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Plethora posted:Saikano Immediately after I finished reading this I was like, "well, I probably should not have done that" because it made me very sad. Which is I guess a good thing and an endorsement. Read this if you want to be incredibly sad. CJacobs fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 22:01
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Saikano is like a Skinner box but the lever just punches you in the balls. Very good, though.Plethora posted:Also, I tried but I reeeeeally didn't like I Am a Hero. While I enjoyed seeing the brutal honesty of the Japanese comic publishing world, I kept wanting the cast to stop being self-pitying assholes and loving DO SOMETHING! HEY HIDEO THERE IS A ZOMBIE IN A CAR WITH YOU. HOW ABOUT WARNING THE OTHERS THAT THERE IS A loving ZOMBIE IN THE CAR. No? Now everyone is dead and it's all your fault, but you left gas money on the dashboard, so the scene is supposed to be..... funny? Innocent people died because of his refusal to act. Hilarious. Paying for the trip was more important to him than saving a life. That's not funny or thought provoking, that's just sick. There are plenty of other scenes like this but that one sticks out in my mind. Now, I enjoy a good black comedy and serious horror story probably more than the average person, but this just feels... dirty, I guess is the right word. Yeah, I agree with this. My other problem is that after a while, it sort of feels like it takes a swerve into being something much more boring. The first volume is this absolutely amazing and horrifying piece of build-up to the twist, but after that it kind of slowly devolves into a much more conventional zombie story. I'm specifically thinking of the first scene where he uses his gun at the mall, where he headshots literally a couple dozen zombies in a few minutes like he's a Walking Dead character. That whole scene dampened my enthusiasm for the story a lot. It's not bad, by any means, but I really wish it had maintained that atmosphere that the first volume built up.
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May 1, 2015 05:22
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Tulul posted:Saikano is like a Skinner box but the lever just punches you in the balls. Very good, though. This is probably the best descriptor of it I've seen. About halfway-ish through I was seriously considering just stopping and not finishing it, because I just didn't want it to get any more depressing. I knew it was going to bum me out, but it was great enough that I felt like I'd be doing it a disservice to just pussy out when it made me uncomfortable. In the end I stuck it out and it definitely did get worse, but I don't regret it as much as I thought I would.
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May 1, 2015 07:02
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Plethora posted:Also, I tried but I reeeeeally didn't like I Am a Hero. While I enjoyed seeing the brutal honesty of the Japanese comic publishing world, I kept wanting the cast to stop being self-pitying assholes and loving DO SOMETHING! HEY HIDEO THERE IS A ZOMBIE IN A CAR WITH YOU. HOW ABOUT WARNING THE OTHERS THAT THERE IS A loving ZOMBIE IN THE CAR. No? Now everyone is dead and it's all your fault, but you left gas money on the dashboard, so the scene is supposed to be..... funny? Innocent people died because of his refusal to act. Hilarious. Paying for the trip was more important to him than saving a life. That's not funny or thought provoking, that's just sick. There are plenty of other scenes like this but that one sticks out in my mind. Now, I enjoy a good black comedy and serious horror story probably more than the average person, but this just feels... dirty, I guess is the right word. The whole mall section definitely felt like fairly standard-issue zombie apocalypse stuff, though I did like the twist that a lot of survivors were channers and other shut-ins who weren't around other people to get infected, and of course are also often total arrogant shitbags when given an ounce of power. I still liked it though. Also, a friend of mine who lives in Japan said that it seems like a commentary, at least initially, on Japanese society and how people will simply ignore weird goings-on until it's literally in their face(or biting it off  ), as well as assuming that it will blow over and everything will return to normal eventually, so they don't want to mess things up too badly by stealing from stores, etc. Hideo and co eventually stop giving a poo poo and do what they can to survive, though still don't just ransack places for goods for the most part. As well, the zombies are more than just zombies, I really like the direction Kengo's taken with them, most recently they've taken a decidedly more horrifying direction, and I'm not talking about the "enlightened" zombies. There's a lot more to them than you might think.If it's not your jam, that's cool. I don't know how far you got, but it definitely goes to a variety of places and doesn't just dwell in the city, or indeed, just on Hideo and his companions. Some folks don't like the secondary plotline, but I think it sets up some good info about the goings-on with other people in the country/world at the same time, as well as hints at what is going on with the infected.
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May 1, 2015 11:29
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Captain Invictus posted:You might not have noticed, but Hideo is very much mentally unsound. He's clearly been having hallucinations for a long time, I assume he's a paranoid schizophrenic? The way I read it is that he doesn't believe all of that is happening, and that he is just imagining it much like his multiple rants in volume one that were all in his head, or just straight up refusing to believe it's real. I can't blame him on the latter, for sure. He eventually realizes it's all actually happening, about the time he's in the forest and meets hiromi, and teaches her gun safety in case he dies/is incapacitated, so she can use his shotgun properly to defend herself. I feel like the reason he's not had many hallucinations recently is because he's been so preoccupied with the end of the world that he hasn't been able to chill out for long enough for it all to come back to haunt him, so to speak. I guess I have a difficult time when characters are put in an emergency situation where they should by all means act and instead watch dumbly or pretend not to notice while innocent people get hurt and die. Maybe it's because I've seen this many times in person that I have a low tollerance for it, who knows. I got to the point where Hideo and the high school girl are watching zombies running around and the girl goes all tree-hugger hippie on us, saying that they're still people and acting with zero survival instinct like a high and mighty bitch, and the comic seems to agree with her absurd ideals. Again, I'm someone who has watched people exactly like her get mauled by farm animals because they believed "it's just a big puppy" or some such nonsense. Watching a soccer mom scream as an angry clydesdale pops her shoulder out of it's socket is not pleasant. The fact that she herself got hurt is one thing, but what if she had put her child on it's back? Reading about those exact kind of people being treated like they are actually in the right makes my skin crawl. Edit: I'm craving some Tezuka. That man was a mad genius and needs no introduction. I've only read one volume of Black Jack, the first three Buddha volumes, MW, and Ayoko. I'll need to dig something good up for you guys. Mr.Chill fucked around with this message at 17:41 on May 1, 2015 |
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May 1, 2015 14:27
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 I dunno what you do for a living but it sounds pretty hardcore. If actual life experience prevents you from enjoying it, not a biggie.
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May 1, 2015 17:55
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Plethora posted:Edit: I'm craving some Tezuka. That man was a mad genius and needs no introduction. I've only read one volume of Black Jack, the first three Buddha volumes, MW, and Ayoko. I'll need to dig something good up for you guys.
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May 1, 2015 17:57
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Captain Invictus posted:
I spent my teenage years on various farms working with horses and carpendry and all that labor-intensive stuff. I had fun raising show rabbits for mixed animal competitions in high school which led to me seeing lots of hippies acting like idiots around bulls and other animals one shouldn't treat like kittens. Farms in general can be downright dangerous and if someone gets an arm caught in a combine you need to act FAST, not stand around gawking. I don't live there anymore but the jumpiness of leaping into action at the sight of danger combined with frustration when others don't hasn't left me. I guess I need to learn to be patient because I can't expect others to have had the same experiences. Senor Candle posted:Might I suggest "Book of Human Insects" or "Ode to Kirihito"? Both are super good. Also all of Black Jack is loving great and Buddha is good but I've only read about as much as you have. Awesome! Thank you!
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May 1, 2015 18:09
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That's one of the running themes in iiah though, complacency kills. Particularly in scenes like the crowd at the shrine. There's a fairly ruthless group down the line who don't joke about it at all and are very serious about the entire thing, much different from Hideo and co.
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May 1, 2015 18:14
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Captain Invictus posted:That's one of the running themes in iiah though, complacency kills. Particularly in scenes like the crowd at the shrine. When do they show up, and are they treated as the "bad guys" in the story?
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May 1, 2015 18:23
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Nope, they're just another group of survivors. I can't remember exactly when, somewhere around chapter 80-100?
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May 1, 2015 18:30
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This probably isn't the right place to ask, but are western comics anywhere near as popular in Japan as Manga is in North America?
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May 1, 2015 20:30
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Plethora posted:Edit: I'm craving some Tezuka. That man was a mad genius and needs no introduction. I've only read one volume of Black Jack, the first three Buddha volumes, MW, and Ayoko. I'll need to dig something good up for you guys. I've been enjoying The Tree in the Sunlight (ongoing unofficial translation), looks at a couple of very different fellows around the time of the opening of Japan's ports, and the country trying to deal with foreign cultural imports. There's a lot of focus on the doctor character trying to spread the benefits of western medicine over the opposition of the nepotistic old guard (a few of tezuka's favorite drums to beat) but there's plenty of political maneuvering as well, involving the samurai character and his masters.
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May 1, 2015 22:56
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fadam posted:This probably isn't the right place to ask, but are western comics anywhere near as popular in Japan as Manga is in North America? Nah. They're called Amekomi and they're definitely a niche market. In particular fan translations like you get in America are almost non-existent. That said, a lot of stuff does get professionally translated but I haven't read them so I can't tell you about the translation quality.
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May 3, 2015 00:00
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Do things like the Avengers movies do well there? They seem to do well EVERYWHERE so I'm guessing even in Japan they do well.
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May 3, 2015 01:57
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Plethora posted:
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May 3, 2015 09:28
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Plethora posted:I spent my teenage years on various farms working with horses and carpendry and all that labor-intensive stuff. I had fun raising show rabbits for mixed animal competitions in high school which led to me seeing lots of hippies acting like idiots around bulls and other animals one shouldn't treat like kittens. Farms in general can be downright dangerous and if someone gets an arm caught in a combine you need to act FAST, not stand around gawking. I don't live there anymore but the jumpiness of leaping into action at the sight of danger combined with frustration when others don't hasn't left me. I guess I need to learn to be patient because I can't expect others to have had the same experiences. Also, have you read Silver Spoon? It's about a kid who goes to an agricultural high school in Hokkaido and I think someone with your experiences would really appreciate it. The author is the same woman who did Fullmetal Alchemist.
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May 3, 2015 10:15
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Tarezax posted:Also, have you read Silver Spoon? It's about a kid who goes to an agricultural high school in Hokkaido and I think someone with your experiences would really appreciate it. The author is the same woman who did Fullmetal Alchemist.
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May 4, 2015 00:25
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Tarezax posted:Also, have you read Silver Spoon? It's about a kid who goes to an agricultural high school in Hokkaido and I think someone with your experiences would really appreciate it. The author is the same woman who did Fullmetal Alchemist. Thanks! I've never heard of this one. I'll check it out!
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May 4, 2015 16:12
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Hey, remember Bio Hunter? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio_Hunter It's one of my all-time favorite animes (I'm a sucker for the old junk). It took the old premise of "were-demons running around a city" and gave it a wonderfully fresh spin. It starred guys in their 30's and created this Ghostbusters-meets-Akira plot line with solid characters and writing. Just loved it. Anyway, it's based on a manga and my searches have proved fruitless. Do scans exist on the internet or has it been lost to pulp manga history?
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May 4, 2015 16:25
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I'm halfway through Tezuka's "Alabaster" and came across this page. It's like the perfect storm of insanity in strange simplicity. The guy talking is a 20-something Greek FBI agent, btw, which just makes it more weird. http://mangafox.me/manga/alabaster/v02/c006/8.html
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May 6, 2015 17:25
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Plethora posted:I'm halfway through Tezuka's "Alabaster" and came across this page. It's like the perfect storm of insanity in strange simplicity. Are you out of the US? When I try to pull that page up it tells me the book is licensed and it won't show me anything.
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May 6, 2015 17:47
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Senor Candle posted:Are you out of the US? When I try to pull that page up it tells me the book is licensed and it won't show me anything. Czech Republic. Does this one work? 
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May 6, 2015 18:16
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Rock Holmes is a dope name for an FBI agent
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May 6, 2015 18:31
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I read through Yokohama Shopping Trip, and it's nice and all, but the whole idea of spending your days for years on end doing mostly nothing and barely having contact with anyone is kind of really utterly terrifying to me. That may just because I'm at a point in my life where I'm afraid of getting stuck in a rut like that myself, but it still made me really anxious underneath all the relaxing little fun moments. And then towards the end, the two elderly character stop showing up, and both of them were talking about how lonely things were getting and how they're not going to be around for much longer, but Alpha never acknowledges their deaths at all. And of course, the whole reason everything is calm and serene all around is because humanity is steadily dying away, and you know that Alpha's going to be all alone for longer and longer until they're all dead, waiting forever for customers that will never come by, on the behest of an offhand order from a man who could probably be long dead. Gives me the shivers.
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May 10, 2015 20:08
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SlothfulCobra posted:I read through Yokohama Shopping Trip, and it's nice and all, but the whole idea of spending your days for years on end doing mostly nothing and barely having contact with anyone is kind of really utterly terrifying to me. That may just because I'm at a point in my life where I'm afraid of getting stuck in a rut like that myself, but it still made me really anxious underneath all the relaxing little fun moments. And then towards the end, the two elderly character stop showing up, and both of them were talking about how lonely things were getting and how they're not going to be around for much longer, but Alpha never acknowledges their deaths at all. And of course, the whole reason everything is calm and serene all around is because humanity is steadily dying away, and you know that Alpha's going to be all alone for longer and longer until they're all dead, waiting forever for customers that will never come by, on the behest of an offhand order from a man who could probably be long dead. That's the same feeling I had with the series. It's this eerie gradual silence as humanity ceases to exist one life at a time, matched with Alpha's possible denial over the situation she's in. It's as though she understands the FACT that humanity is dying out, but she hasn't accepted it as something real that she will have to experience someday. How would someone be able to mentally prepare for something like that? She handles it far better than I ever would. I personally consider YST as the saddest, bleakest horror story I've ever read, and it accomplishes this without a single traditionally disturbing image or situation.
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May 11, 2015 12:55
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I'm not sure if I find it quite as bleak as you two exactly, but melancholy definitely. There's definitely a reason I paired it up with Hotel though, you both should read that as well. If you click the "?" under my avatar you can find a link in one of my posts in this thread. a kitten fucked around with this message at 21:00 on May 11, 2015 |
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May 11, 2015 17:30
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Science made Hotel even sadder. Turns out the DNA would be broken down and useless after that much time.
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May 12, 2015 03:22
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I Am A Hero is finally coming over to the states, thanks to Dark Horse. http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-ne...-clamps-rg-veda I'm glad this is finally licensed, I've wanted to get this for a while now.
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May 17, 2015 07:31
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Excellent!
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May 17, 2015 09:37
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I checked out the sample suggestions and didn't quite see what I'm looking for. Are there any mangas that are cosmic horror and don't rely on body horror? I'm not against body stuff but if I can go without it I'd like to.
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Jun 22, 2015 02:09
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Maybe knights of sidonia? The Gauna certainly seem cosmic horror-ey enough. Not on the level of cthulhu but certainly an unknown, unknowable, impossibly powerful cosmic force for sure.
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Jun 22, 2015 03:05
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Yeah, Knights of Sidonia is probably a decent pick. It doesn't have an Other to futiley try to come to grips with, but I'm going to put recommend Planetes again as a manga that spends some really good time exploring existential dread in space. Also, it's getting a reprint later this year! (It's been out of print for a while)
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Jun 22, 2015 04:31
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Knights of Sidonia is a really great manga and has plenty of cosmic horror, but the Gauna are sort of body horrish in their own way. Neat fact, the guy who does KoS, Tsutomu Nihei, also made Wolverine: Snikt:  I love this guy's art.
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Jun 22, 2015 05:39
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I'd not heard of Knights of Sidonia, but it makes sense that the guy who created Blame! would be able to do cosmic horror.
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Jun 23, 2015 03:51
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So I opted to read Monster and now I'm 8 volumes in. It's good and I'm enjoying it but the story seems to be hitting a bit of a lull. Tenma goes to place, does good, and leaves. Please tell me that formula changes up soon.
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Jun 23, 2015 19:11
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Ultimately I think Monster was a great series, but the author definitely has a problem with just loving ending things. Same thing happens with 20th Century Boys.
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Jun 23, 2015 19:34
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At least Monster has an ending. 20th Century Boys after the last timeskip is a goddamn mess. Almost as bad as Lost.
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Jun 23, 2015 21:15
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Captain Invictus posted:Ultimately I think Monster was a great series, but the author definitely has a problem with just loving ending things. Same thing happens with 20th Century Boys. A lot of manga seem to have this problem.
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Jun 23, 2015 22:23
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e X posted:A lot of manga seem to have this problem. Well, sometimes it's the publishers being jackasses and not letting the creator end things. I'm pretty sure Frieza was supposed to be the original end point of Dragonball Z, or maybe even the first Vegeta fight. But Shonen Jump kept asking for more stuff because the franchise was a goldmine, to the point where the creator just threw up his hands and let them make GT as long as he didn't have to write or draw it himself.
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Jun 24, 2015 01:58
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