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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. Pacing-wise, is Monster a better read or watch?
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Jun 24, 2015 01:58
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Pacing-wise, is Monster a better read or watch? I'd say it's a better watch, because the show can use the slow pace to create dramatic tension better. But it's probably a matter of preference.
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Jun 24, 2015 02:00
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Lurdiak posted: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. That's actually a popular rumor, but it's more complicated than that.
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Jun 24, 2015 02:05
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Lurdiak posted:I'd say it's a better watch, because the show can use the slow pace to create dramatic tension better. But it's probably a matter of preference. So volume 9 over. The story didn't hit an astounding climax as Tenma was about to finally get Johan. It probably sounds like I'm not enjoying it but I can't actually put the drat thing down. I've read 9 volumes since Sunday. It may be a little repetitive but I want to see where it all ends up.
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Jun 24, 2015 02:14
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Well slap my rear end and call me Charlene.
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Jun 24, 2015 02:16
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I think Pluto is the only Urasawa manga I've read that didn't go on too long.
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Jun 24, 2015 04:22
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Pluto is the best of his I've read, but Monster does end strong, as opposed to 20th Century Boys' protracted wheeze.
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Jun 24, 2015 04:25
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I felt Monster was too long and kept not ending, but when I re-read it years later it went by at a brisk pace and I thought it was pretty much perfect. I think the lesson is when you're not super anxious to get to the big reveal RIGHT NOW, and instead see the series as a Japanese The Fugitive, things get a lot better.
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Jun 24, 2015 04:44
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I think as well it might be hurt by binge reading it. The series can get a little repetitive but there's always enough little progress that I feel it never really bogs itself down. And I think it manages to hit the ending pretty well. I liked reading better than watching, but both are worth it in the end. I was going to defend the end of 20th century boys, but honestly I can't really remember how it ends so yeah it was pretty underwhelming (which is a shame because overall it was solid but way too long).
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Jun 24, 2015 05:13
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Just wrapped up Monster and while it had it's slow bits it definitely was a really good read. What's 20th Century Boys about? I hear good things about it too.
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Jun 25, 2015 00:24
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Len posted:Just wrapped up Monster and while it had it's slow bits it definitely was a really good read. What's 20th Century Boys about? I hear good things about it too. It's about rock 'n roll, a cult of personality aiming for world domination, a group of friends reuniting as adults to stop said cult, a giant death machine, an old homeless man that can see the future, bowling, the 1970(?) World's Fair in Japan...and on and on and on. It's awesomeness is tempered by an ending that I found almost incomprehensible, but the rest of the ride is great.
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Jun 25, 2015 00:44
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But if you read it, make sure you read 21st Century Boys so you get the complete ending! I would say jump to Pluto after Monster, just because it is a shorter, tighter read than the somewhat rambling 20th Century Boys. I wish I could legally purchase an english translation of Billy Bat.
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Jun 25, 2015 03:32
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Dr. Hurt posted:But if you read it, make sure you read 21st Century Boys so you get the complete ending! Has Billy Bat ended already? I kind of stopped reading after it was revealed that JFK was assassinated becaused Notmickey was on the dark side of the moon and then there was some Iga ninja in Edo period protecting some scroll with presumably Notmickey drawn on it and got some heavy end-of-20thcenturyboys vibes from that. I can usually follow some pretty complicated and nonlinear stories (GitS Man-Machine interface for example. Also Hotline MIami 2's plot on video game side), but Billy Bat was a mess. If it gets better and has a decent ending, I might pick it up again, because the premise and the beginning were intriguing. 20th Century Boys has probably the strongest beginning of all Urasawa stories and it keeps it up pretty well, but the last third or so is completely unnecessary and Urasawa writes himself into a corner so badly he has to make another series to try and make some sense of it. Didn't work IMO. Despite all that, I still like it and it's definitely worth a read. As a whole, Pluto is his strongest and tightest work. It's based on one particular chapter of Astro Boy, but you don't really need to know anything about it. The story has retained some elements of the original, but for example the roles of the characters have been switched around and the story has been significantly expanded. It is a real work of art in its own right.
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Jun 25, 2015 14:43
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I believe it's been mentioned recently but there's a new manga in town, Shiori Experience, and it's about a 27-year-old schoolteacher in Japan who, after someone makes a devil's pact for killer guitar skills, she is mistakenly targeted by the pact and haunted by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix. The terms of the contract: if she does not become a guitar legend before she turns older than 27, she will join The 27 Club. It's a pretty awesome series with great art so far with a handful of chapters out.   It's as of yet unlicensed, the first two volumes can be found on Amazon in Japanese only. I really hope this series gets an anime adaptation, but I feel like music licensing issues would prevent it from ever happening.
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Jul 6, 2015 02:36
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The newest volume of I Am a Hero just was uploaded. Been so long that the ADTRW thread is locked. If anyone was following it, go nuts and then get ready to wait another year for new content. http://bato.to/read/_/334489/i-am-a-hero_v16_ch180_by_illuminati-manga
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Jul 24, 2015 09:47
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GhostofJohnMuir posted:The newest volume of I Am a Hero just was uploaded. Been so long that the ADTRW thread is locked. If anyone was following it, go nuts and then get ready to wait another year for new content. It was licensed, so you might wait a lot longer
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Jul 24, 2015 10:22
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Well poo poo, that was a rather abrupt end for Oda. 
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Jul 25, 2015 01:10
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HOLY loving poo poo CHAPTER 190. HOLY poo poo! That might be the most plot-important chapter in the entire series so far. Jesus. I'm trying to think of another similar series that went in this direction but nothing's coming to mind.
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Jul 25, 2015 01:34
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Captain Invictus posted:I believe it's been mentioned recently but there's a new manga in town, Shiori Experience, and it's about a 27-year-old schoolteacher in Japan who, after someone makes a devil's pact for killer guitar skills, she is mistakenly targeted by the pact and haunted by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix. The terms of the contract: if she does not become a guitar legend before she turns older than 27, she will join The 27 Club. It's a pretty awesome series with great art so far with a handful of chapters out. I'm a sucker for music-related stuff and these gently caress-japanese-high-school slice of life things so this was a pro-click.
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Jul 25, 2015 02:29
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Yeah I love just watching Jimmi hang out in the background. I am definitely going to pick up the books if they ever get licensed in the US.
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Jul 25, 2015 03:21
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Dias posted:I'm a sucker for music-related stuff and these gently caress-japanese-high-school slice of life things so this was a pro-click. Have you tried reading Solanin? It's a single omnibus and a really good slice-of-life manga.
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Jul 25, 2015 03:29
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Have you tried reading Solanin? It's a single omnibus and a really good slice-of-life manga. See, I picked that one up because someone said something in a thread here, read five or so chapters, liked it quite a bit, closed the browser, went to bed and completely forgot the name of the fuckin' thing so thank you.
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Jul 25, 2015 03:31
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I don't really like solanin. Maybe I'm too jaded and saw exactly where it was going and was disappointed it didn't deviate from that.
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Jul 25, 2015 05:54
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Captain Invictus posted:HOLY loving poo poo CHAPTER 190. HOLY poo poo! Chapter 190 spoilers I was confused. Do you really think this is an alien invasion or the ranting of a lunatic?
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Jul 25, 2015 13:20
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SalTheBard posted:Chapter 190 spoilers I was confused. Do you really think this is an alien invasion or the ranting of a lunatic? It fits with the reveal, so I'm going for option 1.
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Jul 25, 2015 13:47
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As an aside: I'm amazed by how good the Italian is in this series. It's 100% correct both in grammar and spelling, you can only tell it's written by a foreigner because it uses no slang and the like. (The translation is wrong in some places, but that's probably due to the Japanese text saying different things than the Italian.)
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Jul 25, 2015 18:16
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Mikl posted:As an aside: I'm amazed by how good the Italian is in this series. It's 100% correct both in grammar and spelling, you can only tell it's written by a foreigner because it uses no slang and the like. (The translation is wrong in some places, but that's probably due to the Japanese text saying different things than the Italian.) There's no slang because the Italians in Jojo are gentlemen.
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Jul 25, 2015 19:17
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SalTheBard posted:Chapter 190 spoilers I was confused. Do you really think this is an alien invasion or the ranting of a lunatic? It feels like it's going in a similar direction as fort of the apocalypse in terms of the evolution aspect, but...hmmm...much less anime about it, I guess?
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Jul 25, 2015 20:04
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Captain Invictus posted:It's more that there's a collective consciousness controlling the zombies like a hive mind, and that they're stuck in a semi delusional state, most not even realizing they're zombies. It's been hinted at before but not outright shown until now. Also, the horrific hive-amalgamations and a straight up giant tree-thing made of zombies is a really creative and terrifying design. Whether it's aliens or not, well, we'll have to see. Chapter 190 spoilers The reveal that they were all zombies was horrific. I thought we had a new group of survivors to see from but then drat  It also makes sense why the zombies have a sort of schedule as was alluded to earlier in the series
SalTheBard fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Jul 27, 2015 |
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Jul 25, 2015 20:40
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SalTheBard posted:Chapter 190 spoilers I was confused. Do you really think this is an alien invasion or the ranting of a lunatic? http://bato.to/read/_/89041/i-am-a-hero_v5_ch57_by_illuminati-manga His theory (and his opinion on Independence Day) both seem to come from a few posts on 2chan. I'm leaning towards option 2.
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Jul 27, 2015 13:43
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  Blazing Ninjaman is a hilarious homage to manga of the seventies and eighties. It's about a boy who starts an unauthorized ninja club at his high school, and ends up fighting against the ninjas of other schools. There's less than twenty chapters right now, but it's an ongoing, so it's a great time to check it out. It's still a comedy, but the stakes are being raised.
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Jul 27, 2015 18:16
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I've just finished reading Gantz and Battle Royale (also loving "I am a Hero"), I kind of like these gory action stories with a good premise , can you recommend me anything?
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Aug 9, 2015 18:54
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Manwithastick posted:I've just finished reading Gantz and Battle Royale (also loving "I am a Hero"), I kind of like these gory action stories with a good premise , can you recommend me anything? Eden It's An Endless World by Hiroki Endo is worth a look.
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Aug 9, 2015 18:59
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Assuming you haven't given them a whirl already, Berserk, Claymore, and Attack on Titan fall squarely into the "humans are the mooks" slaughterfests. Terra ForMars might scratch the itch too, but note it puts both the "dumb" and "fun" in "dumb fun".
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Aug 9, 2015 22:04
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Manwithastick posted:I've just finished reading Gantz and Battle Royale (also loving "I am a Hero"), I kind of like these gory action stories with a good premise , can you recommend me anything? Vinland Saga, Vinland Saga, Vinland Saga. The story is outstanding, the characters are amazing, the artwork is incredible, and the violence is teeth-clenchingly detailed and horrific at times. There's very few "good" people here, after all, they're loving vikings, with all that entails. There's one arc that is very slow(you'll know it when you reach it) but trust me, the payoff's totally worth it. You could try Parasyte. It's extremely violent in an 80's/90's style of anime violence, dismemberment, etc. It's about parasitic worms that appear and consume the brains of their human victims, assuming their form and preying on humans, and one parasite fails to get inside his target's head and instead infects his arm, resulting in a forced symbiotic relationship. Kind of an Odd Couple-esque pairing except one's a sociopathic, possibly alien organism, and the other's a teenager. Other parasites can sense that Migi(the decided on name for the parasite in his hand) failed to destroy the brain of his human host, gory-rear end hijinks ensue. Spirit Circle has kind of a cutesy shonen artstyle but boy howdy is it incredibly dark and violent. I can't really go into details without also going into massive spoilers, but give it a read, it's very very good. The Town Where Only I Am Missing is a murder mystery/thriller that can get considerably violent at times. Akumetsu is actiony as gently caress. Literally heads exploding every chapter or two. The "hero" is a dude who can, supposedly, reincarnate, and goes around assassinating corrupt politicians in extremely public and showily violent fashions. It's not top shelf but it's got some fantastic moments. Fort of the Apocalypse is a zombie series kinda like if I Am A Hero shacked up with Scooby Doo. You've got your goofy idiot cast of violent lunatics with a scaredy cat new kid in a juvenile prison when the zombie apocalypse breaks out. The zombies are suitably hosed up and some of my favorite designs for zombie creatures, the story is pretty interesting for a zombie series(and I feel like IAAH cribbed some of it for itself), and there's some real body horror going on. Knights of Sidonia is a story about a colony ship fleeing the galaxy after humanity and earth was annihilated from an alien attack by the "Gauna", massive cosmic horror creatures that can adapt to basically anything. They're kinda like biological-style borg, and they're ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE. Great artwork too. I've linked to places to read all of these in the various samplers, so throw'em on the reading list if you're able. And grab a Crunchyroll sub, you get access to a shitload of series with an anime sub which is what, seven bucks a month? Not bad at all, and the manga app is pretty nice too. Browser version is poo poo, though.
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Aug 9, 2015 23:51
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Captain Invictus posted:I won't suggest Berserk because there's a high likelihood of it never getting finished, the author takes incredibly long breaks, sometimes only putting out a handful of chapters a year and apparently they've been stuck on a boat for years now due to the slow update schedule. They've promised that'll it'll be monthly starting now. They wouldn't lie to us again.
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Aug 10, 2015 00:53
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Manwithastick posted:I've just finished reading Gantz and Battle Royale (also loving "I am a Hero"), I kind of like these gory action stories with a good premise , can you recommend me anything? In addition to what's been posted, check out Fist of the North Star and Vagabond.
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Aug 10, 2015 02:25
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GhostofJohnMuir posted:They've promised that'll it'll be monthly starting now. They wouldn't lie to us again. Even if it's never going to be finished, Berserk is still my favourite manga ever by a LONGSHOT. I can understand the frustration, but I don't think it's a good reason to just plain avoid reading it.
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Aug 10, 2015 03:05
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If One Piece up and stopped updating altogether tomorrow, despite being my favorite manga by a long shot and having some amazing storylines in it, I would still tell folks to not read it because it was never finished. Fort of the Apocalypse was very clearly cancelled, and it makes it much more difficult for me to recommend it even if it has an "ending". I'm not saying that the ending is the most important part, but rather, I don't like incomplete stories as a whole.
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Aug 10, 2015 03:10
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Berserk isn't likely to get an ending, but at this point it's been running for more than 25 years; ending or not there's 37 volumes of high-quality action material that people should look at.
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Aug 10, 2015 05:20
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