picked up some new manga
PostPosted:Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:50 pm
Picked up a couple of the rare stuff I was looking for at the bookstore last time I dropped by.
Erementar Gerad Red volume 16 (Elemental Galade) - Recently I've noticed people refer to this series as fan service heavy. Well, since the series mandates at least one new female character EVERY VOLUME that's kind of unavoidable. Azuma Mayumi does a good job making the way too many to keep track of girl characters all look sort of unique, though to be fair by volume 16 I still only know like 3 out of the 55 female characters in the story.
Anyway, Elemental Galade is basically like Star Ocean 2 + 50 other girls. You got these things called Edel Raids (I seriously wonder if the R is supposed to be a L here) who can only be female and can transform into weapons of massive destruction (and each volume has to have at least one new Edel Raid), and the main character is some guy who picked up one of the 7 legendary Edel Raids named Ren and now must save the world from certain destruction or something. I skipped a few volumes in between (can't find them anywhere) so I'm not sure if the girl that's always locked up in a birdcage has a name yet, but presumably she's one of the 7 and presumably the final opponent.
On a side note, the Chinese version translated like every suggestive term (the user of an Edel Raid is that Edel Raid's Pleasure, for example) into generic magical girl speak, so the Chinese version is surprisingly clean. It's really not clear to me why this turn out the way it does because all the battle stuff and the story has pretty good substance so it's not like they needed all this.
Saint Seiya G volume 16 - In all honesty Saint Seiya: Lost Canva is much better, but it's kind of boring to read something you already know the outcome since it is a prequel, sort of like playing Lufia 2 knowing Maxim is already going to die anyway. It's not too good but not horrible, though sometimes I wish the power of darkness doesn't refer to having pages where it is so dark you can't even tell if something is happening.
Other weekly stuff:
GTO - After a dubious start, GTO went back with tried-and-true method of just gaming and violence with no nerdy girls involved, which, to quote my friend, 'it's like Doraemon, it can literally go on forever.' It's pretty mindless, but it's also pretty fun.
Bleach - Aizen's 'short departure' from the story finally ends after at least an year of real life time. Makes you wonder how long will he be missing if he was going away for a while. On the bright side this means something might actually happen, or maybe we'll just have more flashback or a change of scenery.
One Piece - So again we found out the Warden who uses the uncureable poison that should totally kill you never kills anybody because everyone and his dog has the antidote to an uncureable poison. I guess it's not as bad as getting hit by an atomic bomb and walking away with just a flesh wound, but I don't know how much longer OP can continue this nonsense 'nobody dies and everyone is happy' world.
Apparently in the American version of Yugioh, there was one episode where the two guys got tied to something with a chain saw that will saw off the feet of the loser, and it was said in the American version those chain saw are just spiritual chainsaws that will take the loser's spirit to the Shadowrealm as opposed to actually removing a limb since it'd be too violent for kids (not that any of the participants got hurt anyway). I think OP is getting awfully close to this.
Naruto - I noticed Naruto actually passed up One Piece on Shonen Jump on popularity as of last week. To be fair, Naruto has been decent recently, while OP just sucked, so I guess that's well deserved.
Erementar Gerad Red volume 16 (Elemental Galade) - Recently I've noticed people refer to this series as fan service heavy. Well, since the series mandates at least one new female character EVERY VOLUME that's kind of unavoidable. Azuma Mayumi does a good job making the way too many to keep track of girl characters all look sort of unique, though to be fair by volume 16 I still only know like 3 out of the 55 female characters in the story.
Anyway, Elemental Galade is basically like Star Ocean 2 + 50 other girls. You got these things called Edel Raids (I seriously wonder if the R is supposed to be a L here) who can only be female and can transform into weapons of massive destruction (and each volume has to have at least one new Edel Raid), and the main character is some guy who picked up one of the 7 legendary Edel Raids named Ren and now must save the world from certain destruction or something. I skipped a few volumes in between (can't find them anywhere) so I'm not sure if the girl that's always locked up in a birdcage has a name yet, but presumably she's one of the 7 and presumably the final opponent.
On a side note, the Chinese version translated like every suggestive term (the user of an Edel Raid is that Edel Raid's Pleasure, for example) into generic magical girl speak, so the Chinese version is surprisingly clean. It's really not clear to me why this turn out the way it does because all the battle stuff and the story has pretty good substance so it's not like they needed all this.
Saint Seiya G volume 16 - In all honesty Saint Seiya: Lost Canva is much better, but it's kind of boring to read something you already know the outcome since it is a prequel, sort of like playing Lufia 2 knowing Maxim is already going to die anyway. It's not too good but not horrible, though sometimes I wish the power of darkness doesn't refer to having pages where it is so dark you can't even tell if something is happening.
Other weekly stuff:
GTO - After a dubious start, GTO went back with tried-and-true method of just gaming and violence with no nerdy girls involved, which, to quote my friend, 'it's like Doraemon, it can literally go on forever.' It's pretty mindless, but it's also pretty fun.
Bleach - Aizen's 'short departure' from the story finally ends after at least an year of real life time. Makes you wonder how long will he be missing if he was going away for a while. On the bright side this means something might actually happen, or maybe we'll just have more flashback or a change of scenery.
One Piece - So again we found out the Warden who uses the uncureable poison that should totally kill you never kills anybody because everyone and his dog has the antidote to an uncureable poison. I guess it's not as bad as getting hit by an atomic bomb and walking away with just a flesh wound, but I don't know how much longer OP can continue this nonsense 'nobody dies and everyone is happy' world.
Apparently in the American version of Yugioh, there was one episode where the two guys got tied to something with a chain saw that will saw off the feet of the loser, and it was said in the American version those chain saw are just spiritual chainsaws that will take the loser's spirit to the Shadowrealm as opposed to actually removing a limb since it'd be too violent for kids (not that any of the participants got hurt anyway). I think OP is getting awfully close to this.
Naruto - I noticed Naruto actually passed up One Piece on Shonen Jump on popularity as of last week. To be fair, Naruto has been decent recently, while OP just sucked, so I guess that's well deserved.