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Japanese manga and novels - General Discussion

Read Spice and Wolf volume 20 - as usual, it was great. The three anniversary short-story collections are just absolutely delightful, and if you like the series are seriously worth your time.

I also finally went through the first two volumes of the Zaregoto series (by NisiOisiN, ie. the guy who writes Monogatari), and while Kubikiri starts out a little weak, once it gets rolling it is a quite delightfully twisted murder mystery - taking up a lot of the classic elements of the genre, and viewing them through the distorted lens that is NisiOisiN's style. However it was Kubishime Romanticist that really sold me on the series, being at once the most down-to-earth, relatable story I've read by NisiO, and an absolute mindbender of a murder mystery, that caught me off-guard at every single reveal - particularly the really big one which cast all of my assumptions into doubt, and challenged the entire way I was reading the book.

I've also been reading a bunch of manga, but nothing really exciting enough I'll push them at the moment...

I guess the second volume of "Tsukiatte agete mo ii kana?" is worth it - a college-freshman yuri manga with a rather more realistic tack on relationships than the usually fluffy fluffy sweetness or overwrought drama.
 
Birdman is good but the translation team which was supposed to be working on it is pretty slow. Last I remember it was like 4 releases behind raw.
 
Aw, I just found a cool manga! It's about a girl, who when she experiences strong emotions like liking someone, turns into a monster!

Only it's not like, say, a werewolf or such.

Nah, she turns into a full-blown KAIJU!


It's a nice refreshing change. "I'm afraid of what X'll think when he finds out I'm secretly a (cute monster)!" is fun and all, but "Look. I'm afraid what his reaction will be because I am literally Godzilla," is very believable.


It's called Kaiju Girl Caramelise
 
*dusts off thread*

Just finished So I'm a Spider, So What?, Vol. 6 after getting it earlier today. It was good, and slightly different from the other volumes (and I feel that I need to reread those, been too long so the details are getting fuzzy).

At last, Ronant (Ronandt? I forget the spelling) is being the mad apprentice I remember from the webnovel.

And we get some more insight in the characters (Sophia completely misreads White* after doing some soul searching and getting poked by Ariel). And some comedy. And the early image of White and the puppet spiders was adorable. And then the puppet spiders were developed more. They're cute! And I don't remember them from the webnovel either, but they're a good addition.

And while White isn't quite a good person. She is still better than one might think. She's also a dunce. An amusing dunce who is a happy drunk. Who is at last able to talk to people! (but only when drunk. And will then forget about it when sobering up.

Lastly, White's Parallel Wills goes on a rampage and has to be stopped :<


*still want to call her "Shiro" in my head though.​
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I picked up the first two Dragonball (no 'Z') omnibuses at a library booksale awhile back, and finally got around to going through them.

The first part (about the first two volumes worth)... really wasn't that strong. Goku would get cool kit pretty much at random ("Here, have a flying cloud,") and Yamcha wasn't a great traveling companion ('travel along with them with plans to steal the dragonball, but secretly not all that bad' didn't work well). Nor were Pilaf and his gang actually *that* present, they only met a few times so they were kinda soft as comedic reoccurring baddies. As a journey to the west parody, it's kinda meh honestly, the comedy keeps things too light and random while it was also super-episodic. There's a few fun bits but this wasn't a series that yet felt like it had much potential.

Aaaand then Krillin joined the party! He added some much needed snark and rivalry (which Yamcha didn't really provide outside of a very brief fight), and he's the first non-Roshi who's even close to Goku's lead. You had a fun tournament (with, I note, *none* of the competitors being evil ), followed immediately by the Red Ribbon Army saga kicking off, which so far at least has a lot more narrative thrust and weight than the prior dragonball hunt. You have villains who were still funny, but there was a lot more real threat- or at least sense of narrative opposition- there. Without, mind you, losing the humor, if anything it was funnier when things were less random!

In short, there was like a switch was flipped, the quality went up considerably all at once. Not just when Krillin was on page, but in general.
 
Sumeragi said:
A MILF and her son. Aside from the problematic implications of the MILF being quite obsessed for the well-being of the son, the series is an absolute blast.
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The son is a shithead early on which makes you dislike him (though he does get reformed pretty fast but y'know the audience judges on first impressions and all that) but as the manga went on and I read increasingly more of the frankly uncomfortable behavior of the mother in a sexual way towards her son I began to sympathize more and more with the ex-shithead son because like if my mother basically spent huge amounts of her sexually propositioning me, well I don't know if I would know any better because I would have very little external context to draw upon but from an outsider's perspective that relationship would be incredibly worrying and the child would be in the right to distance themselves as much as possible.
 
"Sayonara Ryuusei, Konnichiwa Jinsei" is pretty neat. It's a reincarnation story about an elder dragon who gets reborn as a human. It also has like the best lamia girl in all of manga history with heroines motivated by more than the protagonists' dick and get a lot of their own character development.
 
blast flame said:
I'm not familiar with it, what does it mean?
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It's a form of wish fulfillment for all the overstressed Japanese businessmen who work tiresome hours because of horrid Japanese corporate culture. Basically it's slice of life oriented towards destressing is the best way to describe it. Most slow life shit is purposefully glacially paced where nothing really happens except the main characters lay about eat some new delicious food or laze out while reading a book or other things along those lines.
 
Just found out about Spy X Family and it's amazing. Can't wait for the inevitable anime adaptation and having a seiyuu go full ham with the 'E L E G A N T!!!' scene.
 
Jemnite said:
The son is a shithead early on which makes you dislike him (though he does get reformed pretty fast but y'know the audience judges on first impressions and all that) but as the manga went on and I read increasingly more of the frankly uncomfortable behavior of the mother in a sexual way towards her son I began to sympathize more and more with the ex-shithead son because like if my mother basically spent huge amounts of her sexually propositioning me, well I don't know if I would know any better because I would have very little external context to draw upon but from an outsider's perspective that relationship would be incredibly worrying and the child would be in the right to distance themselves as much as possible.
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Yea, I found the relationship offputting as well. I didn't get past the shithead phase, but there were exchanges where 'mother makes him uncomfortable, he gets mad, she practically cries, making him feel bad and apologize.' It's fairly manipulative.

As someone who likes some pretty offbeat stuff, and reads more than that, I think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if she was a mature mom with a bad relationship for RL reasons, rather than a 'juvenile/faux-young mom.'

(Also the fact she doesn't have to learn the game or have experience with it, it's just 'here, have OP weapons, because we have no game balance')
 

Read 'I've been killing Slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level' volume 5, was pretty fun.

We get the backstory for Beelezebub, which ends up being surprising a bit.

Turns out she was just a OFFICE LADY. For 1,500 years. Then Pecora took power and promoted her against her will. *lol*

Her OL look is ADORABLE.

 
Q99 said:
Yea, I found the relationship offputting as well. I didn't get past the shithead phase, but there were exchanges where 'mother makes him uncomfortable, he gets mad, she practically cries, making him feel bad and apologize.' It's fairly manipulative.

As someone who likes some pretty offbeat stuff, and reads more than that, I think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if she was a mature mom with a bad relationship for RL reasons, rather than a 'juvenile/faux-young mom.'

(Also the fact she doesn't have to learn the game or have experience with it, it's just 'here, have OP weapons, because we have no game balance')
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I found Masato being a shithead early on to be broadly realistic for a teenager, and I did appreciate that by the second book and later, he does acknowledge that he really shouldn't be a shithead, even if his initial reactions are still bad.

But yeah, Mamako is anime-exaggerated, and she's always anime-exaggerated, while the other characters at least have some down-to-earth interactions from time to time. I also felt like in the beginning Masato should really appreciate his mother more, but as the story went on, I started wishing Mamako would tone it down by several levels, and that Masato is actually kind of justified in his annoyance.

As for game balance, it was kind of handwaved early on by it being a very early beta, and Shiraaase infooorming the players that it's not meant to be a game foremost, but instead a roundabout way of getting children closer to their mothers. Somehow. It's a bit of suspension of disbelief, I suppose, but it's not much worse than other "VRMMO has no game balance to allow the protagonist to be overpowered" stories.

At this point I'm treating the Mamako-Masato interactions as skippable filler, the Mamako lectures about How True Mothers Should Be as the generic shounen skippable speeches, and reading the series mostly for Wise, Porta, and whatever the overarching plotline that Shirase is trying to fix is.

Shanejayell said:
Read 'I've been killing Slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level' volume 5, was pretty fun.
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Basically Halkara.
 
So I'm learning Russian, and I've gotten to the point where I can read, I'd say third grade level? Figured reading some manga would be a good way to practice, but must of my go to are action shonen with fantastical worlds like once piece.


Which is an issue because I don't want to talk like a pirate, using treasure instead of money and such.

Anyone have recs for good action manga set in roughly our world? I know it's cliche but a highscool combat manga would honestly be perfect
 
rogthnor said:
So I'm learning Russian, and I've gotten to the point where I can read, I'd say third grade level? Figured reading some manga would be a good way to practice, but must of my go to are action shonen with fantastical worlds like once piece.


Which is an issue because I don't want to talk like a pirate, using treasure instead of money and such.

Anyone have recs for good action manga set in roughly our world? I know it's cliche but a highscool combat manga would honestly be perfect
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Kenichi's the go-to, I guess. Negima's up there, half-way through the series, and Assassination Classroom, Beelzebub, and Psyren were great. I remember Karate Shoukoushu being alright. 'As The God's Will' is a Battle Royal-esque Manga that gets wacky af. 'Beastars' is Anime Zootopia, but even that description couldn't do that manga justice. My Hero Academia counts, I suppose? Hayate no Gotoku is a relatively old one, and I'm currently re-reading Soul Eater.

The following's not high-school combat manga, but I'll always recommend 'Spirit Circle', 'Sengoku Youko', and 'Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer' to hell and back.
 
SoothingCoffee said:
Kenichi's the go-to, I guess. Negima's up there, half-way through the series, and Assassination Classroom, Beelzebub, and Psyren were great. I remember Karate Shoukoushu being alright. 'As The God's Will' is a Battle Royal-esque Manga that gets wacky af. 'Beastars' is Anime Zootopia, but even that description couldn't do that manga justice. My Hero Academia counts, I suppose? Hayate no Gotoku is a relatively old one, and I'm currently re-reading Soul Eater.

The following's not high-school combat manga, but I'll always recommend 'Spirit Circle', 'Sengoku Youko', and 'Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer' to hell and back.
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I suppose it's time I get around to lucifer and the biscuit hammer, already read and loved the other two by that author
 
Adloquium said:
I found Masato being a shithead early on to be broadly realistic for a teenager, and I did appreciate that by the second book and later, he does acknowledge that he really shouldn't be a shithead, even if his initial reactions are still bad.

But yeah, Mamako is anime-exaggerated, and she's always anime-exaggerated, while the other characters at least have some down-to-earth interactions from time to time. I also felt like in the beginning Masato should really appreciate his mother more, but as the story went on, I started wishing Mamako would tone it down by several levels, and that Masato is actually kind of justified in his annoyance.

As for game balance, it was kind of handwaved early on by it being a very early beta, and Shiraaase infooorming the players that it's not meant to be a game foremost, but instead a roundabout way of getting children closer to their mothers. Somehow. It's a bit of suspension of disbelief, I suppose, but it's not much worse than other "VRMMO has no game balance to allow the protagonist to be overpowered" stories.

At this point I'm treating the Mamako-Masato interactions as skippable filler, the Mamako lectures about How True Mothers Should Be as the generic shounen skippable speeches, and reading the series mostly for Wise, Porta, and whatever the overarching plotline that Shirase is trying to fix is.
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The part that gets me about the game balance is it undermines, not reinforces, the interaction thing. Like, meta reason, alright fine, but it's not *fun* playing with someone who's just-better with no effort. I think "She's super effective at X, he's great at Y, teamwork!" would serve the story better.

I'm not exactly sure why Masato had such a bad attitude towards her at the start if hanging around is all that took to break it, but I found her emotional-manipulation pretty bad too.


It's not the worst or most disappointing Isekai that I tried, but it underpeformed my expectations by a fair amount.
 
So I started reading The Pharmacist's Monologue (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) manga after being told I'd like the protagonist.

And the protagonist is great, she very much carries the Manga. Not sure how much I'm enjoying the rest of it though - I find this kind of setting rather depressing.
 
Picked up Division Maneuver, as I needed a extra book for a sale deal.

Uhm. You know how Negima had teen girls chasing after a 11 year old?

SHE is chasing a 13 year old. Yeah....
 
So I'm 30 chapters into Solo Leveling, and man, this manhwa is weird. I've mixed feelings.

The manhwa takes place in the modern world, where Korea (and I assume, other parts of the world) gets these massive warp intrusions gates that vomit out monsters, Pacific Rim style. These gates are also somewhat inactive, where they just appear as portals into dungeons where you just go in and slaughter everything, assumingly these monsters come out too but a lot of the time they seem very dormant. There was this event in which certain individuals gain superhuman powers akin to RPG classes (tanks, DDs, mages, etc) and these people go in and hunt these monsters for gold and glory.

These 'Hunters' dress in SAO style battle gear, fight monsters in these dungeons, and use pretty generic gaming terminology. You know how it is. Bosses, loot, etc.

EXCEPT these people don't have the SAO style level up thingamabob, and are more or less just stronger human beings. Why most of them use swords, bows, crossbows, instead of sending in the South Korean military, I have no idea. Its implied they're all crafted by actual businesses, but there's also an 'in-game' store despite the fact it's not a game?? What??

It follows Sung Jin Woo, the world's 'weakest' hunter who more or less act as a packmule until an event lets him get a second 'awakening' where he DOES get the SAO/Log Horizon style level up stuff. And my question to is, why isn't this just the default? Why can't everyone just get this gamer UI thingy in the first place? What makes Sung Jin special is he gets this special UI thing where he can get levels, perks, and the like. Despite you know, everyone else acting like a generic fantasy RPG adventurer in the first place.

The worldbuilding and 'mechanics' bother me. It's a mess, even more than SAO which is really saying something. His shtick as 'the weakest hunter' feels like SAO's Beater thing which went nowhere. Unlike SAO's Beater thing, it's still somewhat relevant as he hides his new power levels.

I would have dropped it, were it not for the godly art like shit dude this thing is so gorgeous.



One panel does not do it justice, there's a lot of good art direction that makes reading it vertically that makes it just work. There's momentum in the fighting, the colours are comic book good. It's just eye candy.

Sung Jin so far, does not fall into the trap of being edgelord supreme despite using a knife as his main weapon so far. He's alright. Standard shonen protag sort of deal.

I dunno if I'll drop it at any point. Atm they've got some Log Horizon guild shenanigans going on, and if the story sticks to that I'm down for it.
 
Hykal94 said:
EXCEPT these people don't have the SAO style level up thingamabob, and are more or less just stronger human beings. Why most of them use swords, bows, crossbows, instead of sending in the South Korean military, I have no idea. Its implied they're all crafted by actual businesses, but there's also an 'in-game' store despite the fact it's not a game?? What??[
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Yeah that's just "generic Korean urban fantasy setting". The in-game store is just something Jinwoo has access to as part of his UI. Not that he's making much of use of it.

It follows Sung Jin Woo, the world's 'weakest' hunter who more or less act as a packmule until an event lets him get a second 'awakening' where he DOES get the SAO/Log Horizon style level up stuff. And my question to is, why isn't this just the default? Why can't everyone just get this gamer UI thingy in the first place? What makes Sung Jin special is he gets this special UI thing where he can get levels, perks, and the like. Despite you know, everyone else acting like a generic fantasy RPG adventurer in the first place.
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Another title/translation of the original title is I Alone Level Up. But that's less punchy so most sites just call it Solo Leveling.

Jinwoo being the only one to level up is basically his "cheat", the thing that sets him apart from everyone else in the setting and letting him powerlevel far past what would ordinarily be possible. It's a web fiction staple: some weak random gets super good luck and then becomes Chad McBigDick the Protagonist.
 
I'll give it another arc or so, but if it continues to just be "MC levels up and beats up bad guys really good" I'll likely drop it.

Does it get better? I hope it does. It'd be a disservice for all that lovely artwork go to waste on generic writing.
 
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