The Miscellaneous Seinen Thread

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > The Miscellaneous Seinen Thread

Munin: Nov 14, 2004

Autonomous Monster posted:

Is anyone else reading Yuureitou?

It's a period murder mystery (...in a sense), set in 1950s Japan. In 1952, an old woman was murdered, somewhat unusually, by the means of a clock tower; she was tied across the limbs of the clock face and eventually crushed to death when it struck midnight. The police suspect the woman's daughter, but when she goes missing the investigation grinds to a halt. Two years later, a feckless, unemployed mystery buff by the name of Amano Taichi and an odd man known only as Tetsuo team up to solve the case; not so much because they care about who did it or why, but because they want to get their hands on the treasure reputed to be hidden inside the clock tower.

It's a pretty great character piece and mystery story.

The problem I'm having with it, at the minute, is that it seems to be somewhat... unfocused. We've bounced from murder mystery to thriller to ethical calculus to transsexualism and body dysmorphia and... it's all good, all the little pieces, but I'm having trouble seeing how it's supposed to cohere. I have no idea what the story's trying to do or where it wants to go, and the original plot keeps getting further and further away.

Help?

Yeah, I am liking this as well.

And I agree that it did jump around with some mini stories but each encounter did give them a clue so far. Also each one was very much about why people would kill or not kill someone and how they are judged for it by themselves, society and us I suppose.

They now seem to have returned to the showpiece location of the manga. The end of the last chapter also promises interesting things to come since it hints that the masked man will cut down the kid from the murder machine.

Jumping around with small vignettes wise I would mention the Voynich Hotel which pretty slice of life.

hosed up with some style wise would mention Dorohedoro.

I also want Soil to get finished at some stage.

Munin fucked around with this message at 21:29 on May 21, 2013

# ¿ May 21, 2013 21:23

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 13:03

Munin: Nov 14, 2004

Yes_Cantaloupe posted:

Voynich Hotel is awesome enough that we have a thread devoted entirely to works by the author - mostly it and Nickelodeon.

Heh, I didn't know that. I originally picked it up from the last Seinen thread. I really should look around the forum a bit more.

Nate RFB posted:

I recently read the latest Dark Horse volume (Blizzard) of Blade of the Immortal. I still love that series, even if the human experimentation arc went on too long. Magatsu is my favorite character so his team-ups with Manji are always fun. Maybe this time Shira will stay dead.

I used to read and like that one a lot but I haven't caught up with it in ages. Can't remember why it dropped off my reading list now.

# ¿ May 24, 2013 21:04

Munin: Nov 14, 2004

Ytlaya posted:

Not sure if this belongs in the seinen or shounen thread, but apparently Gamaran is ending in 3 chapters. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I was sort of looking forward to some overarching plot involving the shogunate where Jinsuke is revealed to have some legitimate motive to his actions other than wanting a bunch of guys to fight each other. On the other, it will avoid all the things that can potentially go wrong with an action/fighting series that runs indefinitely and doesn't have an ending clearly thought out from the beginning.

Most mangas either become so successful that they run forever, and I stop reading them because the interminable status quo just kills something inside me, or they get shitcanned with no ending/get a rushed tacked on ending due to being shitcanned. I very, very much appreciate every manga that can tell its story and finish (hopefully in a satisfying way...).

# ¿ Jun 18, 2013 21:08

Munin: Nov 14, 2004

Autonomous Monster posted:

a manga I read last night: Boku Dake ga Inai Machi/A Town Where Only I Am Missing (Batoto link)

I Am Missing is a monthly manga by Sanbe Kei, and follows Fujinuma Satoru, a 28-year-old, struggling mangaka and part-time pizza delivery boy. 18 years ago, Satoru was caught up in a serial kidnapping case that claimed the lives of several of his classmates, the memories of which he has struggled to forget ever since. In the present day, Satoru is plagued by "reruns", occasionally finding himself trapped in loops of time, repeating the same handful of minutes over and over, until he finds and corrects the "oddity", some small detail in his surroundings that just doesn't seem to fit, and usually presages a great tragedy.

I've been reading "Cradle of Monsters" by him which is not bad. I'll have a look at this one.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2013 23:23

Munin: Nov 14, 2004

Autonomous Monster posted:

Cradle of Monsters I read as well, and was not terribly impressed. It's High School of the Dead in a capsized boat with generous ladlings of urolagnia

This is another thing entirely; I don't know if there's a single panel of fanservice in the entire thing. The difference is like night and day.

I don't know if that makes I Am Missing more or less appealing to you.

Frankly, I can't remember the urolagnia (Wikipedia to the rescue on that term as well)...

What made me remember it is the distinctive art style which I quite liked. I saw it in the panels posted and then worked out what the other manga by him I had come across. Thinking about it I did also like the pretty diverse cast. You have several disabled characters (well, implausible for size of cast even) who all take a good share of the heroism which I appreciated. It would also say less fan-servicy than High School of the Dead.

That said, most definitely not an all time classic. I wouldn't have mentioned it in this thread without "I am missing" being mentioned.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2013 00:03

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > The Miscellaneous Seinen Thread