MANGA SET 1
Well as i was mind-numblingly bored sat with my laptop by my bed listening to some katatonia to pass the time while exchanging commentary with some friends over TeamSpeak i was decidedly gnawwing on my bedside dresser table thing for some sort of mental stimulation, yup i was so bored i was gnawing on something... So anyway looking over at my bag i take to college i then remembered "shit! i bought a new NEO mag today!" (for those that don't know it's a Japanese culture mag that covers anime, manga and asian films). So i dashed over to my bag (admittedly tripping over my microphone cables in the process...it's a stubborn piece of equipment!) and grabbed my new mag, for those that cant be arsed to check the date of this post this issue of NEO is the...*checks* 60th Issue of the NEO mag from...*checks again* July 2009. Now, reading NEO magazine always makes me want to do 3 things:
1. Play JRPGs' into the early hours of the morning until the sun rises and my retinas begin to become one with my vampiric nature (especially JRPG's of series i've never played). However this is overcome by the immediate problem of lack of cash to spend on these things so this hope is extinguished rather quickly after putting down the mag...ntil i turn on my PSP...But anyway...
2. Watch Animes i've never heard of and yes that does include the cute and fluffy ones like Go! Panda! or..whatever it was called (don't look at me i only obssess over this stuff). Although this mainly comes in the form of animes i've neither seen nor heard of due to the crappy stores in my local area...and YES i realise i can order online but i also don't have the money for this (QQ). The lack of money is also accompanied by the fact that i actually /have/ a ton of anime i've been meaning to watch but haven't been able to due to college work and the like; and although i suppose i /could/ be watching them now i like to watch my series in one big CLUMP so i'm not so disappointed when the inevitable filler episode shows up.
3. Buy and read some manga! HURRAY! we've finally moved onto the point of the blog where i'm actually relating to the title Woop!Woop! So yeah i always look at the adverts in neo and be liek "Dewd! that sounds awesome, i'd love to collect and read that series!" or something like that...and also this would be in my head...i don't think i audbly say these things...people would thik i'm wierd...*cough* moving on swiftly...
So anyway when it comes to the first 2 points in the whole reading of NEO money is an issue, games cost up to £40 and take forever to complete (sometimes) and anime series can cost even more (as you may have guessed i'm a box set man). Well i finished reading this issue of neo put it down and though "Hey! i need something to do now before i start nomming on my dresser again!" then i saw them! =O stacked on my book shelf. These were the first manga books in the series Naruto, Claymore & Bleach. I remember getting them actually i think it was after i got back from paris where i had my birthday (turned 18 at disneyland fuck yeah!). My friends had organised an all you can eat thing at the chinese in the middle o' town and i'd been invited (i don't go to stuff i'm not invited to...bad etique in my opinion). One of my closest friends decided he wanted to get me a birthday present...See at this point i was one of those people that only watched anime and didn't look into the whole manga scene for one reason or another...i think my reason at the time was "whats the point if i know whats going to happen anyway?" it's a good arguement but meh..Anyway he presented me with these mangas. He figured manga was the next step to an anime fan and that i would start a collection. So i browsed through them and stuck them on my shelf without reading them properly till a few months later.
Claymore - Book 1
First i started reading Claymore, mainly because out of the three i least remembered the story from the anime so i was more interested (it was my 3rd anime if i recall correctly, the first 2 being Shaman King & Death Note in that order). See i actually found the anime of claymore to have a rather bland backdrop, ya know, no extravagant colours based in a non-magical world where leprechauns and bunnys just didn't popout; although i put that down to the fact that in this anime their heads would have been decapitated split into several thousand pieces, eaten then spewed at the screen for effect but hey that's just what i think. Anyway as i worked my way through the manga i actually found myself enjoying it, not only did it portray how bastard like most people are but it also gave me the pleasure of reading how these said bastard-people were slaughtered like...well...bastard-people. See Claymore is one of those stories that; regardless of how simple it looked, it makes the death of something seem so sweet and beautiful. In the anime (which i recently bought the first 2 volumes of) the first fight scene was kind of...meh...it was okay nothing too special i kinda expected it actually. But i was amazed at how well they portrayed the slaying of this monster in still-colourless picture format, the artist should be proud, it made the whole scene look almost dream-like...ya know...those dreams where you suddenly POWERUP and nuke everything around you with the pure feeling of your hatred...you don't get those? your loss i suppose. Anyway after reading through the story i actually really really liked it! so i watched the episodes on the anime of the manga chapters i'd read and i have to say...i like it so much better on paper...for one thing the subs in the anime are horrible and /yellow/ urghh...it almost made me wanna watch it dubbed but then i heard how Whiny one of the characters was (Raki for those familiar with it) and decided against it. Also like i said the fight scenes in the manga are so much more...EPIC, EXPLOSIVE, GORY & AWESOME that i decided i wanted more...so i've put it on my wishlist for a future collection..Hoooraayyy!! 1/3 down and in only...my god...i had actually read the whole manga in less than 10 minutes i got so into it, short stories with oodles of story in them...i'm starting to like this manga thing...
Bleach - Book 1
Well when i finished reading claymore it musta been...what? 3:30 am or so? and i figured i have...half hour til the sun starts to rise (I HATE the daylight vs night ratio this time of year). So i decided to trundle upstairs replace one manga with another. This time i chose bleach...this is mainly because (before stamping me as a hater i'm on break from both series) between bleach and naruto, naruto was the one which fillers annoyed me the most, i mean i gave naruto a break somewhat just before the end of the crystal user mission arch to leave it for the REAL story to develop a bit and with bleach i left it before the really awesome Captains vs. Aizen battles because i knew i couldn't stand the suspense between the episodes. So anyway yeah i chose Bleach because it was (although both are still awesome) the least annoying of the two. Opening the first page of the manga showed me that this art-style was definately different, it had a much more relaxed atmosphere and background reading this manga and i could already feel a grin spread across my face while working my way through the comedy sketches. All in all this manga took longer to read but i liked it more...was a bit more up-beat and cheery...and of course...the most awesome bit...is the whole "DUDE OMG HE IS LIKE DOUBLE MY LEVELZOR ARGGH DEATH *hero strikes heroic pose*" typical bit in the scene which although you would think would be quite cliché you really don't see it done this well and if you do...you don't see it enough. The animation was awesome and the combat scenes were done really well (i always thought combat in comics was quite difficult to portray...with still pictures and all) i.e the combat didn't leave you thinking "did i skip a page and not notice?". I loved this manga, i stuck it on my wishlist for more manga in this series...Other than that not much to say about it oh! and if my friend is reading this: In the manga he flies in the first book! the anime just didn't have any flying till season 2. Now that's over and done with; onto the last one...
Naruto - Book 1
Right, this one took me over a month to read...it wasn't due to not having time, but i got cautious with naruto since i felt the pacing in the animes was a little off and some of the filler arcs were a bit...well...boring. So i begrudgingly kept this in my trinity blood bag hoping that one day i would completely ignore what i know of this series already and read through this manga with the brightly coloured picture on the front (or back...whatever...).
So this leads us to the current day where i'm nomming on my wooden dresser staring at the half-opened book and thinking that i cant be arsed to read a proper book. Then i glance over at my NEO mag and think "wish i had some cool manga to read..." so my eyes wonder to...my bag...and then the book shaped bulge i see in the front pouch. Aha! a manga...and although i hadn't forgotten anything about the series you'll have to remember that...despite everything...i was so bored i was gnawing at the corner of my dresser... So i forgave my self and picked up this manga opening the first page to a surprisingly nicely drawn picturepage also known as manga. The art was impressive, really impressive it did of course remind me of the anime, but it was sort of what i felt when i saw the animation for naruto:shippuden for the first time after watching the first series one after another for about a week and a half. Put simply: i was in awe, it looked so cool! so i decided to push away my thoughts of how the fillers had irritated me and worked my way through manga. Again, despite being in still image the combat was pretty awesome, and the art still looked awesome, i think one scene i remember the most is when naruto got /seriously/ pissed off and gives off the evil glare while shouting "You hurt my teacher...and i'll kill you" obviously imagining infinite rage flowing from him, then the next scene showing 1000 copies of himself looking equally as pissed off. So i finished the day on a high having read the first story in this manga. The next part of the manga which i read the following day...while waiting for a lift home supplied me still with the feeling that i indeed wanted more, with the quote of the day going to kakashi after he falls into a trap set by naruto as he walks into the classroom. So yeah, not wanting to ruin anything too much to future readers of the manga but this series really is popular for a reason, and even having watched the naruto series as much as i have i was still not disappointed with the manga retelling of the event (which is big for me since i'm one of those people that can't watch the same film twice...).
Well, those are my thoughts and feelings on those matters, haha so i think i'll go play some metal gear solid 4...will probably end up writing something on that at some point. So in conclusion i have added these manga to my "Future Manga Collection List:"
- Claymore
- Bleach
- Naruto
I also went and bought some new mangas but i'm saving them for the long workless weekend so i shan't review them yet, hope i didn't bore ya.
Tara!
