Hangout MH Seinen Hangout

[MattC302]

I heard the English version of Blade of The Immortal published by Dark Horse chops up and rearranges the panels so it can be read from left to right without "flopping" the pages. Is this true?


I'm on volume 12 of 20th Century Boys and I am loving it. It's better than or equal to Pluto as of now. Let's see how it ends. I've heard some negative things about the latter half of the story. In fact, I was told not to read beyond volume 15.

 

[igotthegoods]

@bb - I recommend that you read BotI ASAP! I'm about halfway through volume 10 and I really love it. The story is very engaging, and as far as GAR main characters go, Manji is right up there with Guts. The main antagonist is very cool and complex, too. Kaylee and Xophy always used to rave about how awesome he was as a "bad" guy, way back in the day and now I'm finding out that they are totally right. I'm interested to hear your take on the art, though, since I know you can be kind of picky about this. I personally love the sketchy style and think it complements the story perfectly.

@Matt - You heard right about BotI. The volumes I've dl'ed and read so far are all supposed to be read left to right. It's a bit weird to adjust to, but isn't so bad. I still prefer to read in the original format whenever possible.

Regarding 20CB, I liked the later volumes, though maybe not quite as much as the beginning. The story probably dragged on a little more than it should have toward the end. But stopping an Urasawa work at any point would feel almost torturous, imo, so I don't know if I would recommend that. His use of suspense always keeps you wanting more. I actually preferred 20CB to Pluto overall, but liked that Pluto was a more compact story.

 

[Kaiten]

Really. Ever since you've been sporting the Blade of the Immortal sigs, i'd been meaning to read it too. I have the first volume with me but I haven't touched it yet.

You'd like it. Combine everything that is good about Vagabond and Berserk, and you get BoTi. The art reminds me of Shingeki no Kyojin, but with a better understanding of anatomy.

The only thing about reading flipped manga is it is weird transitioning back and forth. A new chapter of something will come out, and I have to switch back to reading from right to left.

 

[baboysai]

Ah but I do experience that when reading manga then switching to manwha so... it's nothing new, I guess. :/

 

[MattC302]

I just finished volume 15 of 20th Century Boys. I really love this series. I'm almost certain I could read anything by Urasawa and like it. Now I play the waiting game. Fortunately, the next volume comes out mid August and the one after that in October. Hopefully Viz completes the series in a timely manner. I have to start saving up for Monster too.

Other Seinen series I plan on buying in the coming months:
-Akira
-Eden: It's An Endless World
-Vagabond Vizbig editions

Those 3 for sure. Maybe these too if I can find it in my budget:
-Genshiken
-A Zoo In Winter
-REAL
-Solanin
-7 Billion Needles
-The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

 

[Roflkopt3r]

You'd like it. Combine everything that is good about Vagabond and Berserk, and you get BoTi. The art reminds me of Shingeki no Kyojin, but with a better understanding of anatomy.

The only thing about reading flipped manga is it is weird transitioning back and forth. A new chapter of something will come out, and I have to switch back to reading from right to left.

I'm only in Ch. 23 yet and it is pretty good, but far from Vagabond and further from Berserk to be honest. Still seriously worth reading and with a very own note, very likeable.

 

[baboysai]

I'd like to read REAL but is it on hiatus as well?

 

[Kaiten]

REAL is like Berserk, Inoue only writes about a volume a year. From what I can tell. Illuminati scans by the volume too, so new releases are timed with tankobon releases, rather than from mag raws. It is not on indefinite hiatus like Vagabond though.

---------- Post added August 03, 2011 at 06:05 PM ---------- Previous post was July 24, 2011 at 02:18 PM ----------

It's been a little over a year but I am happy to say that new releases of Desert Punk came out today! Anyone looking for a cool, post-apocalyptic action manga with lot's of black humor should check it out. The anime was pretty popular a while back IIRC. Certainly better known than the manga it's based on. I definitely give it a high recommendation and am semi-fanboying over having two more volumes to read.

 

[baboysai]

Well, I'll add that to my t0-read list.

 

[Kaiten]

Well, if being in seinen magazine is enough for a manga to be considered seinen then yeah, it's seinen alright. But to me the main criteria is the amount of realism and characters that you end up caring about because you forget they're just manga characters. Desert Punk is IMO a border-line title, something like Trigun where there is an equality between joking around (and sometimes cartoonish behavior) and serious moments (and for slightly different reasons I consider Claymore as border-line title too). Also anime is considered as shounen title. On the other hand Arms Peddler so far has more stupid plot than Naruto and it being a seinen is a joke (the same goes for Ubel Blatt) IMO. But yeah, in shounen he wouldn't be allowed to show boobs so technically it's seinen.

Magazine is the only criteria for determining demographic. Shounen, seinen, shoujo, and josei are marketing terms applied to the magazines with the titles contained defaulting to whatever group the magazine is aimed at. Publishers apply the designation themselves. Content, genre, and quality are not taken into consideration when deciding who to market towards. K-On is as family friendly a manga as you could find, but because it is in Manga Times Kirara it is seinen. Manga Times Kirara specializes in moe, 4Koma with most readers otaku over the age of 18. While the content may be safe for younger readers, most readers are older, so it is designated seinen. Jump SQ is designated shounen even though they allow manga, such as To Love Ru darkness, to contain nudity. Most of Jump SQ's readers are older teens so they designate it shounen. International audiences put made these terms more important and subjective than they really are. They are publisher designated terms used for marketing purposes only. What is and what is not a specific demographic is decided by the publisher; readers, advertiser, and retail opinion does not matter.

Seinen, shounen, shoujo, and josei are manga industry terms and are not used in regards to anime. Like all television shows, time slot is the primary marketing designation. Weekend morning, weekday afternoon, and late night determine what age group is marketed to. Gender is implied not explicit like it is with magazines.

 

[MattC302]

Anyone reading Wandering Son? I couldn't find a thread for it. It's absolutely brilliant so far.

 

[igotthegoods]

I haven't tried it out yet, but it's on my wish list. Feel free to make a thread for it if you want to discuss. ^^

 

[Kaiten]

Same with me, it's been on my wish list for years but I keep putting it off >.>

If the reviews are to be believed it is a masterpiece though. At some point I should order book one from Amazon. I don't think there is a thread either. Go ahead and start one.

 

[Galactic Tomahawk]

Started reading Emma and Otoyomegatari, I've been meaning to read Emma for years and a couple of my friends have been reccing Otoyome lately so I figured now was as good a time as any to check them out.

Glad I finally did because they're both great.

 

[MattC302]

Started reading Emma and Otoyomegatari, I've been meaning to read Emma for years and a couple of my friends have been reccing Otoyome lately so I figured now was as good a time as any to check them out.

Glad I finally did because they're both great.

I just recently finished Emma and I LOVED it. I also bought the first volume of Otoyomegatari a while back and I loved that too. I can't wait until volume 2 comes out in October. I also read Shirley and Shirley Madison. Mori Kaoru is one of my favorite mangaka now. I will read anything by her.

 

[Kaiten]

I still have not read Emma but love Otoyomegatari. I still need to read chapter 19, will get to that after class tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 02:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:23 AM ----------

There is a very lonely discussion thread, for anyone who wants to discuss new chapters: http://mangahelpers.com/forum/showt...gatari-by-Mori-Kaoru?highlight=Otoyome+Gatari

 

[baboysai]

Who posted about Wandering Son? I started watching the anime and thought it was brilliant too! I'd been trying to convince some people here >.> to watch it but to no avail. *cough*

I thought the anime was very well made. But I'm 6 episodes in so whatever. Then I got impatient and tried to switch to manga instead, which- reading got put on hold after being busy with RL and stuff.

 

[MattC302]

Who posted about Wandering Son? I started watching the anime and thought it was brilliant too! I'd been trying to convince some people here >.> to watch it but to no avail. *cough*

I thought the anime was very well made. But I'm 6 episodes in so whatever. Then I got impatient and tried to switch to manga instead, which- reading got put on hold after being busy with RL and stuff.

You should come post in the Wandering Son thread when you catch up with the manga.

 

[Kaiten]

A couple of days ago I started reading Shamo. It took me about two volumes to get into but after volume three I'm addicted. It's insanely brutal but incredibly well written and fast paced. Anyone offended by violence and adult situations should skip it, otherwise I highly recommend reading it.

 

[Drmke]

I started Shamo years ago...read volume one and stopped. I think I stopped because I was discouraged by the uncertainty of it returning from it's extreme hiatus (though I believe it has now?). It was good from what I read and I need to pick it back up because I hear it gets great.

Don't think I've picked up a new seinen manga since I Am A Hero >.>