Submitted 3 weeks ago by wjs018@ani.social to manga@ani.social
Another week in the books. Let’s chat about manga in the general discussion thread! Feel free to use this thread for questions, comments, recommendations, etc.
Like normal, please be careful with spoilers. I wrote a guide about spoilers in case you need a refresher on how to handle them (also linked in the sidebar).
I am continuing my trend of checking out new series I find. Some quick impressions:
They are Still Being Shaken This Morning
Halfway through chapter 1 and I already adore this series.
Sort of an overt version of the busdriver in Bus For Two - he’s extremely subtle, but you can tell he knows exactly what’s happening.
It reminds me of an anecdote - one of those perfect little fleeting experiences. I was walking down a mall on a Saturday afternoon, on a break from my job, when I noticed a boy and girl - both about 14 or so - sitting side by side on a bench. And she was radiating “kiss me” so strongly that I swear I could feel it from halfway across the mall. And meanwhile he was just sitting there with his hands clenched between his knees and a panicky look on his face, peering around everywhere but at her. And I sort of chuckled to myself and walked on. And then this guy fell into step beside me, and when I looked at him, he gestured back at them and said, “I remember when I was that stupid too.” I laughed and said, “Yeah - you and me both,” and we went our separate ways.
I’m looking forward to lots of that - thanks for the link. And I haven’t even checked out any of the others yet…
Last week I mentioned that I don’t really read or look for anything new at the moment - this was not entirely true. I did in fact found a few new series recently, I just forgot to write about them. I’ll stick to two titles this time as I already purged all the other ones from my library during the recent cleanup and, truth be told, they weren’t really worth talking about anyway.
Do you like Initial D? Take that but replace Takumi with a female student with no driving experience and WAY more irresponsible attitude (seriously, this woman should not be allowed behind the wheel, let alone get a license) - this is Over Rev! Even art style is pretty similar to Initial D.
I didn’t write about it before as I put it on hold for now but the few chapters I’ve read so far were pretty enjoyable. I’ll definitely post more informed impressions once I read a bit more. It seems promising at the very least.
Princess in the Rough
It’s a manhwa series with an interesting premise (imperial princess grows up almost completely on her own after memories of her birth were wiped from everyone involved), confused execution and very fast pacing. The initial arc is exactly what you can expect and it’s done quite well - princess needs time warming up to people, doesn’t like large groups and has to be taught basic rules of living in civilised society. It’s good.
This arc is quickly followed by a time skip and a switch to a story about princess’ power and her solving problems which could endanger the whole country (if not the world), which in turn is relevant about two times as the story feels the need to go with another, this time longer, time skip leading to paedophilia ending. No, I’m not putting this in spoilers, it doesn’t deserve enough respect for that.
So, at the beginning I mentioned how our MC grew up “almost completely on her own”. She was a newborn baby so she obviously couldn’t make it completely alone - the truth is she was rescued and helped from time to time by a an ice spirit. In this world spirits are people with magical powers and extremely lengthened lifespan - while I’m simplifying a bit, this should be enough for you to figure out where this is going.
MC spent her early years with almost no human contact. She has limited understanding of social norms, doesn’t know the difference between familial and romantic love and see on problem with being in love with a dude few hundred years older than her who also took care of her as a baby. The final arc is about MC being in love with “Mr. Spirit” and him realising he’s also in love with her. It’s gross, it’s badly done and I hate it.
I could do a better write-up or at least clean it up to make it sound less like messy rambling but I wont. This story had multiple interesting ideas it could do something worthwhile with but it decided to sprint through them to jump straight into one of the worst possible story beats it could’ve taken. Such a waste of time and effort.
Unboxious@ani.social 3 weeks ago
Last Monday someone from my Japanese conversation club lent me some volumes of What Do You Call This Trash? they pulled off a shelf at random in a bookstore in Japan. It was kinda crazy. The situation at the start of chapter 1 is that the main character’s older brother has broken up with his girlfriend. Knowing that the main character is into her, the older brother’s crazy ex asks him for help stalking his older brother in exchange for things like being given the chance to hold her hand. It’s an absolute mess - a bit like watching a trainwreck in real time, or perhaps “trash fire” would be the more appropriate term here. But you know what? I enjoyed both volumes of it. Would recommend to anyone looking for that specific kind of story.