Kiichi meeting DRRR's Shinra. Eheheh yeah that would probably be trouble for anyone in the Tokyo city limits...)