laceblade

My backlog of books is approaching the land of ridiculous, so I'm trying to weed through it before I have to move again next summer. I'm starting with all of my manga, because they go more quickly than everything else.

I'm focusing on this to the point of almost ignoring my book clubs, so we'll see how it goes. Anyway, I thought my decisions about whether to keep or sell the manga would be an interesting way to do a review.

Trigun, vol. 1-2; Trigun Maximum, vol. 1-4 by Yasuhiro Nightow - Just as good a time as the TV show, although the plot goes past the TV show, and is different. I'll be keeping these.

Otogi Zoshi, vol. 1-2 by Narumi Seto - These serve as a prelude to the anime, which I thought was decent until everyone was reincarnated halfway-through. The manga was not nearly as good as the show, though. I'll be getting rid of these.

Bird Kiss, vol. 1-2 by Eun Ah Park - Didn't like these! Will be pitching.

Little Queen, vol. 1-2 by Yeon-Joo Kim - Loved these! The art is gorgeous! This series is one of many to have recently been discontinued by Tokyopop. Yesterday at work, I ordered volumes 3-8, which was scraping the bottom of the warehouse barrel in all six cases. At least I will get all of them, unlike Tramps Like Us, which has disappeared from warehouses. I will be stalked the used bookstores to get the ones I don't have....

The World Exists for Me, vol. 1-2 by Be-Pepas and Chiho Saito - From the creators of Revolutionary Girl Utena.....a retelling of a story related to Joan of Arc! This one was weird and a bit creepy, and I will not be keeping it.

East Coast Rising, vol. 1 by Becky Cloonan - Ehhh, no. I like post-apocalyptic East Coast U.S.A. in comics better when it's DMZ by Brian Wood. I'll be selling it.

Divalicious!, vol. 1 by T. Campbell and Amy Mebberson - I've been following Mebberson's work on the Internet for a long time, and like it a lot, but I pretty much loathed this. Will be selling it.

Kare Kano, vol. 1-3 by Masami Tsuda - Yukino Miyazawa is perfect: she is beautiful, helpful and kind to everyone, and always has first place in school. However, her "I'm perfect!" persona is all an act for a greedy girl who lives off of praise. At home, she cackles to herself in her room about how she deceives everyone else. Until one day, when Soichiro Arima shows up, and his scores and perfection seem to rival her own. The two fall in love almost immediately, and are together by the end of the first volume. The rest of the series focuses on both their relationship and those of their friends.
I am kind of ambivalent as to whether or not I'll keep the series/whether I like the series. I love Yukino, but I hate Arima. And yes, I've been warned that the end of the manga is TERRIBLE/HORRIBLE. I'll wait until I've read all of it to decide whether to keep my random volumes or not.
I did find the first two volumes of the series on DVD a couple of weeks ago, for $3 each. So no matter how I end up feeling about the manga, I will try the anime as well.
Random Story: This was the first non-magical school girl shojo manga I ever read (I only read the first two volumes at the time). I remember being angry, wondering when Yukino was going to transform into a cute outfit and fight evil, like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura. Since that time, I've discovered a deeper appreciation for reality-based shojo manga, :)

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Series I've read from the library lately:

Her Majesty's Dog, vol. 1 by Mick Takeuchi - LOVE THIS! The protagonist reminds me of Sailor Mars. And....yeah. I have nothing to express except for incoherent love.

Bound Beauty, vol. 1 by Mick Takeuchi - Didn't love this. It seems like it's one girl surrounded by bishounen who fight spirits in different ways. Annnnnd, I'm bored.

Pluto, vol. 4 by Naoki Urasawa/Osamu Tezuka - Still love this series. I read the first three volumes of Astro Boy a while back for context. I still remain underwhelmed by Tezuka himself, but LOVE Urasawa times one billion.

After School Nightmare, vol. 10 by Setona Mizushiro - The end was okay, but I liked the earlier volumes of this series a lot more.

Kimi ni Todoke, vol. 1 by Karuho Shiina - A creepy girl who's always made fun of by others (she looks like the girl from The Ring) and has no social skills is impressed by an effervescent boy who's popular. By spening time with him, she undergoes a transformation that I find a lot more credible (and less creepy) than, say, The Wallflower. And it's because the protagonist's changes are not physical. Instead, she starts realizing that conversations with other people can go well if she actually expresses herself.
I think that this is airing as an anime right now in Japan, and I would like to check it out!

IN CONCLUSION: I am still very upset that the Shojo Beat magazine went under. :[