What manga are you currently reading?

[noodles]

Yotsuba Volume 10! o/

[Etrian Veteran]

[Kimiko]

It looks really interesting. I wish there were an anime of it.

[noodles]

there would be if the mangaka didnt expressly ask for it not to happen

[Kimiko]

Did they give a reason? Is it some kind of manga that wouldn't work animated?

[noodles]

Yeah, I think he just said it works best as a manga

[Etrian Veteran]

It really does, I don't think I'd enjoy it as much if it were an anime. Not to say I'd dislike it though.

[Kinokokao]

read last night:

Kabuki 2 (Red)

Not nearly as good as the first volume. The continuing adventures of Kageya and Kounosuke. Art still weird. Lots of funny moments, though. I liked the first volume better. I'm hesitating over getting the 3rd and 4th volumes. I probably will, but I just placed a large order for the rest of Let Dai, so I'll wait.

Rabbit Man, Tiger Man 2

OH MY GOD CLIFFHANGER

I thought this series was just two volumes and, nope, it's three! ARRRGGGHHHHH WHAAAAAT no way, is what I was screaming. Such a cliffhanger. Utterly adorable. I fucking love this series, it's so super cute. SUPER SUPER CUTE. Love it.

Just. Really need the next volume. Hopefully it'll be published, licensed, and translated soon. One can only hope!

Weekend Lovers

Anthology. First two stories were with the same characters, and I liked it a lot. Next two stories were darker in tone and contained some weird S&M-sorta elements; I did not like these. Last two stories were much funnier and cute. I liked them.

Main/title story, Weekend Lovers, is a very cute story about a salary-man uke and his younger seme (7 year age difference, so, I think it was like 32 and 25). Uke is all refined and professional, and they're both busy with work, so they only see each other a few weekends a month. When the uke's glasses get accidentally broken, he betrays a cute, dependent side due to his fuzzy vision. Really simple plot, but I liked it.

Art was very good as well. I didn't pay much for it, so, I was pleased enough with the purchase.

[Vinci]

Been reading Ruruoni Kenshin, its pretty interesting.

[fauxsquared]

The manga is an underrated classic read. Good choice.

[Kinokokao]

Private Teacher volume 1 by Yuu Moegi

This is actually 3 separate stories in 1 volume. Not quite an anthology, no, but definitely not what I was expecting. I don't know if the second volume is just the Private Teacher storyline or if it continues the other ones. I'll just have to find out I guess.

Private Teacher is the title story and is 3 chapters. It features the blonde student uke and the dark haired tutor/university student seme on the cover.

First chapter had weird art. Like the detail, toner, and actual line work is good, but the style was a bit off, especially the eyes and shoulders/hands -- a little too pointed and angled for my tastes. The art did improve over the course of the volume, so, on the whole I'll give the art a passing grade. I'm not quite sure how to explain the nuance of what I mean anyway. Oh well. It's better art than most, once she straightened out the strangeness of the first 25 pages. I suppose that's to be expected given this is a debut work.

Plot was very simple. Tutor is pervy and hard to read. Student gets fucked. Tada, that's pretty much the set up. There wasn't much emotional depth to the characters, either, but by the third chapter she was trying to insert more personality into them, so... I see how things can get better/improve -- I'm intrigued enough to get the second volume, at least. Also it's very smutty. Not Finder-levels of smut, but, every 25 pages there were graphic, detailed sex scenes. It's like no one could just hug and cuddle, and we had to get real close looks at the squishy details. Yeah, uh, that's a bit much for me. I don't like smut.

Yet I'm going to get the second volume, because that's just how I roll. Wat.

Second story was Complex 18, about two childhood friends. Seme is a super model student, all sweet-smiling and gentle in public. He's stern and bossy in private to Nao, his BFF. We find out this is because he likes Nao (big surprise) and of course this means they have to have sex. Or something like that. I wasn't very interested in these characters.

Third story was ... uh, something like... "Falling in Love is XXX" or whatever. Slacker student seme has a crush on his strict, refined tsundere teacher uke. I really liked these characters and their story. They had the most depth, I felt, and the most dynamic relationship. I enjoyed the power-play and reverse relationship aspects. I hope their story gets continued in the second volume, I see a lot of potential for them.



The Color of Love by Kiyo Ueda

This is an anthology. Normally I don't like anthologies.

This one, however, blew me out of the goddamn water. Holy crap this was amazing. This is the best anthology I've ever read in my entire life. Anyone of these stories could have been made into a full volume story, but I never felt like any of them were cut too short. There was so much emotional depth and plot layering. Her storytelling ability was amazing, given the restriction in length. I really can't gush enough how much I enjoyed this volume.

Art is really beautiful. The final story is her debut work, so it's rougher than the others, but even still it's got very clean lines, expressive, emotional faces... Very good art. I love her style, especially the eyes.

I'll summarize each story briefly:

1st story is the title story. High schooler Nao realizes he is in love with his best friend Taira but is afraid to admit his feelings.

2nd story was my absolute favorite. I loved loved loved it. Sasaki turns up in the doorway of his old college senpai Maki, who he's been nursing an unrequited crush on for years. Sasaki isn't his type, so Maki has always turned him down, but when he lets Sasaki stay with him for a while, he thinks that maybe his ideal type isn't so ideal. (There's a lot more to it than that. I was shocked at how much plot and depth got crammed into this story! So amazing)

3rd story is a very short one about two best friends in college. One of them confessed to the other in high school and got rejected, but they stayed friends. Now the former object of affection -- his supposedly straight friend -- is asking that they go out.

4th story is about a bellhop and concierge at a hotel. Bellhop is out to all his co-workers and admires the pretty smile of the concierge -- who hates homosexuals, and is always cold to him.

5th story is about two high school best friends who are live-together boyfriends in college. Uke considers his glasses to be magic -- when he takes them off, his blurry vision lets him pretend it isn't his best friend making love to him. Seme admitted his feelings in high school and gave an ultimatum -- go out with me, or never see me again, because we can't be "just friends." This was another story with a ton of plot that I really enjoyed.

Last story is rather silly and simple and deals with a love triangle between two best friends and the girl one of them likes. It was the author's debut work. It's cute. ^^; But not as good as the others.

Following the author's afterword is a very short omake story of the characters from the Color of Love going on a hot springs vacation.

[scy]

Medaka Box 140 [END] -



Goddamn, that payoff. Goddamn. <3 <3 <3 Can't believe that Nisio managed to wrap it all up by April and with that. The fourth-wall breaking was probably overly done (seriously, I think Bakuman has said manga less times than we had in this chapter). What a way to end the serialization...

Wait, what do you mean it's still going? Oh. Time for the harem route unlocked shitty romcom!



God I hope the anime gets this far. Even if it skips through things (Class 13 -> Minus Class -> Succession).

...actually, in retrospect, that's actually basically every arc.

Who am I kidding, it'll probably just get to the end of the first arc.

[PLA]

^ SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!

[Curry-Kohai]

volume 1 and 2.

[noodles]